got me a 92 Volvo 960 wagon to use as a daily. I had the ls drivetrain in a 57 buick project car I built which was just too nice of a setup for that car to use so I found this running driving wagon on CL for $500 to swap it into. engine is a aluminum ls2, with l92 rectangle port heads, and a ls9 cam, it has the gm muscle car oil pan.
a friend of mine and I went to look at it and i got it the next day. drove it home on back roads about 20 miles with a slipping trans on hills and brakes that felt awful but still stopped, ride was smooth, exhaust was loud , fuel smell was mixing with the oil burning smell.
upon arrival home I decided to pull the rear wheels to see what the deal was with the horrible brakes. I discovered the left rear caliper wasn't even attached and was hanging off of the coil spring with some bailing wire. that would explain it!
ordered a bunch-o parts and started to get to work. I pulled the engine and trans within a few days of getting it home. was going to try to hang on to the drivetrain and sell it but my engine hoist decided to break a wheel with all the stuff still hanging there so I immediately just backed my truck up to it and loaded it up to take to the scrap yard. I salvaged the coolant temp sensor and wiring and the main battery wiring to the starter/grounds and took pics of certain wires to get an idea of what color to look for for later in the swap.
got my mounts a few days later from STS, who didn't send any hardware, and what they did send quickly after which was nice, but ended up being useless for my application. had to make my own little plates for the new engine rubber mounts to bolt to.
bought a caster, fixed my engine hoist, test fit the ls engine, took awhile to get the oil pan past the subframe to let everything drop into place. had to do some measuring, some modifying, but I eventually got the engine mounts all setup where it looked like a good spot.
originally had truck accessories lined up for this car which I thought would work but ended up being way off. switched to car accessories but still truck spacing trying to keep cost down. barely fits but itll work.
I modified the stock transmission crossmember to work with the t56 with just a simple plate and few drilled holes.
I found a clutch pedal assembly on ebay for 940 and had to do a few tweaks to make mine fit. also using a factory clutch master.
exhaust was some ebay special hooker cast manifolds that cleared the steering shaft no problem and passenger side I could've used whatever manifold I wanted spacewise but theyre a matching set so itll work. they point directly at the control arm pivot points so when I got the exhaust done they had to angle away from it after the flange to make sure it didn't hit.
fuel is a walbro 400 mounted in tank, with the corvette fpr/filter mounted underneath where the old external pump sits.
got the oem driveshaft shortened, the shop shortened it way too much, so I bought a longer slip yoke to make it work and its fine now.
brakes I saw STS made the v70r caliper brackets which seemed like a great idea since I was replacing all the brake stuff due to the car having 250k on it, and I needed to stop this car well lol. after waiting over a month for them to make them. they sent me 2 drivers side brackets, no instructions, no pictures, and was kind of a dick when I was advising that even simple instructions would've helped others that aren't as mechanically inclined. he shipped the ps bracket with a quickness, along with a m14x1.5 tap I'm apparently supposed to use on the oem brake caliper holes in the strut housing (didn't end up doing this) . again, a lot of after the fact information.
suspension I replaced the rear shocks, got a rear sway bar off of a 940 in the junkyard, made a front lower subframe brace, ordered the oem subframe braces from the later 960s but I wont see those for a few more weeks due to backorder. front suspension needs some help but I haven't gotten to that yet.
just got it on the road last week and so far this car is a riot. I have a few kinks I need to work out but its still driveable as is which is all I care about. took it on the highway for the first time on a 60 mile round trip and it cruises nicely.
future plans are a headlight upgrade, ford 8.8 rear axle swap and add some a/c, fix misc bugs that pop up.
I need to get more pics of stuff but that's what I'm working with for now, just switched from photobucket to imgur to actually be able to host pics lol.
a friend of mine and I went to look at it and i got it the next day. drove it home on back roads about 20 miles with a slipping trans on hills and brakes that felt awful but still stopped, ride was smooth, exhaust was loud , fuel smell was mixing with the oil burning smell.
upon arrival home I decided to pull the rear wheels to see what the deal was with the horrible brakes. I discovered the left rear caliper wasn't even attached and was hanging off of the coil spring with some bailing wire. that would explain it!
ordered a bunch-o parts and started to get to work. I pulled the engine and trans within a few days of getting it home. was going to try to hang on to the drivetrain and sell it but my engine hoist decided to break a wheel with all the stuff still hanging there so I immediately just backed my truck up to it and loaded it up to take to the scrap yard. I salvaged the coolant temp sensor and wiring and the main battery wiring to the starter/grounds and took pics of certain wires to get an idea of what color to look for for later in the swap.
got my mounts a few days later from STS, who didn't send any hardware, and what they did send quickly after which was nice, but ended up being useless for my application. had to make my own little plates for the new engine rubber mounts to bolt to.
bought a caster, fixed my engine hoist, test fit the ls engine, took awhile to get the oil pan past the subframe to let everything drop into place. had to do some measuring, some modifying, but I eventually got the engine mounts all setup where it looked like a good spot.
originally had truck accessories lined up for this car which I thought would work but ended up being way off. switched to car accessories but still truck spacing trying to keep cost down. barely fits but itll work.
I modified the stock transmission crossmember to work with the t56 with just a simple plate and few drilled holes.
I found a clutch pedal assembly on ebay for 940 and had to do a few tweaks to make mine fit. also using a factory clutch master.
exhaust was some ebay special hooker cast manifolds that cleared the steering shaft no problem and passenger side I could've used whatever manifold I wanted spacewise but theyre a matching set so itll work. they point directly at the control arm pivot points so when I got the exhaust done they had to angle away from it after the flange to make sure it didn't hit.
fuel is a walbro 400 mounted in tank, with the corvette fpr/filter mounted underneath where the old external pump sits.
got the oem driveshaft shortened, the shop shortened it way too much, so I bought a longer slip yoke to make it work and its fine now.
brakes I saw STS made the v70r caliper brackets which seemed like a great idea since I was replacing all the brake stuff due to the car having 250k on it, and I needed to stop this car well lol. after waiting over a month for them to make them. they sent me 2 drivers side brackets, no instructions, no pictures, and was kind of a dick when I was advising that even simple instructions would've helped others that aren't as mechanically inclined. he shipped the ps bracket with a quickness, along with a m14x1.5 tap I'm apparently supposed to use on the oem brake caliper holes in the strut housing (didn't end up doing this) . again, a lot of after the fact information.
suspension I replaced the rear shocks, got a rear sway bar off of a 940 in the junkyard, made a front lower subframe brace, ordered the oem subframe braces from the later 960s but I wont see those for a few more weeks due to backorder. front suspension needs some help but I haven't gotten to that yet.
just got it on the road last week and so far this car is a riot. I have a few kinks I need to work out but its still driveable as is which is all I care about. took it on the highway for the first time on a 60 mile round trip and it cruises nicely.
future plans are a headlight upgrade, ford 8.8 rear axle swap and add some a/c, fix misc bugs that pop up.
I need to get more pics of stuff but that's what I'm working with for now, just switched from photobucket to imgur to actually be able to host pics lol.
