Adrian's '78 245 DL+16v

[adrianpike]

Adrian's 1978 Volvo 245

• Engine: Volvo B234
• Intake: B204GT
• Turbocharger: Holset HX35
• Wastegate: Knockoff HKS 55mm
• EMS: Megasquirt
• Suspension: Homemade coilovers, heim jointed torque rods, Kalphenke camber plates, poly bushings
• Other crap: HIDs, Recaro, Skinny bumpers, R-sport gauges

What the heck have I been doing with this pile for the last 10 years?

~2000-2001

- It was dead in my parents' back yard, and I was just about to turn 16, so I cleaned it up, fixed it up, and drove it as my high school hoopt.

- I added a ghetto stereo, got a Maaco special pay 'n spray, and proceeded to break the M46 with N/A powah!

- Also I swapped on vented brakes & a grille from a turbo & snagged some Virgos.

~2003-2004ish?

- I went to college, and had the first Bellingham Turbobricks meet. God it was slow.

- At some point around this time my heater core blew out, and I replaced it in the dorm parking lot.

- The K-jets also blew up, so The Aspirator, 945ti and I megasquirted it in the snow.

- I put on an e-fan and a Blaster coil around this time.

- Water pump blew, so again, swap in the dorm parking lot.

~2005-2008ish

- Put on some skinny bumpers.

- Went on PNW meet 1.0 up to Kamloops. Booyah.

- I got some 400-series sidemarker lights.

- I built some heim jointed torque rods and put in poly bushings everywhere.

- In went some 275lb stock car products rear springs.

- I got a smoking deal on a B234, so I swapped it in.

- Rust was discovered, so I went to town on it.

- I built coilovers, and put them on.

- I hid a 10" in the spare tire well.

~2009

- I started a company.

~2010

- I put on a HX35.

~2011

- I got a Recaro, stripped the interior, upped the boost, and am still learning how to tune it. I've been playing around with spring and swaybar rates too - it's getting pretty quick around corners, but I'm still fighting some slow spool issues that I should be able to tune out once I've got some time to tinker.

Here's a couple of videos - you can find more on my YouTube account!

Managed by Benchracr. Last updated on 2011-05-16

[NiM130]

Good looking car. What transmission and what suspenshun goodies?

It does need more LOL's though.

[Tabor]

nm

[adrianpike]

Originally Posted by ovlov130

Good looking car. What transmission and what suspenshun goodies?

T5 and homebuilt coilovers.

Getting the fuel map dialed in now, good lord it pulls like craaazy when it's not having to fire off a 10:1 mixture.

[JonnyP]

that 16 valve engine sounds awesome

[thelostartof]

so what are the specs for the exhaust on that thing ...sounds nice

[Matt Dupuis]

I think that's when he had one bad plug wire. Makes it sound pretty raunchy, but I've been told that it moves along much better on 4 and with some more tuning.

[gear whine]

nice build, it sounds tasty.

[945ti]

Originally Posted by thelostartof

so what are the specs for the exhaust on that thing ...sounds nice

heh...exhaust...or lack thereof.
IIRC it is 2.5" mandrel bent over the axle with one magnaflow 6" round where the first muffler lives on a 240.
Looking good!

[Scandia]

That's awesome. . . .will it make it to the IPD garage sale ? when your done U should put a part's list together for those of us thinking, Wondering what to do to our wagon's to get more RW fun. great job !


..........Dave

[adrianpike]

Holy crap, it's been a while since I've made any updates! Here's a novella as to what i've been up to with my junk;

It did in fact make it to the iPd 2007 garage sale, and seemed to get some pretty good responses.

Judging by my expression, I was pleased with myself.

Left Bellingham Friday after work, loaded to the gills with my junk, as well as the luggage that my girlfriend and her little sister thought would be "more appropriate" to stash in the back of my contraption. Little did they know that their clothes would smell like the dragstrip for weeks.
We caravanned down to Port Townsend, where I dropped them off and picked up my Dad, for the trek down 101. About halfway down 101, I had one of the first moments in a while where I truly sucked up the leather in the seat. Just kind of cruising along about 5 over the speed limit, we hit a nice patch of running water from a little waterfall halfway through a right hander, and the rear steps way out to about 30* or so.
Back off a little (not too much, so it doesn't grab in that nasty manner that it does), countersteer countersteer countersteer and oh boy we're out of the turn, at full opposite lock, and there's oncoming traffic, and the tail end's hanging out there in the wrong lane. Crap. I drop the throttle altogether now and start piloting it towards the ditch, figuring it's better to moosh up my car than someone else's. As I was expecting, It grabs and chucks the rear towards the ditch, but luckily I was already starting to countersteer right, and I manage to gather it up a few inches before ditching the rear. About 30 seconds of letting our hearts slow down, and my Dad chuckles and says something like "bet that one puckered you up, eh? Nice save..." 95% luck, 5% practice. 'twas hairy.

So we arrived in Portland at around 12PM, checked in to the hotel, which my Dad somehow managed to score us a damn 2-room suite for like $80, and my Dad's just about ready to hit the hay, when my phone pipes up with a call from 945ti. Apparently there's a shindig at R-sport International, and it's still going on. I've about had my fill of my loud, uncomfortable contraption that I occasionally will refer to as a car, so 945ti rolls over in the cushmobile and gives us a lift over, where we get to see the skunkworks that is R-Sport international. Suffice to say that I can't even begin to describe the goodies therein.

Fast forward to about 3AM, whereupon we return to the hotel and crash for the night. I'm up pretty early, so I grab some breakfast, swap wheels & tires to the fun ones that like to chew themselves up on long freeway drives, and head over to iPd. Had tons of fun, met tons of cool people, etc.

After iPd, Phil (North Shore Brick), John (The Aspirator, riding shotgun in Phil's ride) my Dad and I head back north to ZE VASHINGTON. The summary of the trip from Portland to Olympia is thus:
1) Phil drives fast.
2) Parts fly off of a 240 at triple digit speeds.
3) Zip ties do not an air dam make.
4) There are far less cops in that stretch of highway than I was expecting.

We pull in to a gas station somewhere slightly north of Olympia to fill up, and I pop the hood to check fluids and give an overall once-over. *sniff sniff* Hmm, that smells like gas. *sniff sniff* OH CRAP THAT TOTALLY SMELLS LIKE LOTS OF GAS *sniff sniff* OH HELL YEAH I POPPED AN INJECTOR O-RING! Turns out my JDM custom fuel rail mounts didn't place the rail deep enough over the injectors, or something. We threw a rag on to soak up the fuel that was rapidly leaking from the o-ringless injector, and pushed it over away from the pumps. It's right about now that it starts to rain. Good thing Phil thought to bring an umbrella for him and my dad to stand under and "supervise" while John and I fix my contraption.
Back on the road, and we make it without event up to Edmonds, where we grab a bite to eat, drop my dad off at the ferry, and Phil, John and I continue the trek north. In related news, apparently you can hear me merge onto I-5 from the Edmonds ferry.

The trip finished uneventfully, save for some thorough festivals of speed between Edmonds and Bellingham. Summary: shifts are killing me.

After I got home from iPd, I replaced the fuel feed with a braided stainless confabulation, and made new slotted brackets for the fuel rail. I also put on an 850 throttle body, and spent a number of weeks fighting exhaust nuts, and some other little junk like a clutch switch and what-not. I've only really put about 500 miles on it since, as I spend most of my day at work, and by the time I get home, I'm too tired to really screw around with it. I spend weekends puttering around and playing around with learning how to tune ignition.

So a few weeks ago, I went to put in a new battery, and HEY my battery tray is all gone, and some of the fender too! So I moved it to the back.

That's a 500 amp ANL fuse and a 375 amp continuous (1200 intermittent) switch from Fisheries. Boat junk FTW. The little one goes over to the amp for the sub that's in the spare tire well, as well as the inverter. I'm gonna fab up a pushrod to the switch out the back for track days. You can just barely make out the bracket I made to hold the box in the spare well down at the bottom. The threaded rods go through the bottom of the box into the bracket, so the battery is pretty solidly retained. The top crossbar is some steel covered in plastikote, because I seriously don't like having conductive junk near the battery, despite NHRA's archaic rules.


I also had John from Craving Boost make some EDIS wires with 16V plug boots. They look great and fire off my .025 gap just dandy. I'm gonna open up the gaps to something crazy mad like .050 and let you guys know how they work out.

Here's the requisite crappy flash photo of the engine as it sits tonight:

[Matt Dupuis]

kambarr plates!

[qwkswede]

Great project. Its looking really good. Red 16v wagons are the best!! I'd love to see some video and hear it with the motor more sorted out and running good. It sure revs nicely.

[500dollar744ti]

i didn't know your car was +16v... that must have an excellent power band at the AutoX... so is that a b204gt intake? good work

[Tank]

that thing is gangsta A+ bro very nice job.

[945ti]

Originally Posted by Matt Dupuis

kambarr plates!

It will be fun to see the updates there I think. Has a skinny brake booster too.

[safracr]

Needs more videos

[adrianpike]

Originally Posted by Matt Dupuis

kambarr plates!

just you wait until I can sell my next kidney to afford manlyman shocks.

Originally Posted by qwkswede

Great project. Its looking really good. Red 16v wagons are the best!! I'd love to see some video and hear it with the motor more sorted out and running good. It sure revs nicely.

Thanks bud! Yours is an inspiration as well!

Originally Posted by 500dollar744ti

i didn't know your car was +16v... that must have an excellent power band at the AutoX... so is that a b204gt intake? good work

Yep, B204GT intake. Power band is pretty meaty and fun. Rev limit's at 5k right now due to a stamped water pump that I don't want kersploding at 7, where it feels like it'll happily wind up to.

Originally Posted by safracr

Needs more videos

Roger that, I'm charging the camera battery now. You should come up to B'ham and be cameraman, my girlfriend refuses to come within a few miles of my car without ear protection.

[242Bleek]

It sounds really good, big displacement 16v 4cyl FTW. 1.6L honda 16V sounds ****ty.Looks like oodles of N/A fun

[badvlvo]

I like the wagon. I would have really liked to see it if I had been able to make ipd this year but I was too far away.

[adrianpike]

Originally Posted by 242Bleek

It sounds really good, big displacement 16v 4cyl FTW. 1.6L honda 16V sounds ****ty.Looks like oodles of N/A fun

It's got more of the K20 yell than like a B16 fart, methinks. Still pretty heinous and loud though.

Originally Posted by badvlvo

I like the wagon. I would have really liked to see it if I had been able to make ipd this year but I was too far away.

No worries, there's always next year.

Originally Posted by safracer

Needs more videos

Gotcha covered.

[qwkswede]

Yeah, I like that last vid. The motor really sounds smoother than the videos from the beginning. How do you go about getting those Youtube videos to show up in the post like that? Thats pretty neat.

What rpm do you typically shift at? It seems to really sing up there in the revs. I'm always surpised that my motor doesn't rev any better than it does. But I have a bit of an exhaust restriction ie. turbo. Its kinda like a banana in the tailpipe at high rpm.

[Hank Scorpio]

Did you try upping the timing yet?

[adrianpike]

Originally Posted by qwkswede

Yeah, I like that last vid. The motor really sounds smoother than the videos from the beginning. How do you go about getting those Youtube videos to show up in the post like that? Thats pretty neat.

Most YouTube videos can be embedded, they include a little snippet of HTML on the page with the video, usually.

Originally Posted by qwkswede

What rpm do you typically shift at? It seems to really sing up there in the revs. I'm always surpised that my motor doesn't rev any better than it does. But I have a bit of an exhaust restriction ie. turbo. Its kinda like a banana in the tailpipe at high rpm.

Rev limit's a 5k now, and it really doesn't come alive until 4k. I've got an unknown age oil pump gear on there and an unhappy water pump so I'm not winding it out yet. It's one of those things that's right up there on top of the list (I even have the parts on the shelf) but then it gets preempted by things like, oh, holes in the car. Then it's apart for so long that I'm really hesitant to take it apart again, because I just want to enjoy it again.

edit: It's got a JDM motor, it pulls like crazy in top end.

Originally Posted by Hank Scorpio

Did you try upping the timing yet?

Yep. Fuel map is getting pretty close, EGO is within 10% or so most places, so I've finally started to look at the timing map before I head back to the fuel again. Ignition timing is a really really weird black art to me still, and some of the things don't entirely make sense. Like at 70-80kpa and 2000RPM, I'm feeding in crazy advance for it to not stutter. Try 40 degrees crazy. I'm thinking it might have to do with the B204's really short runners, I pull it back to a more sane 25ish in the top end IIRC. There's no audible ping, and more importantly, the plugs look really happy and dandy. The #2 plug is showing signs of a leaky injector though, and is what's causing that low-end misfire I think. 945ti's got a hookup on some cleaned greenies that I'll be putting in, but I'm not going to touch hardware until after the Lynden meet in a couple weekends.
I'm not going to tune that much around the bad injector, but I am going to mess around with warmups, accels, etc. and maybe fit up a K-jet idle valve.

[Mark]

Cool to see some pics. Did you notice any difference in handling relocating the battery? I still gotta get that done. Maybe I'll piddle with it a little today.