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1983 244 'Mericanized

SvedSled

In the gray
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Location
Port Republic, MD
So I spent all the money for my twin turbo build (http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=226352) on hookers and blow. Now I'm back with no money, a love for LSx motors and an unexplainable attraction to 80's Volvos.

I dorked around so long that tons of 240 owners have already completed varying degrees of NA and turbo LSx swaps. I'm pulling this Turd out of the woods to build a "cheap" 5.3 bracket car for the 2015 season.

I'd like to do a straight truck swap with a LM7/4L60E, but I already have an LM7 and a TH350 laying around so that's what's going in. The LM7 is fail and the TH350 costs too much to rebuild. Scratched for 4.8/4L60E


1983 244
- Ford Explorer 8.8 with two short axles 3.73 gears - $500
- 12 gallon aluminum fuel cell
- Bosch 044 pump
- 80's corvette radiator
- IPD pan hard & upper tq rods

Creeper Van 4.8, 4L60E, PCM and Harness - $600

FTI 4k RPM stall w/Anti-ballooning plates - $250

1st Nitrous Oxide stage NX Shark kit (EFI wet) - $300
2nd Nitrous Oxide stage Zex (EFI wet) - $300

The class I'll be racing in is for cars with ET of 12.00 and slower. . . but I'm actually building for Merica.

ls043.jpg
 
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Dang it!!! I was really hoping that my car would be the first US Volvo I'd ever seen with slicks and skinnies. Nice set up! I'll be following this.
 

275/45R15 MT ET Streets on 15x8 Welds with 4.5 BS. That was a test fit of a friend's tire/rim combo to get a guesstimate as to what I could fit. It would work with a little spacer and some fender rolling/pulling.

The fronts had 5x100 to 5x114.3 adapters, which were rubbing the calipers. . . so I'd need the spacers machined, different spacers, different hubs or different rims.

I'm thinking I'll try some spare 15" steelies up front with some 155 or 165 radials and 255 MT ET Streets mounted to some 15x8" steel rally rims w/ beauty rings and Volvo center caps (assuming they'll fit).
 
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Short block is together. I had a 2000 Vette cam laying around, so I threw that in. I thought I had a set of complete 5.3 heads, but I don't. I'll have to mill a set of 5.7 heads or get my Craigslist on for a set of used 5.3s.
 
So I was hoping to use long tube headers from a 4th gen F-body. . . . but I've run into a few clearance problems.

The passenger side is going to hit the lower control arm and the drivers side is going to hit the steering shaft.

Time to step back and pontificate.

One work around is ditching the long tubes and using truck manifolds, but I was relying on HP gained from long tubes to get me to desired HP with parts at hand. Truck manifolds would require a larger cam (which I don't have) to compensate for lost HP.

The other possibility is trimming up the lower control arm and body mount with pipe dreams of clearing. If I can get it close enough, I may do some minimal ball peen hammering to the collector.

I'm going to have to do some fabrication to get steering to clearance. I'll try to just make a low-profile shaft, but I'm still thinking the universal joint at the steering rack is going to have issues. I've debated a manual rack conversion with the input rotated to a 90 degree angle, then adding a hanger bearing to the fender/frame rail. I need to do some research regarding "custom" steering geometry. Light hammering may also be necessary to one of the runners.






 
<a href="http://s265.photobucket.com/user/2fast242gt/media/20120802_174034.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii234/2fast242gt/20120802_174034.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20120802_174034.jpg"/></a>
 
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