The Mustang in Swedish clothing

This is my VolV8o project. I’m trying to do it on a fairly small budget, spending money where it counts and buying used parts where ever possible.

It’s a 1982 Volvo 244, minimal rust, came with a B23E motor, 3 speed auto, very reliable, pretty gutless but I learned to love it. My parents originally baught it as a second car when my brother got his licence and shortly after that, I learned how to drive in it. A few years down the road, my brother and I both had our own cars so my parents put it up for sale. Within a few weeks of it not selling I realized I really loved the old thing so I planned to buy it. After a long talk with my folks, the car was mine.. as a gift!

So what’s going into it?

331 Stroker short block
E7 heads, mildly ported and gasket matched, stud conversion, bigger springs
Professional Products Typhoon 5.0 intake, ported and gasket matched
Comp Cams Xtreme Energy XE270
Harland Sharp 1.6 ratio roller rockers
Accufab 70mm throttle body
C&L 73mm MAF
24lb injectors
255l/hr Walbro pump
MAC shorty headers

T-5 trans with Hurst shifter

8.8 rear end from an Explorer with Volvo suspension mounts

Yes, I realise my mash up of mostly used parts probably won’t perform as well as it could, I’m thinking (hoping) about 275rwhp and lots of torque. But basically I just want to get it running so I can drive it and have a bit of fun with it, then build it up properly when all the bugs are worked out.

Anyways, enough talk.

This was it when I first got it...



Shortly after, I ripped off the side trim, painted the rest of the trim black and the wheels a charcoal color. I also installed some 6000k HID headlights.



The stock seats were decently comfortable but the driver’s seat was trashed, so I was able to get some leather seats from a ’92 940 a friend was junking in exchange for some scrap metal I had laying around.



Next up was a decent sound system, so I installed some Hertz 5 ?” components in the door with tweeters in the a-pillar and 6 ?” coaxials in the rear package tray powered by an Alpine 4 channel amp.



In the trunk is a 10” MA Audio sub, again powered by a 1 channel Alpine amp in a box I built.



So fast forward to a few months ago, I get out to my car on Saturday morning to go to work and find this....




Great, they didn’t leave a note and I’m not gonna file a hit and run cuz they would probably write the car off, so I need to find a door for it now.

Then about 2 or 3 weeks after the accident, I’m idling up to a stop sign and the motor just quits. I try to start it again and it’s just cranking really fast. After getting it towed home, I rip it all apart and find the timing belt is missing 18 teeth. Hmmm I guess I really should have changed that. Oh well, perfect excuse to start the swap.

This is how the stock motor looked...



A few hours later...





I?m actually fairly surprised the thing was still running, timing belt notwithstanding. I knew these things were known for having shoddy wiring harnesses so first I looked at the engine harness connector.



Bare wires, fun times. Then I saw the rest of the harness...



At least no one died, and the motor is out.

Now I can start mocking everything up.
Using a spare block I had, I threw on the heads, oil pan, headers, bolted up the trans and shoved it in the hole.





Motor is sitting within 1/8? centered in the frame rails and about 2* tilt rearwards. First I fab up the trans mount. I tried making it work with the stock T5 mount but it wasn?t happening so I grab a new Volvo engine mount I had that I ended up not needing. Basically came up with this, totally the wrong way of doing it but its what I've got now...



It`s not pretty but it does the job. I?ll probably round off the corners to make it look a bit better but it holds the thing quite well.

Next up is the motor mounts. I bought a universal motor mount kit from KMS Cars which is actually a Heidts Hot Rod kit.



I added a gusset for extra strength. The welds aren?t pretty but they pass the hammer test so I?m satisfied. I realized after, I should have welded the mounts to a plate then bolt/weld the plate it. Oh well

So now I?m working in the engine bay, welding up some holes and seams to make it look slightly better.



A little bit of filler and some primer...





The plan was to paint it body colour but body work was taking forever to look half decent so satin black FTW!



Here`s a crappy idea of how the car is gonna look.

$6 hot tank

Bottle of Easy-Off oven cleaner, a brush, and some time did a pretty good job cleaning up the combustion chambers. Plus it smells like lemons... and headaches.

Before


After


I got the motor somewhat assembled. Ran into a few problems but I wanted to see what it was gonna look like so I slapped it all together for some pics lol. It all has to come apart anyways so I can lift it out of my shop

I had originally planned to try to make it resemble the stock Volvo motor hence the red block, but I decided I didn?t like that idea very much anymore so more black!



Got the heads assembled, somewhat installed and everything taped up.





Pretty



Jump ahead a few steps... tada lol

Motor and trans are in for good.



The stock Volvo radiator mounts didn't fit the new rad so I made some new ones.



Front sheet metal is back on, alternator and power steering pump are mounted, got the air intake built today, still need to make a mount for the mass air meter though.



I'll probably start on the wiring soon since its supposed to rain. The fittings and hose should be here next week so I can start to plumb it all, need to put the new fuel pump in too.

There, up to date lol.

So sexy. What a nice job!

It looks like it could use a supercharger, or a single holset.

wow, that is so clean. nice job

badass. looks like its supposed to be there. check corral.net for cheap superchargers and upgrades and stuff.

Nice

shoulda ditched the E7's and got some gt40p's at he JY, nice assembly and engine bay clean up.

but i see its sorta buget minded so you could always upgrade later

There is a guy in Port Orchard, WA parting out my old '83 245 Turbo. Same paint color as your car. Door was in decent shape, so, you could probably buy the door from him probably for cheap...

-J

Put the side trim back on. Trim looks better than holes.

Other than that, nice.

240T man said:

Put the side trim back on. Trim looks better than holes.

Other than that, nice.

Click to expand...

...says the guy with a red hood, no grill, and rope hanging on their airdam.

What a great build, looks absolutely stunning! You made it look easy getting the 331 Stroker in there. Keep us posted, I'll be watching this for sure!

Lovely little build you've got going there, looks nice and factory looking to me.

Sweet you're local so I can see it when it's done.

Looks like fun and very clean install, nice

Holy crap awesome. You win hardcore!

Clean! Nice build thus far and local! I'm looking forward to seeing it in person sometime!

M.

Nicely done dude. Carry on.

Thanks friends. I can't stand it when things are just thrown together so I take pride in making it look as well as it (hopefully) performs.

I've got a couple days holiday coming up so theres a chance it could fire up shortly

Great Build!