Failz' 240 Turbventure 2: The Ebay Turbo Boogaloo

[Failz]

I have a second brick now because the first one is substantially less dangerous as a lawn ornament behind my shed. Still runs, just tries to kill me when it does and is a rusty POS.

A 1991 240 with marginally less rust than my 93'. 240k miles as any good 240 should have. Generic NA auto. It's name is Goose. Obtained back in September. Lovingly abused and mistreated by the previous owner(s) as is the usual. Excellent interior other than a pretty well cracked dashboard. Trunk is also clean and mostly rust free.
THE PLAN:
I've already done 1 +t on the other shitbox and on that setup it was basically a straight factory turbo setup. Garret turbo, late style turbo manifold, OEM plumbing and intercooler, 954 ECU / 148 Ignition. Orange top injectors. World's jankiest m47 setup slapped on for flavor. I've learned a whole lot from that adventure, namely what stuff I probably shouldn't have bought (that being the 30+ year old turbo that smoked like a chimney until I got immense levels of PCV suck). Also, the fact that the OEM downpipe / exhaust hardware sucks. I hope to never see that giant downpipe and it's miserable donut ring catback connection ever again.
Going to keep it auto this time. This decision will probably bite me in the ass but I'm an expert at making poor decisions. Injectors / ECU / Exhaust manifold are going to be the same as last time, I think they're fine / imo the best fit for purpose. The big ticket change is i'm going to try running a cheapo MaxSpeedingRods t3/t4 t04e. Will it explode? Probably. Given i'm not going to be going nuts with it boost wise and the relatively decent reputation of MaxSpeedingRods (provided you keep your expectations in check) I don't think it'll be a huge deal. Also the idea of running a $130 dollar turbo for shits and giggles makes me grin. Worst case scenario I've yanked the engine in shitbox #1 so many times now that I'm not terribly concerned about doing it again. Snagged an OEM intercooler for cheap already.

The Stage Zero Zone:
I can tell somebody at some point cared about this car. Other than the localized rust, it's pretty clean. There's a mileage badge or two in the interior and some minor aftermarket stuff done under the hood. There was also some suspension work done in the rear end. Unfortunately, it's been a good minute since that person owned the car clearly. Last owner didn't really do anything worth noting as far as I can tell.

• Timing belt is starting to surface crack
• Oil hadn't been changed in a good while when I got it.
• Tires were/are bald. Swapped with the wheels off my other shitbrick.
• Water pump is leaking profusely. Not enough to be a hazard to drive but enough that there's a shiny bright puddle of green coolant on top of the pump and soaking everywhere. Actually it's kinda crazy how clean the coolant is compared to everything else. Waterpump bearings don't feel great when spun. Not terrible, but starting to go for sure.
• Front seals are currently very upset and leaking sludge all over. I haven't dug down to the crank yet but based on the sludge I can see crawling up the walls from down there, I fear for my safety.
• Based on the above and recommendations from others, PCV probably needs a cleaning. I can only see sludge when looking beneath the manifold.
• [Cosmetic]: Someone did the windshield poorly and there's the forbidden brown leaking from behind the gasket (but not into the car). That is a problem for when the warm weather comes out.
• I pressure washed the engine bay once already. I'll do that again later. Substantially cleaner.
• Someone at some point summoned infinite brainpower and swapped the 12v coil for a 6v one. I do not know how this system is functioning at all (it runs well regardless though).
• Gauge cluster temp faker died. Lamp cord trick to the rescue.
• Odometer wasn't working consistently, it's fixed now.
• Fuel relay died in a parking lot. Didn't realize it was that until I got it towed home. Replaced the dead fuel sender in the parking lot thinking it was that (cables rotted at the bulkhead). Yay new fuel sender?
• Original headunit was an early 2000's alpine one, gaudy as hell and didn't work at all. Replaced with a 740 unit that's been slapped in the aftermarket bezel. Barely fits but it's w/e. Tape deck worked, then ate a gear. I printed off a new gear. Worked great for 20 miles. Ate another gear. Waiting to be fixed.
• Drivers door speaker did not work at all when the radio was replaced with the 740 headunit. Kept eating fuses. Speakers were replaced with aftermarket drivers at some point, probably with the alpines. Found burn / scorch marks where the driver's door speaker was shorting on the door metal. Fixed.
• Valve cover gasket was leaking heavily. Fixed.
• Transmission pan is seeping substantially. No rust though!
• I (think) the center driveshaft support bearing might be starting to die. Something back there likes to sing. It's speed tied and not RPM tied. Those ghosts better start paying rent.
• I have replaced everything in the rear suspension except for the trailing arms / main trailing arm bushings with poly / adjustable IPD panhard and torque rod bits.
• I did the struts with B4s, Lowered slightly w/ Lesjofors springs (4595804) from FCP. Rear shocks are KYB Gas Adjusts (1206641). Remember how I said someone did the suspension at some point? Best guess is very very early 2000's based on what came out. Definitely not the factory bits but oh boy were they still blown/aged. Rode awful. Much better now but the rear trailing arm bushes still clank like a kitchen in a dryer.

Big ticket items right now are dealing with the 47 leaks, TBelt, and swapping the alternator with a spare Denso i've got laying around. I don't know what the fitment is going to look like with the MSR T04E but if it's anything like the Garrett it'll probably be way too close for comfort around the alternator. It'll also help with an efan swap. I hate the mechanical fan.

 

[Failz]

Pics:

 

[wht_245wagoon]

cool project. I did a basic +t as well. It is also an auto but don't plan on putting tons of boost/ power down just yet.

 

[esmth]

your car looks like mine except someone took care of it

in for duck pix

 

[Failz]

your car looks like mine except someone took care of it

in for duck pix

Duckmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

Did some measuring things for intake plumbing lengths, checked the fuel pressure regulator to make sure it was a 3 bar (shitbox #1, henceforth referred to as Steven as per 3 owners prior, had a 2.5 bar for some bizarre reason despite being a 93).

Really not looking forward to plumbing yet another PCV line to preturbo. Also debating on whether I wanna take a shot with doing the MAF post turbo or go through the wonderfully hazardous process of splicing in a few feet of cable on the MAF connector. I have no idea if they make maf extensions with the connectors needed for the MAFs we use. Really not looking forward to building the unbelievably dumb plumbing setup I did last time again if I do (see below). I'd rather just have a fuckoff cone slapped straight on the turbo (finding airboxes is hard and I am lazy). Observe the incredible shit-tastic workmanship displayed here. The comically large PCV line, the cheapest and shittiest ebay cone I could find, the haphazardly spliced "i didn't have wire shrink big enough for this" connector. I cannot stress enough how shitty Steven is.

 

[James M]

Very cool forum signature, 10/10 would watch it loop for a few minutes again

 

[Failz]

Very cool forum signature, 10/10 would watch it loop for a few minutes again

My greatest skill is making the worst decisions ever made, but that signature is not one of them.

 

[Failz]

Picked up an intercooler today from a very cool dude with a 79 240 wagon that's lh2.4 swapped and turbo'd. It was apparently factory turbo'd and he had kjet turbo bits but he couldn't bear trying to get it to run anymore (it only ever idled like 1 time) so he did the swap. Very clean setup.

Snug the thing in there. Transmission lines didn't appreciate being reshaped. Don't have any real mounts other than whats in shitbox #1 rn. Bought some sheet steel to make upper mounts with. Couldn't find any rubber at the store so I cut up some kneeling pad foam that's fairly thick. Made some awful mounts i'm too embarrassed to show.

Discovered a decent bit of oil living in the accordion behind the MAF. I was already going to clean out the pcv when it came time to route the vac line but I'm assuming this is more signs of it being clogged (along with the seals being dead up front). Smells a bit like gas. Somewhat concerning for sure but then again the charcoal box line/connection isn't exactly far from here.

Front end seals and waterpump are coming sometime this week from FCP so I should be able to get that done. Slapped my spare Denso alternator in there because i'm expecting clearance issues. Probably should've waited until after the waterpump was done but w/e.

 

[Failz]

Shit in the mail (and im going to shit on the mail) day:

I hate Fedex.

I'm (probably) not missing anything. At least the snail didn't fall out and still spins fine w/ no wobble:

I hate USPS.

Oil line(s) all obtained. Injectors obtained yesterday. Injector tube things spilled everywhere inside the box because the seller thought a single piece of hand ripped styrofoam was all you need for packing material. Orange tops.

FCPEuro order with my timing belt / waterpump kit got "returned" for some reason as of this morning. Parts are still in stock. Really would've appreciated if they told me why.
YO LETS GO I have now been screwed over by all three major carriers. FCP says they refunded because it got damaged in transit. I hate UPS.

 

[Swedbrick]

Interested to see how the maxspeeding turbo does! Is that the 2860?

 

[Radtap]

That turbo packaging is not something you send into the mail wtf

 

[Failz]

Interested to see how the maxspeeding turbo does! Is that the 2860?

T3/T4 T04E. Probably.

Turbo compressor / turbine now clocked to an angle pretending to be the correct one for the B230. Hopefully all the oily bits are happy with the angles I went with (basically straight up and down) and the wastegate actually fits the bay (didn't have time to drag it out to the shed afterwords). I tried my best to get that little bastard under the turbo as before it was in the 8 o'clock position which was not gonna work. Tried testing the WG using my air compressor (hence the cables). Dial isn't particularly good for low PSI figures but I think it's set for about 10-11 psi. Probably doesn't help I had to press the air out against the WG line because it didn't fit inside. Regardless I doubt half of that is going to make it past the antique intercooler and 14 miles of plumbing. Need to get a longer vac line.

That turbo packaging is not something you send into the mail wtf

Couple of these in there. Basically shopping bags stuffed with bubble wrap. Honestly, could've been worse. Turbo didn't seem like it moved at all. The only concern was the random stab that went through the box, through the packing bags, and through the extra bits bag. Probably should've put some extra box around the main box but uh, .

While i'm here, admire the size comparison between the half junk TD04 I had laying around and the T04E. A good deal larger.

 

[Failz]

More stuff in the mail today. Got the T3 flange adapter and the exhaust manifold. Intentionally bought a cracked one with the intent of drilling/welding it. I'm sure this will only go well and definitely not end poorly.

The cracks in question:

The larger of the two is an obvious problem child and needs to be dealt with immediately given the immense rust pissing energy. The smaller one will make itself a problem child if I let it get there. Large one should be fairly easy, hoping it's not too much of a PITA to deal with drilling the end of the smaller one where it goes around the corner.
edit: Also if you look, you'll see there's a third one. No idea where that one goes, isn't visible on the other side.

Only realized this was going to be an issue after I ordered the adapter. Thought I was gonna be the smartest man in the universe so I wouldn't have to send it to a machine shop. If the welding or stud removal doesn't go well it's gonna end up there making the adapterventure pointless so uh, here's hoping. As you can tell, already soaking it early in WD40. I'll get some nuts tomorrow to take a swing at removing the studs. This surely wont end in me screaming and wondering why I didn't go to a machine shop first.

 

[Failz]

Evil sticks removed. They fought valiantly.

Terrible welds done. Slowly cooling off using the power of a shitty toaster oven. So far so good, below oven temp now and wrapped in a blanket in my basement.
Can't find the threading of this turbo's oil feed to save my life. Going to go with a generic restrictor plate fitting and drill out the restrictor: I don't know why everyone sells oil restrictor fittings for this thing and why MSR includes an optional plug for it (yes I could've used that to find the thread but I only realized that after getting home and the only place local with an NPT thread reference board isn't open on Sundays). It's journal bearing so there's absolutely no reason short of having comically high oil pressure to use one (which basically no one using a budget turbo would have).

Replacement waterpump / timing kit should be here early this week. Still working out plumbing but I should have an idea by the end of the day so i can order parts.

(Never posted the above, its now tomorrow

Turbo (was) mounted. Studs were just barely long enough.

Took the exhaust out, discovered my existing leak was actually "the cat flange was barely welded and snapped". Got bonked in the arm when it came down by surprise. Was so clean I thought someone tried to steal the cat.

Some (read: most) of the studs are now bolts. Came out with little difficulty.

Test fitting time. Oh boy, barely fits. Ended up having to move / cut / bend the wastegate because it was way too close to the firewall.

Exhaust is gonna be close to AC dryer. Probably going to have to wrap it to keep it from making things upset.

Bendy weldy things done. Welds suck, but they're whatever.

Substantially better fit (pictured pre-weld). Denso alternator swap was a good choice. Image betrays clearance.

Now I need to go test fit again and figure out intake plumbing lengths.

 

[Wilford Brimley]

The obligatory 13c t3t4 shot I love it! Lol I wanna get a pic of 13c next to my current turbo(gtx3582r) they are so adorable. Although walking through yards and seeing turbos on vws those are somehow smaller yet!

 

[Failz]

Very busy last week and change here. Mailman must think i've got terminal cancer or something with the amount of stuff I'm getting mailed in. Got all the intake plumbing, a bunch of fittings, and some other stuff.

This week I had to deal with the hellhole known as the front end of the engine.

Out the green stew comes. Mostly clean. Mostly transparent with a little bit of transmission fluid accidentally spilled in for flavor.

Accidentally dropped the radiator when I undid the last transmission line nut. I am very smart.

Damn I wonder where the nuclear sludge came from. Can't possibly be the petrified probably-moldy cam seal.

Some of this shit is so comically thick I gave up attempting to remove it all, namely in the area under the waterpump.

I don't think i've ever had a B230 clean behind the waterpump. Usually, if there's rust, it's hiding back here. The block for my last block swap had like, fat blob sea life living behind it. Scraped down the residue, lightly sanded the mating surfaces, used a teensy bit of RTV to hold the gasket to the pump and viola, pump mounted. Note that I actually managed to not kerfuckle the top oring. Also, we're going to pretend that's not the HG seeping from underneath the head.

Seals time. Cam and crank came out easy, accessory shaft got pushed in accidentally. Seals were rock hard and probably somewhat shrunken.

After half an hour of less than impressive boiling water and Dawn I could only get the crude oil platter so clean. Belt went on. Disregard the belt marks, I have no idea if those are supposed to maintain position between rotations (from TDC to TDC, returning to lining up with the timing marks) but every time I turned it over the pulley timing marks continued to line up with the back plate marks. Also, they were aligned on the gears when I started. This surely will not be problematic in the future.

Pulley timing mark is dubious given the age of the two piece pulley but it appears to be maintaining position relative to the front cam cover. For safety's sake I used the marks on the belt retaining disc and the slot in the crank with the string to cam trick / that one grove in the front of the crank->accessory cover as well. Yes the timing cover is going back on, pulley was on in this pic to align everything and help test for belt walk which thankfully we did not have.

After accidentally losing, re-ordering, re-finding, and cancelling the replacement order for my small right angle oil feed -> 4an fitting, I have managed to replace the galley plug with it. I prefer the galley plug method over the the pressure sensor hole as tbf, the pressure sensor hole t looks extremely dumb (as if the rest of this wasn't a spaghetti job).

Getting the hex socket in there was awful. At first I couldn't find the right size. 1/4 inch was a hair too big, h5 was way too small, and whatever imperial size I had between those two was just a pinch too small. Eventually I dug my correct h6 socket out of the snow (don't ask, it's dumb) and had to ever so slightly sand off the rust on it to get it to fit, which it only did after severe persuasion with a mallet. One socket wrench later and the plug came out cleanly. Oh and I had to clean the glob of tar living on it. It was not gonna come out without like a steam cleaner or something. Like all good radiological disasters, I think this is best left living in the bottom of a hole undisturbed lest it get angry again.

Tomorrow is when the fun begins. I've got to yank the turbo off again (not that it's on there good or anything, or much at all), drill the oil feed restrictor adapter so it's just a feed, mount the feed/drain adapters, reattach the turbo with the drain hose, mark the best position for the pan bung, grind the spot down, drill, pray to god I can get at least a little bit of weld going on 150 feet of garden grade extension cable, and maybe just maybe not feed weld/drilling debris into the oil pump in good old fashion TB style. The pan isn't gonna come out without partially lifting the motor and I don't think it's practical to drop the cross member.

If drilling the block was practical (I have a bit, I have a tap, but I am not putting that many goddamn shavings in the pan, it was a mess last time and the motor wasn't even in the car or pan'd) I would do that.

At some point during this process a smart man would probably do the oil filter relocation kit. This car isn't gonna move much until spring so I'll worry about that when I get there. I am also not a smart man.

 

[Failz]

Wow that was miserable. I couldn't get the weld to penetrate basically at all and ended up nearly burning a hole in my cranium from weld beads bouncing on the ground behind my helmet. Orange glow behind the helmet is always fun. I ended up using god's gift to TB-kind JB Weld and a whole lot of sanding to get the bung on.

Draining the oil was awful. The drain jug I used had a cut I couldn't see that promptly pissed the better part of 5 quarts all over the floor.

It's thoroughly on there and hard as a rock. Mounting angle isn't exactly ideal (slightly downwards). It'll have to do. Will paint once I can find my can of volvo red.

Finally got around to replacing the WG line with some blue 1/4 line off fleabay. It's basically the same shade of blue in person as the volvo OE parts boxes.

Mounted the turbo and ran the oil lines for the last time. Probably.

I gave up trying to degrease the utter clusterfuck that was the original timing belt cover. I got the back and bottom clean enough but the top front was basically dissolving in it. I went out to ye olde volvo parts pile and pulled up a cover from one of my other bricks.

I hadn't used this originally because there's some kind of deformation on it that isn't really visible as far as I can see but causes it to rub the waterpump pulley.

Using the slightest amount of washers behind the pulley and a lot of beating I got it not to rub. Belts should still be effectively in-line. With the oil lines in I wrapped up the front end and remounted the pulley. I may need to retorque the crank pulley. I was given two figures, one at like ~120ftlbs and the other at 44ft lbs + 60 degrees. I went with 44ft lbs + 60deg initially.

Front is otherwise done.

Currently in the middle of tearing apart the intake side. I was under the impression that the PCV was clogged based on the oil in the intake plumbing but it was clean. Third car i've had signs of PCV issues on that didn't end up having anything in the PCV. Even worse is I know this car has been abused oil change wise because I've found substantial carbon buildup everywhere. The oil I drained at the beginning of this weekend had like maybe 300 miles on it tops since I put it in (first post-last-owner oil change) and came out looking like crude when drained.

In other news: temporary downpipe turned out too big. I measured the flange size of the turbo, 3", so I figured that I would buy one labelled as 3". Ended up being 3" ID. I really need to get better with sizing this stuff.

Ordering a smaller pipe so I can actually get it to the exhaust shop without setting on fire. Also pickup a boost gauge. There's one that I know will fit the 52mm bezel. Looks reasonably close in style to the factory gauge set (the cluster dials that is).

 

[Swedbrick]

I was given two figures, one at like ~120ftlbs and the other at 44ft lbs + 60 degrees. I went with 44ft lbs + 60deg initially.

The 60° rotation should pull it up to the other figure. Generally rotation is more accurate as you know your physical bolt stretch from the pitch.

If your worried a quick check would be to take the wrench to 100ft/lbs and give it a pull to check if you get any movement. The bolt is a torque to yield type deal irrc, at least according to Haynes, when using a interference cam I usually get a new one to be safe.

 

[Failz]

Much work completed this week.
No pics but I wrapped up the intake side of the engine. Got all the plumbing cut / fitted together. Original upper rad mounts I made broke. Tried making new ones, couldn't get the curve right. Said fuck it and used TB's favorite object connector: the ziptie. Bottom mounts worked out though. They're basically a steel plate with some bent-to-a-U-shape steel rod welded on with a block of foam on top (x2).

Still waiting on the downpipe. Alt belts are still on order. Valve cover needs a major cleaning, the moisture in the shed and the fighting I did with the intake covered it in corrosion / grease. Still no fan, waiting on my friend to get his hands on the 850 he's looking to part out. Turbine housing is slowly becoming one with the earth again from rust. I'm going to slap a turbo blanket on it so I don't have to look at it's ugly kiester ever again. Plugs are not in ATM hence the lack of spark wires.

Committed crimes against god for some of my plumbing.

Left: IAC. Right: PCV pre-turbo.
Pex fittings threaded into exhaust pipe and sealed with white silicone caulk. Painted over post pics to make marginally less ugly.

God immediately punished me for my sins by making me break my trans cooler line when I tried to bend it out of the way of Ebay's finest cone-based technology:

I'm not going to have time before the carshow I was invited to the coming weekend to replace the line, so we're going to do what they call a pro gamer move and patch it with some gas line for now. It is 10000000000% not what I should be doing there but I'm outta time. Hopefully next post I have things running.
edit: Oh and one last thing, I get to find out how to fix a downshift cable. I did something when I was maneuvering the manifold and I think it's probably broken now. It doesn't wanna go back in very much.

 

[Failz]

Hi, it's next post. No we're not running yet. A few misc updates.

Got 1 of 2 temporary downpipe pieces. Good news: it's here and a thing. Bad news: bungs on it hit the AC drier. Even more annoying news: The other piece I ordered on the 12th on flea bay that would've solved this issue might have been drop-shipped on me. Seller name is "sportracing_us", listing is marked as in New Jersey. Account ratings say fast shipper and otherwise good. Cool. I check the tracking number: It's been dicking around moving all over NJ/NYC in a not-usps shipping partner of usps for a week and change. Even worse, I look up the shipping partner and it's a fucking Chinese importing company. Even worse, I check the ebay account a little closer and its from China and the "sportracing_us" is like a subname or something.

The reddit people say this is apparently a common thing with this shipping partner where they do some funny stuff to make products look like they're in the US but in reality they actually ship from China. That being said, I have seen people state it takes about a week on the dot for most stuff through them to automagically make it's way to the US which would put that at today. The latest it's supposed to be here is tomorrow but I wont hold my breath.

Yeah something tells me I'm not getting my exhaust pipe. We'll see.

Spent some time installing the boost gauge. Yoinked the cluster to do so and was immediately greeted with this:

From some light googling, i'm guessing this was cluster swapped at some point. K10042 is a cluster part number. Not sure why. I don't think whoever did it did it to try and fool anyone as the mileage is still in the 200-300k zone that all bricks up here have. Odo gear also works afaik.

Decided to clean some of the mountains of salt this bastard has off. It's so bad the paint is peeling at the screws on the dial face.

So much crust. Removed the broken temp daughter board and did the ol' lamp cord trick to get it (maybe) working again.

Through the power of unending hot water and a shower head (and some wet qtip scrubbing for the sensitive areas) she's mostly clean again.

Boost gauge is also in. A shitload of grinding away at the bezel got the aftermarket gauge in. Not rigged for power yet, as I wasn't sure where to tap in for lighting. On my other brick with this gauge I just tapped into the mini clock. I'd like to tach swap this car for funsies. I'm keeping the other "100k km" blanker for now.

Todo 4 Show:
- Alternator Belts (arriving tomorrow).
- Stretch Boost toob onto the nipple on the manifold.
- Rinse engine with a quart of oil to get drilling nasties out.
- "Fix" trans oil line.
- New battery (lost it to the trunk light + freezing).
- Fill fluids.
- Ecu swap (going to borrow from my other brick for now).
- Deal with the exhaust problem.