244 gtst

244 GTST Now with viewable images!

Ok so I have been on this website since forever and only had one Volvo where I started an LS swap but got distracted with alcohol, drifting cars in Japan, my 180SX and general life. So oneday as I am looking at my 242GT thinking what am I doing with life a car shows up on a FB sales page, $7000 for a 1984 Volvo 244 with a Nissan R33 Skyline RB25DET engine in it (inline 6 DOHC 2.5ltr single turbo) which I thought was pretty cool but way out of price range. A week later however I see it for sale again for $3000 with bottom end knock, I did some quick maths on the money it would cost to finish the 242 vs buying this 244 and pegging a new RB25 in it.

I went and saw the car with a mate, between us we picked the car apart and decide why the hell not.
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She's looking pretty good.
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Taking the lazy ride back to my place, the knock of the engine wasn't too bad....
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The money shots, the engine actually fits very nicely and the person who did the actual conversion wayyy back in 2004 did a nice job. The fact I can just reach in and grab the oil filter brings a tear to the eye

I do have plenty of documents with came with the car including photos of the then fresh paint job, it has seen 3 owners since the conversion and as such has received a lot of neglect which I am umming and arring about doing anything about. The goal for the car at this point is simple, crack the engine open and see how bad it is bad meaning new engine and good would be new bearings and off we go.

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The standard Skyline intercooler looks so cute, I am fairly certain it still has the original radiator but was moved forward to clear the clutch fan that has been "modified to fit" but cutting it down a few centimeters.
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The ticking timebomb, good thing I had some aircraft grade glue to fix it up until I decide how to redo the entire radiator setup.
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The engine and gearbox cannot be removed together as the custom sump fouls on the rad support, a bit of a pain but the gearbox turns out to be a R32 Skyline RB20 gearbox which is smaller and lighter then the R33 RB25 gearbox I was told was in it, ah well...
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Once the engine was out and on a stand the sump came off, some nice bearing material.
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And the culprit, no.6 rod bearing spun. As soon as I spotted this I called a wrecker who had an engine and told him to have it comp tested and running for me when I see him in an hour. Honestly it is repairable but its easier and cheaper throwing another engine in and considering getting crazy with the busted one.
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Engine acquired and taken straight to my mates shed to get the auto spigot bush removed and replaced with a manual spigot bush.
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A slight pain. I also changed the rear main at the same time as it was easy and cheap insurance.
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Slight issues getting the engine into the shed, the 244 has a welded diff and a seized RH handbrake so pushing it by myself wasn't going to happen.
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Safe and sound.

Assembly was pretty straight forward, switching over parts from both engines to get the best bits. I was told the turbo on the old engine was Highflowed but this was incorrect but luck was on my side and the new engine's standard turbo was in very good condition. I was also told the car had a twinplate clutch but it did not, it just has a heavy duty clutch that has a very very firm pedal that I must fix. I would be really mad at the seller of the car but he really had no idea and the aftermarket ecu he said the car had was actually there so... yay?

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I lost a gasket so I got creative with some spare tinnies I had sitting around and some Hylomar.
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It didn't take long to get the car running from that point, I took it out on the road and it certainly was amusing to drive but had a bit of a gnarly miss plus I think the tune is in a poor state so it's time for TLC.
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New coilpacks which didn't fix the issue, but a new fuel filter did so yay for shotgun troubleshooting. Atleast there is one less 20 year old ignition component to worry about!
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Some fresh 98 octane to help the poor girl back to life.
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The first of many bits of rust, he reversed into something and never fixed it up so the rust took over. I bashed it back into shape and painted it until I can get a new quarter to weld in.
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A shifter my housemate made up for me since the existing shifter was so low I could barely reach it, yes its heavy and not ideal but it was free and feels good in the hand after a quick deburr and coat of clear.
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The amazing ecu install in the passenger footwell.
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Three of these wires had 12Volt when the engine was running, how the car hasn't burnt down amazes me to no end.
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A new handcontroller for the ECU none of the existing guages in the car work besides the fuel guage and the Speedo which is a small miricle, the Rb20 gearbox has a mechanical speedo and it looks like a custom cable was made up years ago. I also threw in a spare boost controller I had sitting around as the boost guage that was fitted didnt actually work ofcourse.
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Good from far but far from good with the paint job The interior however is in immaculate condition, I did have to refit the rear seatbelts as they where removed for... unknown reasons.

And now pretty photos!

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The rag is soaking up a slight sump leak that I fixed minutes later, lazy I know.
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So what know? I have a Might Car Mods meet coming up at the end of the month and I want to drive the Volvo there, so getting it on the road and being gentle followed by getting the tune tidied up is the immediate plans. I need some wheel time behind it to really know what to fix/change/modify but hey, it's a pretty fun start!

Specs of the car at this time:
1984 Volvo 244 GL
1993 Nissan Skyline RB25DET engine
1990 Nissan Skyline RB20DET gearbox
Microtech Ecu
Exedy Heavy Duty Clutch
Modified 2 piece driveshaft
King Springs
Aftermarket okish shocks
Whiteline swaybars front and rear
Weight reduction in the form of rust
Repainted white from pretty standard blue
Genesis wheels? Not sure.

Great project! I always love a white 240. I've never really liked the idea of an RB in a 240 because the exhaust and intake sides are switched, but it really seems to work on a RHD car. What side of the car are the fuel lines on? Can you take a picture of how the exhaust is routed? I'm interested to see how much room you have under the car. Also, you may want to make your pics a bit smaller.

Wheels are Gemini's. I'd love to see this car going proper sideways.

t8fanning cheers for the kind words. The joys of rhd makes the rb work very well as far as clearance goes, fuel lines are standard so running down the left side of the chassis and then crosses over the firewall to the right side and the standard Aus filter position. I am hoping to take the car to a friends hoist so I will snap a pic then but I can tell you now it crosses over behind the gearbox crossmember to the standard side, it is a bit tight in some spots but not too bad.

And yeah I am still learning flickr so my bad about the pics...

Cheers Okoye I was fairly sure they where, the car is going to be drifted atleast once at a small gocart track near mine at some point but my dodgy back and knee are telling me not to get too stupid haha

Looks like fun! Seems like a clean swap. The old RB isn't common here at all, but if it were I think it would get used a lot for swaps since 2JZs are becoming pricier.
Somehow the combination of Geminis and thin whitewall tires works on this.

You can probably go back and edit the image links in your original post to downsize the flickr pics.

Fixed up the images, having a 4k monitor kind of skewed my understanding of normal image sizes plus just being dumb.

It is a fun car Duder and I like that its all been pretty straight forward fixes so far, rb's and 1/2j's are all over the place here so we are rather spoilt for choice haha. Honestly I am still unsure how I feel about the whitewalls but I might get then redone before the a meet next weekend just to see how it goes, the car has a kind of gangster vibe to it with the heavily tinted windows and the practical but still low stance.

I did get my guy to come over and tidy up the roadworthy and mod plates for the rear seats so come monday I should be driving it on the road! I am pretty stoked to finally get behind the wheel and go for a decent drive, I am trying to get it in for a dyno but everyone is pretty busy at this time of the year so I am doing my best to be patient.

Alrighty roadworthy done and I have had it on the road since monday afternoon, the first drive was great but let me know straight away that it needs a tune and to turn the turbo up from 4-5psi upto 10-12psi and that the tune it has in it really needs a freshen up. So I have booked a tune for tuesday to get that sorted.

Meanwhile I went to the MCM meet today which was great fun and whilst parked the 244 got no real attention as soon as it was started and driving a lot of people had incredibly hilarious reactions, this made me very happy as something of a 12 year dream come true.

But anyway, dyno on tuesday and then further plans from car from there.

From a kiwi to an ozzy: You must immediately build an RB30DET for that

I have an RB30DET build in (slow) progress in the garage, but for my Stagea...

If that's running a 'microleb' and you want to do something a bit more sophisticated, PM me your phone number and a good time for a chat.

Anyway, great engine setup and great swap, combining two of my loves (240 + RB)

FreeEMSFred said:

From a kiwi to an ozzy: You must immediately build an RB30DET for that

I have an RB30DET build in (slow) progress in the garage, but for my Stagea...

If that's running a 'microleb' and you want to do something a bit more sophisticated, PM me your phone number and a good time for a chat.

Anyway, great engine setup and great swap, combining two of my loves (240 + RB)

Click to expand...

An rb30 would be nice but the 25 is much nicer as a daily engine which is all I intend this to be for the moment, plus my mates 25/30 is enough chaos to keep running let alone my sr20 in my 180 haha. I have been in long talks with a few people and I have decided on a Link ecu to replace the Microleb (100% accurate name btw) tho I did have a good look over what your doing and it is totally awesome, but due to life issues at the moment I can't get too carried away.

Meanwhile the tune is done and I have netted a very expected 169kw (225hp) at 12 psi on standard everything, this can be an issue as standard turbos on these things tend to destroy their ceramic turbine housings at that psi but ah well. It does drive a lot better (expect when not warm) and I decided that it was good enough to drive down to Sydney next weekend for World Time Attack Challenge which is a tradition for my mates. It will be a 9 hour test of reliability and comfort which is a massive change for us as we either have very focused 4wd's or track spec jap cars haha.

Either way the car continues to slowly improve, I have a set of vented front brakes to fit as the solids make me uneasy (gumtree aka aussie equvilant of craigslist) and once the braking is sorted I will be moving onto the ECU, then suspension, then looking at picking up a turbo upgrade to shoot for something along the lines of 300-400hp but keeping it responsive! I hope

All fair enough

What made you decide to be unpatriotic and use the only other Kiwi ECU instead of one of the half dozen or more Ozzy ones, some of which are pretty good?

Re the turbo, the R33 we did has an R34 stock turbo on it with the same materials and slightly better flow, we logged that spiking above the boost cut (set to 20psi, I think) and generally running around 15psi on what he said was a stock gate, and it hasn't broken yet. Touch wood.

I doubt you'll have issues on 12psi, but I know others have. Perhaps they were spiking or not running a BOV/BPV? Who knows.

Keen for yt vids of this thing being abused! Hook us up!

FreeEMSFred said:

All fair enough

What made you decide to be unpatriotic and use the only other Kiwi ECU instead of one of the half dozen or more Ozzy ones, some of which are pretty good?

Re the turbo, the R33 we did has an R34 stock turbo on it with the same materials and slightly better flow, we logged that spiking above the boost cut (set to 20psi, I think) and generally running around 15psi on what he said was a stock gate, and it hasn't broken yet. Touch wood.

I doubt you'll have issues on 12psi, but I know others have. Perhaps they were spiking or not running a BOV/BPV? Who knows.

Keen for yt vids of this thing being abused! Hook us up!

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Haha well I spend a lot of time reading/talking/working on cars and over the last year or so with teams I talked to at WTAC and local tuners and workshops the general consensus is that a Link is the way to go for quality tune, product and price. Haltech is good but their expansion can bus is a true pain in the ass and very expensive to do what Link does out of the box, I have looked at Adaptronic along with Nistune and Microtech but they just aren't there. They are all great ecu's but yeah Link just gets the nod from me (unless something stupid cheap comes along then forget everything I said ).

As far as the standard turbo's yeah there is always variables when you consider using a turbo that's 20 years old, blocked up water galleries or bad oil/starved of oil plus the "Nah man you don't need a BOV LOL" crap. But the materials in the turbine wheel don't seem to handle the the extra boost so great tho I do see more breakages in drifting where it's very aggressive use of the throttle vs street use.

But yeah 12psi should be fine and it makes me laugh every time I drive it so I can't complain, I am a bit short on money at the moment but my list of things to buy and fix is progressing well. I am used to driving my 180 which is a road legal drift car so the volvos front end grip needs a bit of changing for me, I am trying to source some cheap adjustable s13 front end gear and see if I can make it work in the volvo.

If not I will just grab some long dreamed about kaplhenke parts which will be: Quick Steer Roll Correctors, Offset spherical strut mounts and the mad strut brace which I really need to make sure clears everything before I get it haha. Just need to sort out smaller sized front coils so I can get more caster but not too much camber and I will be happy, but overall that will make the front feel better without making it into an uncomfy pig like my 180 haha.

And yes video soon!

Good to see this beast finally go to a good home. looked at it so many times

Look forward to watching it come together

Define stupid cheap? This was achieved on a budget of around 100 bucks and a couple of hours street tuning, though typically it'd be more like 400. Local currency, that is. RB in it's natural environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e088b5cvF_Y

Mods away from the stock loom setup was only wideband instead of narrow, and IAT instead of Nissan's idea of a practical joke. I think there might be a hose poked through the firewall somewhere, too.

As for Link ECUs, if you go G4+ or newer then it's acceptable. Prior to that it was, IMO, primitive and unacceptable (G4 included).

Looking forward to the vids!

peterwgpa said:

Good to see this beast finally go to a good home. looked at it so many times

Look forward to watching it come together

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Hi Pete long time no chat, I see your 242 is hitting the track and having a great time which is fantastic. I like to think I am a good home to cars but I have the 242 shell sitting there I need to move on which makes me sad as I really let that car down.

But same thing, I had seen bits and pieces of this car for a while and with a bit more love it will be a really nice car, I just have to resist taking it drifting... haha.

FreeEMSFred said:

Define stupid cheap? This was achieved on a budget of around 100 bucks and a couple of hours street tuning, though typically it'd be more like 400. Local currency, that is. RB in it's natural environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e088b5cvF_Y

Mods away from the stock loom setup was only wideband instead of narrow, and IAT instead of Nissan's idea of a practical joke. I think there might be a hose poked through the firewall somewhere, too.

As for Link ECUs, if you go G4+ or newer then it's acceptable. Prior to that it was, IMO, primitive and unacceptable (G4 included).

Looking forward to the vids!

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Whatever I can afford at the time really haha, I have been thinking of the logic of your ecu's and then how an ecu actually works on an engine. If my logic is correct with an efi engine you start from the crank/cam angle sensor to determine when each cylinder is at the bang position and trigger the injector to open and the spark to fire relative to that, spraying during the suck phase to atomise the fuel and air and spark during the bang (tdc of the piston or there abouts). Then its just a matter of co-ordinating the ratio of air to fuel to ensure the best burn... I think?

Either way I am doing my best to futureproof myself as E85 and big boost is the plan down the line so onboard boost control, variable cam timing and flex fuel abilities really help, but only after I build a solid foundation on the car (and solve some personal issues) as big power is pointless if you can't use it haha. Oh and yeah totally going a newer gen Link because as you said the older versions arn't much to talk about (even if they are way ahead of my current microtech haha).

One thing I do have to determine is the fuel setup, it currently is a standard setup with just an 044 in tank (you can tell purely from the noise) but I want to remove the fuel accumulator and secondary pump tho I am not sure if that may cause any issues..

Alrighty so a fair bit more time spent with the car just driving it and seeing how I feel about it has been really nice. On the 12th I drove it 10 hours straight to get down to World Time Attack in Sydney which was a fantastic event where I got to see amazing cars, talk to interesting people and got to chat to some really cool guys who ran over and had to ask what was going on with the volvo (admittedly I was fairly drunk at the time so I got carried away but hey! I felt like I deserved it ).



My only photo of the car at the event which is kind of a shame but I was focusing on the actual race cars which I don't regret.

Following that was the casual 10 hour drive home (mates drove most of it as I was highly hungover) and some general driving around until last friday where I got to help my housemate out getting his freshly rererebuilt R33 Skyline out on the track for a shakedown, luckily the only issue was a blown cooler pipe which I fixed up in no time and got him out again all night.



Behind the fence until next year atleast sadly but she has been oh so faithful and comfortable which is a really huge thing for me since my back is a little dodgy, anyway things where going great until yesterday when I was doing a one hour drive down to check out a part for the engine when the fuel pump decided to die. Luckily it was after I stopped at a service station but after doing the basic troubleshooting and even trying to bypass all the relays it still would not come back to life, so a friend came over to keep me company as another finished work and prepared to come save me. Yet in a miraculous turn of events the pump decided to return to life and get me home, which I was thankful for but decided to instantly replace the pump with a new Walbro 450 that will be much quieter and flow much more then the 044 that it replaces.

Why do I need more fuel flow? Well I found a little something that was a little too cool to resist and it has put me on the path of a touch more power, I present the car part the volvo died trying to reach.



This is a lovely Nissan R32 GTR RB26 individual throttle body intake that has been modified to fit onto a RB25 engine, now besides the cool factor of having ITB's the reason to change to this manifold is for a number of key reasons. The standard inlet manifold design (whilst great for midrange) is a total pain to access the fuel injectors and makes routing for cooler piping much longer then I like for the upcoming radiator and FMIC upgrade, not to mention compared to a few other forward facing plenums on the market I got this for a good price (granted it needs a little love) and it should work far better clearance wise to the clutch master cylinder then other offerings.... I hope haha.

Anyway the plan at the moment is to change the fuel pump and make sure thats fine first, then slowly gather parts for the first stage of performance mod's. I intend to keep the standard turbo for now as it's doing the job but will be keeping my eye out for a highflowed unit so I can get her up towards the 350hp point with almost the same response.