pat244ti
Moderator
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2002
- Location
- Santa Cruz CA
Quick introduction - I recently picked this up from F1rebird on here back early last month.
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=84732
He purchased a 4th gen Firebird [fitting, huh?] and since than, the Volvo had sat the past two years at his parents house. He posted on the TB group on Facebook about it possibly being for sale, and having felt the need for another car that ran in my life I felt hey why not. I am taking my dually off the road for a solid amount of time while I fix bodywork, the trans and suspension. I have also had an urge to build a car to run at rallycrosses as well as be DD-able. I don't really drive much is the thing, I work a few blocks from my house and I walk and bike most of the time there and other places. So if my DD is gutted and loud I don't care.
He rebuilt the B23FT a few years back, converted it to an M46 with a flat 240T flywheel and clutch and did other mods as well - ebay IC, ipd cam, adjustable gear, mbc, forge cbv. Also had ipd sways, bilsteins and a few other minor suspension mods.
I was pleased with the car on the test drive, other than something feeling up with the clutch [it does have a "stage II blah blah" pressure plate and a 4 puck clutch but there was also something else making it hard - more on that] it seemed fine and I was pleased with the price we settled on for not having it smogged either [failed visual].
After the test drive, purchase, and a drive to Pleasanton [~30 miles] I realized the expansion tank was breaking up. Picked up a tube of epoxy sealer, went to an old dive in town I knew of from when I lived there, fixed it in the parking lot, had a few beers and burgers, sobered up a few hours fiddling with the car and made it home fine.
When I got home, I jacked it up and found the transmission mount was about to collapse. I had a few b30 engine mounts for my 1800es so I decided to fit that in place of the stock mount as it is a way more solid design. This greatly improved the shifting on the car. Ordered a new expansion tank too. I spent the next day getting it ready to pass the visual for smog and made it through just fine.
I took the car to the flea market the next weekend, and found some sweet mudflaps for $20 to replace the cracked and broken ones that were on the car
Over the next couple of weeks I swapped in LH 2.2 [518 ecu and a 007 maf easy to repin for LH 2.1 on the 84's], tossed in some 850T injectors & deleted the resistor pack and bypassed the boost cut. It ran a solid 16 psi just fine.
I was so happy with it I took it bombing up HWY 152 [a nice mountain road with tons of elevation changes and a few hairpins] late at night to go get In N Out Burger. As it turns out, the highway was closed going down the mountain down to 1 lane. It was controlled with a traffic signal. We started to both smell something in the car and realized something was up. I threw on the flashers, and right when I got out of the car it started dumping smoke out of the exhaust. Definitely seemed like a turbo. Somehow I babied it to Gilroy and back without continually blowing a bunch of smoke [only in boost or on an incline at a stop].
Got home and tore everything down. I ended up removing the turbo as well as the head after having suspicions of the head being cracked a tiny bit. The exhaust side had a bunch of oil. The intake side had a lot too. I had another nice 398 head to put on it, I nearly installed a 398 from a 240 Turbo and was going to run a B21F intake with the fuel rail mounted to the valve cover to go into the KJet ports, but the manifold sits WAY too high on a 740 as opposed to a 240. Nothing a hammer could not solve, but I want the car to be stiff and having a B21F manifold on a 740 eliminates the chances of running a decent strut brace. I went with the normal 398 and kept the one with the CIS injectors for the 240 racecar.
While I was at it tearing that stuff off, I completely removed the intercooler and radiator assembly. I kind found the whole setup too ghetto for my liking - the intercooler was shoved in there sandwiched between radiator and condenser] and since I was removing it as well as the rest of the AC it made sense remounting the intercooler up front by trimming out a small-ish not enough to matter portion of sheetmetal and building a few brackets. The piping was solved by using some couplers and pipes I had mostly laying around that seemed to line up WAY cleaner than before, especially for the CBV. I do plan to relocate the oil cooler, as it sits right now its slight less than an inch from the cold side 90 degree coupler.
I remounted the power steering using a bracket from a 240 after getting rid of the compressor. I replaced all of the accessory bushings with solid mounts from Yoshifab.
I was unable to track down a stock good replacement T3 so I settled on an ebay t3/t4. Second hand, never used, $80. Done. Reclocked it and whatnot to make it work on the 90+ [which is also ported] and used an adapter from ATP to go from a stepped lip to flat flange. I had a few exhaust studs laying around which were the perfect length to hold it all together. I had enough fittings left over to plumb it, aside from getting the Yoshifab 10 AN return line adapter. The 3'' intake was larger than what was on there before, I asked my friend if he might have something and he dug up this ****ty intake he had on a Mitsubishi DE Coupe that was riced out 14 years ago when he was a junior in hs working at a pizza place. It was 3'' and the perfect radius. Cool that it lives on [that ****ty ass DE Coupe was crushed in 2004]
For now I am using the stock wastegate and I plan on running the turbo till I can save enough money in tips at work [maybe 3-4 weeks?] to get it rebuilt with Garrett internals and at that time I will upgrade to a ATP ultimate wastegate and a 3'' downpipe/exhaust.
For the PCV on the car, it seems to have had issues in the past so I put another breather box I had on it laying around and I might invest in Josh's kit in the future. But I plumbed in a B21 vented valve cover and a catch can [again, mostly with stuff just laying around] and I hope it works nice.
I wired in an E-Fan from a 940 that came with the car. It took a little bit of trimming to mount up on the early 740 radiator but it was easy to wire the relay to a switch from a SAAB. It seems to be working good.
I am thinking for simplicity and durability of rewiring the car soon. It is going to be used for rallycross and it only needs a few basic circuits. Right now the chassis wiring on this car is absolutely god awful. I hate it so much and it almost scares me [I have nightmares about that 740 sedan on fire in a greenbook]. So I am going to put a 240 late LH 2.2 harness in it as well as some kill switches and panels as well that are just collecting dust from my dirt track days. Also going to order up some nice fuse panels too.
As of right now the car is sitting because I kind of ****ed up - I was going to originally run the oil feed off the front of the block but the fitting is seized in place. So I went with the stock location but like a dumbass I had a 90 degree fitting that seemed to thread in fine. Of course that fitting is the exact same thread I was using on the front of the block [1/4 npt] but it was in a metric hole. Thread in fine but with the tapered thread it just shoots oil out even with RTV, which I used as a last minute ditch to make WM 6. Which failed. So I have ordered the correct 14mm banjo to AN 4 fitting. Lesson learned, I usually just go off the front of the block though, never had the plug get stuck so bad.
Here's some pics of how it currently sits. It's back on 2.1 because I used the 2.2 MAF on my friends 242 I put together.
^ +49.31 wheel horse power
Goals are to get the car running solid and figure out a good cheap rallycross suspension without breaking the bank. If I like it enough I'll build it to take on stages.
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=84732
He purchased a 4th gen Firebird [fitting, huh?] and since than, the Volvo had sat the past two years at his parents house. He posted on the TB group on Facebook about it possibly being for sale, and having felt the need for another car that ran in my life I felt hey why not. I am taking my dually off the road for a solid amount of time while I fix bodywork, the trans and suspension. I have also had an urge to build a car to run at rallycrosses as well as be DD-able. I don't really drive much is the thing, I work a few blocks from my house and I walk and bike most of the time there and other places. So if my DD is gutted and loud I don't care.
He rebuilt the B23FT a few years back, converted it to an M46 with a flat 240T flywheel and clutch and did other mods as well - ebay IC, ipd cam, adjustable gear, mbc, forge cbv. Also had ipd sways, bilsteins and a few other minor suspension mods.
I was pleased with the car on the test drive, other than something feeling up with the clutch [it does have a "stage II blah blah" pressure plate and a 4 puck clutch but there was also something else making it hard - more on that] it seemed fine and I was pleased with the price we settled on for not having it smogged either [failed visual].
After the test drive, purchase, and a drive to Pleasanton [~30 miles] I realized the expansion tank was breaking up. Picked up a tube of epoxy sealer, went to an old dive in town I knew of from when I lived there, fixed it in the parking lot, had a few beers and burgers, sobered up a few hours fiddling with the car and made it home fine.
When I got home, I jacked it up and found the transmission mount was about to collapse. I had a few b30 engine mounts for my 1800es so I decided to fit that in place of the stock mount as it is a way more solid design. This greatly improved the shifting on the car. Ordered a new expansion tank too. I spent the next day getting it ready to pass the visual for smog and made it through just fine.
I took the car to the flea market the next weekend, and found some sweet mudflaps for $20 to replace the cracked and broken ones that were on the car
Over the next couple of weeks I swapped in LH 2.2 [518 ecu and a 007 maf easy to repin for LH 2.1 on the 84's], tossed in some 850T injectors & deleted the resistor pack and bypassed the boost cut. It ran a solid 16 psi just fine.
I was so happy with it I took it bombing up HWY 152 [a nice mountain road with tons of elevation changes and a few hairpins] late at night to go get In N Out Burger. As it turns out, the highway was closed going down the mountain down to 1 lane. It was controlled with a traffic signal. We started to both smell something in the car and realized something was up. I threw on the flashers, and right when I got out of the car it started dumping smoke out of the exhaust. Definitely seemed like a turbo. Somehow I babied it to Gilroy and back without continually blowing a bunch of smoke [only in boost or on an incline at a stop].
Got home and tore everything down. I ended up removing the turbo as well as the head after having suspicions of the head being cracked a tiny bit. The exhaust side had a bunch of oil. The intake side had a lot too. I had another nice 398 head to put on it, I nearly installed a 398 from a 240 Turbo and was going to run a B21F intake with the fuel rail mounted to the valve cover to go into the KJet ports, but the manifold sits WAY too high on a 740 as opposed to a 240. Nothing a hammer could not solve, but I want the car to be stiff and having a B21F manifold on a 740 eliminates the chances of running a decent strut brace. I went with the normal 398 and kept the one with the CIS injectors for the 240 racecar.
While I was at it tearing that stuff off, I completely removed the intercooler and radiator assembly. I kind found the whole setup too ghetto for my liking - the intercooler was shoved in there sandwiched between radiator and condenser] and since I was removing it as well as the rest of the AC it made sense remounting the intercooler up front by trimming out a small-ish not enough to matter portion of sheetmetal and building a few brackets. The piping was solved by using some couplers and pipes I had mostly laying around that seemed to line up WAY cleaner than before, especially for the CBV. I do plan to relocate the oil cooler, as it sits right now its slight less than an inch from the cold side 90 degree coupler.
I remounted the power steering using a bracket from a 240 after getting rid of the compressor. I replaced all of the accessory bushings with solid mounts from Yoshifab.
I was unable to track down a stock good replacement T3 so I settled on an ebay t3/t4. Second hand, never used, $80. Done. Reclocked it and whatnot to make it work on the 90+ [which is also ported] and used an adapter from ATP to go from a stepped lip to flat flange. I had a few exhaust studs laying around which were the perfect length to hold it all together. I had enough fittings left over to plumb it, aside from getting the Yoshifab 10 AN return line adapter. The 3'' intake was larger than what was on there before, I asked my friend if he might have something and he dug up this ****ty intake he had on a Mitsubishi DE Coupe that was riced out 14 years ago when he was a junior in hs working at a pizza place. It was 3'' and the perfect radius. Cool that it lives on [that ****ty ass DE Coupe was crushed in 2004]
For now I am using the stock wastegate and I plan on running the turbo till I can save enough money in tips at work [maybe 3-4 weeks?] to get it rebuilt with Garrett internals and at that time I will upgrade to a ATP ultimate wastegate and a 3'' downpipe/exhaust.
For the PCV on the car, it seems to have had issues in the past so I put another breather box I had on it laying around and I might invest in Josh's kit in the future. But I plumbed in a B21 vented valve cover and a catch can [again, mostly with stuff just laying around] and I hope it works nice.
I wired in an E-Fan from a 940 that came with the car. It took a little bit of trimming to mount up on the early 740 radiator but it was easy to wire the relay to a switch from a SAAB. It seems to be working good.
I am thinking for simplicity and durability of rewiring the car soon. It is going to be used for rallycross and it only needs a few basic circuits. Right now the chassis wiring on this car is absolutely god awful. I hate it so much and it almost scares me [I have nightmares about that 740 sedan on fire in a greenbook]. So I am going to put a 240 late LH 2.2 harness in it as well as some kill switches and panels as well that are just collecting dust from my dirt track days. Also going to order up some nice fuse panels too.
As of right now the car is sitting because I kind of ****ed up - I was going to originally run the oil feed off the front of the block but the fitting is seized in place. So I went with the stock location but like a dumbass I had a 90 degree fitting that seemed to thread in fine. Of course that fitting is the exact same thread I was using on the front of the block [1/4 npt] but it was in a metric hole. Thread in fine but with the tapered thread it just shoots oil out even with RTV, which I used as a last minute ditch to make WM 6. Which failed. So I have ordered the correct 14mm banjo to AN 4 fitting. Lesson learned, I usually just go off the front of the block though, never had the plug get stuck so bad.
Here's some pics of how it currently sits. It's back on 2.1 because I used the 2.2 MAF on my friends 242 I put together.
^ +49.31 wheel horse power
Goals are to get the car running solid and figure out a good cheap rallycross suspension without breaking the bank. If I like it enough I'll build it to take on stages.
Last edited:
beautiful.
