Ansel+
ABG
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2009
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
Part 1: Respect the Build Bro
<Z>
I'll start this out with a little background on the Gambler 500. What started out as a yearly race between friends with beater $500 (strictly enforced) cars, turned into a not-so-enforced $500 car offroad trail cleanup and navigational rally. You're handed a set of waypoints and you go, sometimes completing challenges etc. and halfway through a two day event you camp out and have a big party. It blew up in 2017 after a short video about it went viral, and went from 40-some cars the year before to over 900 iirc. It's only grown from there and has changed quite a bit but idea is the same, drive crap cars offroad and pick up trash from public land, and the motto is still the same: don't be a dick. https://www.gambler500.com/
<Z>
I learned about it in 2017 and went to the final waypoint at Portland Meadows (rip) and drank beer and marveled at all the vehicles, stock Volvo 240s, lifted Miatas, articulated buses, anything you can imagine really. I was hooked. Around this time I was dealing with some personal issues, and recently got dumped when I was in a pretty low place already. One of the things that kept me going was wanting to do a Gambler 500 event, and I did a few months later for the Winter Oregon Gambler 500 with a co worker and a crappy Ford Ranger painted like the Coors Light Silver Bullet. It was cold and miserable (wipers stopped working) and an amazing time.
<Z>
I wanted my own car though, and I happened across a used lift "kit" for the car for sale from a buddy. I actually bought the lift before I bought the car. Consisted of: a pair of machined 1'' spacers for the strut mount on the front, VW Vanagon front shocks for the rear, 205/75R15 General Grabber AT2 tires, IPD wagon overload coils, 2 H&R spacers for the front wheels, and hockey pucks and longer bolts for the upper spring seats . <Z>
At this point I had a lift kit but no car, so I reached out to R&R auto here in Portland to see if they had anything garbage for $500 or less that was legal and ran and drove. In about a week Nick got back to me that he had a 1989 240 GL he had taken on trade that was rough and headed to scrap, but had good tags and a clean title. The PO wanted to keep her seats but he had some he would throw in from another car. I went to go look at the car. It was terrible, and perfect. <z>
<z>
Driving it home was really sketchy. It was all over the road, making awful noises from both ends, half the lights didn't work, the seats were "thrown in" in a sense that they were not bolted down. The smell was a nice mix of stale weed, patchouli, and sweat.
<z>
<z>
I cleaned it up and it looked OK other than the missing trim, but in reality it had been hit on 3 corners, including a rear hit so hard that it tore the spot welds off on the rear quarter and a hole in the trunk floor.
<z>
<z>
If you've ever wanted to see a 240 with only the rear lifted, here you go. I started getting really stoked once I was at this point.
<z>
<z>
I did the struts next weekend, they were both blown with bad mounts so I got some used mounts and $5 set of used KYB's from IPD garage sale. It was starting to come together.
<z>
<z>
Added some light bars, IPD skidplate (still had the IPDJerry discount), premium alignment at THE dealer, did a bunch of misc maintenance; the motto of the Gambler 500 is ABG, Always Be Gamblin, but I didn't want the thing to kill me. In retrospect I should have done the 2018 Gambler 500 with the car stock but I figured I was going to sell the thing. Does the muffler falling off count as a mod? I ended having way too much fun with it. More on the Gambler events later. Sticking to the build, I ran it in the 2018 Gambler with the lift, stock engine etc. It did great, we didn't have waypoints due to the number of people but we did I think 600 miles ish and 150? were offroad, not enough but it was a ton of fun. Two things made themself apparent: I had moved so I could keep the car, and it was too slow. This is Turbobricks after all, and to this point I had not actually done a +T. I started gathering parts.
<z>
<z>
I think I spent somewhere between $350 and $500 on the turbo swap, BuT ThAt IsNt a $500 CaR, fun>rules is the second Gambler motto. I went with a T3 turbo, 90+ manifold, T cam, stock intercooler and piping, 850 turbo injectors, free IPD R boost gauge (thanks Jerry), Sbabbs chips, nxs mbc, and spent too much on braided oil feed and drain fittings. For my birthday I had a turbo party! We took the engine out, drilled the block, i got yelled at a lot for having **** tool etc, but we got the engine and AW72 trans (shoutout @Harlard) back in that day. I am incredibly thankful for all my friends that came out to help, lots of OG turbobrickers, Sbabbs for bringing the hotdog robot, Asher, Dan Crandall, Robbie Barber, HAROLD, Hathos, Taro, Jerd, Trebbor, my co worker Connor, the list goes on I'm sure I'm forgetting people. It was a stressful day but we got it done. Took a few more weeks to get it driving. This was the closest thing to the TB meets I remember from like 10 years ago when I was first getting into Volvos, it was a great time and many people I hadn't seen in a while showed up.
<z>
<z>
Took it to IPD 2019 and ended up on Shifting Lanes video for 7 seconds saying just that it was a POS, also had a tasteful exhaust made by [REDACTED] I had to promise to not mention his name because of how ****ty it was. Also thanks to Trebbor for the redneck racing stripes around that time. Car was now a ton of fun to drive, the b230f high compression is awesome.
<z>
<z>
The car needed a theme so I had Trevor give it a premier British paint and body makeover, BLYAT is part of an inappropriate Russian phrase, so we gave it 3 stripes just like Adidas.
<z>
<z>
From here I took it on more Gambler events, but also to King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley CA. Before that Connor (well mainly him) put in a Spartan locker, as well as a set of Taro's old commando bumpers from his 242. I swapped out the IPD overloads with hockey pucks, and instead used Jeep XJ springs. Also swapped to diesel front springs courtesy of Sbabbs. I also added a bunch of Hella lights for that rally look (removed 2 due to cooling issues), as well as some 10 spoke Nova/Sirius wheels in white. I also added my old NPR intercooler out of my black 240. I also started racing the car in the Gambler 500's sister event HooptieX, which is Rallycross for crappy cars. The car now has sort of an identity crisis but that's ok, it's been the most fun I've had building a car.
<z>
Specs:
<z>
Drivetrain:
Stock B230F ~200K
T cam
NXS mbc @ 12psi
NPR intercooler
90+ manifold
T3 turbo
Sbabbs ecu/ezk chips
AW72 trans
Dana 30 Spartan locker
<z>
Suspension:
Diesel front springs
Custom aluminum strut mount spacers
IPD upper and lower chassis braces
Jeep Cherokee XJ front springs
VW Vanagon KYB shocks
Polyurethane torque rod bushings
Volvo warranty seatbelt custom limiting straps
<z>
Other:
Nilight lightbar
Hella 500 driving lights
205/75R15 General Grabber AT2
<Z>
Here's a couple videos I did, one on the +T and one on the lift setup:
<Z>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8K_VYgP0t8s" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8IvWcQPtJnY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<Z>
I'll start this out with a little background on the Gambler 500. What started out as a yearly race between friends with beater $500 (strictly enforced) cars, turned into a not-so-enforced $500 car offroad trail cleanup and navigational rally. You're handed a set of waypoints and you go, sometimes completing challenges etc. and halfway through a two day event you camp out and have a big party. It blew up in 2017 after a short video about it went viral, and went from 40-some cars the year before to over 900 iirc. It's only grown from there and has changed quite a bit but idea is the same, drive crap cars offroad and pick up trash from public land, and the motto is still the same: don't be a dick. https://www.gambler500.com/
<Z>
I learned about it in 2017 and went to the final waypoint at Portland Meadows (rip) and drank beer and marveled at all the vehicles, stock Volvo 240s, lifted Miatas, articulated buses, anything you can imagine really. I was hooked. Around this time I was dealing with some personal issues, and recently got dumped when I was in a pretty low place already. One of the things that kept me going was wanting to do a Gambler 500 event, and I did a few months later for the Winter Oregon Gambler 500 with a co worker and a crappy Ford Ranger painted like the Coors Light Silver Bullet. It was cold and miserable (wipers stopped working) and an amazing time.
<Z>
I wanted my own car though, and I happened across a used lift "kit" for the car for sale from a buddy. I actually bought the lift before I bought the car. Consisted of: a pair of machined 1'' spacers for the strut mount on the front, VW Vanagon front shocks for the rear, 205/75R15 General Grabber AT2 tires, IPD wagon overload coils, 2 H&R spacers for the front wheels, and hockey pucks and longer bolts for the upper spring seats . <Z>
At this point I had a lift kit but no car, so I reached out to R&R auto here in Portland to see if they had anything garbage for $500 or less that was legal and ran and drove. In about a week Nick got back to me that he had a 1989 240 GL he had taken on trade that was rough and headed to scrap, but had good tags and a clean title. The PO wanted to keep her seats but he had some he would throw in from another car. I went to go look at the car. It was terrible, and perfect. <z>
<z>
Driving it home was really sketchy. It was all over the road, making awful noises from both ends, half the lights didn't work, the seats were "thrown in" in a sense that they were not bolted down. The smell was a nice mix of stale weed, patchouli, and sweat.
<z>
<z>
I cleaned it up and it looked OK other than the missing trim, but in reality it had been hit on 3 corners, including a rear hit so hard that it tore the spot welds off on the rear quarter and a hole in the trunk floor.
<z>
<z>
If you've ever wanted to see a 240 with only the rear lifted, here you go. I started getting really stoked once I was at this point.
<z>
<z>
I did the struts next weekend, they were both blown with bad mounts so I got some used mounts and $5 set of used KYB's from IPD garage sale. It was starting to come together.
<z>
<z>
Added some light bars, IPD skidplate (still had the IPDJerry discount), premium alignment at THE dealer, did a bunch of misc maintenance; the motto of the Gambler 500 is ABG, Always Be Gamblin, but I didn't want the thing to kill me. In retrospect I should have done the 2018 Gambler 500 with the car stock but I figured I was going to sell the thing. Does the muffler falling off count as a mod? I ended having way too much fun with it. More on the Gambler events later. Sticking to the build, I ran it in the 2018 Gambler with the lift, stock engine etc. It did great, we didn't have waypoints due to the number of people but we did I think 600 miles ish and 150? were offroad, not enough but it was a ton of fun. Two things made themself apparent: I had moved so I could keep the car, and it was too slow. This is Turbobricks after all, and to this point I had not actually done a +T. I started gathering parts.
<z>
<z>
I think I spent somewhere between $350 and $500 on the turbo swap, BuT ThAt IsNt a $500 CaR, fun>rules is the second Gambler motto. I went with a T3 turbo, 90+ manifold, T cam, stock intercooler and piping, 850 turbo injectors, free IPD R boost gauge (thanks Jerry), Sbabbs chips, nxs mbc, and spent too much on braided oil feed and drain fittings. For my birthday I had a turbo party! We took the engine out, drilled the block, i got yelled at a lot for having **** tool etc, but we got the engine and AW72 trans (shoutout @Harlard) back in that day. I am incredibly thankful for all my friends that came out to help, lots of OG turbobrickers, Sbabbs for bringing the hotdog robot, Asher, Dan Crandall, Robbie Barber, HAROLD, Hathos, Taro, Jerd, Trebbor, my co worker Connor, the list goes on I'm sure I'm forgetting people. It was a stressful day but we got it done. Took a few more weeks to get it driving. This was the closest thing to the TB meets I remember from like 10 years ago when I was first getting into Volvos, it was a great time and many people I hadn't seen in a while showed up.
<z>
<z>
Took it to IPD 2019 and ended up on Shifting Lanes video for 7 seconds saying just that it was a POS, also had a tasteful exhaust made by [REDACTED] I had to promise to not mention his name because of how ****ty it was. Also thanks to Trebbor for the redneck racing stripes around that time. Car was now a ton of fun to drive, the b230f high compression is awesome.
<z>
<z>
The car needed a theme so I had Trevor give it a premier British paint and body makeover, BLYAT is part of an inappropriate Russian phrase, so we gave it 3 stripes just like Adidas.
<z>
<z>
From here I took it on more Gambler events, but also to King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley CA. Before that Connor (well mainly him) put in a Spartan locker, as well as a set of Taro's old commando bumpers from his 242. I swapped out the IPD overloads with hockey pucks, and instead used Jeep XJ springs. Also swapped to diesel front springs courtesy of Sbabbs. I also added a bunch of Hella lights for that rally look (removed 2 due to cooling issues), as well as some 10 spoke Nova/Sirius wheels in white. I also added my old NPR intercooler out of my black 240. I also started racing the car in the Gambler 500's sister event HooptieX, which is Rallycross for crappy cars. The car now has sort of an identity crisis but that's ok, it's been the most fun I've had building a car.
<z>
Specs:
<z>
Drivetrain:
Stock B230F ~200K
T cam
NXS mbc @ 12psi
NPR intercooler
90+ manifold
T3 turbo
Sbabbs ecu/ezk chips
AW72 trans
Dana 30 Spartan locker
<z>
Suspension:
Diesel front springs
Custom aluminum strut mount spacers
IPD upper and lower chassis braces
Jeep Cherokee XJ front springs
VW Vanagon KYB shocks
Polyurethane torque rod bushings
Volvo warranty seatbelt custom limiting straps
<z>
Other:
Nilight lightbar
Hella 500 driving lights
205/75R15 General Grabber AT2
<Z>
Here's a couple videos I did, one on the +T and one on the lift setup:
<Z>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8K_VYgP0t8s" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8IvWcQPtJnY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>