Nets Silver 245

[Ne7RideR]

Apologies for the terrible resolution. For some reason this is the only photo I can find of my 245 before I parked it for the winter and started taking it apart.

Above is my 91 245 DL with 330000 km's on it. Its got a factory m47, power windows and locks and heated seats. I convinced my dad to sell me this car from his 240 collection after it had been sitting unused for a number of years. He bought it off a friend of his years ago who had used it for a cross Canada road trip, then parked it in a field and forgot about it.

Despite the high mileage on the chassis and the fact it had been sitting for many years the car is pretty clean inside and out. There's very little rust on and under the car and the interior is in great shape. The only blemishes are on the driver side doors where the lower door trim is missing along with a dent. Oh and the clear coat on the hood / roof is fading in classic Volvo fashion.

My goal is to build a fast daily driver that may see some very occasional track days. I'll post the build list shortly, but first besides maintenance here's what I did to the car over the summer:

- 25/23mm IPD sway bars front and rear with hard black poly bushings. I scooped the set off eBay for cheap. The sway bars came with what looks like a custom adjustable sway bar endlink set

- 15'' BBS/ Lincoln town car wheels with 1'' adapter spacers

Also bronze shifter bushings from STS machinging.These 3 upgrades were a night and day improvement for the car.

 

[Ne7RideR]

Motor is out and below is my sorta planned build list. Some of the items I have, many I have yet to buy. If any of you have suggestions or advice I'd appreciate it!

Block:
Stock 1991 B230f block, stock bore and stroke, no squirters
KL racing 152mm H beam rods
Stock NA pistons
Forged crank gear
Round tooth conversion
Oil filter relocation kit and oil thermostatic sender unit for oil cooler
New bearings, oil pump + everything else

Head:
530 head, lightly ported
Valve job, new seals, full refresh etc
KL racing T2 cam
Stock valves
KG trimming dual valve springs
KG trimming head bolts
STS adjustable cam gear

Intake / exhaust
90+ exhaust mani
16T with the angled flange
3'' turbo back exhaust
NPR intercooler

Drive train:
As it stands I'm currently struggling to find a T5, ZF or CD009 for a reasonable price. So I might end up running the m47 for 2023 and use that time to find a trans. Then swap the trans during the winter of 23/24. This obviously means keeping the power turned down on the engine.
I found a WC T5 for cheap! This will be going in the car with the new engine.

ECU:
Lh2.4 with @redblockpowered stage 2 turbo chips. Eventually I'd like to go standalone.

And to wrap this up here's some more pics of the engine during tear down. There was a ton of mummified oil sludge in the pan and crank case. Definitely need to get everything hot tanked. Otherwise everything looks ok. The bearings were pretty worn and there was some scuffing on the pistons / cylinder sidewall from piston slappage. Even after 330000 km there was still signs of cross hatching!

 

[Ne7RideR]

Edit 27/12/23: this GM WC T5 with the 26 spline input shaft does not work with the deeworks kit. Thanks to Josh for helping me figure this out. I've sold the box and picked up a mustang T5.

Picked up a WC T5 today for 350 bucks off a old guy selling his hot rod stuff. It's a late model 4th gen F body box as far as I can tell. I think? The tags are missing and there is a date code on the case of 93, BUT the case also has this code cast into it: 13-52-065-922, based off a few websites the 922 means it's a 96+ late model Ford / GM box. The input shaft is 26 spline that's 7.18'' in length and 2.95:1 first gear. I'm confused and need to do some more research.

I also pulled all the valves from the head in preparation for porting work and dropped off everything else at the machine shop for hot tanking and honing.

 

[Ne7RideR]

Made a start on the head today.
The bowls have been widened and cleaned up of all the casting and machining marks. I used the calipers in the above photo to roughly measure each port and make sure they all match. Also did what I could with the stubby carbide bit on the inside radius.
Ordered a long carbide bit so once that arrives I can finish the inside radius and open up the exhaust valve a tiny bit. That's where I'm going to call it, I no longer plan on messing with the combustion chamber...

 

[nibroc]

good luck and thanks for the pics

 

[esmth]

About the t5 numbers, you can't read into any of the numbers in the cast parts. They are suspiciously similar to the actual overall part number for the whole unit, but you need the metal or paper tag to know exactly what it is. the casting numbers are useless and will lead you in the wrong direction. I cannot imagine why they used the same series of numbers for the individual castings and overall unit.

 

[Ne7RideR]

About the t5 numbers, you can't read into any of the numbers in the cast parts. They are suspiciously similar to the actual overall part number for the whole unit, but you need the metal or paper tag to know exactly what it is. the casting numbers are useless and will lead you in the wrong direction. I cannot imagine why they used the same series of numbers for the individual castings and overall unit.

** EDIT TO ANYONE READING THIS ** GM F-body T5's will not work with the dee works kit even though they have a Ford bolt pattern. The 26 spline clutch is the deal breaker somehow. Thanks to Josh for letting me know.
You can't swap the input shaft to a 10 spline ford unit either. The 10 spline input shaft has a different gear count and will not mesh with the other gears inside the box. Thanks to Paul at modern driveline for the help.

That seems to be the consensus online but then I came across this page which says you can discard the first 7 digits of the casting number and use the ending 3 digits to identify it. http://pro-forceperformance.com/t-5_identification.htm

Case ID: 13-52-065-922, has a date stamp of just a 3. Maybe this means 2003?
''96+ World Class Ford & GM - With and without the reverse spring anchor. This case is used in Mustangs, Camaros and S-10s"

Top cover ID: 13-52-097-917, has a date stamp of 93
"86-93, plain top cover - no switch" which is accurate since the trans doesn't have a neutral safety switch

Tail cover ID: 13-52-066-936, no date stamp anywhere on the tail shaft as far as I can tell
"88-95 Camaro World Class (w/speedo GEAR)" the trans does have a speedo gear

I think I figured out what I've got:
Reading on this page says all 4th gen fbody use a ford bellhousing bolt pattern and a 26 spline input shaft.
And on another site I read this "All 1993 and up GM cars with the T-5 used the Ford bellhousing bolt pattern, and not the earlier GM pattern. The 1993 and up GM applications were limited to V-6 Camaros/Firebirds, as the option was not offered in the V-8s. You can identify these transmissions by the 26-spline GM input shaft with a Ford bolt pattern."
Bingo, that's exactly what my trans is, at least on the outside. The trans has very clearly been rebuilt, but I have no idea if it has stock or upgraded internals. The fella I bought it off was a big gear head but he couldn't remember much about the trans.

 

[Ne7RideR]

Small updated. I haven't had much time to work on my car thanks to work and life lately.

Before my last shift I dropped off a lot of my engine parts at a local hot rod shop. They had agreed to:
-Hot tank the block, crank and pan
-Do a valve job
-Hone the block
-Assembly the head with dual valve springs, new seals and other stuff
-Put in new intermediate shaft bearings
-Put the pistons on the new H beam rods and put on the new piston rings

Long story short the shop hot tanked the block, crank, pan and did a valve job but nothing else. They attempted to install the intermediate bearings but ruined them in the process. The guy was apologetic but also spent a bunch of time mouthing off about how Volvo's are trash and I should have bought a Chevy instead. He didn't charge me for any of the work which was nice of him, but it meant I left there with all the engine parts not assembled. This is fine... I'll just have to do it myself.

Soon as I got home I ordered new intermediate shaft bearings. Waiting to hear if another mechanic buddy of mine has the proper tool for pressing hem into the block.

The front oil drain cap didn't want to come out of the block even after I heated it up and made a custom super tight allen key socket. I ended up completely rounding over the fitting and drilling it out. It came out super easy on the drill bit! I'll be chasing the threads with a 1/4 npt tap just to make sure the threads are perfect.

My plan for the next couple days are to:
-Paint the block
-Clean and assemble the head
-Measure valve shim clearance and order new shims
-Weld valve cover gasket and oil pan if I have time

 

[Ne7RideR]

Another small update:

Red block is red

Rods are on the pistons. I kind of jumped the gun on these and should have fully cleaned the pistons before installing the rods

Turbo arrived. 16T with the angled flange and an exhaust flange. And a waste gate adapter to make it work with 2/7/940 series cars. Next winter when I go to a stand alone I plan on using the hot side housing of the 16T paired with a HE221W

Double valve springs are in! This is the kit KG Trimming sells. Also with these are 2.5mm lashcaps to go with the KL T2 cam I'm running

 

[Ne7RideR]

Another quick update:

Long block is almost fully assembled. Just waiting on shims to arrive from Sweden. Then I need to weld the oil return in the pan and the block will be done!

Fancy head bolts from KG Trimming

Head is on and torqued.

While I waited for shims I added a 10an fitting to the valve cover for the PCV system. Aluminum tig is something I'm very new at and while this part turned out ok there is a lot of room for improvement.

After I welded this on I learned of 10AN banjo fittings and wish I'd gone that route...

10AN oil return off of the turbo

Finally some nice welds! 309 stainless is a dream to weld. This is a 3'' vband setup for the turbo. I don't have a purge setup which is why there is sugaring on the inside.

 

[Ne7RideR]

Motor is assembled!

Little bit of plumbing left to do for the oil return and it can go back into the car.

 

[Swedbrick]

Did you get the less clamping pressure kit from KG? Just pulled the higher pressure set from my motor, given it was at 1000N of clamping force, you'd like to be around 600N mine was eating the cam. If you got that set, just pull the inner spring and you should be close enough

 

[Ne7RideR]

Did you get the less clamping pressure kit from KG? Just pulled the higher pressure set from my motor, given it was at 1000N of clamping force, you'd like to be around 600N mine was eating the cam. If you got that set, just pull the inner spring and you should be close enough

Yea I went with the less clamping pressure set.

How much did the high pressure set wear your cam?

 

[Swedbrick]

How much did the high pressure set wear your cam?

Enough to notice a polish on the oem T cam after 5k or so on a fresh build

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[Ne7RideR]

Been busy and kinda burnt out on this project.
Found some motivation and:

Pulled out the M47 and drive shaft

Took the engine off the stand and installed a new flat flywheel that was machined for LH2.4. Shout out to Kolton for this.

Installed the motor in the car. Doing this solo was a bit of a nightmare, particularly lining up the motor mounts. After a few hours got it in.
I'm not a huge fan of the red / blue combo. Likely going to repaint the valve cover black when I go in to re-torque the head studs.

 

[76RA24]

Cool another BC manual 245.

engine looks sharp.

where you at in BC?

pete

 

[nibroc]

engine looks very sharp

 

[Ne7RideR]

Cool another BC manual 245.

engine looks sharp.

where you at in BC?

pete

Thanks. Based in the Kootenays, how about you?

 

[76RA24]

Lower mainland

Looking at the west Kootenays for relocation hopefully in the near future

Got your T5 all sorted?

Parting with the m47?

Pete

 

[Ne7RideR]

Lower mainland

Looking at the west Kootenays for relocation hopefully in the near future

Got your T5 all sorted?

Parting with the m47?

Pete

Good call. It's great out here, I'm sure you'll dig it.

Yea sold the GM T5 for more than I paid and picked up a 92 Mustang T5. Waiting on order the clutch and bits to arrive from Yoshifab and other bits from STS machining.