Rob Prince's 242 Resurrection

[Volvorules]

Current Mod List Here:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showpo...&postcount=411

Purchased the car in 2000 from my boss at the shop where I worked. At the time it was powered by a 2.2L B21(?) with forged Arias flat top pistons, custom ported cylinder head with larger valves, dual Weber 45DCOEs, and a Stahl header. It came with a set of 17" Volvo Titan wheels. Suspension was decent, cut springs all around with custom revalved bilstein shocks. It also had IPD sway bars, 25mm front and rear. The car was also equipped
with a Dana clutch-type limited slip differential. It handled well, made decent power, and was quick enough to be fun. In 2002 it was dynoed on a Mustang Dyno at 136hp and 148lb-ft with a broken accelerator spring in the front carburetor. Pretty decent, but I was expecting more.


I used the car for a few years for autocrossing and driving on the street occasionally. It sat around a lot, as it would not pass state inspection with the carbs, nor could I afford the insurance at the time. Then in the summer of 2003, I heard about a drift event at a local track, Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. I decided to register for it and see what I could do. I did pretty well at the event, for having close to the least amount of horsepower. The track was too large for the car with its current power level.
The next drift event was a practice held in a parking lot outside of Richmond, VA. This was November of 2003. I went to this event and did a little better, with the car being more suited to the smaller venue.

In 2004 I participated in a few events with the car, now making a bit less power due to a bottom end swap. The lack of air filters on the air horns caused the cylinder walls to wear, so the rings no longer sealed very well.

At an event at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, VA, I came off the banking on one turn and lost control into a tire wall. The car fared well, of course, with some left front fender damage and a broken headlight surround.

So we pulled the fender out and I got back out on course.



I drove the car at Summit Point for the second year in a row, and did a little bit better with more experience under my belt. I made it into the final group of 8 cars, and then to 4, where the bottom end gave up. Must have spun a rod bearing, but I didn't ever investigate fully. So that was the end of that engine.

The car was also my daily driver at that point, as my turbo engine swap in my 262 Bertone had taken quite a bit more time than expected. So now I was without a running vehicle to get to and from work. Fortunately I could borrow a 242GT from my roommate (Chris, 242GTMD) and use that for a week. But it was crunch time on the Bertone. I spent quite a bit of time that week working on getting the Megasquirt in the Berturbo operational, and finally, on Saturday, I got to drive it around for the first time. So now that the Berturbo was up and running, the blue car took a rest on my trailer, where it lived for a few months.

In December of 2004, I decided it was time to build the blue car as my drift car, instead of doubling up with the Berturbo as my daily driver/drift machine. This was a good idea, I believe, but also took quite some time to come to fruition. I spoke with a friend about doing a rollcage for it, and he said it would be no problem. I began working on the car, stripping the interior and getting as much crap out of it as I could. I trailered it up to Hagerstown,
MD, where Travis of SVR would be putting the roll cage in. I didn't expect this to take as long as it did, but more on that later.

The first drift practice event of 2005 came on January 15th, at Virginia Motorsports Park, also outside of Richmond, VA. It was at this event that my Berturbo would run for the last time. I had an issue with the Megasquirt, which rendered the car dead. I towed it home, and worked on it for the next week or so, while driving the aforementioned 242GT. It turns out that at some point while driving the car, one of the valve springs had broken. I got the
megasquirt hooked up and ready to go, and was trying to start the car. All of a sudden, it stopped cranking. After a few more attempts, I knew something was up. I decided to pull the cylinder head and see what was up. What I found was ugly: the broken valve spring, broken valve, and a nice hole in the block. This was the end of the Berturbo.



Back to the 242. After dropping it off with Travis of SVR, I got to work on ordering parts. I collected quite a bit of stuff, including a Mustang T5 trans, with bellhousing adapter from vperformance. I got a clutch from clutchnet.com to fit the swap. I also picked up a Proturbo manifold from the group buy organized by Dave Barton. My biggest purchase was a Garrett GT2871R turbo from ATP Turbo, dual ball bearing with the upgraded 4" compressor inlet. This thing is a monster, and seemed like the best of the GT series to fit my engine and performance needs. Spool should be decent with the ball bearings and the Proturbo manifold, and peak power should be excellent. While I was busy collecting parts, the roll cage production was moving along very slowly.

It obviously takes a long time to build a roll cage, and this one was no exception. While building the cage, he was also making the downpipe and exhaust, as well as welding up the piping for the Tial 38mm external wastegate.

A lot of work had to be done.

[Volvorules]

I finally picked the car up from Travis on Dec. 3rd, 2005. I was excited to get it back and start finishing the car up. First on the adgenda was supposed to be body work. But I soon heard of the first drift practice event, which was to be held on Feb. 18th at VIR. The goal was changed from getting body work done first, to working on the mechanicals. The engine and transmission came out, and were parted out. The engine bay was cleaned up and painted, and in went the B230FT.


This engine was a 94 L block, with the desireable piston oil squirters. I changed nothing with the bottom end, except for a custom oil pan built by Mike Perry. The cylinder head was a 530 casting, with port and polish work done by myself, and stock valves, but using comp cams springs for the extended higher-rpm use this engine was to see. I found an IPD turbo cam on ebay, and tossed that in as well. The intake manifold was port matched,
and it had custom intercooler piping built by Travis as well, used to fit the generic ebay intercooler.

Everything was coming together nicely.

As for suspension, I used the IPD bars that were already on the car, but switched just about everything else. Michael Towery helped me swap the rear axle, to a welded differential that I picked up from Mike Perry. I installed 325-lb rear stock car springs, with adjustable perches from stockcarproducts.com. I used the revalved bilsteins that were on the car already in the rear. For the front, I had picked up a set of ITB-spec struts from Tom Smith. These were shortened tubes, with Koni double-adjustable inserts. I also got a set of GroupA style camber plates, also from Tom. I grabbed the SAM strut tower brace which had been on my Bertone, and after performing the alignment, was ready to roll.

I had planned on running Megasquirt on this engine from the get-go, and then once fuel maps were tuned fairly well, the plan was to switch to MSnS-extra. But that plan changed when, after hooking up my MS box, I got no spark from the coil. Somehow something had been damaged in the MS box, and it was grounding out that circuit. So I switched to MSnS-extra. After a week of attempting to get it started, with help from Ben and Lawrence, we figured out that the MSnS box that I had was damaged too. It was continuously firing injectors as soon as the key was turned on. This obviously created some problems, like a crankcase full of fuel! So after this was figured out, Lawrence let me borrow his MSnS box, and the car started soon after installing that box. A little tuning and I was able to drive it around a bit. Then Chris and I headed out on the highway to do some pulls and more tuning.

The tuning went well, and the car was easily driveable. I drove it to and from work for a few days, to try and help break in the clutch, and do a little bit of tuning at the same time. We were now less than 2 weeks away from the drift practice event. It was definetely fun to drive, and the turbo did spool very quickly. Using the spring that came in the Tial wastegate, I was running just under 10psi of boost. It felt very quick, and full boost was acheived just under 3000 rpms. I was very pleased. After a week of driving like this, I upped the boost to 15 psi, and Chris and I went out for some more tuning runs. Fortunately, I had guesstimated the map on the rich side, so it was safe at that boost level, with no pinging. As we adjusted the maps and watched the air/fuel ratio move from 10:1 towards 12:1, the car got faster and faster. We were both amazed at the difference that 2 points of AFR could make. After settling on a safe tune, I felt the car was ready for the track. I installed the 2 sparco seats, and both harnesses, and cleaned up some of the wiring mess. On the Thursday before the event, I loaded the car on my trailer, and was ready to go!

The event started on a Saturday morning, but I had the day off work on Friday. Chris, Michael and I left around 12:30 from our place, and headed down to VIR. The drive took about 4 and a half hours, and we made it with no issues. Checked into the hotel, and hung out. Saturday we got up early and headed to the track. Got the registration and tech inspection finished, and waited for my turn on course. It was quite cold, and there were snow showers expected at some point during the day. Fortunately, our first session on track was dry. The car did well, as I took my time getting up to speed, to learn both the car and the course layout. I had the boost turned back to 10psi for Saturday. It seemed good, but I couldn't wait to turn it up. The second session of the day was done with snow flurries falling, and a very wet track. So it was basically just an attempt at not spinning. But it was still a lot of fun.

Sunday morning was dry, and I was very excited to see how the day went. I started in the morning with the boost set at 10psi still, and became much more familiar with the track. After lunch, I cranked the boost to 15, and that's when the real fun started. After a switch to a different set of rear tires, and with the boost level raised, the car was a monster. I could hold much more angle, and actually started to see some smoke off the rear tires. It gave me a lot of confidence in the car, and made me anxious to turn the boost even higher. I did have a few issues with loose turbo mounting hardware, which caused some melted paint and a cooked upper timing cover, but other than that, the car ran very well. I was pleased with the results.

Now the car is apart, waiting for a new turbo to manifold gasket. After it gets put back together this week, I will be installing the R brakes on the front, and then my new wheels. As soon as everything gets mounted up, I will be sure to post pics of them. Of course, the car will still not be complete, as I am still working on the body work, and getting ready for paint. That is quite an ordeal, of course. Some day it will be complete though, I promise.

Future plans for the car include a built bottom end, to support 20 to 25psi of boost, and of course more tuning of the MSnS. I have to get on a dyno at some time in the near future, to get the timing map sorted out better. Of course the paint still needs to be done, which should come at some point in March or April. And then I will just work on driving the car and having a good time while drifting, and the occasional trip down the 1/4 mile.

[blkaplan]

This car is far from finished and is gonna have a lot more custom goodies,

[TerribleOne]

Excellent writeup. I feel bad for wanting to junk my 240.

[jpbturbo]

I'm so happy to see this.

[mAydAy]

The car is a BEAST. I rode in it on Saturday at low boost, and its NUUTS. It helps that Rob is a pretty damn good driver.

I've got the old 2.2l B21, and its just ring wear not cylinder wall luckily.


Watch Rob this year, He'll go far drifting. I think that Formula D is quite a possibility for next year.

[Inc3pt]

Love this car...Ill be watching the thread *droool*

[Hank Scorpio]

Its about time!

I love love LOVE it.

now show off those sexy wheels!

[Crazychopstick]

Incredible! I've always been a big fan of that 242.

Can't wait to see the progress.

[Tenacious Todd]

Rob if thats the L block I sold you its from a 93..

[mAydAy]

Oh man wait til yall see the wheels......

[Volvorules]

Ok, wheel shots I can't hold back any longer.

They won't go on until I get the R brakes on the front, which should be this week...installed pics later.

[towerymt]

It's finally done!!!!!!!!!!! Almost.

[Crazychopstick]

WHOA! What kind of wheels are those?

Oh and are you painting the car white?

[Homer]

Mmmmm awesome job, Rob.
Are those Fikse?

[Volvorules]

Haha, no, no white, no pink. The car will be painted dark blue, hopefully much like what it used to be.

As for the wheels, they are custom made Kodaik Racing Wheels. www.kodiakracingwheels.com , go figure.

Anyway, fronts (not shown) are 17X8", et 3, weigh 18lbs each. Rears are 17X9.5", et 0, weigh 17lbs each. Weight difference due to thick hub flange on the fronts, in order to clear the future R brakes.

[Dmitry S.]

Holy crap those wheels are awesome. How much did they run you?

[oldschoolvolvo]

very cool project! gold wheels...good choice

[stylngle2003]

great to finally see pics, rob...the car looked nice on saturday when i was down there

[DavoS40]

Beautiful, can't wait to see it painted with those wheels.

[Zora]

Have you any vids your drifting?
Great award your engine select!

[JW240]

wow, awseome project!
very nice

[yorkbrick]

way to go NOVA crew

[blkaplan]

Originally Posted by yorkbrick

way to go NOVA crew

NOVA For teh lose! MD for teh WIN

[Geoff240Ti]

Finally glad to read the more "complete" story on your car! I am REALLY happy to see that turbo working so good for you