1985 Volvo 240 Rallybrick

This is the story of a car being theoretically cheaper than a set of tires. I already have a 2013 Focus ST. I like SCCA Rallycross, a fact I discovered while driving GEorgia Tech Wreck Racing's (creators of the 2JZ MG Midget and Subaru swapped Honda Insight) 1991 BMW 318i beater. "Great!" I said, I'll get some 16" wheels and snow tires, and rallyx the Focus! Well, it turns out that 16x7 wheels in 5x108 and snow tires that big aren't exactly cheap, and I wasn't too keen on rallycrossing my relatively clean, relatively new car in Georgia clay. Enter Volvo. It's a 1985 Volvo 240 sedan, in white. Well, it was white before it sat outside for quite some time unwashed. 223500 ish miles. Naturally aspirated 2.3L B230F, 4 speed manual w/ external overdrive (5th gear is a button). And since it's a base model, no-AC car, isn't too porky either: More to come. I bought the car back in December, so I'll update this with the past 8 months of history over the next few days.

Paging Corey McKenzie.....

240's and Rally-x just belong together!

Get a set of KYB Gas-A-Just for the rears, a set of DeCarbon front struts (if you can find them - they pop up occasionally), or Bilstein's and have fun!!!

Once you can drive it hard, then get on Turbobricks and +T it or swap a 740 turbo engine it.

Oh don't worry, I bought the car back in December. It has Bilstein HDs, knobbly tires, Megasquirt, and a turbo. And there's a Mustang T5 in my garage for...reasons.

The state of the union when I bought the car:

• Desperately needs a wash

• The shocks are VERY blown

• One tire is very bald. There are three different makes of tire on it, but at least I have two that match, and they're Firestone. Firestone holds the distinction of being the only brand I've ever seen before.

• One of the rear axle bushings is completely shot. When you are on the highway and lift off the gas, you have to counter steer. Back on the power, straighten it out again.

• The front end has some sort of clunk when you go over a bump. Foreshadowing: This is related to the shocks being blown.

Perhaps my most satisfying session of pressure washing ever.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/B0w9sGJYB3I

So you're racing this in the $2016 Challenge, right? I mean, you'll already be there with the Wreck Racing team!

That's amazing how well that paint looks under all the crap.

maschinenbau wrote: So you're racing this in the $2016 Challenge, right? I mean, you'll already be there with the Wreck Racing team!

TBD. I'm a bit over the 2k budget, the suspension is too soft for hard land, plus the current tires aren't exactly the best for anything that isn't dirt/mud/gravel. If the challenge adds a rallycross component, I'm in.

Ah, first rallycross. January 16, 2016.

Initial impressions:

• Rear wheel drive is best wheel drive

• This car has so much steering lock it's quite difficult to spin. What's that? The tail has come out too far? Just add more steering.

• These shocks are really bad.

• These tires are really bad.

• The one-wheel-peel is real.

Overall, great success. Any car is a fun car to rallycross.

And this Audi loved throwing mud on the roof and trunk lid:

It also lost a radiator clamp, and emptied out its coolant during a run. Thankfully the owner got a ride to a parts store, and they finished their runs in the afternoon!

Time to solve the damping problem. January 24, 2016.

Strut out.

Custom wrench, waterjet cut out of 1/8 steel.

The good, the bad, and the ugly. Turns out this photo answers where my clunk was from. One of the gland nuts on top of the shock wasn't tight, and the shock had about 1/8" of play in the strut tube. It also let a bunch of water leak in, and make a mess.

In with the new.

Tighten it down.

Spring and top hat back in place.

Rears were much less interesting, a bolt on the bottom and a stud welded to the frame at the top.

Overall, great improvement. Front end clunk is gone now that the shock nuts are actually tight, rides smoother, and also handles better.

Next up: tires.

Tires!

Looks much, much better with BFGoodrich All Terrain TA KOs in place.

Also, Ikea.

In reply to mck1117:

Looks awesome on the skinny BFG's!

Looks like a blast! What size are those BFG's?

They're 195/75R14. My best guess is that this size exists for old series Land Rovers that came with tiny tires.

They're not too bad as a car tire, the sidewalls are super stiff, so the handling isn't that bad, even though they're pizza cutter 75% aspect ratio.

In reply to mck1117:

I was going to say that those tire sizes might have been for Suzuki Samurai's but i just looked and even those came with stock 15's.

But there is something about cars with aggressive offroad tires.

I think I was paged here to tell you what all can break?

Love it! White 240s look the best.

I'm in love with this thing.....cannot wait for more updates!!!

As promised, more updates!

First order of business, rallycross!

This car does look good when making a red cloud behind it.

The new tires hold on much better, and the Bilsteins improved the handling greatly. The tail comes around much more readily during corner entry, but behaves itself on exit.

Second order of business:

I pulled a MHI TD04H-13C turbo from a 1990-ish Volvo 740 Turbo in the junkyard, along with the exhaust manifold, intercooler, and associated plumbing.

It was, however, in dire need of a rebuild. My best guess from looking at the car was that the final owner went way too long without an oil change, which cooked the turbo. One of the brass journal bearings was half eaten, and the thrust bearing plate had a 1 mm or so groove worn in it.

So, I took it apart.

The shaft/turbine, and compressor are in bad shape (shaft is scored pretty bad, and compressor spent some time touching the housing), so I'll replace those along with a normal rebuild kit.

It's a Chinabay special, but all the parts fit perfectly and seemed to be of good quality.

New insides installed

Installing snap ring

All back together, on the exhaust manifold. This is the better flowing, 1990+ manifold, superior to the 1989 and prior one.

Hiding in the bottom-right is a rocker arm for Georgia Tech Wreck Racing's Honda Insight's rear suspension.

Soon: Megasquirt, then BOOOOOOOOOOST

Megasquirt time! I figured that I'd get the car behaving itself on Megasquirt before I added boost, so that I'm only changing one thing at a time.

The engine harness actually comes out in one piece, and you can get I thru the firewall without any cutting of wires or car.

Steps:

1) Cut a wire off the old ECU connector

2) Figure out where/if it goes on the Megasquirt connector

3) Solder to MS connector

4) Repeat

The one part that was a bit interesting to figure out was that it had two ECUs, one for fuel, and one for spark, made by Bosch and Chrysler(eew) respectively. Those wires are now combined to all go to the Megasquirt, so it can deal with both spark and fuel by itself.

1985 ECU p0rn:

Bosch build quality is something to behold.

Now the last piece of trouble: The Jetronic LH 2.2 setup didn't have a real throttle position sensor, but instead a TPS that just indicated one of [closed, middle, WOT]. Megasquirt doesn't like this. So, at the local Pull a Part I acquired a TPS from a Volvo 850, because it fits the throttle shaft, and the same connector.

A custom aluminum adapter later:

And it fits!

Can you tell that I've been playing in the clay?

Posting this here since i cant find the other Rallybrick thread that is local to me https://www.youtube.com/embed/iJh2C7QQQ14

Dang sweet build! Love the 240 and boost is always better! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build!

White car is dead. Long live green car.