Chuck's '80 264GLE - "The Blue One"

[Chuck W]

I found myself a 244....errr...264, and picked it up yesterday. Drove up to Sheboygan and hauled it back. A couple quick pics from this morning of it's first look. It has a chin spoiler, but I took that off for the trip.







The original PRV is dead, so I'm planning on pulling that and dropping in the B21FT/M46 I had from my old 244TIC. Just planning a mild build.

The car has been sitting for a LONG time (mostly indoors), so I'm going to need to go through a bunch of the basic mechanicals and get it ready for the road. It'll clean up really nice though, and it's a solid starting point.

More pics as I get deeper into it.

[nel621]

Looks like a nice solid car. GLW the build.

[Chuck W]

I wouldn't mind keeping the car a V6, but I MUST have a manual trans. Perhaps I'll stumble upon a reasonably-priced even-fire engine in the near future.

Other than some gaskets and general clean-up stuff, I have everything for the B21FT/M46 sitting here, so that's probably the more cost-effective route to take.

[The Redeemer]

Well done to you! Love this model, even the 6, in the brief periods it works of course. Good luck too!

[brsbricks]

Can't wait to see the build!

[ryanfay]

Nice interior.

[Chuck W]

Originally Posted by ryanfay

Nice interior.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the seats, but the rest of it is really nice. Hoping to get some time to mess with it this weekend.

[JohnLane]

Needs a FUN engine!

One that sounds like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8gRHjtJ5wo

But perhaps with a muffler for the street....

[Chuck W]

Well, I was finally able to get the car up in the drive and start to get into it a bit.

This is what the trunk looked like...(And it smelled about the same)


I went ahead and tossed that carpet, as I had the old stuff from the '85 that hadn't been a party place for mice. I grabbed a bucket and some bleach and wiped down the trunk area.


Not too bad off. A couple spots that need attention, but nothing terrible.

The dead B27


Not sure if I'm going to keep the rear headrests or not.


All of the headrests had these custom-made padded covers on them. Probably not going to reuse them.


The only real place of rust on the car is the leading edge of the hood. Kind of crusty.


I have a flat-hood in the shed I might try and use, if I can get the color matched. Looking at the paint, I think that while it was repainted, the color wasn't necessarily a stock color. Hard to say.

Swapping hoods would also allow me to get rid of this thing...

It's heavy and looks like crap. It also appears that it was stuck to the hood with some super adhesive. Maybe on a hot day I can try to get it off.

One bonus was that the car had a 3-year-old Optima Red-top battery in it, but it was flat. I kind of slowly charged it up over this week and it appears to be holding a charge. I stuck it back in the car to see what electrics worked, etc. The lights are typical for a Volvo that's been sitting...so about 40% of them work, but that's not a big deal. The central locking works, as do the mirrors. The power windows work IF you don't try and do it from the master switch on the driver door, but they all work locally, though. Going to pull the switch apart and clean it. The driver rear window will work about half the time, if you hold your tongue right. Heater fan works as does the radio, but the power antenna is stuck up.

Didn't have time for much more today, but I got a good look over the car. Will start getting into the mechanicals another day.

[Chuck W]

So, I got other projects done last week and yesterday, so I could finally get this thing in the air and pull the wheels off it. Found more work.

This is what I was greeted with at the fronts.

Driver


Pass


The rear stuff doesn't look too bad


Not sure if I want to leave this in here, or swap for the rear I have from the '85 turbo car in the garage. I think I'd rather save that for the 242.



So, those strut housings are toast. I'm already prepping the brakes that were on the '85 to install on this, so I'll probably also just do some clean-up and use the strut housings from that as well. The front control arms are kind of crusty, but I'll hold off on those for now and get another set to clean up and install later.
I'll need a set of struts for it as well, as was probably just going to use the Bilstein Touring ones. They seemed to do OK for a driver on the '85. I have the set from that car for the rear, so those will go on.

The car has 19/19 sways on it, so I'll probably try and find a Turbo or GT one for the front. That's more of a want than a need right now, so we'll see what comes up.

Looking at the front of the car, there is just TOO MUCH CHROME there for me.What I might try and do is get a turbo grille and the "black outs" for the quad rectangle set up, to replace the reflector. That should tone it down a bit.

Sorry, no new shiny parts just yet. Still trying to get sorted out what I'm going to need to get this thing back on the road.

[John242Ti]

Looks good. I'd leave the 3.54 in there. Makes the canyon between 1st and 2nd a little less painful on the turbo M46's.

Re: blacking it out, could just go ahead and turn it into a 244 Turbo, complete. Car already has most of the stuff needed. Just need to black out the chrome, put the '81-'85 dash in with the extra gauges, install your drivetrain, turbo sways, etc, and some decent alloys.

The stuff on the underside of the hood is the iPd hood quiet kit. More effective than the stock hood blanket at quieting down the engine. Paint looks stock, but maybe a little duller than it was new. Had your car's twin a few years ago, albeit just a GL model with the blue velour. Car came from Texas, so the paint was DEAD. Can be seen behind the beater 145E in this pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/245gt-t...57627704665425

-J

[PDX240]

cool project! Looks good.
-Also those headrest covers aren't some custom jobbie, those be OEM Volvo 'ol style headrest pads. Somewhat desireable if you don't use them.

[Chuck W]

Originally Posted by Blue245Ti

Looks good. I'd leave the 3.54 in there. Makes the canyon between 1st and 2nd a little less painful on the turbo M46's.

Re: blacking it out, could just go ahead and turn it into a 244 Turbo, complete. Car already has most of the stuff needed. Just need to black out the chrome, put the '81-'85 dash in with the extra gauges, install your drivetrain, turbo sways, etc, and some decent alloys.

The stuff on the underside of the hood is the iPd hood quiet kit. More effective than the stock hood blanket at quieting down the engine. Paint looks stock, but maybe a little duller than it was new. Had your car's twin a few years ago, albeit just a GL model with the blue velour. Car came from Texas, so the paint was DEAD. Can be seen behind the beater 145E in this pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/245gt-t...57627704665425

-J

Well, I didn't really want to completely black this one out. I think it works with some brightwork and black with the color. The front is just all chrome, which is a bit much. The paint is hard to tell. It looks a bit lighter under the hood, etc.

Regarding the dash. The stock dash is way too nice in this car to swap out. I'll need some more gauges, so I'll have to figure out some other option in that regard. I was going to swap the turbo dash into the 242, seeing as I need to pull the dash out of it anyway to fix the heater fan, etc. The dash in that car is shot.

On the rear axle. I was just thinking about that here a short bit ago. I need to figure out what the actual ratio is in that turbo rear (as well as the one in the 242) just to see what I'm working with. No tags are left on either of those, so I'll need to check it manually.

Originally Posted by PDX240

cool project! Looks good.
-Also those headrest covers aren't some custom jobbie, those be OEM Volvo 'ol style headrest pads. Somewhat desireable if you don't use them.

Well, I'm not planning on using them, so they might have to be put up for sale here shortly, if that's the case.

[Chuck W]

OK, well this is how she sits at this point.


Project funds are a bit light at the moment, so I'm having to work on other things while I get some money together to get a couple things I need to get it moving.

The primary concern is getting the car running and roadworthy. Any extra "fun" stuff will have to wait until extra funds are available.

The B21FT is getting some new gaskets/seals and a cleaning before going back in. The M46 is getting a new clutch and a cleaning as well. The MegaSquirt box is ready (no K-Jets will be going back in the car) and I'll just be using an LH2.2 dist with it for ease of setting up the ignition.

A couple things slowing progress:
-The fuel system is shot. The tank was full of rust and the pumps were dead. The lines under the car were rusted completely through in a couple spots, so that is all out of the car. I thought I had found a useable set-up, but it looks like all I'm going to be able to use from it is the main pump/accumulator assy. The "new" tank has some rust, and the intank pump/sender unit is shot. I might be able to salvage the tank. Another overnight session with some muratic acid and a sealer kit should get that sorted. I might have a line on a better tank though. Waiting to see what pans out with that. I also have the old tank from my '77, but that uses the harder to find intank/sender set-up, which needs replaced as well. The tank is in good nick, though. I wonder if I could cut the larger sender mounting ring out of the later tank and weld it into the '77 tank w/o blowing myself up?

- The brakes are shot. I just finished this week pulling all the calipers, etc from the car. I have the stuff from the '85 turbo car that is useable, so I'm just going to be using that. Being a 264, this car had the vented rotors up front, so not much change, really. The e-brake stuff on the pass side is boogered up, so I'll probably just grab stuff from the other rear axle I have in the garage. I'll need to replace all the rubber hoses on the car, so that'll be more money needed.

Been busy refurbishing a few parts from the old car before I install them, but the primary focus is taking care of things *needed* to get the car on the ground and running.

I did do a little clean-up of the Aspirator shifter that I have. It got a little dinged up while pulling the engine/trans out of the '85 because I couldn't get the shifter out (the pin was stuck in the roller bearing).


The mono-ball needed replaced as well.


I picked up a new monoball and cleaned up and recoated the shifter.
. Just need a new roller bearing and it's ready to go.

I've got to dig up some front struts and I'm probably just going to cut the front springs for now, to drop the nose a bit. I'd like to get a bigger front sway bar for it, but that may have to wait a bit. I did clean up the old strut housings from the '85, so those will be replacing the nasty pieces from in the pictures above.

More to come as I'm able to make more progress.

[Chuck W]

I've spent some time getting the B21FT cleaned up and ready to swap in.


Nothing fancy happening to the foundation, as it ran OK despite a few niggling K-Jet issues that won't be a concern with the MS.

Got the 90+ manifold studs sorted out and the T3 mounted. I went ahead and used a .60A/R compressor housing I had from an old Ford 2.3T set-up vs. the stock one. I'll need to make an adapter flange for its outlet, but that's a non-issue, really. Looks like the old turbo oil drain won't work on the 90+ manifold, so I'll have to come up with a solution there. I was able to get the oil feed to work.

I can get the intake mounted, but I need to sort out the fuel rail. I bought one that came with the intake, but evidently didn't notice in the pic (and the seller didn't mention) that the mounting tabs to attach it to the intake were broken off of it. I could probably weld on a couple more, but I might not use that fuel rail anyway.

I also need to remove all the extra senders/sensors/switches from the Dr side of the head/block, re-purpose the holes for stuff needed for the MS and other gauges and plug the rest.

[Chuck W]

A little more work recently.

I made a little adapter to mount the 960 TPS on my LH2.2 TB.




Got the intake all mounted and a few more bits installed on the engine



I have this fuel rail that came with the intake but...
I don't like where the return is


and well, these are missing from the rail. Both mounting tabs broken off.


Need to get the AC compressor and the PS pump mounted up, and then I'm just about ready to drop this thing down off the stand and get the trans mated to it again.

[slow240]

that is an early lh 240 fuel rail. if you want the other design look for just about any 740/940 or a later (90+) 240

looks like this could be a fun project. paint looks good, should be nice!

[Jack]

i'll take those headrest pads off you
off to a good start

[Chuck W]

Originally Posted by jack8745

i'll take those headrest pads off you

Sent a PM, never heard back.

Anyway. So this got done today.





I really would like to do something with a PRV for a project. Maybe something in the '77.

Next task is to powerwash the engine bay and get any old engine management electronics out of the car in prep for the MS install.

[Chuck W]

Kind of a busy week, but had some time after work during the week to get a couple things done.

I modded the turbo outlet with a V-band flange.



Just going to be running a 2-1/2" system on this car, so that's all I accounted for with the V-band. I did clean up the ID a bit, but not too much.

I also got all of the engine management and Lambda Sond system wiring out of the way and out of the car. I picked the old location for the LS module as the location for my power hub for the MS stuff.



It all works out to be the same height as the old module, so it'll fit fine behind the kick panel. I also dug through a bunch of the wiring diagrams to figure out what I wanted to do in regards to running the wiring. I'm ready to start getting the power side of things underway.
Also, my current intention is to mount the MS ECU under the dash, under the glove box. I'll have to make a mount for it, but it won't be too terrible.

Going to hopefully borrow a power-washer this week to get the engine bay cleaned up, so I can drop the drivetrain in.

[fortbrick]

Looks like the beginning of a nice project.

[Chuck W]

OK, well I've been getting some work done, but not much really happened until this weekend.

After getting the old engine/trans out, I went ahead and powerwashed the engine bay.
A couple spots to touch up, but all in all pretty clean.


I sorted out the turbo oil drain by welding a short section into the existing stock one. Since that was finally handled (didn't want to screw with that while the engine was in the car), I got the engine off the stand and got ready to bolt the trans up.


(I STILL didn't wind up with the fuel rail I wanted, but after getting two of the wrong ones, I was done and am just going to use this.)

Once the engine and trans were mated up, I set about to getting things in place.


I'd forgotten to remove the old auto floor shifter, so that screwed with me a bit in getting things lined up and in place. An extra pair of hands would've been helpful, but as usual, I do all the work solo.

At the end of the day on Sat, I had this in place.




I'd installed some poly motor mounts (like what I ran on the '85 and have one the '77), but seeing as the stock trans mount is so soft, it still allows the trans to bounce quite a bit. I opted to give this a try, as a semi-easy replacement for the stock one.




Is there a better option? Sure, but I can sort that out later *if* I have a problem with this. fabbing up a new X-member isn't high on the list of priorities for this car at the moment.

Today was spent doing a bit more of the "heavy lifting" under the car. I got the new gas tank in place and went ahead and stuck the driveshaft back in it.

The last thing I did was bolt on a couple of the wheels. I know...Tri-spokes. I have two sets of these in the shed, and they hold tires, so they were getting used.





Now to continue with working through other systems that need to be buttoned up.

[blkaplan]

you should try to open up that turbine outlet to get closer to the v band diameter.

[Chuck W]

Originally Posted by blkaplan

you should try to open up that turbine outlet to get closer to the v band diameter.

I opened it up a bit after that pic, but I run out of working room with the tool to get out much farther. I may mess with it a bit more later.

[amerbritcan]

I actually love those wheels on a 2 series. cookiemonster was going to throw some on his +T'd 244 of a similar colour, and I was a fan.

I too would love a PRV project someday