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Chesh's 750R Project, and no the 5 is not a Typo

CHESH740R

lacking enthusiam
Lets start off with some background, The reason for my Screen Name Chesh740R is due to a certain Black 744 Turbo that i've had now for some 9 years.

My website carries the back story and project thread for the car until now which used to be called Project TURBOR

http://www.chesh.co.uk/744turbo.htm which then leads into

http://www.chesh.co.uk/projectturborprogress.htm

Well I hope that was a lovely little read for you and you enjoyed my fairly basic style website.

So let us now start with Project 750R

With the Redblock dying in the summer of 2006 I was pretty distraught, The engine had gone, rust was killing the chassis that bad that passing MOT inspections would require significant expenditure to bring the body back to straight conditions and I was broke due to a Career change that meant I no longer had the income i was used to, luckily it was summer and I still had a Suzuki Bandit to get me about.

However I was going to need a car sometime soon before winter set in and to get me to a friends wedding. A fellow Tbricker SteveP contacted me and said that he had just found on the most obscure motoring website an advert for a 1988 740Turbo Saloon in Black. (740T's are rare enough but I've only ever known of 4 Black ones in the UK)

I read the advert and called the number and went to see the car straight away and a little bit of haggling knocked a 1/3rd of the asking price and drove it away. (I would have paid the full asking price anyway)

Back home it met its twin

740twins.jpg


740twins2.jpg


The car had 120,000miles on the clock, and had been reasonably well maintained. The body was straight and very rust free apart from a few small marks underneath. But that was to be expected with 18year old car, it even had a new headliner fitted.......

headlining.jpg


So very Kitsch eh.

Well I drove the car to the wedding and it performed ok, and i started to strip the old Black shell of all its goodies and put them into storage. All that i transfered straight across to the new one was the lowering springs and the shocks and the Polaris alloys. I then drove the car as is until December 2006 when I made the concious descision to get a Daily Driver that I wouldnt modify to allow me to take my time and work on the 740 without having to get it back together to go to work.

As Luck would have it I got a 1996 940 Sport for a very silly price for Daily Driving duties so the 740 was parked in the corner of the driveway.

front.jpg


Once I'd done the normal new car fettling that the 940 required I could turn my attention back to the 740. Well due to a busy working schedule my attention wasnt returned to it for a whole year!!!! It was not to say, I hadnt spent many bored hours at work planning in my mind what i would do to the car.

I worked out many ideas, despite Kenny's words about 16v's ringing in my ears about outflowing the 8v head, i decided that i would like to stick with the 8v redblock engine.
So my spec was along the lines of a new rebuilt Redblock with a forged bottom end, KG trimmings best 531 head and Camshaft combo, a header and large BB turbo with external WG were on the list. But I was struggling to find the motivation to open my wallet and spend money on building a Redblock again as now quite a few people were really starting to tune the redblocks properly and I enjoyed the Volvo scene as it was very small and unique over here.

Attending the Valkara show on the Tbricks trip to Sweden I toyed with looking more closely at Whiteblock swaps to assertain wether it was the way to go. I came away from the show with one mighty hangover and no desire to do a whiteblock swap.

Then in October 2007, I was rudely awoken to the sound of my mobile phone ringing at 7am. It was fellow Tbricker "TheJoyofSix" aka Rupert on the phone informing me that if i was quick there was a FREE 850 T5 being offered on another Volvo Forum. I quickly PM'd the fellow and called dibs on the car. Thanks to Rupert I was first in Line of a list of 20 People so picking up Tbricker Rogerb and his trailer we set of to Brighton to collect the free T5.

850trailer.jpg


So here it is a 1996 850 T5, Full Service History, 156,919m Fresh tyres, a new 16T turbo 5k miles ago, and a new exhaust.

The car was in Very good mechanical condition, all the engine could have done with was a PCV service and the car would need a MOT to be used on the road. The reason the car was given away was that being a white saloon it was not really that desirable on the 2nd hand market, plus it would have needed possibly 2-300 maybe spent on it to pass an MOT (abs lights flashed on and off) and then a good clean up inside to be saleable, the person didnt want the hassle and just wanted the car gone quickly.

The 850 drove really well and I really liked the noise the engine made, but I couldnt see the point in spending money to put it on the road to replace my perfectly working 940, and of course the 850 drives the wrong set of wheels and i didnt care much for the styling of the interior, it felt very much like an updated version of a 240 interior.

So I liked the engine noise, didnt really care for the interior or the way it put its power down to the road through the front wheels.

Kenny's Word's rung through my head again "a 16v outflows an 8v all to easy" so i thought well a 20v is a step further than the 16v.

So with that, the 850 mass Destruction took place to get the engine out and the shell gone so that the 740 could then get prime driveway space to be pulled apart.

850priortostrip.jpg


The engine removal didnt go to bad, the sheer lack of space did make me curse, i remember spending several hours sometimes just trying to undo several nuts that were completetly inacessible. Certainly why I wouldnt want to work on one as my main car.

With everything undone, and double checking by reading the haynes book of lies i attached the engine crane and began hoisting, would the engine come out would it hell!!!

At this point Roger arrived and said have you undone the engine mount near the crank pulley. " I said what mount, the Haynes mentions no mount"

So i started to undo the mount, luckily I had kept the engine crane tensioned, so just as i was starting to undo the first bolt, the rubber mount sheared and the engine jumped out the bay.

Roger and Me then spent a few more hours getting drenched in the rain stripping the gearbox off and other parts so we could get the engine mounted up on the engine stand.

emptyenginebay.jpg


Hoooray, no more engine, all other parts that were salvalgable from the 850 were sold off and the proceeds went into the kitty for the 750R build costs.

I then had a massive clearout of my Redblock Volvo Crap in the garage and dumped it in the back of the 850.
The 850 then became the first 6.9cc Redblock rear engined one in exsistance.

rearloaded.jpg


Then it was off to the Scrapyard for the remains of the 850

scrapyard2.jpg


scrapyard3.jpg
 
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Whilst I was working on the 850 Stripdown, I went halfs with Roger and we purchased a 1995 2.5 960 Manual estate that had a supposedly knackered engine.

Roger wanted the panels and interior for his 960, and i wanted the M90 amongst other things, we stripped it at Rogers house as I had no room so thats why theres no pics from it.

In the end i took from the 960 the Following

M90 including all shift linkage etc and mountings.
Propshaft
Front Crossmember and Hydralic Engine mounts
Upper engine mounts
Sump
Oil Pickup Tube
Dipstick + tube
Starter Motor
Intake Manifold & Intake manifold Flange & Injectors
Coil Packs + wiring loom for them
Heater Outlet 90degree fitting at back of block.
Water Pump Pipe
Powersteering Pipes and Pump & reservoir

I also managed to purchase a Knackered 850 T5 long block for ?40 which I had some uses for. Apparantley it was knackered as it revved ok till 4000rpm and after that it vibrated badly. Been Ran dry of oil.

Using the Knackered Block we were able to do some prelimarly playing about on the garage floor.

Yep the M90 bolted straight onto the back of the block and mated up to the 850 Flywheel and Clutch without a problem.

t5andbox.jpg


The 960 Starter motor fits quite nicely using stock bolt holes.

startermotor.jpg


All four bosses are present for the left upper engine mount, two are undrilled and need tapping, the engine mount will need a notch cutting in it to clear the breather box. You can see my rough markings for the notch.

leftmount.jpg


Three out of Four bosses are present for the Right upper engine mount and only one is undrilled and in need of tapping.

So we whipped the M90 of the back and chucked this Junk block on an engine stand and span it over and took of the sump.

The stock 850 Oil Pickup tube was removed and we placed the 960 Oil Pickup tube in its place and determined how much it needed shorten by with the back of the 960 sump lined up alongside . Strangely enough about a Cylinders worth. We marked it up roughly and put it to one side.

960oilpickup.jpg


We then looked at where to loose a cylinders worth from the sump.

We marked it up roughly after determing it needed to lose it from here, as you can see in the pic below, just to the right of the finger there is a square cut out, this is a oil drain from the block back into the sump. So the two square holes should correspond from sump to block.

960sump.jpg


And heres our further rough markings on the outerside to give you an idea.

960sumpoutside.jpg


Then for a giggle we took a rod cap off to look at what state the bearings were in this engine.

bearing.jpg


bearing2.jpg


So with the sump all marked up it was time to go get it cut about and Ally Welded up.

Now having read what other people had done to stop the sump warping when they welded it themselves, I thought that if i took the lower cassette of the scrap block and gave that plus all the sump bolts to the Engineering company it would show them what the end result was aiming to do, plus with the two cut halves bolted firmly to the lower cassette there would be no warpage as they welded.

So Dropped the bits off one afternoon and collected this the next afternoon.

modsump1.jpg


modsump2.jpg


modsump3.jpg


modsump4.jpg
 
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So moving my attention back to the good T5 Lump that i'd just pulled from the 850 i decided to go over it and strip it of unnecessary items.

So starting out with the Exhaust side of the engine.

exhaust.jpg


I proceed to remove from this side
16T turbo & Oil feed and Drain lines
Manifold Heatshield
Driveshaft Guide bracket
WaterPump Pipe
Fuel lines
Front Crank Pulley Engine Mount

exhaustsideparts.jpg


A close up of Driveshaft guide bracket and the front Crank pulley engine mount.

frontenginemount.jpg


Now turning my attention to the Front Pulley section.

This needs little work, the only thing that will be going is the Aircon Pump as my 740 doesnt have it and i never have any intetion of fitting it.

pulleys.jpg


So with the pump gone, this is the route the belt will travel once i order up a shorter belt.

newbeltlayout.jpg


Now moving on to the Intake Side of things.

intakeside.jpg


Now the Standard Intake Manifold puts the Throttle body right where the firewall will be, so I wont be using this, i will be using a ME7 Manifold as it places the Thottle body below, so it'll have to go.

This pic below illustrates the problem of firewall clearance, you can see where the engine stand mounts to, there wont be that much room.

tbfowling.jpg


I then removed the Intake Manifold with Idle Valve and Dipstick. I left the Breather box in place as that will be retained.

As you can see the PCV system must be choked up as its blowing from the head. I will replace the system but also install an external catch can tank.

topbreather.jpg


intakesideclear.jpg


At the back of the engine, the only thing to be removed is the Distributor as also that will hit the firewall.
Apparantley they can be cut down (but very scant advice on what to do is in circulation), but I have allready to decided to go Programable ECU with Coil On Plug so have no need for it.

There is also a Heater Pipe Outlet that has to be changed to the 960 90degree version that will have pics shown later.

rear.jpg


Ok so with the engine stripped of everything that is not needed then lets look at putting some 960 stuff on it.

Here are the intake side engine mount holes, as you can see two are not threaded and they need drilling and tapping to accept the 960 mounts.

leftboltholes.jpg


Then looking at the exhaust side we can see that it utilizes the two thread holes where the Driveshaft guide used to be.

righthandedenginemount.jpg


The top hole in the engine mount needs to be enlarged out a little to allow the bolt to go through.
The third unthreaded hole on the left hand side needs drilling and tapping.

I used a M8 x1.25 tap to thread the holes once drilled out. I thought it would be difficult but the ally drills and then cuts nice and easily.

For the missing boss on the exhaust side, i'm considering having a small piece of ally welded to the block and then drilled and tapped so that the mount is held by 4 instead of 3 bolts.

Ok so this baby's nearly reading for some prelimary mocking in the 740. I best get the 740 ready to accept it.
 
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So I pulled the 740 into the work spot on the driveway.

I opened up the bonnet to glance upon perhaps the last time this car will ever be Redblock powered.

oldengine.jpg


I then disconectting everything that held the engine in place until i was left with just the two engine mounts to undo and the gearbox mounts.
I did this very quickly in a few hours and didnt pause to take pictures.

A quick call and an engine crane was delivered on the back of a trailer. 5 mins later the redblock was out and the engine crane was back on the trailer.

enginebay.jpg


There were various very rusty parts in the engine bay, this was due to the car not having an engine undertray fitted.

The battery tray had the normal rusty spots as well.

batterytray.jpg


I removed all the Old Motronic ECU loom and left just the looms for the Lights and main battery and Starter Motor looms in place.

It was then time to Jack it up

jackingup.jpg


and remove that very Crusty looking Crossmember and steering rack and PS pump and pipes.

oldcrossout.jpg


nastycrossmember.jpg


Time for a cup of tea

tea.jpg


Then in Blue Peter Fashion, Here's a 960 one I Sprayed earlier and then fitted with the steering rack and fitted in place.

newcrossin.jpg


Does my Bum look big in this???

bumbig.jpg


So when you need a Custom Downpipe making and some focus to get the project moving forwards......

You organise a UK Tbricks Meet and make sure the man with the welder and excellent Fabrication Skills BBQ can attend.

So you turn your street into a Volvo parking area.

drivefull.jpg


You then get BBQ to Cut out the also crusty Radiator/Intercooler Support.

cutradsupport.jpg


Then Suterman steps in for some dualing Grinders action with BBQ as they take out where the rad support was attached to the frame rail.

dualinggrinders.jpg


Mike Eyes up the Crusty looking tow hook.

mikeeyesuptow.jpg


DrDokeh, Mike and myself then remove the front bumper to allow Mike better access to the tow hook.

DrDokeh frees the heavy frame weights from there hiding place.

frameweights.jpg


Mike Grinds up a storm

mikegrinding.jpg


Mike finished after a job well done.

mikefinished.jpg


and what he removed

radcrossmember.jpg


So now onto BBQ and his welding skills. Now my new turbo had not arrived so there was now no Downpipe for him to make, however I had a few other welding requests that would keep him busy.

I decided as I was going to be running a far better flowing turbo than my first planned Stock 740 T3 turbo that I should get a better manifold to suit.

So the Stock T5 exhaust manifold was binned and in its place came a new S60R manifold which flows a lot better.

manifolds.jpg

picture showing differences from IPD website.

In the pics below you'll see my Stock little T3 being ziptied on and used as a rough guide for mocking up purposes.

So now the Water Pump Pipe from the 850 is all wrong for RWD applications. The 850 version sends the connection for the bottom of the Radiator via the back of the engine, as you can see in the pic below.

850pipe.jpg


The 960 uses a U bend and brings it straight round, which works great when bolted to a 6 pot engine, but when you bolt it to a 5 pot engine the waterpump is now a cylinder closer to the engine mount and thus hits the engine mount.

stock960tube.jpg

pic courtesy of Karl Buchka Thanks

So my solution for this was to take the 850 Pipe and retain its connection upto the Cylinder head as this also had a water feed for the turbo cooling. Cut it there like so.

850pipecut.jpg


test fit it to assertain the next bit

850pipeinstalled.jpg


which was to cut the U bend part from the 960 and weld into it.

cut960ubend.jpg


This kinda worked but still fowled the mount, so Nick and BBQ quickly advanced my idea and devised that by extending the U bend you could run the U Bend below the engine mount.

finishedubend.jpg


Then all that had to be done was shorten the small heater hose from the 960 part that runs along the side of the block to the firewall.

welding.jpg


So there you go the Chesher, Winning, Sheppard Water Pipe design Solution installed in place.

finishedpiece.jpg


All cut and welded up by Sheppard aka BBQ, my thanks to him.

bbq.jpg



So with the water done, it was time to turn our attention to shortening the 960 Oil Pickup tube.

oilpickup.jpg


Where I had assertained cutting the pipe was all wrong, luckily BBQ figured it out and marked it up properly (i've highlighted his scribes in green)

oilpipecutmarks.jpg


Then with it cut and bolted down to the block, some towel protection was given to the internals and the pipe was welded back together.

weldingprotection.jpg


finishedoil.jpg


With that done, it was time to bolt my Cut and Shut 960 Sump on and put the engine in.

This is when disaster struck and I was seriously pissed off......

The Sump was a bent as a banana, So it'll have to go back for some further work.

Pic needed here of warped sump.

Anyway it was good enough to slightly put with a few bolts and then look at clearances with the engine in the car.

So 3 tbrickers lifted the engine of the stand and onto the engine mounts.

And then a sight I thought I'd never see......



Its In

anditsin.jpg


Firewall clearance

firewallclearance.jpg


Clutch and Brake Servo Clearance.. No need for 16v Special stuff here..

clutchclearance.jpg


General Turbo space

exhaustsize.jpg


Sump Clearance

sumpclearance.jpg


Strut brace Clearance.. might have to go for BTTC Mod here and have two oil filler caps.

strutbraceclearance.jpg


Anti roll bar

antirollbar.jpg


V6 IPD bar needed perhaps????

v6needed.jpg


v6needed2.jpg


And finally Bonnet shut

bonnetshut.jpg


And thats where we got to as of the end of the meet.

So for now all Future updates on the project will be in real time.
 
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Look what turned up 2 days late for the meet today!!!!!

Its a GT3071R 63AR with the Internal Gate and 4 inch Inlet.

front.jpg


rear.jpg


rear2.jpg


Got all the other bits to fit it, bar the correct housing for the back of it as I misordered that... it looked big enough in the pics honest!!!!!

wronghousing.jpg


Need to order this one and have Divorced flow.

flange.jpg
 
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PM IPDCameron. He'll sell you a 7xx V6 bar for next to nothing.

Otherwise, looking good. Great writeup.

Here's what my transfer tube ended up looking like:
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/kbuchka/1979Volvo242/photo#5154423945173681954"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/kbuchka/R4gxRNHYRyI/AAAAAAAAGxw/r-XgZ-p1cQ4/s400/DSC01045.JPG" /></a>

Mounted:
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/kbuchka/1979Volvo242/photo#5153335334172903026"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/kbuchka/R4RTLtHYRnI/AAAAAAAAGuM/CR1BwRJ_f_o/s400/DSC01035.JPG" /></a>

This way works well for a 240 since it lines up perfectly with the stock 240 radiator and hose.

Also, here are a couple of pics of the stock 960 tube if you want to nab them:
http://picasaweb.google.com/abuchka/242TheSagaContinues/photo#5108772354045328834
http://picasaweb.google.com/abuchka/242TheSagaContinues/photo#5108772525844020690
 
Not much progress today, had some other stuff to sort out today before i go back to work tommorrow.

Someone is hopefully bringing me a front antiroll bar this evening with the dip in it so I can test fit and see if the V6 bar will clear.

Have placed an order with Rsport International for some 143mm Rods & Pistons to match for the engine, once there here i can drop the block of for machine work.

Will have to spend this evening with Vadis jotting down the remaining part numbers for gaskets and bits and bobs I need to order to complete a full rebuild of the engine.

I'm aiming for somewhere between 400 to 500 at the crank from this engine.

Are there any suppliers of better Headgaskets for the T5 or will a genuine Volvo one suffice??

At what hp level should I look at getting further work done to the Cylinder head??

At the moment i was considering a Full refurb of the head with new seals, guides, tappets and a 3 angle valve job. Any other things to get done to it whilst its in the shop???

As for Cams, I read that the N/A cams are the ones to use, i'm presuming these are from 2.5 NA engines?? Or are there any aftermarket cams that are considerable better than the N/A cams available.

I think thats enough to be pondering with at the moment.
 
Chesh, first of all, awesome man! You're going to love this swap. It's great to see other people taking the plunge with a whiteblock. The availability of M90 gearboxes over there makes the swap much more accessible and convenient. No fiddling with a custom driveshaft or trans mount etc.

Are there any suppliers of better Headgaskets for the T5 or will a genuine Volvo one suffice??

The R-Line heagasket is a real MLS type and is available at the dealer for only a bit more than a standard gasket (i.e a great deal less than an aftermarket MLS gasket). You will have to drill a few holes in it to match the older style cooling system but that is a 5 minute job.

At what hp level should I look at getting further work done to the Cylinder head??

As Karl mentioned, 500bhp seems to be the norm for a stock and standard head. This is according to numerous people in sweden that I've talked to.

At the moment i was considering a Full refurb of the head with new seals, guides, tappets and a 3 angle valve job. Any other things to get done to it whilst its in the shop???

Maybe have them get rid of the abundant casting flash, and just match-port the intake and exhaust. You should be good to go after that.

As for Cams, I read that the N/A cams are the ones to use, i'm presuming these are from 2.5 NA engines?? Or are there any aftermarket cams that are considerable better than the N/A cams available.

The GLT cams have slightly more lift and duration than the T5 cams. The GLT grind also came in the low pressure turbo engines. Make sure you get a set from an older whiteblock that doesn't have VVT. VVT and non-VVT cams are not interchangeable.

I think thats enough to be pondering with at the moment.


Let me know if you have any more questions.
 
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