Bob George's '82 242 Turbo PROJECT

[Bob]

I bought this 1982 242 Turbo from the original owner in Mountain View, California in May of 2007. I had spent the previous year looking for an exceptionally clean 242 Turbo, but living in New England the pickings are pretty slim. Then this ad came up on Turbobricks:

1982 2dr intercooled turbo for sale

I am the original owner of this well maintained white on tan 1982 volvo turbo intercooled 2 door sedan. Over the last 5 years it has hardly been driven and parked in my carport. This car is not salvaged, has a clean title and every year has passed California smog tests. The tan interior leather is in good shape but there are some rips on the front bucket seat cushions.

Model: 1982 Turbo intercooled
Body Style: 2 Door Sedan
Engine: 4 cylinder fuel injected
Transmission: 4 speed manual with overdrive
Miles: 131k
Interior: Tan Leather
Exterior: White
Power assisted rack and pinion steering
Power assisted 4 wheel disk breaks
Front and rear stabilization bars
Front spoiler, ventilted disk breaks
5 spoke alloy wheels
Special black exterior trim
front and rear gas filled shocks
sliding steel sunroof with wind deflector
Air conditioning
GLT special edition leather upholstery
GLT grand sport package

The seller also provided lots of pictures:













It looked like the car I had been waiting for, so I flew out to San Jose, test drove it, and bought it on the spot. It was shipped back to Vermont in approximately 2 weeks (not a fun process) and landed in front of my house (without damage, thankfully):



One of the major appeals of this particular 242 was its extensively documented history. Not only did I get nearly complete service records going back to 939 miles, but the original owner had also saved the original bill of sale, temporary registration, owners manual and window sticker. The car stickered for $15,945.80 in 1982.



Although it lived most of its life in California, the 242 was sold by Herzog Motors in Beaverton, Oregon on May 28, 1982. An early California title was saved, dated January 17, 1985. Of course, this was the title that the seller signed over to me, over 22 years later.

When I took delivery of the car it was mostly stock, save a few items. An Alpine stereo and alarm system had been installed, and the rear windows had been tinted with 3M product in 1987 (and holding up well 20 years later). In September 1985, the factory intercooler system was dealer installed.

I took delivery of the car with 131,310 miles. For the previous 10 years, it was hardly driven; a service record from June of 1997 shows 114,154 miles. However, it continued to pass California smog tests with ease each year.

At first, I didn't really have plans for the car. I wanted a good running 242 Turbo to enjoy for the summer. A few weeks after buying the car I picked up a set of genuine Polaris wheels in Massachusetts and paired them with 215/45 Kumho SPT tires. At this time I also installed IPD 25/25 sway bars, Koni yellows and B&G lowering springs. It's not the ultimate suspension setup, but gave me the ride and appearance I wanted.

Pics from summer 2007:





The car ran pretty well and felt powerful (for a stock 242ti ). I noticed the boost gauge was consistently "in the red", and it turned out the wastegate signal line had split and was leaking. After fixing that the boost level returned to around 10 psi. It also had a pretty consistent oil leak, which turned out to be the oil pressure sender brass elbow. Finally, the windshield leaked (which is why the original owner barely drove it), so I had a new PPG unit installed with the later style flush trim.

September 2007 rolled around, and I bought a good running '91 944 Turbo at an auction for $200. The 944 had a salvage title from being broadsided years ago, but was a charity car and included a two week temporary registration from the Good News Garage. I drove the car hard for those two weeks and it ran great. I guess it had been donated because the brakes, suspension and exhaust were all shot, and the inspection was due. So out came the B230FT with 144K miles:





In October 2007, a friend and I hit the dyno for baseline runs. The car ran lean on all of my pulls, and put down 124 whp and 153 ft-lbs wtq. Not great, but good motivation to build the B230FT from the 944. The dyno chart is funny because you can so clearly see where the boost solenoid ups the boost around 3700 rpm.





After dynoing the car in October, it went away for the winter. I didn't touch it much until April 2008, when I started stripping it down for new paint. I wanted to do a flat hood conversion and paint the engine bay, as well as paint both rear quarters (not rusty, but had been repainted before poorly). At this point, it made sense to paint the entire car as not to require excessive blending. A friend and I drove around the local car dealerships one Sunday looking at colors. When we went in the BMW dealership we both saw an '08 X3 in Alpine White III and knew that was the color.

The summer 2008 transformation:











The body shop did it right. Doors/hood/trunk off, no tape lines. I also had the C-pillar exterior trim and the antenna hole shaved. Basecoat/clearcoat, almost $1000 in just materials. But the results were perfect. I love this color.

Once back from the body shop in September 2008, the '91 B230FT went in with the stock M46 transmission attached. The only thing I did to the engine internally was replace the oil pump with a new unit from Volvo. I have a ported and big valve 531 head sitting on a shelf, and eventually plan on pairing that with a built bottom end. But for now I want a test engine to learn Megasquirt. Here's the engine installed with one of Captain Bondo's first round headers and a GT3071R from ATP Turbo:







After the engine was in, I brought the car over to my friend's shop to have the external wastegate installed and a 3" exhaust system built. I needed to get this done quickly as it was the last remaining piece that I could not do with the car in my garage. Winter was approaching, which means salt on the roads, and there's no chance this car will ever see salt. Pictures of the wastegate installation:











The dumptube routing that we came up with turned out pretty sweet. It may still need to be braced against the downpipe, but we'll see. The exhaust system uses just a single 17" Burns Stainless muffler that is 4.5" in diameter. It also has two O2 bungs welded along the bottom, at about 2 o'clock facing the transmission. The exhaust exits behind the passenger door:



I'm using a Ford EDIS-4 ignition system with one of Dale's underdrive pulleys. Before I went home for Thanksgiving this year, I mocked up the bracket I needed to mount the VR sensor beside the 36-1 wheel using cardboard. My father is a fabricator and replicated the mount in steel. We built in some adjustability both the on the block and for the sensor itself. Hopefully this piece will be stable enough and allow some fine tuning of the sensor.





For the intercooler, I'm using a 3.5" thick Lancer EVO 8 unit mounted in the same way that dturbo did his. I had the body shop trim the round holes to allow an easier passage for the silicone couplers. You can also see that spark plug wires that John (The Aspirator) provided. Thanks again John!



So that's how it sits today. I have my work cut out for me to have it running by spring. Most of the parts have been collected already. Goodies waiting to be installed:

- MS1, V3 board (benflynn special)
- Innovate LM-1 and DB gauge
- Knocksense MS
- RC Engineering 750 cc high-rez injectors
- Walbro 255
- Gen II RX-7 oil cooler with a remote oil filter kit
- Tial BOV

Lots more to come soon.

[pwschuh]

Nice car and nice story. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

[Tanglefoot]

I agree on the pickings being slim in the New England area. And of course, they always come up when you have just allocated money to something else. Looking forward to seeing where you go with this! Yay for Vermont brickers!

[Karl Buchka]

Looks exceptionally clean. I'm glad to see you're not afraid of swapping a newer motor in.

[norcal505]

wow.
now that is truely a great find.
you bought it from close to where I live!

btw, looks sexy as hell on those polarii

[Bob]

thanks for the feedback. updated for tonight, will get up to date tomorrow.

[Blackbrick]

Beautiful! I'm looking forward to more on this one.

[Bob]

Original post now up to date

[GTJordan]

Very very very nice. I love how clean it is looking so far.

I hope you're impressed once you get that setup on the road.

Jordan

[Karl Buchka]

Something to consider: ditch the EDIS and just run the VR sensor straight to the MS. There's no good reason to use EDIS anymore. It leaves you with less features and makes the system as a whole more complicated.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Karl Buchka

Something to consider: ditch the EDIS and just run the VR sensor straight to the MS. There's no good reason to use EDIS anymore. It leaves you with less features and makes the system as a whole more complicated.

So keep the EDIS coilpack mounted on the firewall but ditch the EDIS-4 module? Thanks for the input, exactly the type of info I'm going to need

[llama]

beautiful 242. The paint is exceptional. Best of luck with the build and learning ms. I can't wait to see this thing finished.

[Karl Buchka]

Originally Posted by volvo244life

So keep the EDIS coilpack mounted on the firewall but ditch the EDIS-4 module? Thanks for the input, exactly the type of info I'm going to need

Yeah, that's the jist of it. You might need to add a coil driver or two and fire the engine in wasted spark.

Not sure if you're up to doing the required mods to the board yourself, and I'm not all that familiar with the EDIS coils, but here's a link that should get you started:
http://www.msextra.com/manuals/MS_Ex...anual.htm#vrin

[OldSchoolEuro]

Every single time I see a clean looking 242 or 244, it makes me want to stick with Volvo haha.

[UberFisch]

Wow, dude! Nice one, I will be following this closely.

[RedFridge]

What a great build thread. Beautiful ride.
The white is spot on...love it.

Keep us updated.

[Roger-Dee]

Man I love everything in that car, such a nice color. Me and 2 of my friend will be doing a Roadtrip next summer in Vermont and I would be glad if you let us stop by to have a close look at all this. If your car is ready until then, that would be so awesome if you could join us for the trip. Looking at the list of mods, I don't think you'll have any problem to follow us, and you're much likely gonna be up front.

Keep up the good work, I'll follow this thread religiously.

[Vol242vo]

Beautiful build so far, looking forward to updates! Keep it up!

[Gene_GaTech]

magnificent. IN FOR UPDATES!

[eeyore]

A beautiful example and yes,hard to find in the Northeast.But ya don't hafta go to California.
I found mine in Taxachusetts,languishing in someones garage.

Really looking forward to seeing this one on the road...

[maxman142001]

This car is gonna be so awesome when its done, I cant wait! Like what you did with the rear bumper/butt cheak area too..so clean

[24DinCT]

This car looks really good in person and as I said before...the pictures don't do it justice.

subscribed

[Bob]

Thanks for all the feedback, now I need to stop buying junk parts cars and focus my energy back on this one

[Bob]

I finally have my '91 244 daily driver back in optimal condition, replaced the broken head pipe after work today, among a few other things. I need to start burying myself in the 242 again. Not much in the way of progress, although my vanity plates arrived. Gotta love Vermont, you can still get real words!

[24DinCT]

Originally Posted by volvo244life

I finally have my '91 244 daily driver back in optimal condition, replaced the broken head pipe after work today, among a few other things. I need to start burying myself in the 242 again. Not much in the way of progress, although my vanity plates arrived. Gotta love Vermont, you can still get real words!

Love them plates. YGPM sir.