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Brick choices for LS swap

rkcarguy

New member
Joined
Jan 30, 2010
Location
PNW
Hey guys, I'm looking to do an LS swap into a Volvo Wagon, and am looking for some insight on car selection regarding weight and ease of swap as far as any cutting/welding, tunnel enlargement, and so on. My hopes are to kill a few birds with one stone:

A: Acquire a big rod B230 or B23 in the donor vehicle that I can freshen up and use the short block in my old red-block powered boat.

B: Occasionally my GF and I have all of our kids from our ex's(5), and a car with the fold up
3rd seat would be nice when we all go swimming together. The front seats will be going away in favor of something lighter and more racy.

C: Have a daily driver that is quick and versatile yet no frills.

D: Further along the engine may receive a "snail" at moderate boost to bump things up to the 550hp/500tq range.

E. Have an awesome sleeper.


Considerations:
I own my own 430 amp TIG and 250 amp MIG welder, belt sander, band saw, drill press, etc etc. Also have access to a lathe and mills, punches, shears, metal brakes, and more at work. I've done numerous engine swaps to Honda's, Nissan 240's, and even a rotary engine/2nd gen RX-7 independent suspension swap narrowed 14" into an MG Midget. That said, I would prefer not to have to do sheet metal work involving cutting out and relocating parts of the firewall, drive shaft tunnel, and so on.
The 7 and 9 series cars appear wider, and it seems it would be easier to fit a different rear suspension. I'm a former road-racer/auto-x guy so I like independent rear suspensions and corner carving. I'd like to insert the whole rear sub-frame and/or suspension all around from an SC300/400/Soarer/RX-7 or equivalent. The 7-9 series cars are however, about 300#'s heavier when compared to a 200 series? Weight is always a big concern when getting something to get up and go but I'm curious how much difference there is when all the drivetrain is stripped out if anyone knows?

Do ANY of these cars come with standard manual roll up windows?

FWIW I'm eyeballing an aluminum block 4.8L LS still in a running and somewhat driving T-boned 2009 GMC 1/2 ton pickup that was an insurance buyback, available from an acquaintance at a great price. I'd have to pull it but I can take whatever I want/need with it.
 
The drivetrain bits are pretty much identical between a 2 and a 7/9, so the curb weight is still a good comparison. 7/9s are wider and require less modification to fit wider tires. There are almost no below-maximum-effort builds that have converted to any sort of IRS; most upgraded-axle 240s use an Explorer 8.8 with two short sides, and 740s get two long sides. There's not a lot of tunnel/firewall surgery necessary - with a rear-sump pan like the Holley 302-1 and STSmachining 240 mounts / V8volvos.com 740 mounts, everything is in pretty much the right place except for the T56 reverse lockout. I did do some hammering around the bellhousing to fit a -621 bellhousing for a TKO, but it wasn't terrible.

There are no aluminum 4.8s, only 5.3s. You couuuuld take an aluminum 5.3, and swap the rotating assembly with one from a 4.8, but that seems like more work than it'd be worth to get 10-15 less hp (granted, that might make it easier to keep traction, especially on a 240...).

At least in the states, 240s can be had with crank windows. 7/940s with that were only available elsewhere.
 
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Thanks for the info. There is so much out there I've searched a lot and gone through a lot of threads but so much of the weight info just says 3000-3300 for all the models.
The IRS swap isn't that bad to be honest, it just either fits or it doesn't. What happens is the whole rear suspension sub frame with diff, axles, brakes, e-brake cables, and sway bar drops out from the chassis and if you can make it fit into the new chassis without too much hacking on either side you're golden. I'd have to get under a 740 with a tape measure and see what is possible there.
For the MG midget IRS swap, I basically ended up making my own sub-frame that plugged into the leaf spring mounts and picked up all the pivot points from the RX-7 rods and arms and rear differential mounts, then had the axles shortened.
I also had to fab up a shock tower to support the shocks/springs, I just welded the top-hats into a tube steel frame and bolted it though the frame rails on each side.
Strange, I could have sworn the engine appeared to be all aluminum, but no biggie I'm not really partial to either one 4.8 or 5.3 aluminum or iron, people are making great power on either engine.
 
Googling 740 rear suspension I found some nice pictures. There is all kinds of room under there from what I see. I bet a whole sub-frame could be mounted in there with only the panhard(?) rod mounts being cut off the frame.
It might require the addition of shock towers behind the wheel wells on each side in the cargo area depending on how short of shocks I could find and how low the car is.
My dislike of the live axle came from road racing one in a 1st gen RX-7 and watching the BMW's slide past me on the outside of a high speed corner!

So based on verts response it looks like I'll need to start looking for a 91-92(also 1990?) 740 non-turbo if I hope to get a big rod B230 block that won't have massive cylinder ridges in the tops of the bore.
 
They made 7 series volvo's with IRS rears that bolt in... 760 sedans. Also 940SE has IRS rear, that would be a good one to get as it has a g80 locker and rear sway bar. 780 bertones have IRS also stock. Other then that every 960 sedan made has IRS.. They even made some 960 wagon with IRS starting about 96. Get 1998 v90 wagon with IRS put in cebby motor. Why not get the newest one that has the rear you want to put motor in?
 
I really like the look of the later FWD/AWD wagons and there are more out there cheaper with dead motors/trans, but I've heard because they are based on a FWD platform that it's extensive tunnel mods to get a RWD LS swap in there?
My concern is the Volvo diff and axles will not support the power. A mildly boosted turbo LS will make 550HP/500TQ and I know the SC/IS/LS differentials behind the 2JZ will take the abuse among other options like 300ZX/Skyline available from JDM importers cheap and easy.
 
What do you think? A FWD car probably doesnt have the space to fit an LS/4lxe as well as no rear axle.

Just get a 240 or a 960, whichever you prefer, and go from there.
 
940's and 960's had IRS. The Mk1 IRS is fairly easy to lower. The Mk2 IRS works better, but has a transverse leaf spring which isn't easy to lower, or change the spring rate.

You can put coilovers in place of the shocks to add spring rate, but you cannot take the fiberglass spring out. The shock mounts won't carry the full load of the car.

The diffs in these IRS cars are pretty beefy and moost have a basic locker in them.
 
I really like the look of the later FWD/AWD wagons and there are more out there cheaper with dead motors/trans, but I've heard because they are based on a FWD platform that it's extensive tunnel mods to get a RWD LS swap in there?
My concern is the Volvo diff and axles will not support the power. A mildly boosted turbo LS will make 550HP/500TQ and I know the SC/IS/LS differentials behind the 2JZ will take the abuse among other options like 300ZX/Skyline available from JDM importers cheap and easy.

We'll the problem with this is I know nothing about the fail wheel drive volvos or the awuful wheel drive ones either. You'd best to go over to volvospeed forums and ask questions about those one's there. This is a turbobrick rear wheel drive forum. For one yeah those AWD ones probabbsly have a weak assed rear diff. The 960 or v90 rear diff is strong enough. Also the look of a 1998 v90 looks like a v70 of the same era. I guess you like the look of a 2007 v70? A real tbricker would just do what they want mod wise and then make a thread/post with pics about what they did...

My old 740 race car I put roll up window cranks in it with lexan windows. The cranks windows are 1983 first year of the 740 in USA only... Also did 12.6 in the quarter mile at PIR in it with stock turbo redblock motor. Beat a lot of v8's..
 
My dislike of the live axle came from road racing one in a 1st gen RX-7 and watching the BMW's slide past me on the outside of a high speed corner!


That wasn't from some mystery high zoot BMW trick IRS, it was from 1st Gen RX7 bodyshell being made of the foil inside cigarette packs and possibly the worst execution of a 4 link axle I have ever seen...and not to mention a rear axle that was tiny and that you find a photo of in the dictionary when you look up the word "noodly" . (the half shafts at the spine are like 22mm--that's smaller than Volvo wrist pins---and the wall of the tubes coming from the center section are like exhaust pipe wall thickness...

A decent sized and decent located 5 link solid axle is a pretty damn good thing..
Around these parts where dogma is the rule everybody trips over themselves about Ford 8.8" axle...Personally I don't like the diffs available for those so I have done and helped 5-6 guys use Toyota 8" axles..Good size, lighter. Easy drop-out.. and various widths. And a good array of stock ratios and aftermarket ratios for same prices as US gears.
 
This is my build thread, a Lm7 in my 88 wagon. These lsx V8 builds are not cheap. You can cut cost if you can do most the work yourself. I design my swap to fit all truck accessories since car stuff is hard to find and experience

I do offer V8 lsx 7/9 series motor mounts on my website
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=314167

My swap cost me around 6k but I did pay some one to do my wire harness but that wasn't a huge chunk compared to some other stuff.
 
That wasn't from some mystery high zoot BMW trick IRS, it was from 1st Gen RX7 bodyshell being made of the foil inside cigarette packs and possibly the worst execution of a 4 link axle I have ever seen...and not to mention a rear axle that was tiny and that you find a photo of in the dictionary when you look up the word "noodly" . (the half shafts at the spine are like 22mm--that's smaller than Volvo wrist pins---and the wall of the tubes coming from the center section are like exhaust pipe wall thickness...

A decent sized and decent located 5 link solid axle is a pretty damn good thing..
Around these parts where dogma is the rule everybody trips over themselves about Ford 8.8" axle...Personally I don't like the diffs available for those so I have done and helped 5-6 guys use Toyota 8" axles..Good size, lighter. Easy drop-out.. and various widths. And a good array of stock ratios and aftermarket ratios for same prices as US gears.

I'm pretty aware of what the 1st gen RX-7 was lol, but have to admit running in a 53 car group at the time at SIR(now pacific raceways) was a blast nonetheless and I had only about $3000 into my car including safety gear. I guess the old trick to get the rear ends to hook up better was to go to this bridge in the middle of the night that had a grating road surface and guys would actually come-along the center of the axle downward through the bridge to bend it and provide some negative camber on the rear lol!
My want for a Soarer/Skyline/300ZX or equal rear end swap is because I have a hook up....I can get the JDM dropouts really cheap and get out the Millermatic 250 and make it fit:)
Now I saw an expired ad on bring a trailer for a 1997 V90 wagon with an LS swap and a 6-speed that was stock inside, so it must be possible without getting too retarded with the hammer to get it in there.

http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1997-volvo-v90-wagon-ls1-v-8-swap-w-t56-six-speed/
 
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