No longer mom's grocery getter(1991 244)

They are very thin walled, and due to the way they are "crafted"/mounted they are already buckling. The tubes are just hammered flat at each end, with not as much offset to allow mounting on a flat surface as would be optimal. There is a thick washer under between each mounting point on the braces and the car, but it's not thick enough to keep the braces from hitting the subframe/cup where it mounts. They're already bowed, because they aren't spaced out enough. If you know what I mean, kind of hard to paint a picture with words, but immediately obvious if I had some pictures from the side.

And yeah, a cross brace would be a nice addition.

I might try some aluminum angle "iron" next.

klr142 said:

They are very thin walled, and due to the way they are "crafted"/mounted they are already buckling. The tubes are just hammered flat at each end, with not as much offset to allow mounting on a flat surface as would be optimal. There is a thick washer under between each mounting point on the braces and the car, but it's not thick enough to keep the braces from hitting the subframe/cup where it mounts. They're already bowed, because they aren't spaced out enough. If you know what I mean, kind of hard to paint a picture with words, but immediately obvious if I had some pictures from the side.

And yeah, a cross brace would be a nice addition.

I might try some aluminum angle "iron" next.

Click to expand...

Gotcha.
Aluminum is 3x lighter 3x weaker,and fatigues 5x as fast.
I was thinking about the angle iron deal,but it would hang down,unless it was notched,and the return was turned up.
A 1/8 or 18 Ga stainless plate lower brace was my next mod on the 245 but I sold it.
The malleability and toughness of stainless is ideal in this application,
and torsonal loads would be covered by the plate.
Not to mention smoothing undercar airflow.

Just did a full re-read of your thread.
A good read and I love your car man.

That exhaust looks great now. Did you go under axle with it?

Thanks guys.

Redwood Chair said:

Gotcha.
Aluminum is 3x lighter 3x weaker,and fatigues 5x as fast.
I was thinking about the angle iron deal,but it would hang down,unless it was notched,and the return was turned up.
A 1/8 or 18 Ga stainless plate lower brace was my next mod on the 245 but I sold it.
The malleability and toughness of stainless is ideal in this application,
and torsional loads would be covered by the plate.
Not to mention smoothing undercar airflow.

Click to expand...

I hope your 3x lighter, 3x weaker, fatigues 5x as fast numbers aren't 100% accurate... Lol. If that were the case, I shouldn't have been anal about lightening things and stuck with the IPD lower stuff. Stainless is heavy, too. Is it lighter than iron? Could it be made with less material and be just as strong? The IPD lower stuff was 1.5"x.25" stock.

mblue240 said:

That exhaust looks great now. Did you go under axle with it?

Click to expand...

Yes, it's always been under the axle, like stock fitment. I'm not worried about it being low to the ground at that point anymore, before, it was, but now it's more stock and tucked up fitting.

Now, if only I could make the header pipe shut up.

Pretty sure aluminum weighs 28% as much as Iron.
But by the time it is alloyed with copper ect,
a third is a good number for comparisons.
Steel or alloys of iron is usually what is used for structural purposes.

Stainless is slightly heavier due to the chromium,and nickel content.
One could bend returns on the edges of the plate brace,and go with a thinner gauge.
Considering the forces involved,and the fact that the front end is designed to wad up in an impact,it may be wise to locate the crossmember,but not overdo it for your intended purpose.
Edit,
That said;with the larger tires you are running,you may very well be able to bend the front crossmember back with a panic stop without a lower brace.

http://www.ovtuners.org/gallery/klr240exhaust

Version 2.0 is in the last 5 pictures. Different downpipe, and the rear section is tweaked to sit higher.
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Misfiring issues:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=122381
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Noisy downpipe issues:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=122080
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-New strut tower brace... Cut out a little more of the airbox as well, I didn't realize I had untapped potential there.

-E-fan is on its way

-Brand new Volvo black door pockets are on back order through Volvo to further the two tone interior.

-I have started looking into stereo and speaker options, damn these little speaker areas...

-Wideband setup is on it's way and can be plugged into my other O2 sensor port in my exhaust manifold so I can keep my eye on and tinker with things. Manual pedal assembly too, but who knows how long that'll just be taking up space in the garage. Speaking of my garage, you guys should come over and raid it so I can empty it out a bit.

And how about some new, dirty pictures:





As always, all of the pictures, and larger versions can be found in here: http://www.ovtuners.org/gallery/MY244

NOW WHERE ARE MY NEW WHEEL ADAPTERS!?!?!!?!??!??

Looking really nice Kyle, I know you just got the strut brace but have you had a chance to see if it makes a noticeable difference?

no longer mom's grocery getter?

so now its kyle's grocery getter?

lookin' good man.

Heh, yeah I guess it is Kyle's grocery getter now...

I need my other wheels to REALLY notice a difference with the brace, but yes, I know it's there and it does make the rest of the body twist, rather than the strut towers. It's a noticeable difference, for the better. I don't really know how to describe it. Stiffer chassis = good, period. I noticed it for the better with the other brace, I notice it again now, and it's lighter this time around. Those lower braces may have helped, but they're so far from optimal I'm not going to act like they did anything.

The upper brace is massive!

What do you need me to take out of your garage? All i can offer you is the free space you'll have

Hey man, swing on by, feel free to come and just take some of the stuff, lol. Well, maybe. How about another pair of snows? You just have two, right? I have two more, but they're old and one needs to be reseated/patched(I assume).

Looking good man. Do you have speakers in your rear doors? If not, you can do what I did. I used some lower profile 6.5" speakers in 1" spacers to mount them to the doors. I had to cut holes in the door panels for the speakers to fit in there, but it looks ok. For the fronts I built some spacers to use infinity 4x6 plates. Only problem I have with the plates up front is that I can't use any grilles, so they don't look factory.

Yeah, I'm trying to keep it looking factory though... Meh. The rear doors have the factory 4" or so speakers, and the fronts are the later 240 5.25" speakers. There isn't really much room for aftermarket 5.25s up there though. I hate all the fancy dumb grills for a lot of the aftermarket speakers too.

I'm going to see what Crutchfield has to offer me here in the next month or so. I didn't like what Cartoys was telling me my options were.

We'll see.

dirty dirty pictures kyle. you ready for a touch up yet?

I know. You really do not want to see the car right now, it's very sad.

It's going to get all the dents pulled/pushed out of it as well as possible sometime in the next month or two... And a lot of the scratches and spots where the paint is gone will need to be touched up too. I haven't been putting too much effort into that right now as it's giving me other grief. Like being old and rattley. And misfiring more than it should be, I think. Running seemingly rougher than it should be. And lastly, what I'm going to look into tonight, is belt noise/bearing noise from the engine.

Brand new Volvo black door pockets and "clips".


What prompted me to get brand new Volvo taillights:


The Koni rear shock install pictures:


Not shorter than stock, as I was expecting...



The 745Ti rear spring spacer that I'm probably going to remove. Or I might cut a little bit more off of the rear springs...


The latest dyno sheet with something FUNKY going on resulting in a 4600rpm power peak? Wtf.


Some temporary rimps while I wait for my adapters to arrive either tomorrow or Tuesday(or else I'm going to flip some ****!) 15x7 et10 225/50 tires


What's this???






WIDEBAND! Now, if only I could calibrate the thing...

I guess that's sort of a peak at the two tone of the interior as well. For some reason I was unable to get the little interior door pulls off of their levers so I could switch those to black and leave the little backing plates blue. I had an idea to further the two tone theme yesterday though, can't wait until the weather gets warmer to take it to that next step...

Then yesterday I chased around some interior rattles, only to basically come up empty handed. I think I may have improved somethings, because now I hear more minor rattles from all over the car.

13.5mm effective offset in the front, 10.5 in the rear... Tethys back on. Pictures of the adapters coming later. For a DD I'd probably run a little less thick on the front, just to keep the wheels inside the bodywork a little more(more aerodynamic and less dirt kicked up on the sides), and to maintain the neutral/resilient steering that comes with having close to stock offset. If I were to run 235/40 tires, which is entirely possible(245/40 may work with the right tires and offset), I'd need to run thinner spacers.

Yessssss:




I'll have some recent pictures of it clean, and missing the damn front spoiler, and having a TON of rock chips, and in need of some wax soon. Whenever people get around to posting the rest of their pictures from this last weekend's meet, anyway.

.