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Orange 75 242 6.0L LS swap

After the Overcrest Rally, I drove the car a lot. It has working AC, heat, decent stereo, soft but tight suspension, sound deadening... The engine mounts are still pretty harsh but all in all it's a comfortable ride. I have had it all up and down the CA coast on 1000 miles road trips several times. I'll coordinate sales calls around rallies and events, and take the Volvo down to LA for a week at a time. It's excellent for that.
Frequently found in hotel parking lots, and occasionally valet parked which is sometimes pretty funny.
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One day a friend of mine told me about a 1957 Karmann Ghia barn find. WHAT?! an early Lowlight car! I've had a handful of Ghias through the years, and I even had one lowlight before, but I had to sell that one before I ever drove it. I've wanted another one ever since. So I struck a deal with the seller and bought it sight unseen, just off a few grainy pictures. The car was down in Brea, CA which is about 400 miles from me. So of course I bought a tow bar and headed down there in the Volvo to tow it home. I coordinated it with another event while I was down there.

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Busy bumper-to-bumper LA traffic with the little Ghia on the hitch was pretty stressful at times. Folks would try to merge into traffic, bullying their way inbetween the Volvo and the Ghia. This happened more than once.


Safe at home with the rest of the fleet:
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1975 Volvo 242- 6.0L LS swap
1962 Chevy Biscayne Wagon- 5.3L LS swap
1958 Ragtop Beetle- 2.2L Turbo Subaru Swap
2016 GTI- manual, no sunroof, plaid interior, miracle machine
1957 Karmann Ghia- bone stock, 6V, not running, most valuable in the lineup :rofl:

A build thread (well, a non-restoration, more like preservation thread) on the Ghia can be found here if anyone is interested: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765982&highlight=
 
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The famous European Auto Salvage Yard in Emeryville,CA. Just a block from Pixar headquarters.
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And the famous Alice’s Restaurant. I’m here almost weekly. Awesome burger, and Pliny on tap!

I don’t know why I always seem to take pics of the dented side.

More and more road trips. Up north for Breakfast Club Rally events, down south for others. I have a bunch of pictures taken through the windshield which seemed breathtaking at the time, but seem boring when shared.

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Took my kiddo to the Davis show! My favorite part is seeing cars in the road on the way there and back. My least favorite part is hearing about how a 16v head on a tractor engine would be cooler.
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On my trips down to LA, I try and take a different small highway through the mountains each time. But hwy58 between I-5 and 101 is one of my favorites. It has a nice range of tight hairpins, long flowing sweepers, vertical drops that make your stomach jump, and it passes through the Carizo Plain which can be epic.

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On one of the trips to LA, I picked up a rebuilt transaxle for my 58 Beetle. I also picked up a roll cage for it, from a Baja Bug. That’s on the roof of the Volvo, transaxle in the trunk.

I left Riverside and made the steep climb up through Angels National Forest. At some point after 2 hours of climbing in 100+ degree heat (AC on blast, engine staying perfectly cool) I heard a shrieking noise and turned down the radio. The (new) fuel pump was ridiculously loud, and the entire trunk of the car was super hot. The exhaust was heating the fuel tank again which overheated the Walbro 255 pump.

After having this happen in Utah, I had a spare pump with me. It was the same one that I had overnighted to my hotel but never installed. Well, I still hadn’t installed it because the pump got quieter after losing all the weight and the load. But now it was heavy, hot, and going uphill again. I was in the middle of nowhere, so i bought a few bags of ice to throw in the trunk and kept going. I figured I’d find someplace with shade, have an early dinner to let it cool down, and swap the pump. Well, the pump got quiet and I drove 7 hours all the way home.

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The next week I had the Silverado muffler cut off and the Flowmaster welded back on.

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The problem was exhaust heat generated under really heavy, prolonged load, due to restriction. I don’t know if the restriction was due to the construction of the Walker muffler or the crushed bends leading into it. Probably both. But that pipe was too close to the tank either way. The Flowmaster is louder and I hate it, but the fuel no longer gets super hot. I really want to upgrade this exhaust to a dual pipe setup.

The new fuel pump went in after this, but of course I kept the poor abused noisy one to carry as a spare.
 
Are you running a corvette regulator? Those will boil the crap out of your fuel on hot days, the exhaust heat doesnt help either. Great to see you back here!
Yep! I thought about that too but I don’t really want to change the fuel lines.

With that Silverado muffler, the back bumper was literally too hot to touch on 100+ degree days, especially after putting a heavy load on the car.. so much that I worried about melting the tail lights!

The free flowing exhaust brought the heat way down. And keeping the tank pretty full seems to help the pump stay quiet. Can’t always do that in long road trips though. Maybe I should change up the fuel lines. That corvette regulator is just so dang simple! Maybe add a fuel cooler?

Maybe add an exhaust cutout? I could dump it to straight pipe on mountain passes to keep the heat down! 😂 scare the hell out of traffic. Nobody suspects the cute orange Volvo.
 
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Encountered a similar situation on my 1975 242, though it has a stock fuel pump and a B230/2.4Lh under the hood. This happened while attending the Motherlode 400 Rally held on Fathers Day weekend in June 2021. This is the same time an extreme heatwave hit the state. With the day's destination the event Hotel in Placerville, departed the Presidio in SF just after noon which was in the mid 80s. Driving by Sears Point 45 minutes later it was almost 100 degrees and later hitting 108 degrees driving through Rio Vista.

After a rest stop at Al the Wops in Loche, a group of us sprinted across the furnace aka the Central Valley (115 degrees) towards Plymouth & the Sierra foothills in the late afternoon. When hitting the hills I needed to shut off my newly installed AC (1993 240 set up with R134) as the water temp was staring to climb towards the top of the gauge. Finally arriving at Placerville I was driving behind the event organizers Corvette. Going along the main street of town our relative speed was down to around 15-20 miles an hour. Coming out of a stop sign about a mile west of the event hotel, the engine began to buck and loose power. Pull over into a deserted parking lot and luckily into some shade. The engine doesn't want to restart at all.

While my fuel pump wasn't whining or howling, it was my prime suspect. Going under the rear of the car I found a similar situation as you, everything was very hot to the touch. The fuel pump on the 242 is the original K-jet unit and is mounted next to the gas tank. After letting it sit for 15 or so minutes, it finally occurs to me I can help the fuel pump cool off faster. Getting a ice cold water bottle out from the cooler, slowly dump this over the fuel pump. The engine starts right up and we are easily able to reach the hotel. My theory was the fuel pump & tank got baked from the pavement radiating heat. While having to drive at slow speeds in town there was no good way to dissipate it away at that pace. What also probably didn't help was the gas tank being around 1/4 full. The next two days were somewhat cooler though still hot, thankfully did not have any more fuel delivery issues during the event.

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Encountered a similar situation on my 1975 242, though it has a stock fuel pump and a B230/2.4Lh under the hood. This happened while attending the Motherlode 400 Rally held on Fathers Day weekend in June 2021.

I'm looking forward to doing the Motherlode or Snowball one of these days!
I do remember the pump getting hot in my 82 245. it was an intercooled turbo car with a manual, and I owned it when I lived in Modesto and commuted to San Jose. It never actually stalled out, but it would make some noise on hot days. I could hear it because it didn't have AC! 🥵
 
Holy cow what a sick build and story!! Any plans to swap to a manual still, or stick with the auto?
Thanks dude!!!
I still really want to get a T56 in there. I’ve been thinking T56 Magnum, but with the way I drive it maybe a TR6060 makes more sense with its super tall gears.

From the beginning I’ve told myself I need to get the suspension and brakes done before saving up for the T56. Well, I now have almost finished the suspension, and I’ve almost gathered all the parts for big brakes…. So the stick shift is coming soon!
 
I want to play a little catch up with a few things that I’ve been through with this car over the last 6 years or so.

It was at the first and second ever Radwood car shows. This one was at Sears Point/ Infineon Raceway.
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Drove it down with my wife to see the Super Bloom.
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Took it on a few of the early Coastal Range Rallies:
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Got a little utility trailer for it, and started buying bigger crap on Craigslist. This was a used playground for my kiddos:


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We set it up in the lower part of the back yard, nestled between a Bay tree, some Oaks, and some Redwood trees.

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In the last 5 years they’ve played with it for like 2 hours total. 😂
 
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Living in the mountains, I discovered you have to frequently deal with downed trees, trimming, and stuff dying. So I started hauling loads of yard waste to the dump with the Volvo. It’s got a truck engine and a truck rear end, so it’s a truck.

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On this trip, the engine died and wouldn’t fire back up. I checked a bunch of stuff and eventually purged the fuel rail. The gas didn’t seem right, so I popped a fuel line off and cycled the pump.
There was a ton of water in the tank.
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I got clean gas back in it and finished my dump run. But in the process of troubleshooting and messing around, I twisted one of the fuel fittings loose from the lid. The sender was weird and unreliable anyway, so I ordered a new one and put a new Walbro 255 in there too.
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When Jeff built the car, he TIG welded steel fittings onto the stock fuel lines. I can’t TIG (I can barely MIG) so I got a set of these compression style fittings which fit nicely on the stock fuel line fittings, once you cut the barb off.
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Fuel gauge still didn’t work for shit afterwards.

We had been in our new house for about a year when COVID hit. And then a few months into that, the CZU fire burned half of our mountain so we had to evacuate. During early COVID lockdown era.

Don’t go outside or near anyone. Stay home.. just kidding, run! Go to a hotel! 😂

The sky was all orange and red from the smoke. It was scary and smelled terrible. It’s not just wood smoke- forest fires burn structures, cars, sheds, garages… so the smoke stinks with burnt plastic, chemicals, etc..
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Tried to keep things calm and maybe get some clean air by taking the kids to the beach. Totally didn’t help. In fact it was horrible. We watched helicopters scooping water to go dump on the fire.
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Ash fell from the sky like snow.
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At first we stayed at a friend’s house in Santa Cruz, in their studio bedroom AirBnB unit. But we started to wear out our welcome. But by now all the nearby hotels who would accept dogs were booked. So we went and stayed at an AirBnB in San Luis Obispo. It was awesome. Like a little super stressful vacation.
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We live in Ben Lomond. The fire came like 1.5 miles from our new house.
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When we finally did get home, everything reeked of smoke. And there were burnt leaves, papers, and other things all over the yard.
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But the good news is we made it out clear.


I think soon after that I got tired of the fake whitewall look. I needed new tires so while the tires were off, I painted the wheels silver with Duplicolor wheel paint.
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Oh, these are the janky brackets I made to hold the hubcaps. They’re Simpson Strong Tie T brackets from Home Depot. 😂
Never had a problem with them in many many years of hard miles.
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I instantly loved the silver!

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On one of the rallies (in Mexico, of course) I lined up with my brother in his fox body Mustang. It has a Coyote swap in it.

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Video proof!



I got him out of the hole every time. But he would come around me like like this just before what would be the 1/4 mile mark. I believe his best run was a 12.3 in that mustang.
 
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Living in the mountains, I discovered you have to frequently deal with downed trees, trimming, and stuff dying. So I started hauling loads of yard waste to the dump with the Volvo. It’s got a truck engine and a truck rear end, so it’s a truck.

HUgsDdK.jpeg

On this trip, the engine died and wouldn’t fire back up. I checked a bunch of stuff and eventually purged the fuel rail. The gas didn’t seem right, so I popped a fuel line off and cycled the pump.
There was a ton of water in the tank.
wwX0O5s.jpeg



I got clean gas back in it and finished my dump run. But in the process of troubleshooting and messing around, I twisted one of the fuel fittings loose from the lid. The sender was weird and unreliable anyway, so I ordered a new one and put a new Walbro 255 in there too.
r9JvtiN.jpeg


When Jeff built the car, he TIG welded steel fittings onto the stock fuel lines. I can’t TIG (I can barely MIG) so I got a set of these compression style fittings which fit nicely on the stock fuel line fittings, once you cut the barb off.
qz8M7bm.jpeg
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Fuel gauge still didn’t work for shit afterwards.

We had been in our new house for about a year when COVID hit. And then a few months into that, the CZU fire burned half of our mountain so we had to evacuate. During early COVID lockdown era.

Don’t go outside or near anyone. Stay home.. just kidding, run! Go to a hotel! 😂

The sky was all orange and red from the smoke. It was scary and smelled terrible. It’s not just wood smoke- forest fires burn structures, cars, sheds, garages… so the smoke stinks with burnt plastic, chemicals, etc..
P58rzIR.jpeg


Tried to keep things calm and maybe get some clean air by taking the kids to the beach. Totally didn’t help. In fact it was horrible. We watched helicopters scooping water to go dump on the fire.
IgNDAXe.jpeg


Ash fell from the sky like snow.
fH6Ym07.jpeg


At first we stayed at a friend’s house in Santa Cruz, in their studio bedroom AirBnB unit. But we started to wear out our welcome. But by now all the nearby hotels who would accept dogs were booked. So we went and stayed at an AirBnB in San Luis Obispo. It was awesome. Like a little super stressful vacation.
r19Ptj3.jpeg


We live in Ben Lomond. The fire came like 1.5 miles from our new house.
DEczx38.jpeg


When we finally did get home, everything reeked of smoke. And there were burnt leaves, papers, and other things all over the yard.
3rtSIUV.jpeg




But the good news is we made it out clear.


I think soon after that I got tired of the fake whitewall look. I needed new tires so while the tires were off, I painted the wheels silver with Duplicolor wheel paint.
scb4WGr.jpeg


Oh, these are the janky brackets I made to hold the hubcaps. They’re Simpson Strong Tie T brackets from Home Depot. 😂
Never had a problem with them in many many years of hard miles.
jbuUDlC.jpeg



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I instantly loved the silver!

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I’m doing something similar with Charger steelies, as you know you inspired the wheel look on my orange LS3 wagon….how is the duplicolor holding up? Did you 2k clear them?
 
In the time I’ve owned the Volvo, I’ve had a handful of other cars too. One of my favorites was this really well sorted 87 924S. Something about that narrow body!
It drove so nice, so neutral! I commuted in it daily about 1.5 hours each way. No complaints about it whatsoever.


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I not sold it because the greatest car in the world popped up on Craigslist. Out of the blue, my old 58 ragtop bug was listed for sale! I got like a half a dozen texts that day- “Dude your old car is for sale!! Go get it!”

So I did:
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And I celebrated with a burnout in front of Picknpull.
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This bug in on an IRS pan, has widened fenders, 4 wheel disk, and a WRX turbo scabbed onto an ej22 junkyard engine. On ethanol, it made around 250hp. It weighs 1680lbs. Lap belts. Welded diff. It’s scary and awesome, and I feel so much pride driving it.
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Back in the day, I sold it because I thought I might die in it. But I missed it so terribly, that when it came up for sale I didn’t even think. I just bought it back.

It had been neglected. So after some (not enough) maintenance, I took it in on a rally. And it did great!! But it was certainly a handful.
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This is the same car in about 2003. We bought it to be my brother’s first car in high school, and he loved it. At this point, I’ve reunited him with his first car. It’s now in Texas getting further modified.
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In case you didn’t know, I love VWs. This was my first one, which I ran completely into the ground learning how to “modify” stuff.
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2270cc type 4 engine out of a Porsche 914.
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My rare T34 ghia. Lowered about 11” from stock.
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Anyway, this was our old E39 wagon which we sold to a friend in LA. My wife loved that car.
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Oh yeah, we got a dog. I think she looks like ET when he was dead in a ditch.
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We bought this car for my wife:
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I always wanted one! Now that I owned it, I never want one again. My wife loved this V70R, and that Atacama interior was soooo nice and comfortable. It was a very clean and well maintained car.

After replacing all the 4C active shocks $$$$ and the angle gear $$, the tranny started shift flaring. So after adding a huge cooler and ATF filter $, I had a valve body installed$$$. It still rode and shifted like shit. And the pig needed like an 8 point turn in our driveway.

So I traded it for an LS swapped 62 Chevy wagon and my wife was mad:
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Bit we road tripled that yacht up the California coast to Oregon. The family loves the Chevy now.
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Almost forgot, I had an Econoline too. It was awesome. But the family hated the van.
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Now we have a GTI for my wife. Manual, no sunroof, plaid interior. Probably the best all-around car ever. She likes it a lot. But misses the V70R.
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Despite all that, I still just love chasing Porsches and corvettes through the woods in my estate sale diesel Volvo.
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Ok, with that out of the way, I’ll get back on track with Volvo updates.
 
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I’m doing something similar with Charger steelies, as you know you inspired the wheel look on my orange LS3 wagon….how is the duplicolor holding up? Did you 2k clear them?
No, not 2k. I used the duplicolor wheel clearcoat. It looks great, and has held up ok.

After mikes of gravel roads, I do have some chips in the paint. Prior to the gravel, they were holding up great! I’m sure 2k would be even better.

I am going to have to get creative. My big brakes won’t fit with the charger wheels without a 1” spacer. I think I have a plan though.
 
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