The Hacked Saga: A Tale of Way Too Many Projects (144>245>944>244>144>144>245)

[fatcatbestcat]

Seriously, you don´t have the skills to succesfully do that transplant. Neither do I.

I meannnn, it's not like it hasn't been done before, but a lot of the little things related to that swap just make me lose interest immediately. Mostly about trying to find a solid manual transmission that can take V8 power. Plus I figured out that an LS is still smaller than the 215/Rover engine.

I'm sticking with the B20 for now. On the weekend I'm going back up to the shop to hopefully rebuild the cooling system and clean out the fuel tank so I can make it run long enough to get a timing light on it.

 

[Scaramanga]

I meannnn, it's not like it hasn't been done before, but a lot of the little things related to that swap just make me lose interest immediately. Mostly about trying to find a solid manual transmission that can take V8 power. Plus I figured out that an LS is still smaller than the 215/Rover engine.

I'm sticking with the B20 for now. On the weekend I'm going back up to the shop to hopefully rebuild the cooling system and clean out the fuel tank so I can make it run long enough to get a timing light on it.

Any updates here?

 

[fatcatbestcat]

Any updates here?

Well I was going to post an update at the end of the weekend, but since you bumped it early, I can write a little bit

Haven't really done anything with the 144 since my last update. Now that I've been at the shop space a few more times and gotten to see what it's really about, it's very apparent that the "getting it running and driving and on the road before the winter" scenario is not going to happen; the shop is a lot busier and more populated than I thought and getting time in the shop and on the lift is not easy, especially when I can only be there on the weekend when it's busiest. Also, all the powercoating equipment was taken away so that kinda dashed any thoughts of making it semi-"nice". Basically confirms that this isn't ever going to be more than a rat rod at best - definitely not daily driver material.

So all that, combined with dropping the driver's side window through the door kind of obliterated any motivation to work on the 144. It got to a point where I put it up for sale and had some modest interest - to the point where I was about to trade it for a pair of 740 wagons. Naturally that didn't really go anywhere and instead I was looking at 240s again... which almost ended with me owning a '76 245 but that car was so bad it scared me away from trying for another project.

Anyway, I'm back at square one of just keeping on working with the 144. I ordered some parts but it's late in the season and getting cold out so I'm moreso now doing small things and regular maintenance to get my 940 ready for the winter.

Periodically, I bother @jmiles to see if I can get him to trade his 960 wagon for my 940

 

[Scaramanga]

Well I was going to post an update at the end of the weekend, but since you bumped it early, I can write a little bit

Haven't really done anything with the 144 since my last update. Now that I've been at the shop space a few more times and gotten to see what it's really about, it's very apparent that the "getting it running and driving and on the road before the winter" scenario is not going to happen; the shop is a lot busier and more populated than I thought and getting time in the shop and on the lift is not easy, especially when I can only be there on the weekend when it's busiest. Also, all the powercoating equipment was taken away so that kinda dashed any thoughts of making it semi-"nice". Basically confirms that this isn't ever going to be more than a rat rod at best - definitely not daily driver material.

So all that, combined with dropping the driver's side window through the door kind of obliterated any motivation to work on the 144. It got to a point where I put it up for sale and had some modest interest - to the point where I was about to trade it for a pair of 740 wagons. Naturally that didn't really go anywhere and instead I was looking at 240s again... which almost ended with me owning a '76 245 but that car was so bad it scared me away from trying for another project.

Anyway, I'm back at square one of just keeping on working with the 144. I ordered some parts but it's late in the season and getting cold out so I'm moreso now doing small things and regular maintenance to get my 940 ready for the winter.

Periodically, I bother @jmiles to see if I can get him to trade his 960 wagon for my 940

Be patient! You can do it!

Side window disaster is pretty common, there are parts available to fix it. No worries.

 

[fatcatbestcat]

Be patient! You can do it!

Side window disaster is pretty common, there are parts available to fix it. No worries.

Yeah, it's just a pain in the ass to deal with glass when it's in a door and I have to reach around a crash structure in the vain hope that I can pull the window up and out of it. I already got a new plastic elevator and some springs which I think may be the culprit.

This page is severely lacking in pictures, so here's an update on what I had been doing - basically restating everything I said in a previous post... but with pictures!

So this is one of the 740s - someone on Facebook offered to trade this '90 745 tic and a parts car for my 144, which seemed too good to be true. Again, I'm REALLY looking for a wagon so someone offering to trade a stalled project for TWO of them sounded fantastic... weirdly enough I had looked into buying this car back in 2022, but the seller never replied to me or answered any of my questions so it disappeared.

It was pretty rough - had sat since it failed an e-test (which had been abolished almost a decade ago, so that indicates how long it's just sat in a yard) and was home to MANY mice and apparently the interior reeked of mouse piss. The guy offering to trade had stripped most of the interior out. Eventually, he poked around and found this before we made a deal, and decided he would just save us both the trouble and part it out. A shame.

Speaking of rust, this '82 245 DL popped up local to me in Oakville, so I drove fifteen minutes away to check it out.

Naturally, I get there and it's;
1. in crackhead prison
2. a base 3-speed automatic carb'd B21A DL that doesn't run, isn't title in the province, full of rust...
3. ...and the guy wants $5,000 for it.

The worst part is that I was seriously considering it because I dig the stripper base model specs, and have a buddy now that does auto body at a fair (and non-taxed) rate... but the math came to be that it would cost $4800 just to fix the body. Not including getting it running. So I chose to spare the guy from a $200 offer for a car he seemed really genuinely attached to and noped the fuck out of that situation.

@Hodginsa had his 242 GLT up for sale which was tempting but without front suspension, rockers or floors, it's just way too big of a project for me, sadly - with no indoor space to store the car.

Then, in a weird twist - the guy with the two junk 745s found a '76 245 local to him (that I was hoping to buy), and I popped over to check it out and trade some parts. Guy also has a '76 244 that I got to drive and I almost fell in love - but with a 3-speed automatic it wouldn't have been super practical on the highway.

The wagon is a DL with an M46, and looks good from about fifty feet away but oh fuck was it was awful car. This came from the same sketchy dealership my old '92 240 came from - so that gives you an idea of what to expect. Lots of messed up wiring, bad body repairs, 12+ year old tires (!!!) and crash damage in the front end but somehow was not branded salvage or rebuilt. It's non-lambda K-jet and tuned so badly that the entire car shook when it fired up - like a school bus. It runs and drives but backfires when cruising, the suspension is creaky and wasted, lots of interior trim is falling apart and I got to learn that I don't really like the early 240 seats. There is zero ass support and it feels like sitting on a church pew.

So that was a little disappointing - but it saved me from an unhealthy desire for an early flathood wagon. I didn't feel a need to own that car, I'll just wait for the owner to work on it some more, get tired of it and then flip to me for way more money

I didn't walk away empty handed from that experience though, I grabbed a bunch of parts off the 740s - mostly interior trim, but I also snagged all the parts I need to finally convert it back to a mechanical fan (thus ridding myself of some horrid engine bay wiring that goes right to the battery), AND some snow caps!

At this point I'm starting to just do some regular maintenance on the 940, and get it ready for winter driving this season. I already have steelies and snows, just need to replace a lot of neglected seals and stuff in the engine bay, and hopefully get rid of that awful e-fan. Just do what I can to prevent the car from leaving me stranded in a snowbank somewhere.

STILL LOOKING FOR A WAGON

 

[jmiles]

Anyone in Canada watching this auction https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-volvo-940-4/ should compare it to the @fatcatbestcat 940 -

@fatcatbestcat is a bright red 5 speed with a far cooler interior and equipment level.
It is his daily driver so it has the kinks worked out.
Most importantly his wealth of history here on TurboBricks means you get the real deal on what has been done on it.

I have turned into one of those “i’ve never owned a wagon guys” so I’m holding onto mine.

 

[fatcatbestcat]

Well, some stuff for the 940.

Really not much progress, but I checked off a fix for at least one annoying thing on the car.

I set out to just change the timing belt and some oil seals and that quickly turned into swapping the car back to a mechanical fan. I don't know what the deal with this random aftermarket one is, but its removal ended up being permanent - it was ziptied on. I also cut a bunch of wires to it because a previous owner shoved them through gaps and under brackets and hoses and stuff and I just couldn't be bothered.

The studs on the end of the water pump pulley had apparently been hitting the end of the fan for some time, check out the damage.

I was a little concerned that the parts (off of a '90 745 tic) wouldn't properly fit my 940, but as I thought, the parts fit like they were meant to be. Shroud went right on, and the fan fits and spins nicely.

The main reason for me ridding myself of the mechanical fan was to delete a whole bunch of cheese/spaghetti wiring in the driver's side of the engine bay. It's rather annoying and not professional, and I consider it a fire hazard. Also, it would be nice to get my power antenna working again rather than having it wired to the fan.

I also threw a fancy billet IPD oil cap (kind of silly but I felt like replacing the cap seal anyway) and swapped out the coolant resevoir cap for the correct OE green type.

STILL LOOKING FOR A WAGON (2)

 

[fatcatbestcat]

So, embarrasing (and fast) update. I'm trying to be very open and transparent about failure in Hacked™ (it's the main source of entertainment due to my lack of mechanical skill), so here you go: a fail update.

I didn't mention it in the last update, but I tried to change the timing belt on that Sunday afternoon - and quickly aborted because I realized I wasn't going to get it done, and instead moved to do the fan thing to make myself feel a bit better. I made one critical mistake in reassembly: I didn't tighten down the belt tensioner.

Thus, it shouldn't have been a surprise when the next morning, I hopped in the car to get to work and it suddenly shut off when I got to the end of the driveway and wouldn't fire back up. A kind passerby stopped, pulled over and helped me push the car onto the sidewalk. It couldn't stay there because;

1. I'm pretty sure it's against a few by-laws

and

2. it was garbage collection day.

I called my boss and he was sympathetic and let me get the day off as a vacation day to get the car running again. I pulled the oil cap off and got my dad to turn the key and the cam wasn't moving. Pulled the upper timing cover and found that the belt had slipped off.

Soooo, I threw a new belt on as soon as I could, and got it running (with no power steering or alternator belt and the crank pulley totally keyed wrong and flopping around like a fish) just BARELY enough (and out of time) to get it up my deceptively steep driveway and parked off the sidewalk and away from the street. Safe.

So at this point I'm in a bit of a panic, and started calling all the local Euro/Volvo shops to see if I could get this car in - in case it had some issue with the tensioner or something else major. 8/10 places I called said they wouldn't touch a Volvo this old, one was booked up through November and the last resort was Volvo Mississauga who said they could get to it next week. The people on the TB Discord were very supportive and talked me off that ledge... and helped walk me through the belt change - which I had never done on a redblock before. My last OHC timing experience was with the D24 which was somehow much easier, I really don't care for the tensioner arrangement on a B230 but now that I've done it, I understand and respect the system.

So, I had my work lunch outside and got to work (on the car).

Some cursing and head bashing (and like 2-3x as much time as it normally should), I got the new belt on there and properly tensioned. AND the tensioner was tightened up and crank pulley properly installed. At least I can say I'm a master of the B230 vbelt tensioners now. The car got me to work this morning and it got me home. Relief.

At this point I'm aware that the fan clutch I just installed is probably bad. There's a serious loss of torque and garbage truck fan noises in RPM ranges where they shouldn't be - I ordered a new clutch just to be sure. It's not undriveable but it makes me miss the old e-fan. Maybe in the future I'll swap ECUs and go for the '93+ OE e-fan setup.

I'm still passively shopping for wagons as a secondary car, especially now that I realize having a backup would be nice.

These are both '88s - the 245 is an automatic and the 745 is a manual turbo car. I'm investigating both, but I know an automatic would be comfier in city traffic and my girlfriend would be able to drive it...

Anyone have a '93 automatic 245 they wanna sell?

 

[dl242gt]

You did well. Recovered from the fail and moved forward. Just don't forget to retension the timing belt after about 400 miles. Just do that through the hole with the rubber plug on the cover. Loosen a full turn then tighten to 36ft lb.

 

[fatcatbestcat]

You did well. Recovered from the fail and moved forward. Just don't forget to retension the timing belt after about 400 miles. Just do that through the hole with the rubber plug on the cover. Loosen a full turn then tighten to 36ft lb.

Yep, I've got a sticky note on the dash to remind me.

This coming weekend I have to fix (grind + paint) some rust in preparation for the winter.

 

[brendon_ak]

Nice recovery and way to stick with it!

 

[fatcatbestcat]

At this point I'm aware that the fan clutch I just installed is probably bad. There's a serious loss of torque and garbage truck fan noises in RPM ranges where they shouldn't be - I ordered a new clutch just to be sure.

Fixed! For the first time ever, I managed to get over to the shop before anyone else could, and swapped my fan clutch.

And the difference is practically night and day. There's definitely a little loss of power versus when the car had the electric fan, but not it actually has its power back at basically every RPM I normally drive it at. Loads faster, and I'm sure better on gas. It was rather unpleasant driving to the shop, doing something like 3200 RPM to go 65 mph with the bad clutch... now it'll cruise at a much cozier 2500-2600, which is probably the best I can get with the tall fifth gear on the M90 and 3.73s out back.

I also verbally sold the 144... yeah I know, I could have kept at it but I wasn't motivated and I ended up selling to a professional welder/fabricator who wanted to give an old Volvo a try. It's going to stay at the shop so I can still get updates on it. Mostly just wanted it "gone" (freeing up a parking space) so I could hop onto a wagon. I have a few to look at in the coming weeks.

 

[brendon_ak]

Nice work! That car has great bones, keep looking for a 7/9 wagon to swap all your good bits to!

 

[fatcatbestcat]

Nice work! That car has great bones, keep looking for a 7/9 wagon to swap all your good bits to!

Yeah, I keep thinking that but then I will need to get a third car to drive around while I inevitably take both cars out of commission permanently when I feel like swapping the good parts over. I'm moreso looking for a project wagon that I can get ready for the road, and then down the line if something happens to the 940, I can part it out.

But that's complicated if I end up with an LH 2.2 wagon, then I gotta change all the wiring etc etc etc and it gets messy. I think the ideal candidate would be another LH 2.4 car so things can stay relatively plug and play.

Then again, I kinda want to get back into a 240... and I want an automatic so my girlfriend can drive it... decisions, decisions.

 

[brendon_ak]

Wait, so long as you get an LH car you can swap over the engine management system between the two, no? It's like that in the 240, engine harness is completely separate from the chassis harness. You can get a LH2.0 car and swap to 2.4, granted it's a bunch of work but totally doable based on the tools you have. Are the 7/9 different in that regard?

 

[fatcatbestcat]

Wait, so long as you get an LH car you can swap over the engine management system between the two, no?

I've only owned two LH cars, both 2.4 and only messed with one (the 940) so far - from what I can tell some things are different and you can't really just swap over.

It's like that in the 240, engine harness is completely separate from the chassis harness. You can get a LH2.0 car and swap to 2.4, granted it's a bunch of work but totally doable based on the tools you have. Are the 7/9 different in that regard?

The engine/chassis harness on the 7/9s is integrated, which means if you want to swap to a different management system you need to go back and peel back a lot of insulation and cut a bunch of wires... not something I think I'm terribly qualified to do. Then you also have to put the 2.4 VSS sensor in the diff (and put a speed sensor in there), wire that up, get a different flywheel/flexplate etc etc etc etc

 

[brendon_ak]

Ohhhh, forgot about those harnesses being integrated. That sucks for sure. Get a 240 lol!

What year was your 240? I believe LH2.2 was 85-88 then LH2.4 forward for most cars, that or LH3.1 which I'm not sure if the 9/7 cars got.

 

[fatcatbestcat]

Ohhhh, forgot about those harnesses being integrated. That sucks for sure. Get a 240 lol!

What year was your 240? I believe LH2.2 was 85-88 then LH2.4 forward for most cars, that or LH3.1 which I'm not sure if the 9/7 cars got.

My first 240 was an '83 diesel, second was a '92 automatic with LH 2.4. The one I posted about before is an '88 and probably LH 2.2, if things work out I'm going to go take a look at it on the weekend. I think LH 3.1 was something select manual 240s got, but never something I ever paid attention to.

 

[nordmaschine]

No need to replace VSS between LH2.2 and 2.4. Just need not forget to wire cluster output to LH.

 

[brendon_ak]

Oh yea, that's what I was going to say. You can get away without doing the speedo sensor on 2.4. You need a 2.2 throttle body and cable to a cable driven cluster. That's what I had on mine, worked great.