Project Full Circle - 1993 245 refresh & upgrades

[odj]

Thanks for the reminder on the super blue - I also have a tank and I'd like to do some pbr red pads at the same time. Stock stuff is fine but even on a mountain run they start to get a little sketchy

Yeah, I probably could have gone with something other than stock, but I'm not planning on taking this thing back to the track again any time soon. If I do - I have a surplus of old pads, and I've honestly considered just cutting some down in the band saw to fit.

Figured some of the old heads would recognize the Super Blue. I've got one more liter left and then it's gone for good! Love the stuff.

Nice work! What's the purpose of those spacers I've never seen them before?

They help to reduce intake air temps by lowering heat transfer between the intake mani and head

I may have placed a YoshiFab order while enjoying an adult beverage or two and they seemed like a good idea at the time. Might get me .05hp!

 

[odj]

Also, I snagged a photo of this tool while I was working. It was the true MVP of this effort, and really any effort involving braking old hoses loose.

These look the same, just a different brand: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/4-piece-progrip-hose-pick-set-mayhew-steel-products-13096

Anyways - you can use the rounded, small-but-sturdy tip to break a hose's grip on where it's attached without having to yank or cut or otherwise mangle things. The other tools in the kit are less frequently used for hose work, and more often used for aligning two panels that have multiple holes. Highly recommend picking them up.

 

[nibroc]

too much moola for me

 

[odj]

too much moola for me

I hear ya, I think they were a good bit cheaper when I ordered them

 

[odj]

I took the car out for a drive today. My coolant leak appears to be solved, and the car runs just fine, but the brakes were soft.

I didn't bother bench bleeding the master, as I figured the power bleeder would take care of it, but apparently not. I was mulling and googling whilst on the throne and came across this post from some long-forgotten hero:

So I figured I'd give it a try. Backed the car up the driveway until the master was level, and bled with the power bleeder and a few pumps of the pedal.

Sure enough, I got some pretty big bubbles out of the system. And now it feels great.

I had the car running up on the lift and found out the source of my exhaust leak - the top of the head pipe where the mount is. That explains the janky hose clamp affair holding things together.

But, not to worry, I picked up a replacement head pipe from one of our cohort here on the forum, and have a package en route.

Excite!

 

[redblockpowered]

Car looks great!

 

[odj]

Car looks great!

Thanks man! Chips are working out perfectly.

 

[odj]

Long time no update.

Things have been busier than normal around here, and it's been a weird year for car things.

In March, I went from 8 mostly-functional vehicles to 2 rather quickly, so once the brake work was done on the 240 it went right back on the road to bring the count up to 3.

The old girl looked great doing doing her thing, and got a lot of positive attention as per usual. Kiddo wanted some shots of her ride alongside the wagon, so I had to oblige.

Once my car situation stabilized a bit, I got the 240 back up on the lift.

New exhaust all mocked up:

As mentioned before, it's a full 2.5" from the downpipe back. All KL Racing bits.

First step, remove old stuff...

New bits installed and mocked up. The fit of this kit is really good out of the box.

Since this is a euro exhaust setup, there's no O2 provision, nor does it come with a cat. It's also a slip fit with clamps provided, and I'm really NOT a fan of slip fit exhausts.

Fortunately, I'd picked up a TIG welder at a deep discount from a good buddy of mine.

So I have the tool to solve these problems

The plan is to weld up the slip fit joints, add v-band clamps, add a section for a cat, and weld on an O2 bung.

So I got everything marked up:

I got everything cut up, then reinstalled and tacked in place:

Then dropped it all out to start finish welding.

I plan on running a cat, but wanted the option to change it, so I made one of the sections swappable for that reason.

The KL exhaust is steel, while the v-band clamps and cat/cat sections are stainless. I used a mixture of 308l and 309l filler depending on what I was melting together, and played around with a few different purge setups.

Between all of that, upgrading cups, and doing a LOT of practice welding, I have a feeling I've doubled or tripled the cost of the exhaust, but at least I kinda know what I'm doing now. Mixed metals, metals of different thicknesses, big gaps in places - all of these things made the whole process extra challenging.

The head pipe section is one of the last sections I've completed, and is some of my better work. Still not great welds, but they'll do. I think

I was hoping to wrap all of this up last night, but of course I ran out of Argon. Again.

I've had some pretty annoying driveline vibration that shows up around 60-65mph, and some on/off throttle clunks and figured they could be related to the driveshaft. So I picked up a replacement carrier bearing and u-joints, and dropped the driveshaft while I had the exhaust out.

I destroyed a couple of 2-jaw pullers trying to remove the carrier bearing, so I picked up a nice 3 jaw. I spent a good half hour moving the bearing half an inch and breaking tools, this guy pulled it off in ~10 seconds. I should have bought this tool a decade or two ago.

The bearing was a little noisy, but not horrible. And the U-joints seem fine - no play that I can detect at least. I'm still going to replace them, since I have the driveshaft out. I wonder if the vibration could be pinion angle (post-lowering/adding adjustable torque arms) and the clunk a worn out rear end, but I'll see how things are once I get the axle back in.

So yeah, I've got a few things to do before the car comes off the lift. It's a bit of a rush to fit all of this stuff in, as I'll be moving to a new place without a garage toward the end of the year.

 

[odj]

More progress on the exhaust...

I got everything (but the tip!) finish welded, and reinstalled to make sure it all fit and there were no leaks. I'm happy to say both were successful, and the exhaust sounds a good bit better.

I decided just to run it with the cat. Seems unfitting for the wagon to be stinky in traffic.

Then I pulled the whole exhaust off, welded the tip on the back box, masked off the v-band mating surfaces, sanded/scuffed and prepped the remaining surfaces with Prep-All, sprayed with PJ1 Fast Black.

At least so far it matches the finish KL applied to the mufflers.

Head pipe and back box painted and allowed to air dry for ~30 mins each.

The middle section is what's going to get the most banged up in installation, so rather than just air dry, I decided to use a heat gun to try and cure it a bit.

I just shoved it in there and turned it on high. It worked decently.

In case you were wondering what the duty cycle of a ~10 year old Harbor Freight heat gun with a noisy bearing is: It lasted somewhere around 10 mins. I was seeing temps in the 300s in the first few feet of the piping before smoke came out.

Next is to get everything installed and do some heat cycles on the car... and then get the driveshaft completed. Or maybe I'll switch the order of those two. We'll see.

 

[odj]

I got the exhaust back in the car, and let it idle for ~10 mins as part of the curing process.

I welded the tip on at a slight upwards angle to match the lines of the bumper and give it a bit of a DTM flair.

And it sound pretty good at idle. I dig it!

I am surprised by how "pingy" the downpipe sounds. It reminds me of how my old 8V VW cars sounded with a tubular header.

The biggest pain in the ass in removing and re-installing the exhaust is getting the first set of hangers installed. It wasn't so bad before adding new rubber donuts, but man they're TIGHT now. I ended up getting one side installed and using ratchet straps to pull the whole exhaust over to get the second side back in place. If y'all know of an easier way to do this, I'm all ears. Though I hope I don't need to do it again.

 

[blkaplan]

Nice work on the exhaust, cars looking nice!!!

 

[244tiCanuck]

One thing I reccomend for exhaust, is not to V-band the whole thing. Throw a sleeve clamp in there somewhere, so you aren't relying on absolutely perfect alignment every time, especially after welding.
Like these guys that the German cars use. They interlock inside so they're leak-free, and they allow for quick disassembly/reassembly and also allow for slight misalignment here and there. I find that especially on cars like RWD Volvos with no flex pipes, they're handy. Even if you change exhaust manifold gaskets or downpipe gaskets, things might not always align just right and a joint like this allows you to install everything in the hangers, let it relax into its natural position and then tighten it down.

 

[odj]

One thing I reccomend for exhaust, is not to V-band the whole thing. Throw a sleeve clamp in there somewhere, so you aren't relying on absolutely perfect alignment every time, especially after welding.
Like these guys that the German cars use. They interlock inside so they're leak-free, and they allow for quick disassembly/reassembly and also allow for slight misalignment here and there. I find that especially on cars like RWD Volvos with no flex pipes, they're handy. Even if you change exhaust manifold gaskets or downpipe gaskets, things might not always align just right and a joint like this allows you to install everything in the hangers, let it relax into its natural position and then tighten it down.

Noted!

This setup actually aligns very well. The cat section is welded slightly crooked at both ends so I can just rotate it until everything lines up.

I TOTALLY did that on purpose

 

[nd245]

@odj I just started to post my own build thread documenting my 245 project. Your thorough posting, and seeing your daughter in the pictures (my daughter is a similar age, with similar volvo wrenching experience now) was great kick-in-the-pants motivation to actually do it. Your pictures of burnt-out and mangled suspension bushings triggered some near-PTSD in me from memories of blow torches, sweat, and toxic melting rubber You've created an amazing wagon for the ages!

 

[odj]

@odj I just started to post my own build thread documenting my 245 project. Your thorough posting, and seeing your daughter in the pictures (my daughter is a similar age, with similar volvo wrenching experience now) was great kick-in-the-pants motivation to actually do it. Your pictures of burnt-out and mangled suspension bushings triggered some near-PTSD in me from memories of blow torches, sweat, and toxic melting rubber You've created an amazing wagon for the ages!

Thank you! I'll check your build out.

And yes, I hate doing bushings but I also seem to always be doing bushings.

 

[odj]

Progress has been embarrassingly slow. We're in the midst of a slow move to a new place, and work continues to be extra stressful.

I registered the Volvo at the new place, as the current tags had expired. I opted for the VA black and white plates without realizing they're a thick lacquered piece of metal with the letters as stickers. They look a bit anachronistic on the car, and my wife likes to point out that Antique generally refers to things that are 100-250 years old.

Oh well. They were cheap ($50?), require no inspection or emissions, and are permanent. Neat. Maryland historic plates require a renewal every 2 years, are more expensive, and are now capped at 1999 (vs 20 years old or older as was the case until a year ago).

Anyways, I've never liked how low on the bumper the front plates sit, so I drilled a couple of holes about an inch above where they currently sit and fit a pair of AL riv-nuts, and affixed the new plate with stainless bolts and a plastic washer.

I also realized I never really took good photos of the exhaust after it was finished and installed, so here you go:

I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

 

[odj]

Ever do a job you are pretty sure you don't need to do, but you're already in there and have the parts, so you do it anyway?

Well, that's how it's felt redoing the driveshaft in this thing. Center support bearing felt fine. No detectable slop in the U joints.

But, I've already got it out and I've got new shit to put on so here we are.

I was putting off pressing on a new center support bearing since I couldn't find anything in the garage that was just the right size to press the new bearing in without risking pooching it in the process. So, I said the F with it and printed a 100% infill cone of PLA.

I have to admit this felt pretty sketch.

But it went in like butter.

With that out of the way I started on the U joints.

I swear these things look and feel fine.

Whatever though. I'm already here and I have the parts, remember?

First half of the driveshaft was pretty easy.

I started on the second half today and somehow the end of one of the U joint bearing caps exploded.

Couldn't coax it out of there easily so I'll need to press it back in the other direction and get everything dismantled. Ran out of time and temperament at that point so I called it.

I'm getting close to getting this thing off the lift and on the street. Shame I waited until after car wash weather, though

 

[DET17]

Since your wagon is NA and you've already made some changes to increase the torque output, have you considered cutting the head 1mm for higher compression?

If you've not yet done a HG on the engine, that would obviously be the ideal time. Plenty of threads in the PERF section to validate this change, and the factory timing belt & tensioner still work fine ( just beyond 1mm removal and that changes).

Nicely done work.... if you don't mind, what brand is your hydraulic press and would you buy it again? I may be in the market for one here shortly.

 

[Alan29]

Love how this project is coming along.

I went and priced out that KL exhaust again...shipping to the US now requires the buyer to arrange for their own freight. Le sigh. The only other way to get that 2.5 over axle is to order the complete 240 turbo back kit from VP which comes in at just under $800 shipped before tax. I suppose one could make a bit of the money back by selling the DP portion of it.

 

[odj]

Since your wagon is NA and you've already made some changes to increase the torque output, have you considered cutting the head 1mm for higher compression?

If you've not yet done a HG on the engine, that would obviously be the ideal time. Plenty of threads in the PERF section to validate this change, and the factory timing belt & tensioner still work fine ( just beyond 1mm removal and that changes).

Nah, I plan on going +t at some point in the future, and I believe the head gasket was done by my buddy under his ownership. I've got so many other things to do, too

Nicely done work.... if you don't mind, what brand is your hydraulic press and would you buy it again? I may be in the market for one here shortly.

Thanks. It's an old Harbor Freight 12 ton. It's not terribly square and kind of rickety, but it's been doing the job for over a decade. So yeah I'd buy it again

Love how this project is coming along.

Thanks!

I went and priced out that KL exhaust again...shipping to the US now requires the buyer to arrange for their own freight. Le sigh. The only other way to get that 2.5 over axle is to order the complete 240 turbo back kit from VP which comes in at just under $800 shipped before tax. I suppose one could make a bit of the money back by selling the DP portion of it.

Yeah, for reference: I paid $636.46 shipped for the headpipe-back exhaust back in April. At the time they were capping orders at $800 oslt to stay under the tariff exemption amount. The head pipe I bought from @oldschoolvolvo.