2 4 0 T U R B O . C O M
D A V E ' S V O L V O P A G E
S L I D E S H O W W I L L B E G I N A U T O M A T I C A L L Y I N A M O M E N T
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UPDATED: March 25, 2024
CONTACT
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| S E A R C H
D A V E ' S V O L V O P A
G E S B E L O W
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WHY IS A 240 SPECIAL?
If
you read the TEXT in this ad you'll realize the
intercooler description is technically INCORRECT. I guess ad
writers and engineers didn't talk
to each other much. We still love the 240.
I've been a fan of 240s since before I ever owned my first one in 1990. The TURBOS were too expensive for me when they were new, so I had to buy one of those later. If you have an affection for the 240 or wonder why so many people do, read Chris Driver's blog linked below. I think you'll share a similar opinion.
And here's a good video: Why the Volvo 240 is Actually a Good Enthusiast Car + Walkthrough and Drive
240 VIN Decoding Page
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The European version 240 Turbo (with B21ET) offered more turbo boost than a U.S.A. car. About 9.2 to 10.1 PSI, which gave the B21ET more power: 145 HP and 167 ft lbs.torque. Later B21ET cars were never officially fitted with intercoolers from the factory, but later B19ET cars were (for the Italian market). The B19ET was the same as a B21ET, except with a smaller bore. The later intercooled B19ET cars had 11 to 12.1 PSI (76 to 82 kPa) and developed 170 HP and 184 ft lbs. torque .
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240 SPECS: The below image (reproduced from the 1983 US and Canada brochure below) shows the advertised specifications for 1983 240 models.  |
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240 Model Sales Brochure 1983
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240 Accessory Brochure |
I'm a Volvo 240 hobbyist.
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I've been playing with Volvos (mostly
240s) since 1988. My pages here are an attempt
to share my experience with other Volvo enthusiasts and
to chronicle the knowledge and information I've
gathered over the years so it can help others with their 240s.
I've owned 10 Volvos since 1988. I'll show you some of them below . . . . This was my second Volvo (my first 240). A white 1983 244 DL. I bought it in 1990 and it died in 1996.  A non-sunroof 240 DL with roll-up windows, auto trans, marginal AC, fair gas mileage (20 mpg highway). This 240 was exceptionally clean with only 50k miles when I found it in 1990 in Huntington Beach, CA. Cost: $5,000. Already being an avid iPd customer, this car soon got their anti-sway bars, sport springs and Bilstein HD shocks, as well and a few other fun goodies. I also bought the back half of a 240 Turbo exhaust from a salvage yard and I installed it on this car from the cat-back. That gave a small improvement in response and gas mileage. More 240 exhaust stuff can be found in my 240 Exhaust Page. This 240 originally came with 14 inch steels wheels with beauty rings and hubcaps. I installed those newer 15 inch alloy wheels from my '88 760 Turbo, which I bought in 1988. I drove this car everywhere for 6 years and put over 100,000 miles on it. In 1996 I gave it to my daughter when she got her drivers license. Unfortunately it was destroyed a few months later when some nit-wit pulled out directly in front of her in a Chevy Caprice. She couldn't avoid the Caprice and hit it broadside at about 50 mph. ARTICLE: How I survived teen drivers CLICK HERE. |
Here's my CURRENT 240 as it
looked when I bought it back in 2003.
 I bought this 1984 242 Turbo from the 3rd owner. He bought it only 6 months earlier in 2002 from Owner #2. The original paint and leather interior was in rare exceptional condition because the car had always been garaged. It's a big bonus for an old car like this to have live indoors its whole life. It's why this car was so nice for this many years. This 242 was mostly stock, but it did come with iPd sport springs, iPd 25mm anti-sway bars and Bilstein HD shocks. I actually helped the previous owner install those things a few months before he sold the car to me. Otherwise nearly everything was original. |
 This car was all very original and stock when I got it. This is an under-hood shot taken at the 2003 Annual Westside Volvo Show at Westside Volvo in Culver City, California. |
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Installation of M46 TRANSMISSION I resisted the urge to modify this car for a few years, but slowly that urge began to win. So it has undergone a few changes over the years. Visit my Manual Trans Page for more info on trans swaps: https://www.240turbo.com/T5.html  REAR END INFO Considering my 1984 240 Turbo originally had an automatic transmission, the rear end ratio for MY CAR was 3.91:1. A manual transmission 1984 240 would have received a different rear end ratio of 3.73:1. A lot more 240 rear end info can be found in my REAR END PAGE. |
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EIKER WHEELS (2004-2012)
 
The Eiker E1
wheels seen in some of my photos were
imported from Finland in 2004. These are 17 x 7.5 inches (offset ET 20 mm) and were modeled after the Volvo Polaris wheel. I originally fitted 215/45-17 tires.
Back in 2004 the Eiker Wheel Company would not ship to U.S. customers, so a Finnish friend arranged for a relative of his to purchase and ship them from Finland. I loved these wheels and at that time this was the only way to get them in the U.S.. Almost no one else in the U.S. had them yet. Years later these wheels became much more popular and some importers managed to bring them to the U.S. in large quantities. The Eiker E1 started appearing on other 240s at a faster rate. CENTER CAPS FOR EIKER WHEELS Back in 2004 I used the generic 62 mm "EIKER" plastic center caps that came with these wheels and I glued on round Volvo logos that I cut off of other Volvo caps. I get questions all the time now from people with Eikers who have trouble finding an existing and available VOLVO cap that will fit. When you search, keep in mind that some discussions will pertain to original Polaris wheels, which seem to have a 57 mm center bore, which is NOT the same size as an Eiker wheel, which reportedly has a 56 mm hole. An original Polaris wheel used center cap Volvo PN 3529610 (of course no longer available). There's some info on-line that suggests VOLVO center cap PN 30638643 (pictured HERE) from a first generation S40 (2001-2004) will supposedly fit an Eiker wheel. This does NOT appear to be correct according to some people I know who bought and tried them. The 30638643 is made for a 55 mm hole and is rather loose in an Eiker wheel. If anyone knows FOR CERTAIN of an existing AVAILABLE cap that actually fits well in an Eiker, please let me know and I'll add that here. I have some measurements of a few different common VOLVO center caps here: https://www.prancingmoose.com/centercaps.html#commoncaps Here are some discussions thread that will add to your confusion: https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=244307 https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?p=6059650 http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=280569 |
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T5 MANUAL TRANSMISSION UPGRADE
Fearing the M46 would eventually break from too much torque or abuse, I decided to install a Ford Motorsport World Class T5Z 5-speed transmission.  See more in my T5 Transmission Conversion Page: https://www.240turbo.com/T5.html I chose to keep the old school speedometer cable my car originally came with, however most 240's out there nowadays (1986 and later) will have an electric speedometer. These later 240s are equipped with a Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) in the rear end. The T5 conveniently had a mechanical speedometer cable output port shown above (the red cap).  See more in my T5 Transmission Conversion Page: https://www.240turbo.com/T5.html |
 I added some new taillights in 2007. People have asked where these taillights came from. They started as ALL CLEAR taillights I found on eBay. I didn't like all clear lights. I bought some transparent red spray paint from the plastic model section in a hobby store. More detailed info on my experience painting tail lamps can be for HERE. That rear spoiler is a very rare Volvo 240 accessory made by Zender in the 1980's. |
 This part may shock some 240 purists . . . . I don't prefer the traditional humped "coffin" hood that originally came on U.S. 240 models. Some people do. I just don't. |
 So in 2010 this car received a flat hood and matching flat grill. |
FLAT HOOD TRIVIA For those that don't know, that flat hood used above is the same hood used for the rare 1983 242 Turbo "Flathood" model (pictured below). This limited 1983 242 Turbo model is outlined in the following pages. http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=66501 http://flathood.saliv8.com/ https://silodrome.com/volvo-242-group-a-homologation-flathood/ https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/08/07/homologation-rarity-1983-volvo-240-turbo-flat-hood-to-be-auctioned-at-bonhams-quail-motorcar-auction  This is almost the SAME hood used on 1975-1977 U.S. 242, 244 and 245 models and on 1978-1980 242 DL and GT. The newer raised "hump" hood was not introduced for the 240 until 1978. The exception was the 264, which got the raised hood in 1975. At the time Volvo considered the raised hood to have a more luxurious look.  Very early flat hood 240s got some thin metal trim attached to the front leading edge of the hood, which matched the thin metal trim around the turn signals. One year (1976, which is shown above) had a single windshield washer squirter instead of two squirters on all other years.  The hood latch on the flat hood is unique to accommodate the shorter front. The latch release handle, latch pin and spring are all shorter than the raised "hump" hood latch. Also the hinge springs have less tension for a flat hood (the hinges are otherwise the same). Flat hoods used lighter springs because the flat hood is lighter. So get these parts if you find a salvage yard flat hood you want to pull. More Flat Hood Trivia  There seems to be ONE certain way to tell an early flat hood (1975-80) from a later flat hood (1983). Look for the dip in the under-hood bracing shown ABOVE. The early hood will usually have one dip and the later hood will have TWO dips.  ALSO the flat hood above is the same hood used on all European 240 Turbos (beginning in 1981 for the Euro market). This includes those that were used to make Group A race cars, like this one above. The European 240 front end for 1981-85 240 also came with different headlights, fenders and turn signals compared to USA cars. These fenders shown above are actually the same fenders that would later appear on U.S. versions for 1986-93. A different grill was used in Europe for the Turbo model (shown above). And the slightly different sheet-metal directly BELOW the grill and headlights (part #13 in below diagram) was used to accommodate the different European headlights, turn signals and grill parts. For that #13 part below, I have added a couple more detailed images to you can see just how different the two parts are. And I have more info in my 240 Headlight Page.  Another view BELOW of the different sheet metal piece directly below the headlights and grill. The difference looks small, but there is a difference.    |
| ENGINE The engine in my 240 Turbo is still the original B21FT, but a few added features have crept in over the years. The original K-Jet fuel injection served me fairly well for years, but it has limits if you want better performance. I'm now using SDS EFI programmable fuel injection and programmable ignition. More info on my SDS EFI installation HERE. SDS EFI is in Canada and they may be found at: http://www.sdsefi.com.  I installed a Mitsubishi TD04HL 15G turbo (which I pulled from an 850R Turbo in a salvage yard). The 15G is mounted on a later (1990+) exhaust manifold. A turbo like this is much more responsive on a small engine with low compression like the B21FT (which has a compression ratio of only 7.5:1). The original Garrett T3 turbo was much slower to respond. Adapting a Mitsubishi turbo is not overly difficult and there's good basic info here: https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=359871 https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=83929 For comparison, here's an old pic of the original Garrett T3 turbo.  |
3 INCH EXHAUST If you're interested in how my 3 inch exhaust system was made, I've created a 240 Exhaust Page with those details.  |
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November 2010 I took the 242 on a road trip to the
annual Arizona Volvo
Day in Tucson, Arizona (below photo). It was awarded
first place in the rear wheel drive class. I have photo albums for a large number of Volvo club meets going back many years. Click HERE: Volvo Meet Photo Album Page.  Later I decided to go old-school on the front grill and lights. I changed it to these round headlights from a 1980 or earlier 242. If you want more info about different headlights used on the 240 over the years, I have lots of that info in my Headlight Page: https://www.240turbo.com/headlight.html. |
| I added these "GT style" driving lights in the grill in 2011. No, those are NOT standard 242 GT fog lights. Those are larger 100 watt off-road driving lights. They're larger top to bottom than 242 GT fog lights, so to make room, I carefully enlarged the fog light buckets from a GT grill and fitted the larger off-road lamps. They light up the night like the sun! That's very useful on long, dark roads when on long road-trips.   |
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In
2012 I decided it was time for some different wheels.
By 2012 the Eikers had been used on this car for 8 years. They're very nice wheels and I still like them, but when I originally bought them there were almost no other Volvos with them. After a few years, they became very popular and a lot of 240s had them, so I wanted a change to something else I wouldn't see on so many other 240s at every Volvo meet I attended.  I have always loved the look of BBS style mesh wheels, so I thought of looking for a mesh style instead.  These wheels are NOT BBS, but they look nice on my car. I found them on eBay. The size is 17 x 7.5, same size as the Eikers, but these wheels have a BMW bolt pattern. BMW bolt pattern: 5 x 120 mm, with 72.56 mm hub center bore. These wheels have a 35 mm offset. Standard Volvo bolt pattern for 240, 700, 800, and 900: 5 x 108 mm, with 65.1 mm hub center bore. I had some hub-centric billet adapters custom made by http://www.motorsport-tech.com. More on the adapters below. The tires shown above are 235/40-17 Goodyear Eagle F1. If you fit a tire this wide on the rear of a lowered 240, you WILL absolutely be trimming or pounding some of the inner rear fender metal to make more room. The back half of the INNER rear arch will rub on a wide tire on bumps. If the car is lowered, it'll rub even more on bumps. I have created an article in my 240 Mods Page on how I made clearance for these tires on my 240: HERE: https://www.240turbo.com/volvo240mods.html#rearwheelclearance. |
| WHY DID I CHOOSE A BMW BOLT PATTERN WHEEL? The reason I decided on a BMW bolt pattern with custom adapters is because there are MANY more wheel styles to choose from for a BMW bolt pattern than for a Volvo 240. So shopping for something I liked was so much easier. Nowadays adapting non-Volvo wheels can sometimes also be done by using custom re-drilled front 240 hubs instead of adapters. This option is offered in a limited way at https://www.bneshop.com/. Re-drilling a 240 hub from original 5 x 108 mm is limited to certain bolt patterns only due to the small outside diameter of the Volvo hub. Unfortunately, a BMW bolt pattern of 5 x 120 mm is too large to be drilled into a 240 front hub. These 17 x 7.5 wheels have a 35 mm offset. I chose 20 mm thick FRONT adapters. The REAR adapters are 40 mm thick. The 20 mm adapter in front put the wheels in a good position between the strut housing and fender. Adding 40 mm adapters in the back pushed the wheels out 20 mm MORE toward the outer rear fender. These specs worked nicely for me, considering the rear inner fender sheet metal work I had already done, seen here: https://www.240turbo.com/volvo240mods.html#rearwheelclearance. WHEEL ADAPTERS Most custom wheel adapter makers will tell you their minimum recommended adapter thickness is somewhere between 20 and 30 mm. Motorsport-tech.com told me their minimum thickness is usually 19-20 mm. The wheels you choose will need the right offset to compensate for your adapter thickness and wheel offset. Also keep in mind that a wider front wheel/tire may also get closer to the front strut tube on the inside, so your wheel offset calculations should be compensated for that clearance too. The best place to begin is carefully measuring all these clearances with your existing wheels first. Then plan carefully.   I put some more info together on calculating wheel offset for a Volvo 240 here: https://www.240turbo.com/volvo240mods.html#wheeloffset |
FRONT ADAPTER DETAIL
 Here's a pic of the front 20 mm thick adapter/spacer bolted in place. |
 <<< In 2019 I changed tire size to 225/45-17, since I could no longer find the previous 235/40-17 size in a tire I liked. These were Dunlop SP Sport 01,
a more aggressive high performance summer tire with a stickier rubber compound. They had great
reviews and I have always been very happy with Dunlop performance tires
in past years.These tires gripped exceptionally well on dry pavement, however these tires are NOT WELL RATED IN THE RAIN. In my experience, HEAVY RAIN at highway speed was definitely SCARY. |
 <<< In 2023 I changed to Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4. These are classified as Ultra-High Performance All Season tires. I chose the same size as the last tires: 225/45-17. I picked these because I wanted something that could do much better in a heavy rain storm. These are rated extremely high in the rain and right after I bought them I found myself in a heavy downpour at freeway speeds. I was convinced these were a great choice. |
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WHAT DID I DO FOR A SPARE TIRE?
I kept the original Volvo spare in the trunk for a number of years after installing the BMW bolt pattern wheels. I
began thinking that if I actually had to USE that Volvo spare, I would have
to remove a wheel adapter first. So I decided to look for a spare with
a BMW bolt pattern.
I wanted a wheel larger than 15 inches, closer to 17 inches if possible (like my current wheels), because I wanted it to clear my larger front brakes if at all possible (and IT DOES). I wanted the spare tire diameter to be fairly close, if possible, to the same diameter as the 225/45-17 tires I have (24.9 inches tall). And the spare tire would ultimately need to be narrow enough to fit inside the spare tire well in the trunk. Plus I really wanted a NORMAL tire, not a stupid space-saver temporary spare. And it needed to be inexpensive. It wasn't easy finding a wheel I liked, since many BMW wheels are much wider than I wanted (many are 8 to 10 inches). I would have preferred a 17 inch wheel with a 6 or 6.5 inch width. I found a couple like that, but then I searched for an appropriate 17 inch tire. I was disappointed to discover I could NOT find a tire I liked in 17 inches. I discovered it's really, really hard to find a 17 inch tire narrow enough to fit a 6.5 inch wheel, yet tall enough to be close to 24.9 inches. Try searching yourself. 17 inch sizes seem to begin at 195/50 and it stays in low profiles, unless you want a really tall space saver tire. A 195 width tire would be too wide for a 240 spare tire well. So a 17 inch spare was OUT OF THE PICTURE. While searching for wheels, I found lots of USED space-saver spares on eBay. Those all seemed to have a 3.5 or 4 inch width. That's too narrow for me. Plus have you seen how damned expensive used BMW space-savers are on eBay??? They think they're gold plated. Finally I found this new steel wheel on eBay (pictured below). It was $80. Sold by https://www.motorcitycustoms.com. It's a steel wheel, SIZE: 16 x 6.5 inches (BMW 5x120, 72.56 mm center) with an ET (offset) of +32 mm. Listed as Part Number X-50610R. Then I found the below Federal tire in size 175/60-16. It was all just barely narrow enough to fit nicely in the spare tire well. |
| If you need a 16 inch BMW wheel for a spare like this, I have one extra available CHEAP in my Used Parts Page: https://www.prancingmoose.com/usedvolvoparts.html |
Here are some photos of the wheel and tire I used for my spare. |
        What else is in the trunk? For those long cross-country trips, in addition to a pretty heavy tool bag, I keep a small, lightweight aluminum jack from Harbor Freight in my trunk. It's strapped down using eye-brackets bolted to the floor just behind the rear seat. Lightweight 33 lb. Harbor Freight Jack: https://www.harborfreight.com/15-ton...ack-64545.html |
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240 Custom AIR CONDITIONING
In 2017 I completed a
HUGE conversion of the AC, using a complete new in-dash system
from Classic Auto
Air. 
Sounds pretty
drastic. It was, but it's working so much better than
the old AC ever did before.
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| HOOD VENTS If you're curious about the hood vents, they were originally from a 1987 Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth from the United Kingdom. They were rare and expensive 15 years ago. Even more rare and expensive now. They function very well getting hot air out of the engine bay and they look nice and at home on the Volvo hood.   The Sierra Cosworth used these same vents (below), although this car used them a bit further forward on the hood. \  
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"KOMFORT BLINKER" UPGRADE Back in 2010 I drove a late model BMW E60 M5 on cross-country road-trip and I fell in love with the "Komfort Blinker" feature that was then fairly new for luxury German cars. This feature allows you to momentarily tap the turn signal lever left or right and you get three successive blinks or flashes. If you actually use your turn signals when changing lanes, you may appreciate this convenience. I liked this feature enough that as soon as I got home I decided to figure out how I could make this feature work for my 240. CLICK HERE for my "Komfort Blinker Page: https://www.240turbo.com/blinker.html |
GENTEX REAR VIEW MIRROR After seeing someone fit one of these more modern mirrors in their non-Volvo with so much simplicity, I decided it was an upgrade worth checking out for my Volvo 242. Turned out nice and it was not very expensive. CLICK HERE for my GENTEX MIRROR PAGE: https://www.240turbo.com/gentexmirror.html |
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DASH TOP GAUGE POD PROJECT
  In 2018 I got out my tools and completed a detailed build project to make this DASH TOP GAUGE POD similar to the ultra-rare accessory gauge pod offered by Volvo in the 1980s.
This project was a lot of fun and it has it's own project page. CLICK HERE FOR THIS PAGE: https://www.240turbo.com/dashgaugepod.html |
4-NOTE CADILLAC HORNS Are these loud? You bet they are. CLICK HERE FOR MY INSTALLATION PAGE: https://www.240turbo.com/horns.html |
| 242 POWER VENT WINDOWS BEFORE <<<< >>>> AFTER   In 2022 I added power actuators for my rear pop-out vent windows. Something I had been obsessing about for a long time. It turned out nice. See my Vent Window page HERE: https://www.240turbo.com/ventwindow.html |
| SUSPENSION My car has front coil-overs with 2.5 inch springs and rear adjustable coils with 5 inch springs. The front strut setup was made many years ago my a company that no longer exists, but if this interests you, you can find these and lots of other 240 performance suspension parts at BNE Dynamics. More info about coil-overs and performance 240 suspensions can be found in my 240 Suspension Page. See my 240 SUSPENSION PAGE.     - 240 SUSPENSION PAGE Click Here - |
| BRAKES 240 factory disc brakes were considered better than many other cars when they were developed in the 1970's, but improving on that performance was a necessary thing in my opinion. My 240 BIG BRAKE PAGE will illustrate things than can be done to any 240 to make your brakes better. The front brake upgrade I chose BELOW for my 242 was Wilwood 4-piston calipers and 12.2 inch rotors. These aren't considered "huge" brakes, but they do fit very easily behind my 17 inch wheels (and they even fit behind my 16 inch spare wheel). 
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More recent
pics.
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Here's an under hood shot.
 There's
a
lot going on under my hood, but it's pretty reliable
on cross-country trips. That's a big custom Griffin
aluminum radiator with a Lincoln Mark VIII fan.
More recently I decided to satisfy my curiosity about big modern BRUSHLESS FANS. I have more info on this cooling system installation and past cooling system projects here: 240turbo.com/ElectricCoolingFans.html and a brand new page for 2023 with everything I've learned so far on BRUSHLESS FANS: 240turbo.com/BrushlessFans.html. 
 If you're curious about these CUSTOM spark plug wires, I built them myself. I made a page on HOW TO DIY Custom Ignition Cables: https://www.240turbo.com/ignition.html#sparkcables Large Mazda Oil Cooler and Remote Oil Filter  I made a page detailing my large Mazda oil cooler and remote oil filter installation. Click here for my 240 Oil Cooler Page. Engine Mount Options Engine mounts are important. I think there should be more discussion about better options, don't YOU? So here are some of my ideas about better options for high-performance mounts.  240 Engine mounts were designed by Volvo to be pretty simple, but they were designed with a purpose beyond just supporting the engine. They were designed to be part of a three piece cradle system. The transmission mount is the third piece. The engine mounts are slanted inward and back, while the transmission mount is slanted forward. This system acts as a cradle to hold the engine and transmission in place, while providing a reasonable amount of rubber damping for driver comfort. These factory rubber mounts were offered from Volvo in the normal soft rubber type or in a harder rubber, which came in diesel engines. Normal 240 mounts: LEFT Volvo PN 274110. RIGHT Volvo PN 274111. HD diesel 240 mounts: LEFT PN 1229805. RIGHT Volvo PN 1272347. I should add that it's my intent to focus this information on STREET cars, since a race car really doesn't need much driver comfort. We know the original mounts can tend separate when abused or in a high-performance environment, some people have used creative ideas to keep their engines in place.          The most common idea has been to add a limiting strap (cloth cargo strap) or a chain or a rigid extra mount, sometimes called a THIRD MOUNT, such as those pictured ABOVE. Some of these may work just fine to protect factory style engine mounts from separating under heavy load. Some of these may not provide enough (or any) actual damping to eliminate undesirable engine vibration. It seems a lot of people have differing opinions about these. I've been tempted, but I've never used a third mount in all these years.   There are limited options if you want to buy ready made high-performance mounts. In my opinion none of the above mounts are suitable for a street car, if you want them to reasonably isolate engine vibration from the passenger cabin. I have not personally tried these mounts pictured above, but there are enough comments on them on-line to go along with my opinion. First photo above: https://www.anderssonsteelspeed.240-b23-b230. Next photo: Black Yoshifab mounts: https://yoshifab.com/240mounts. Next: Green poly mounts: https://www.classicswede.org.uk/polymounts. Now I'll share what I did in my car in 2019.   Not my car above, but this pretty much shows what can happen if a factory 240 engine mount is abused or neglected. Consider the below exercise to be experimental (which has worked flawlessly for over 4 years, thank you). That was for you, stupid haters.   This is 3/16 inch galvanized steel cable with some crimp sleeves. It's not complicated. I just made cables for my OEM mounts, with the hope they would reinforce the mount integrity and hopefully restrict a catastrophic separation. In the FOUR years since, after between more than 20k miles, there has been NO failure.   LEFT SIDE MOUNT ABOVE.  RIGHT SIDE ABOVE.  Follow-up photo of both sides after many miles. Still perfect. Under Hood Insulation  240 Hood Insulation: I've begun compiling some info for DIY hood insulation projects: CLICK HERE. SDS EFI ENGINE MANAGEMENT: I've been using SDS EFI to control fuel and spark for more than 20 years. It's fully programmable for both fuel injection and ignition. Before converting this car to EFI, I used SDS EFI in my old 245 Turbo for many years beginning back in 1999. I get occasional grief from Megasquirt users who think SDS deserves no respect. Maybe Megasquirt is newer and better. It has more stuff, more options, probably more potential. While Megasquirt does offer more peripheral options, I've never had an SDS related issue or failure in either 240s I used SDS in for over 20 years. I DON'T know many Megasquirt users who can say that. I'm not a Megasquirt hater at all. It just didn't happen to exist yet when I began using SDS and so far I just have never used Megasquirt on a project. I may try it someday if I get sufficiently motivated.    SDS uses a proprietary Hall sensor for crank position sensing. Since installing this on a Volvo engine was pretty much custom, I needed to make a bracket (BELOW) to hold the sensor. The Hall sensor then reads a pair of small magnets (ABOVE), which were supplied by SDS. The magnets were embedded into my crank pulley. It can be as simple as drilling a couple holes and gluing them in, but for the B21 pulley I used, I felt the magnets needed a bit more material to hold onto, so I had a shop weld on two pads as shown above.    The Hall sensor bracket was a simple thing to create using a piece of 1/4 inch aluminum angle stock, which I added slots to so it could bolt onto two oil pan bolts and still be adjustable. I also added an extra layer of aluminum to the front, since it needed to come out toward the pulley a little more. The result was a bracket that is rigid and fully adjustable and I could set to space the Hall sensor the correct distance from the pulley magnets.    Here are views of the bracket installed. As seen in the last photo above is two short spacers, which space the bracket downward from the oil pan about 1/4 inch so it clears the oil pan lip. SDS EFI uses a programmer as shown below to set parameters. No Laptop or tablet is used. There are some videos below that will show how the programmer works. Programmer Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlhgz_vVMuM Programmer Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iBNlYUAf9M&t=7s Hall Sensors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0eCX2AcM9w SDS EFI YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rv6ejguy/videos  MSD Digital 6A Ignition Amplifier  I've been using an MSD ignition amplifier in my Volvo for more years than I can recall. It's very good at seriously improving ignition spark. I have more about that in my Ignition Page. |
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 Humble 245 beginnings..... This was my first 240 Turbo. I bought this 1984 245 Turbo back in March of 1997. I paid $3200 to who I think was the second owner in Rialto, California. It was completely stock and original. When I started to do a few little modifications, I really had no idea the direction it would eventually take. This was my first 240 Turbo, so I found myself in a strange new world when it came to understand things like K-Jetronic fuel injection. I had no clue what made it tick, but I was learning. By 1997 when I bought this 245, I had already been a customer of iPd for a number of years. They were the best source (often the only source) for Volvo performance improvement parts. So mods started getting done slowly as I could manage. |
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For
my second car a friend talked me into buying this 1967 BMW 1600ti
Alpina. It was the first year that Alpina built such a car. This one
was a former German
Group 3 race car, which was later imported
to the U.S.
I bought it in 1978. |
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