240 wagon acquired

Two weeks ago while driving back from the Post Office, I saw the twin to my 1990 wagon parked outside of a Junk/Salvage yard in the Bayview. Made a quick U-turn to stop and check it out. Seeing the rear seat headrests and the black door handles, it peaked my interest as I have been looking around for an early 90s wagon for a little while.

The wagon turned out to be a mid-1993 (April 93) construction. The odometer displayed 154K (turned out to be non-op) and the kicker was the stick shift which I didn't expect to see. The front seats are somewhat blown out, but not unexpected with the vinyl covers. Turned the key and the car started right up. Under the hood, the first issue was immediately noticeable. The whirring sound of the water pump pulley wobbling and a steady drip from the weep hole signaled a dying water pump. Seeing that, opened the oil filler cap and saw the whitish mousse signifying a new head gasket would be need.

The price was quoted at $675 after bringing up the head gasket issue. Spent the next week mulling it over and decided in making an offer. Returned last Saturday and agreed on $600 for the car. Called up a friend of mine and an hour later we were back to drive the car the 2 miles back to my place. Had to fill the coolant system with a generous amount of water then went on our way.

About a mile into the drive I could see white vapor curling up against the rear window. The chase car behind me, when getting in close had to torn on its wiper because of the water coming through the exhaust. Made the journey without any issues. This week has been spent readying the car for the head gasket & water pump replacement.

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Awesome.

Nice wagon!

I like the p1800 in the background of that last shot.

So about three-five hours work and ~$300 in parts? Good score!

i just installed new seat covers on my wagon. $200.00 on eBay! They are so nice!!!

That's my favorite color blue on a 240
Jelly.

Nice looking wagon. Have a good spot to store it? I know how SF likes to tow cars and hold them for ransom

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DD Ranch said:

OP - Nice score!

gwagon - nice seat covers. Do you have the ebay seller for them? I think that will be the best route for seats for my dd/project rat-wagon.

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Lamps and lenses is having them made now.

Link to seat covers? Can't find them.

Super jealous. I just saved a 945 turbo from the same fate (blown HG) but I would have much rather put the work into a 240.

Been doing some stuff on it while waiting for the head gasket kit, headbolts and new water pump. Ran a compression test on it and it is reading 170-175-170-170, a good sign. Doused the exhaust manifold nuts a couple of times with P'Blaster and then loosened each one of them a turn or two then retightened them up.

Removed out the front seats and took the passenger seat bottom and combined it with the drives seat back to make a not-so worn out seat. May take a couple of blue diagonal cloth seat covers I have left over from a seat rebuild to renovate the passenger seat. Upgraded the window switches to the illuminated type found in the 900 series.

As for storing it have two garage spaces so that is not a pressing issue vs. SF metermaids.

Looking good nice save.

My 72 145 'seafoam' came from that JY for $250 many moons ago.

<a href="http://s255.photobucket.com/user/redwoodchair/media/145%20Volvo/GreenHornet.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh136/redwoodchair/145%20Volvo/GreenHornet.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo GreenHornet.jpg"/></a>

where is the bayview is this junkyard?

398 Quint St, San Francisco

Nice find, good save! Very surprising it was still there when you went back! These places crush these cars so quickly!!!

Ken you still have that pretty 145!

Redwood Chair said:

Looking good nice save.

My 72 145 'seafoam' came from that JY for $250 many moons ago.

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Ken do you still have this 145? sell it to me please!

Started the process to take off the cylinder head to replace out the gasket.

Drove the car up onto ramps in my garage and first thing was to undo the exhaust system from the manifold. The oil was drained out then shortly followed by the coolant. The oil was the color of milk chocolate flowing into the drain pan. Next step was to remove the water pump off the block. Removed the exhaust without any problems, then the timing belt and camshaft sprocket. Put aside the lower timing cover and harmonic balancer to clean up and put white paint on the timing marks.

Removed pvc & vacuum hoses, wiring, heater hose and then the intake manifold. Using a breaker bar, the head bolts were first moved about 90 Degrees in order starting at either end of the cylinder head. Next was to loosen them and lastly they were removed. The head didn't need much persuasion to separate from the gasket. This was taken off the engine and set in a cardboard box.

Taking a metal straight-edge tested to see if there was any evidence of warping which I did not detect. The head was taken to a local machine shop where it was also checked for warping (none), resurfaced and then pressure tested. Now I just need to start the process of cleaning off the block and then putting everything back together again.