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Appie's Volvo 244 GLE B6304

Appelsap

New member
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Location
Netherlands
Last year I bought a Volvo 244 from 1982, with the intention of engine swapping it. The car is originally from Finland and brought to the Netherlands by the previous owner in 2009. It has been of the road since 2014, most likely because of the change in tax laws. It went from tax free to ?150,- per month. It has a B19 engine with a bw55 auto. The car is a GLE, and has some nice options, like the window trim, 4 power windows and a/c. Having a/c is very rare here, it was never retrofitted to r134 of course and not in functioning order now. I also can?t imagine how slow it must have been with the a/c on, being a B19A.

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The car is in good shape with minor rust. It even has some history with it proving the milage, and where it was originally purchased in Finland. The B19 started right up with a new battery.

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This is the reason of the high monthly tax. The car has an lpg system (gas). Due to a law change in 2014 the car was no longer exempt from tax (it will be again in 2022, at the age of 40). The benefit of an lpg system is the cheaper fuel price, 1/3 of the price of petrol/gasoline, although it uses about 20% more fuel.
Removing the system will result in a much lower tax bracket, ?120 per year (special exempt for some cars with build date 87 or older). So that is what I did.

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After removing the lpg system and having it checked by the government, I started working on the new mot. As it was expired 5 years ago. The car needed a new wheel bearing (left front), the rear callipers needed to be rebuild and the CO% was too high at 12%! After some adjustment of the needle I got the car to a nice 3%.

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The day after having passed the mot I found this from the rear of the car:

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The tank had rusted through and started dissolving the undercoating. I bought a new one, cleaned it, painted it and put it back.

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As a last thing I put a new timing belt on, which was very easy. Much easier than on a 940 if you ask me, it took me 30 minutes.

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Having done all of the maintenance I started driving the car and enjoying it. I had never driven a car with an automatic Transmission. And even though it was slow and a 3 speed, I thought it fitted this car, which made me think. I had planned to swap the car with a 2.0L T5 and a m90, which I bought while getting the car back on the road. So I got a S90 for it?s engine and transmission.

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This is the s90 donor car. I labelled the all of the wiring before removing it.
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After that I removed the engine and transmission.
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Then I started with the wiring. Removing everything that isn?t necessary.
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The box on the top left is all of the removed wiring.
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This is the final product for now, the engine has to be in the car before I can continue.
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Bought a new axle for the speedo conversion. The car currently has a cable speedo. I think the 3.91 gearing will suit the car nicely, but I have a 3.54 rp on hand.
The axle and speedo I bought is a 12 teeth, so I will need to figure something out for the ecu/trans as they expect a 48 teeth signal.
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Also started on pulling the engine from the 244. The engine blew its head gasket just before this winter, probably due to age/ sitting for a long time. So it is time for the new engine.
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I?m planning on test fitting the b6304 next week, fingers crossed.
 
This Week I started with prepping the engine. I will only do the basics. So I did the timing belt, waterpump and the seals.
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Also cleaned up the engine, luckily it is a fairly clean engine. (200000 mile engine)
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Removed the old B19
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Started on the engine mounts, thanks to Homer.
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Test fitted everything with a 6 cyl lower with block frame. I have this for welding rwd sumps for 5cyl. Its is nice for test fitting as well. Trans is also mounted in this picture. (Jack is on the subframe for safety.)
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After test fitting I painted the mounts. Drying slowly in this cold weather.
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Started cleaning up the engine bay, removing everything not necessary.
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Im trying to have the actual engine in next week, and starting on the wiring.
 
Cool build! Shame you had to take the LPG system out. I have propane at my house and it cost around 1/3 the price of premium gas for my 945 Turbo. Love seeing your progress!
 
I'm curious how you mounted the transmission. I have heard that an M47 crossmember can be bolted up, wondered if you'd done the same or something else novel.
 
Cool build! Shame you had to take the LPG system out. I have propane at my house and it cost around 1/3 the price of premium gas for my 945 Turbo. Love seeing your progress!

My daily is still on lpg so it?s not really a problem for me. I have a 945 from 1997 with a m90, b230fk and 16t turbo. Great engines, but I wanted something more special for this car instead.

Very cool. You're gonna love the car with that engine.

Thank you. I really hope so. I?m a little afraid that its gonna be a bit slow. But I have the 200hp cams for this engine on hand.

^It is a really good choice for these cars. I love mine.

Thank you, if seen your build and it has helped me a lot.

I'm curious how you mounted the transmission. I have heard that an M47 crossmember can be bolted up, wondered if you'd done the same or something else novel.

My bw55 crossmember was a straight fit, with the bw55 trans bracket bolted to the aw43. But some performance shims are necessary als the trans sits more to the front of the car. The bw55 crossmember should be the same as the aw71.

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Today was the big day, the engine is in!

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Just seeing this feels like such a big achievement. It looks amazing.

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Always great to see more Swedish whiteblocks being installed in these cars. Will be following your progress. No interest in the M90 option behind your new engine? I suspect the 3.54 final gearing will be plenty with your 6 cylinder. Plans for boost?
 
Always great to see more Swedish whiteblocks being installed in these cars. Will be following your progress. No interest in the M90 option behind your new engine? I suspect the 3.54 final gearing will be plenty with your 6 cylinder. Plans for boost?

I want to keep this car auto, but I won?t rule a manual swap out in the future. Depends on how it drives.


This week I started with the driveshaft. I got a driveshaft from a aw71. It is a bit too short, but I think it will work. I spaced the driveshaft carrier forward.
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This is the max length, I am confident it won?t pop out.
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Next I spaced the front sway bar. I am not happy with this solution, it?s temporary. I have two choices, make a spacer from a solid block or put a different sway bar on. I have the sway bar with the cutout. I?m not sure from what engine combination the bar is originally from, either a diesel or a v6. But the problem is the size, it is a 18mm sway bar and the current sway bar is 23mm.
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I also attached the power steering lines. The original lines fit.
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For the electronic speedo conversion I was very lucky and got a speedo with the same mileage. Heh.
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Bought new a 940 radiator, fitment is not perfect but it will do. Also need to convert the lines for the oil cooler. 960 has a different size.
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Finished the wiring. I?m a little worried for the immobiliser. So I will test everything before putting it in the car. Only wires I need to attach inside are some instrument cluster wires, switched power, starter signal and brake pedal. I also need to shorten some wires in the engine bay, they are not covered with insulation yet.
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Did the conversion to electric fuel pump. Also went straight to a single pump system, makes things much easier if you ask me. I will make a picture of the engine line later. I used a v70 return line. It fits to the 960 fuel rail connector.
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This is how the car currently sits. The engine weight must be about the same as the front springs are quite weak and it is about stock ride height. The back is a bit higher, this car still has stiffer springs in the back from when it had the lpg system.
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I've moved driveshaft carrier even a bit more forward without problems. Rear end should basically drop out of the car for the driveshaft to split. So you're fine.

Stock 240 radiator would have been enough. Only mod needed is tranny oil line fittings.

You don't need spacers for the front sway bar depending on your engine position. This is how it sits in the "B6284T" with a 24mm bar(copy of a stock redblock bar). Same fitment with IPD 25mm. The engine is so low that oil pan is around 1-1.5cm lower than front cross member.
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I've moved driveshaft carrier even a bit more forward without problems. Rear end should basically drop out of the car for the driveshaft to split. So you're fine.

Stock 240 radiator would have been enough. Only mod needed is tranny oil line fittings.

You don't need spacers for the front sway bar depending on your engine position. This is how it sits in the "B6284T" with a 24mm bar(copy of a stock redblock bar). Same fitment with IPD 25mm. The engine is so low that oil pan is around 1-1.5cm lower than front cross member.

Looks like my engine is on the same height as yours, but hard to tell. I definitely need a spacer otherwise it will touch the pan with the wheels off the ground. My spacer is 2,5 cm now (1 inch). Could be because I have the original springs? So now lowering springs or anything.
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Excellent work so far!

Thank you Jacob. Looking forward to driving it!

This was supposed the be the post telling it runs. But no such luck unfortunately. Everything wired up, engine turns over but no start. Got power to injectors, maf, ecu, etc. Also have fuel pressure. Ecu doesn?t turn on the fuel pump relay when connecting to switched power and not when starting. The idle air control valve is humming when the switched power is on. All the wiring is correct, I spend the whole day troubleshooting.
I did just notice I have removed the air pump relay. Which shouldn?t matter as the car never had the pump system. But I will wire it up tomorrow and try again.

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Looks like my engine is on the same height as yours, but hard to tell. I definitely need a spacer otherwise it will touch the pan with the wheels off the ground. My spacer is 2,5 cm now (1 inch). Could be because I have the original springs? So now lowering springs or anything.
My car is much lower than stock and it does affect the sway bar. You can cut the thin lip off of the pan if sway bar touches it. And it's not really a problem if sway bar just touches the pan when car is lifted(other than scraping the paint).

Also when your engine is that low with stock hydraulic mounts you should take into consideration that they will collapse when old. But that's not a big deal because new ones are still available or you can use a spacer for them.

You can remove air pump relay, the system doesn't need it. Do you have spark? Does fuel pump relay have the control ground from ecu and 12V feed when cranking?
 
My car is much lower than stock and it does affect the sway bar. You can cut the thin lip off of the pan if sway bar touches it. And it's not really a problem if sway bar just touches the pan when car is lifted(other than scraping the paint).

Also when your engine is that low with stock hydraulic mounts you should take into consideration that they will collapse when old. But that's not a big deal because new ones are still available or you can use a spacer for them.

You can remove air pump relay, the system doesn't need it. Do you have spark? Does fuel pump relay have the control ground from ecu and 12V feed when cranking?

Thanks for the help. But I made a mistake myself. 85 and 86 of the relay were swapped. I really thought I double checked that, would have saved me a complete day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlrH34vyy70
 
:volvo:
nice work!
Congrats! That's a great feeling.

Thank you!

This is the fuel line part I wanted to share. It is from a 1997 v70. This is the feed line, I used the return one, which is similar but has a barb fitting on the bottom. Fits nicely to the 960 fuel rail.
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Next up I needed a solution for the transmission lines. After some research I found the 960 uses 5/8 unf and the 940 rad has 1/2 unf.
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I couldn?t find adapters for sale anywhere except overseas. So I bought some nuts and welded them together (also quite hard to find in this size).
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I adapted the 240 exhaust to the 960 one. Im using the 960 front section with cat. I cut off the piece from the 960 after the cat, which slides perfectly over the 240 exhaust and welded the them together (not shown in this picture). This won?t be the final exhaust, but it should work fine for now. Amazing what little difference there is in size.
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Also had to use a 90* for the oxygen sensor. Yes I know the ecu won?t see if the cat works now. I don?t really care, this car doesn?t even need a cat to pass inspection here due to its age. I might not even fit one on the final exhaust.
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This is how the engine bay looks now. I put most of the wiring in place.
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