My '91 744 B204GT project

[tomasss]

Acquired this silver beauty few months back. It was burning oil heavily, not building enough boost and having lots of small issues, so basically sold as a restoration project. I am still not sure why I actually bought it but it has a decent body, electric sunroof and that magical thing under the bonnet so I decided to make it my winter project.
Funny part is, I had almost exactly the same car already once years ago. Silver 744 with sunroof and B204GT. So lots of things is now like a dejavu for me. Mainly that part when you have to order engine-specific parts from Volvo
I already went through few rounds of work on it; first round was focused mainly on removing all the homemade wiring, security alarms and things hanging here and there; second round was just a general cleanup to have a reasonably clean car to work on.
I will be adding pictures and comments as the work progress goes on, now just an initial pic of the car and the engine bay...

[tomasss]

So, the PLAN:
- rebuild the turbo
- replace the saggy nivomats with the IPD conversion kit (Bilstein touring)
- new timing belt, all tensioners and belt for the balance pulleys (I want to keep it so far)
- wasted spark conversion
- KL racing aluminium intercooler
- injectors sent for cleaning
- TCU mod (to allow higher boost)
- professionally made leather wrap for the steering wheel & armrest
- full simons stainless steel exhaust
- repair the cracked downpipe and exhaust manifold
- remove the last pieces of the bloody homemade AC setup

[tomasss]

Turbo.
The original turbocharger in these engines is a variant of Garret T3, model TB0381. After the rebuild shop dismantled the old turbo, they found that the exhaust housing is cracked and it was reasonable to look for some replacement. So it will be compatible better flowing .48 Sierra Cossworth exhaust housing, and the compressor wheel exchanged for its billet aluminium equivalent for faster spool-up.
The progress on this I have in a separate thread, so until I have it back I will just add a link:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=346865

[Pete.M]

Looks like a fun project. Homemade AC is.....interesting.

[tomasss]

TCU mod.
I followed the description >here< and >here< but realized it's not fully correct...in particular the picture with the resistors is wrong. The resistors below should be changed.

[tomasss]

Originally Posted by Pete.M

Looks like a fun project. Homemade AC is.....interesting.

Oh yeah. Especially the electric part

[tomasss]

Exhaust.
No rocket science here. Went with the 3" Simons chromsteel 024-H7 full set. It is intended to be used with B204FT (with cat) so I had to reuse part of the old pipe to make it fit. No welding required, just cut the appropriate part of the old pipe and use it as a mid-section.
The exhaust manifold crack has been welded with nickel filler.
The downpipe leak also fixed and secondary o2 bung has been added. Threads re-threaded.
Then both sprayed with heat resistant paint.
The floor resprayed with zinc spray.

[tomasss]

Oil pump gear.
Known weak spot on these engines. New type of the pump gear fitted and higher 10.9 strength bolt used.

[tomasss]

Interior.
First things first. The PO decades ago was probably obsessed with wood. So he fabricated all the door panels and also the dashboard trim / armrest with real wood. The thick layer of clear coat started cracking which is what I ended with.
So the door panels has been replaced (I resprayed the grey ones to black, it went surprisingly well), the armrest has been sanded down and recovered with real leather together with the steering wheel (beautiful handmade job by the way).
The dashboard trim I just wrapped in black carbon, will see if I will change it to something else in the future. Anything is better than what it was

[tomasss]

Found during cleaning. Not sure if it's OEM?

[tomasss]

My favourite mod. Magnets on the steering cap to catch the metal particles.

[volvo78244]

Congrats on the car!
I recently purchased 2 960's with that engine, and they came with quite a few parts.
Also had a 740 a few years back, 740 looks better imho. 960 is more modern.

[tomasss]

Good to know. Now I will annoy you with questions all day long
I agree with the 740 look. I love the radical design. For the project car, 960 looks too “normal” to me.

Originally Posted by volvo78244

Congrats on the car!
I recently purchased 2 960's with that engine, and they came with quite a few parts.
Also had a 740 a few years back, 740 looks better imho. 960 is more modern.

[nordmaschine]

Originally Posted by tomasss

belt for the balance pulleys (I want to keep it so far)

- remove the last pieces of the bloody homemade AC setup

1. I'd advise you against it. Actually, I'd advise to remove those shafts alltogether.

I was goint to ask you about that AC... Looks like a jumble of 240 and Mercedes parts.

Originally Posted by tomasss

Interior.
First things first. The PO decades ago was probably obsessed with wood. So he fabricated all the door panels and also the dashboard trim / armrest with real wood.

Strange. One of my turbo 16v 740's came with wooden door card panels as well, but they were factory. So did a 940 that I swapped the dash out of, that one also had wood on ashtray and switch bezels, factory as well... I'm not crazy about 940 dash, but 740 dash that hasn't cracked is rarer than unicorns and I'm not into flocking. How is your dash?

That center armrest part was weird, though.

Good luck in bringing it back to the road. I have to get mine going too, I miss driving that car...

[tomasss]

After obtaining all the parts and tools, finally I had time this weekend to ditch the nivomats and replace the rear springs and shocks with the conversion kit from IPD.
Compressing and fitting the first spring was one hell of work, lots of trials and errors...second spring was then piece of cake

[petercz]

Nice, I´ve found that the simplest way of replacing springs were remove whole arms together with springs

[tomasss]

Originally Posted by nordmaschine

I'd advise you against it. Actually, I'd advise to remove those shafts alltogether.

To avoid the risk of the shafts belt snapping into the timing belt?
Well for now I have replaced all the pulleys, idlers and belts, so I want to at least give it a shot. I might remove it whenever I fell like.

[tomasss]

Originally Posted by petercz

Nice, I´ve found that the simplest way of replacing springs were remove whole arms together with springs

With the internal spring compressor and few tricks it's actually quick and nice job. Most of the time takes the compressing itself - would be much quicker if I would have a pneumatic wrench

[tomasss]

Antenna time!
Scored a broken antenna on ebay few days ago...so I gave it an overhaul today and replaced the mast.
Even small victories deserve celebration

[tomasss]

Picked up the M90L2 during the weekend...gave it a good wash and it landed in my garage today

[tomasss]

Some progress finally.
Engine went out of the car.
M46 removed.
Clutch & PP removed, found out my flywheel is bit >tired<
In the meantime I have at least removed the rust & repainted the oil pan, when I was there I checked all oil squirters are intact. Also cleaned the oil suction pipe screen.
Luckily I also checked the seal at the other end of the oil suction pipe. This seal was completely torn so new one is on the way.

[tomasss]

Slowly slowly moving forward...
Rear main seal replaced together with the paper gasket, M46 pilot bearing removed and retroturbo pilot bearing with the adapter for M90 installed

[tomasss]

These days there is some job done almost every evening...

[tomasss]

So, after some more thinking I've decided I'll ditch the balance shafts. Originally I wanted the car to be mostly stock, but yeah...for other things I can't resist to modify, so why to keep this system anyways.

Something I can clearly blame turbobricks for

[tomasss]

Reached the stage when more assembling than disassembling is to be done

Old mounts


One mount was even completely torn (the screw is wobbling in the metal mount top)


New poly mounts from retroturbo


Also converted the old M46 transmission crossmember mount (on the top) to the M90 transmission (bottom)