Valerie - The 740 Saloon Rally Car

Good evening all

It is high time to make a thread finally documenting my thoughts / progress on my first major project car:

I bought this car back in 2020 just before first lockdown from a lovely old lady in Bromley, London. It cost be the grand sum of ?150, and a promise to look after her......
The car was her late fathers from new in 1985, she had inherited it, and then it had been left sitting under a tree on the driveway for the past 4 years.

I've always loved rally and the idea of loose surface racing, so I thought why not?

For context, at the time of purchase, I was 19 years old, and had no clue what trouble I was getting myself in for (and still don't in all honesty)



I have some simple, and some complex goals for this project:

-Have twin webers (I love the NA life, sorry)
-Stroke the engine to 2.5L using a penta crank
-Use a 16V head for maximum flow
-I really want to use the Rsport gauges offered in the late 100 and early 200 series
-Straight cut gearbox (eventually)
-MK1 IRS in the rear
-Look cool with a nice livery or something

On top of all of this, I will also need to make the car MSUK compliant, but I won't bore you all with the details of that as it sends me to sleep thinking about it.

Before I get bashed for using a 740 when the 240 is a superior chassis, I KNOW.
240 prices here in the UK are nuts, I would rather spend the extra few grand on other bits- as I said- young and foolish

The main work that the car shell needs to get it back on the road is a considerable amount of welding. The strut tower to firewall join has gathered a lot of detritus
from the old english oak, and that had allowed water to sit, and rot through the perishing seam sealer. This water flooded the footwell of the front passenger area
mainly. The damage can be seen below...



The above picture shows the front passenger side seat mount after I had undrilled the spot welds. The underneath looked like this:



Totally rotten. Great.



This picture shows the firewall section that caused the whole issue after I had cut it out...



...and then badly welded it back together. I had covered welding briefly during college (16-18yrs), but never like this. Combined with a terrible mig welder that had inconsistent wire feed issues and those cheap disposable gas cylinders, it made for an experience.

I won't pain your eyes with any more of my bad welding until I have seriously improved my skills in the garage though.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff!

Against all of the advice ever posted by anybody with a clue in racing, I decided to start with the engine, instead of making the car usable and getting seat time



Yoshifab things arrived!
Big shout out to Josh at Yoshifab who spent quite a lot of time talking to me about his experience with making fast cars, I suppose it secured him a customer if nothing else!

I ended up buying from Yoshifab:
-Billet 16v crank gear
-16V aux shaft gear
-Timing belt adapter kit with kevlar belt
-2x adjustable cam gears
-16V ARP head studs
-158mm connecting rods
-97mm Traum pistons with 16v reliefs for 86mm stroke
-The 272 cams.

Pics of the main eye candy below:









All of these parts should then go nicely on this 1997 B230FT block that has ~140k miles on it. Of course, this will receive the appropriate machine shop work.

As for the 16V head.

I was able to source a penta head, and have it ported out to ~280cfm (I do not know how many inches of water this was at, I will likely have it tested again and find out the next time).

It has BMW S14 intake valves that are 37mm diameter.

And the stronger Ford valve springs that will see it to 7000rpm.

I am retaining the hydraulic lifters for now, as the cams are compatible with them and the run in period wont see sustained high rpm use that could result in lifter pump-up.





Regarding gearbox/ flywheel / clutch: I want to use either an M46 or M45 box, as those are the ones that Quaife here in the UK make a straight cut gearset for 1st-4th. Therefore, I have got a TTV flywheel from Classicswede, and an 228mm 850R pressure plate, and recon 228mm 22spline friction disc for a late M45 / M46 box.



Here's the penta crank, nothing fancy...



Also managed to source the Rsport cluster, tatty and missing the tachometer. At ?120, I couldn't say no! PLEASE IF YOU HAVE A 4CYL TACHOMETER FOR SALE PM ME I BEG!!!



I hope that keeps all you hooligans occupied for a while, I will update as and when things happen. If you have any input on the matter, please bare with me, as I am still learning!

It's certainly a different approach to what most Brits do do with 740's. Good work, look forward to seeing it scream.

Sweet stack of parts you got there, exited to see where this ends up!

Not a lot to update on from the weekend.

The engine being used in this build is a 1997 B230FK block- I believe the 1997/1998 year is best for the 1mm overbore that will be done.



Had to leave the main caps and bolts on as I think the main journals on the crank require a little hit with the grinder, so will let the machinist decide if an align hone is necessary or not.
I'd like it to not be necessary so that I can maybe buy some food instead of car expenses

Also gave the outside of the block a thorough de-grease treatment as I assume that a disgusting block would leave the most important person in this project somewhat disgruntled... not very wise

I'll be taking it down to their shop this Friday and leave all the parts in their capable hands- would be nice to get it back in a couple of months maybe but I don't know what their workload is like.

On top of the block being bored, honed, and the crank being ground, I'm also having the rotating assembly balanced (Flywheel, clutch, pressureplate, crank, belt gear and harmonic balancer).
This should allow me to rev it out safely in the future if I so desire. Right proper!

Grand stuff! NA, webers and the "old school way" is alot of fun.
I won't swear on it, but doesn't the m46 have issues with the overdrive slipping when one puts enough/too much power thru it?
I used m45 back when I was doing things along these lines, was steady but then again I never went this far. At most b230+16v+folkrace cams and webers

"Before I get bashed for using a 740 when the 240 is a superior chassis, I KNOW."

a 740 can be a fine rally car.
We used to have this 'Volvo Original Cup' rally competition in NL.
20% dirt roads, 60% normal roads, 20% industrial roads with, short sections with lots of 90 degr turns.
For most of the VOC-championship years the 900 or 700 chassis beatthe 200 chassis. (Same B230E/FB/F engines (145-155hp), same cup specified 15" 195 Sava tires. Shocks: free, most teams used Bilsteins, brakes: stock, brake pads: free, all kinds of brands (Pagid, Ferodo, Carbon Lorraine, EBC) and types of pads were used)

tip: your 740 probably has a looooong rear axel ratio. Not ideal for a high revving engine. The shortest ratio that i ever found under a 700/900 was 4.10:1 (B234F 16V automatics and i think also B200 automatics) If you need even shorter ratio you need to search for aftermarket parts in Sweden. Installing an LSD would be useful too.

Good luck with the build. Will be interesting to see what the car can do once it is running and driving.

Today's update:

Took the block to the machine shop- agreed to have the following done:

- Bore the block to 97mm to fit the Traum pistons
- Crack test the crank
- Check the crank journals and grind if necessary.
- Skim the bare minimum from the deck (~6 thou) for flatness for an MLS headgasket
- Remove and replace the Aux shaft bearings

He also advised that I seriously reconsider the Yoshifab cams for cams closer to 290 degrees of duration and 11mm+ of lift. With the longer duration cams, then also change the static compression ratio to closer to 12:1 or 13:1. But I will wait for the boring work to be completed to see how far the pistons protrude, and more importantly, the valve to piston clearances!

Estimated lead time is 3-4 weeks however, so I have time to prepare my wallet.

Hilding said:

Grand stuff! NA, webers and the "old school way" is alot of fun.
I won't swear on it, but doesn't the m46 have issues with the overdrive slipping when one puts enough/too much power thru it?
I used m45 back when I was doing things along these lines, was steady but then again I never went this far. At most b230+16v+folkrace cams and webers

Click to expand...

Hmm maybe you are correct in the M46 having problems- I have access to a couple of M45s so maybe will go with those instead and just cope with the noisy motorway cruising

Janspeed said:

"Before I get bashed for using a 740 when the 240 is a superior chassis, I KNOW."

a 740 can be a fine rally car.
We used to have this 'Volvo Original Cup' rally competition in NL.
20% dirt roads, 60% normal roads, 20% industrial roads with, short sections with lots of 90 degr turns.
For most of the VOC-championship years the 900 or 700 chassis beatthe 200 chassis. (Same B230E/FB/F engines (145-155hp), same cup specified 15" 195 Sava tires. Shocks: free, most teams used Bilsteins, brakes: stock, brake pads: free, all kinds of brands (Pagid, Ferodo, Carbon Lorraine, EBC) and types of pads were used)

tip: your 740 probably has a looooong rear axel ratio. Not ideal for a high revving engine. The shortest ratio that i ever found under a 700/900 was 4.10:1 (B234F 16V automatics and i think also B200 automatics) If you need even shorter ratio you need to search for aftermarket parts in Sweden. Installing an LSD would be useful too.

Good luck with the build. Will be interesting to see what the car can do once it is running and driving.

Click to expand...

Good to hear that the 700/900 platform isn't as bad as some people bash them for being! Thank you for the encouragement!

Here in the UK we received Carbed vehicles with the engine designation B230K. On the 740 platform this used the normal 530 cylinder head, unlike the 240 platform where the B230K used a heron style head and pistons.

Valerie had this engine, which when paired with the automatic box it came with, is rumoured to have the 4.1:1 final drive ratio, but I haven't actually taken the diff cover off and looked for myself yet!

I definitely agree on installing an LSD- I've just got to find one that will fit the IRS I so desire!

That's all for now!

Looks like a proper build!
With the 97mm bore and flat top pistons, your CR is going to be really high for the YoshiFab cams. I had a similar setup, but it was 96mm bore and the cams were slightly more aggressive. It definitely needed more cam and intake than what it had. The tune was pretty borderline with respect to knock, and the engine made it about 2 miles of racing when the engine leaned out a bit. Lots of holes in pistons, and this was at only 28? of total advance on the engine.

culberro said:

Looks like a proper build!
With the 97mm bore and flat top pistons, your CR is going to be really high for the YoshiFab cams. I had a similar setup, but it was 96mm bore and the cams were slightly more aggressive. It definitely needed more cam and intake than what it had. The tune was pretty borderline with respect to knock, and the engine made it about 2 miles of racing when the engine leaned out a bit. Lots of holes in pistons, and this was at only 28? of total advance on the engine.

Click to expand...

I've got into touch with CatCams who seem to have exactly what I need!

Update:

Visited the machine shop today.

They have so far just finished boring the block, but have not honed the bores, or skimmed the deck. No crank balancing complete either yet.

Wobsmangbaffler said:

I've got into touch with CatCams who seem to have exactly what I need!

Click to expand...

Nice, those look to be a better fit for sure!

Wobsmangbaffler said:

Update:

Visited the machine shop today.

They have so far just finished boring the block, but have not honed the bores, or skimmed the deck. No crank balancing complete either yet.

Click to expand...

If you can get the machine shop to use a torque plate when honing, your engine will be a lot happier.

All of this is looking good!

Bit annoying about the whole torque plate situation tbh- I had been meaning to ask if he was planning on using one, but forgot to ask today. Truthfully, I doubt he will use one. I havent seen one sitting about in his shop so will just have to YOLO it I think... lesson learned for next time!

Even if I do lose a little bit of power to leakdown, I'm sure I won't be disappointed with the overall outcome.

Onwards and upwards as they say!

Latest saga:

Main journal 3 shown below measures up to be out of round (0.05mm deviation) so the mains are going to be ground to 0.25mm undersize.

The engine builder who does most of the work is not a crank grinder though, and has his now retired partner still come in occasionally to do them for him. Main machinist wanted it to be ground in the next couple of days, but they are unsure if undersize bearings also have thicker thrust sections as well as the bearing thickness. So, they want to wait until we have the set of undersize bearing in our hands before any grinding takes place.

Unfortunately, it seems that the only places who stock ACL undersize bearings are in the Netherlands and of course Sverige. Definitely not going to arrive in time as half of the suppliers no longer ship to Blightey, and Dai at classicswede is on holiday this week. The shop has called up their usual bearing supplier to see if they can help out, but its looking like we will just have to wait for the time being.

That's all for now.

As it happens, the machine shop's bearing supplier informed us that the ACL undersize bearings are on back order until June/July

Thankfully, Dai is back from his holiday now so I have ordered his undersize mains, they're glyco brand, which is another good quality manufacturer. Postman Pat should have them here by Wednesday at the latest.

I went down to the machine shop on Saturday to pay for the work on the block . He had to skim more off than expected as cyl number 4 (The one known to run hot hot hot on these blocks) had warpage, whereas the other bores didn't. This is somewhat convenient, as it'll help raise my compression ratio even more for that sweet NA life.
However, the block has to stay there because of another issue I've run into:



The Durabond intermediate shaft bearings I purchased from Yoshifab a couple of years ago seem to have something going on with them...



Bearings Number 1 and 3 are absolutely fine. They slip over the shaft with enough clearance that it would be fine by the time they have crushed a bit after installation. No.2 though, my god. I know that No.3 and No.2 are similar and easy to get mixed up. but switching them around yields the same result; the bearings do not fit. Ian (hyperfauto) pointed me in the direction of his brother Eric (planetman), who kindly gave me a call this evening to offer some help/ advice as they seem to be the expert on these Durabond bearing sets. There should be no reason why these current bearings don't fit, as I've tried them in 3 different aux shafts, all of which have had the bearing journals on them polished to ensure no crud.

It leaves 2 options at play now:
1- The bearings were packed incorrectly and I have some random size bearings for 2 and 3.
or
2- The No.2 bearing is ovalled due to being squashed in shipping/ storage.

I'm going to go to the machine shop tomorrow and get the snap gauges and mics on them to try and work out what's going on, as Eric is curious to know what is up too now

Nice casual drop with that BSA cylinder head under the aux bearing set.

Not mine The amount of random engines / parts the machine shop has lying about everywhere reminds me of my own garage...