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Project Drifturd

A stock 5.slow is more than enough to drift with. The 5.slow in the 244 I have just bit the dust after a season of drifting with blown head gaskets to start with. If you want more power, toss on some cheap aluminum heads (bump the compression while you're at it), and toss in a fun camshaft.
 
Good lord, He is a 16 year old kid trying something. Working his ass off on an old car, not sitting in front of a PC or phone, and learning something while doing so.

Kid, ignore the buttheads that give you a hard time. 99% of the people here are good folks and will gladly help you, the others have nothing better to do than scrutinize in a non helpful way. I found that out real quick here, but the 99% have made my project much easier with their information and suggestions.

So stay on your project and keep asking questions. The amount of knowledge in the post and the members here is staggering when it comes to old Volvos.:)
 
Another Update

So i got the volvo to my house and my handy dandy dolly i made worked, besides the tow truck driver didnt lay the bed to the ground which caused the front two caster wheels fall off but i fixed them the next day. i then cut the radiator support to slide the motor in the engine bay to save some space, plus kinda see what im working with.



Well once i got it in i decided to deal with the sound deadening crap, read up dry ice works but didnt want to spend the money on it so i used a torch which i figured it would be nasty and make it sticky but actually came up really easy, spent about an hour with a hammer and chisel and took off less than quarter of it off on the tunnel but with the torch spent a good 15 minutes and got ALL of the sound deadening in the whole car. So note to self (or anyone else in which this could help): If you need to get off sound deadening, use a torch if dry ice isnt easy to come by. But from scrapping all that off i took off a full ten pounds on the dot.

And heres the final result.


I started to lighten the doors, so i took the windows out and cut off the "skeleton" (what im going to call it) and let me tell you, they are a **** ton lighter. To be exact, i actually cut the weight in half in each door, the rears weighed 50 pounds cut them down to 25, the front doors were 60 pounds and cut those to 30 pounds so a total of 110 pounds of the doors alone. 17 Pounds were from the rubber seals. Well heres a photo of the before and close to finish, youll notice the crash bar is still in the door but i actually took them all off since i plan on having the rollcage go into the door, if that make sense. Sorta like a nascar cage.


I also swiss cheesed the bumper, and got a front lip off of a newer 240 i found at the junkyard. And i like it ALOT. Another thing is that when i was at the junkyard i got my whole front end from a few e46s, i already had the crossmember, so i got the knuckles, crontrol arms, a spare knuckle (to practice cutting and welding them), and a passenger side strut.


Like i had mentioned on my last update i am short on money at the moment, but thank god for tax returns. So im getting a whopping $700, wooo, not really but its something. And here is where i think i might need some help. Deciding what i should do with that money, my options are to either get coilovers, finish my body work completely (as in finish the rear strut towers, and tunnel), build the motor, or what my brother-in-law is suggesting, which is to get the transmission so that i can line up the motor/tranny. But heres my thoughts, to finish the body work, so i can then have a rolling shell again, but if i do that ill need the coilovers, but if i only buy those, i wont have money to get anything else, and if i get the tranny (which i can find one for like 200 bucks) and then spend rest on body work.. idk im in a rut right now.. But well see when i get it to decide what ill do, unless someone is willing to give some helpful advice.
 
Why the BMW crossmember? Making motor mounts to fit the 302 to the stock Volvo mounts is easy peasy.
 
Why the BMW crossmember? Making motor mounts to fit the 302 to the stock Volvo mounts is easy peasy.

Because i wanted to run true coilovers all around and no one makes true rear coilovers since theres no tower. So i chose BMW since there are alot more options when it comes to suspension parts. Plus i got all those for free at my junkyard, so worse case scenario is i wasted a day there.
 
What do you mean by "true coilovers"?
And that's a front cross member and you're talking about rear coilovers? So confused.
And Ben makes a coilover setup for the rear (740 I think). You can also make your own. Easy peasy with the tools you have.
 
What do you mean by "true coilovers"?
And that's a front cross member and you're talking about rear coilovers? So confused.
And Ben makes a coilover setup for the rear (740 I think). You can also make your own. Easy peasy with the tools you have.

"True coilovers" as in Macpherson struts all around, and not a trailing arm setup. Which would require me to build my own towers in the rear, i know. 740s and 940s are the same, having a trailing arm suspension. So they dont have the "true" coilovers that im looking for.

For the front crossmember, i want to use bmw suspension and they use a pinch clamp on the knuckle for the struts, whereas the 240s, the strut is connected with the knuckle (i dont believe you can separate the two). Therefore i cant use the 240 struts since they dont have the pinch clamp, and since im not using the strut that means i would have to modify the control arms to fit the bmws knuckle, but with all that work, i figured to just use the whole front end off of the e46 and just make adjustments for that.

I get im making alot more work for myself, and at this point i do wish i wouldve just kept it a rolling chassis and did the motor swap and some suspension upgrades and call it a day. But i since im at this point, i might as well do the extreme and what many others havent done. I like uniqueness, and i like to make things difficult for myself. I mean i like volvos so that alone should say something.
 
You'll find that the BMW front towers are in another area code compared to the Volvo 240.
 
You'll find that the BMW front towers are in another area code compared to the Volvo 240.

Area code, as in different mounting points? If so, i know this. My plans were to use the mounting perch? or mounting insulator? Whatever you like to call them, from the 240. If that doesnt work ill redrill the mounting holes.
 
Area code, as in different mounting points? If so, i know this. My plans were to use the mounting perch? or mounting insulator? Whatever you like to call them, from the 240. If that doesnt work ill redrill the mounting holes.

What I'm getting is that the top of the tower is inches further back on the BMW to get a TON more caster, the lower ball joint is also further forward. You might have to cut and move the volvo towers to make it all work.

Not trying to poo-poo your idea, but you can drift a Volvo 240 quite well on stock suspension.
 
What I'm getting is that the top of the tower is inches further back on the BMW to get a TON more caster, the lower ball joint is also further forward. You might have to cut and move the volvo towers to make it all work.

Not trying to poo-poo your idea, but you can drift a Volvo 240 quite well on stock suspension.

No i get what your saying, atleast youre giving your two cents and not jumping to scraping it. But since im not quite at the point of mounting things up, im not sure what exactly will have to be done. So when i get there, ill be posting it.

Also, i know you can, have seen it done and did a little in the car before tearing it down. But for whichever reason it is i just wanted to use another cars suspension but with the volvo body. Again, making things difficult for myself.
 
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Culbero knows what he's talking about when it comes to engine swaps and drifting/racing 240s. Listen to these guys trying to help you.
 
Culbero knows what he's talking about when it comes to engine swaps and drifting/racing 240s. Listen to these guys trying to help you.

Oh believe me im taking everything these guys are saying into consideration, while still going with my own ideas. I understand what most of these guys are saying, but also no one that ive seen has gone with this swap so im acting as the test dummy. Just like that huxley guy did with the s-chassis, now yes there is a difference between him; a full blown fabricator. And me, someone with lack of knowledge. But i do have a whole lot of time and willingness to learn new things, even if it's the harder route.
 
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Culbero i do see what you mean about the towers, looked at a few pictures and are clear as day. So im going to try to see if there's any possible way to get it to work. I am looking at some e30 engine bays and the tower looks pretty close to the volvos. Maybe a slight angle difference that we could possibly work out. We will see though.
 
It?s been a while since i posted in this thread but no it never got junked. Actually still have it. Haven?t done much anything to it at all since my last post but she?s still around. Had other projects and also moved to another state but at some point she?ll be brought back.
 
It?s been a while since i posted in this thread but no it never got junked. Actually still have it. Haven?t done much anything to it at all since my last post but she?s still around. Had other projects and also moved to another state but at some point she?ll be brought back.

I hope you finish it, Projects like this take time but are worth it
 
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