240 project wagon

So this is the beginning of my project/build thread for my 1988 Volvo 245 DL. I bought it for $600 and have big plans, I'm aiming to turn it into a sleeper drift car kinda thing, we'll see where it goes. I'm doing things one at a time as I can afford them, so my apologies if updates are slow. I am currently a freshman attending Morrisville State College and pursuing my bachelor's degree in automotive technology. The auto program here is incredible, I'm able to use equipment and get help from professors that I wouldn't otherwise be able to and this is where I'll be doing a lot of the work on the 245.


Got plates! (10/27/16)


I got to the seller's house and we tried but failed (bolts wouldn't back out) to remove the alternator out of one of his extra 244's to get the voltage reg so I could put it in my 245. The one in there now isn't working and the lights flicker/don't work.


Heading home for the weekend before driving it up to college. (10/29/16)


After convincing the chief of police to allow me to have two vehicles on campus, it's finally here. Parked next to my daily driven 1983 BMW 533i. (10/30/16)


Got my shipment of brake parts today. Pads and rotors all around. It's pretty bad, metal on metal action and the pedal feels like a marshmallow.


I decided to bring my floor jack and stands for when I can't get it into the auto building and use a lift. It turned out to be a good decision as I had the idea to tighten the clutch cable on my m47 so that it doesn't engage at the veeeery top of the pedal travel.



Out measuring the dimensions of the M30B32 (3.2 liter) I6 in my E28 and the dimensions of the 240's engine bay, I hope to swap a twin turbo M30B35 (3.5 liter) into the 240. Nothing set in stone just yet, but it hasn't been done before and unique is exactly what I'm aiming for with this project. Plus they're engines I know my way around with my eyes closed. I may have to cut and shorten the oil pan by a few inches but either way, I'll make it work. (Yes, I'm measuring my engine and engine bay in the cold at 11:00pm on Halloween but I wouldn't have it any other way.)(10/31/16)


More to come, thanks for looking!

Tbh, for drift car, just get the 302+t5.

I could do that, but I don't want to. To easy, to common, and I'm not a V8 guy

EventuallyAyrton said:

I'm not a V8 guy

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Me neither. Nice e28. There's other BMW swapped 240's, but I don't know enough about BMW engines to tell you if your planned swap has happened before. Welcome aboard, neat project.

amerbritcan said:

There's other BMW swapped 240's, but I don't know enough about BMW engines to tell you if your planned swap has happened before.

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Oh boy, don't get me started on BMW stuff, I could talk for days. The M50 (replacement/successor to the M30) has been done plenty of times before, the M60 (their first OHC v8, found in e34 530/540) has been done plenty of times, even an M70 (their early v12 from the 7/8 series, the McLaren F1 has the S70 motorsport version) but never an M30 or even M20 (the primary engine in e30s) for that matter

Why not turbo the 535i?

Nice cars! I like your style. That blue on the 245 is my favorite color.

Tom Wiley said:

Why not turbo the 535i?

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Do you mean my 533i?

EventuallyAyrton said:

Do you mean my 533i?

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Interested to see what happens here, but definitely confused about why you'd go through all that trouble when an E28 is such a better car and already has the power plant in it.

Walter said:

Interested to see what happens here, but definitely confused about why you'd go through all that trouble when an E28 is such a better car and already has the power plant in it.

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Basically my thinking as well. If you want a drift car with a turbo M30, do the E28. It will be better for it in the end i think.

Well, the E28 is my daily. I have tried making my daily driver a project car but as I'm sure some of you know, that doesn't work. I like it as my daily because it gets *decent* mileage and is relatively tame but torques really well down low. I won't be pulling the engine in the e28, that's there to stay, I was measuring that because the engine dimensions are the same for all M30's. I've always loved the 240 wagons so I found one and bought it. I decided that my engine of choice would be a turbo M30 so that's what I'm planning. Also, I love the wagons because, although there are some track/drift/drag wagons, there are 1000x more sedans doing the same things. Wagons are cool(er than sedans)

FYI no need to remove alternator to snag regulator. You should be able to undue the 2 Philip heads screws that hold the regulator to the alt. from the engine compartment.

nel621 said:

FYI no need to remove alternator to snag regulator. You should be able to undue the 2 Philip heads screws that hold the regulator to the alt. from the engine compartment.

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Do you have tiny little gnome hands?

So just a small update, I finally got the brake parts I needed (hardware) after letting it sit for a week as they shipped from Boston.
The pedal felt really numb and squishy so I decided that was job #1.

The rotors weren't too bad...


not as bad as the pads.


This is my next job if I wan't to use the handbrake for any sort of drifting at all, there's absolutely nothing on the shoes, although I found a bracket available online for a second set of rear calipers to be used with a hydraulic handbrake...might look more into that once I have currency to trade for goods.


But the worst part by far were the rear caliper pins. The fronts weren't bad but the rears looked like craters on the moon. I have no idea how that would happen but god damn it's bad.


Cleaned up the calipers as best I could with a wire brush and brake cleaner. It looks way better than it did. I'm going to the junk yard this weekend to snout around and see what's available. Maybe I can get a set of non rust filled backing plates/dust shields for super cheap... (11/9/16)

You don't want to use the stock e-brake system for a rear drift brake. It'll only last a few pulls before it blows apart. It's just not designed for that amount of abuse.

Wow, it's been a while. Time for an update, even if it is a small one.


So +T is happening.

I got a whole bunch of free parts from one of my teachers at school, I guess that's one perk of going to an automotive technical college...

This is just a "filler" for the 240 while I get the twin turbo M30 pieced together and eventually into the car. I'm going to play it safe and only run between 5-8 psi as it is a stock B230 with 250k+ miles on stock internal parts. That should get me another 60-70hp, which will be a very noticeable increase and will help with drifting quite a bit.

What I got: stock Mk3 Supra intercooler, stock Mk3 Supra turbo, stock Supra BOV, a really cool homemade boost controller, a Subaru Legacy sport MC (very popular for use with a hydraulic handbrake because they're so durable), and some sort of handle for something that I'm going to use as the handle for the hydraulic handbrake that I'm going to make. I'll take pictures and update along the way, I just got back from a month of winter break so I'm finally starting to get back into things.

So I'm finally starting to get sh!t done.

Pulling the diff out to weld that mofo up.


In the parts washer getting nice and cleeeen.


Ready for lots of weld.


Not the most beautiful thing in the world but it'll sure do me just fine.


While I was at it, I decided to sandblast and grind the cover down, clean it up, and paint it. I decided to go with blue and I like it.

Medium blue FTW.

Picked these babies up for $250 today, now I've finally got some nice summer wheels that aren't 14" steelies.

(One of them is missing a center cap so if someone has one for sale, let me know)

Hydra wheel will look great on a 240! Plus how can you go wrong with matching tires with tons of thread for $250!

The BMW and 245 make a cool pair!