1981 Volvo 242 to Rover V8: Oil pan mod

[dryden]

Here's a 1981 Volvo 242 DL from Finland. I am it's third owner - the original owner was a lady who didn't drive it much and the second was a young student somehow related to the original owner. Its first 20 years, I was told, it had a warm garage. The last 10 it had a cold but dry shed. Now - well, it's got a warm garage again :) For the last four years, it was not driven at all. 79'000Kms in the clock...

The main reason I ended up selecting this one from the other 60 or so for sale at any given day was its great condition, inside and out. This time, I just wanted to skip straight to the part where it's possible to take a couple of nice pics after a wash & hoover:











It needed some attention, though:
- Spark plugs were really fouled, hardly started at all ---> replaced
- The carb idle setting was set to max rich, resulting in poor idle ---> leaned
- Seat belts did not return properly ---> replaced with spares from a scrap Volvo 240
- Hand brake is stuck a bit ---> needs new brake shoes and springs

I intend to keep the car 100% original on the outside but I have an engine swap in mind, to a 3,5l Rover V8.

[GT4ME]

Thats really lovely,and unusual. Like it.

[rstaaron]

Lovely car but please don't put a 3.5 RV8 in it almost anything else but that! You're car though so good luck with it whatever you do

[abe]

Nice volvo, little jealous about that.

I thought you can´t do those v8 swat anymore here in finland?

[dryden]

I thought you can´t do those v8 swat anymore here in finland?

This should be possible. The law says you can exceed the biggest engine volume by 25%.

(Link to law: www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/1998/19980779)

The biggest engine that Volvo put into this chassis was 2849cc, that was the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6. Add 25%: 2849 * 1,25 = 3561cc. The Buick/Rover V8 is 3528cc, so almost but not quite 25% :)

[robinmasters]

2.9 straight six from a 960? Big, lazy engine, like the Rover, but more powerful and possibly more economical too.

A 242 with a big engine and an autobox. I'm actually drooling.

[cesarbarbosa]

Let's gather the old volvos together...
Nice ride you've got there...

[dryden]

This project is basically #2 in the que, right behind a 1970 Chevy Nova that I want to get MOT'd. Still, I wanted to dedicate some time to the Volvo and replace the partially-stuck handbrake shoes so it would be easy to move the car around.

The Volvo 240 is a good platform for a longer-term companion since at least in Scandinavia spare parts are still readily available. The brake shoes & springs cost 17e in total... The brake discs got cleaned up too, using a knot wire brush on an angle grinder.



While the rear axle was up, I cleaned up the axle label to check out the drive ratio. 3,91!!! That's a muscle car ratio! I knew the three-speed automatic Volvos got the 3,91 axle but expected a manual to have a longer ratio. Well, with a V8 and this drive ratio there will be plenty of torque. On highway speeds this is not going to be optimal, though... At 100Km/h it's going to rev 3500rpm at the highest gear (1:1).

[dryden]

After focusing on the Chevy, it's a pleasure to make a start with the Volvo. Nothing really says "there, now I'm committed" like pulling the engine so that's the first step.

I took care to remove everything around the engine without damage so I could reuse them all. Washer, radiator, wiring harness, hopefully even speedo cable and throttle cable. The steering rack is manual so that will have to go in favour of a power one.







I trial fitted the Rover V8 and it seems that the oil pan will have to be modified, it interferes with the crossmember. In the "things to get" front, I already made an order for an adapter plate to the TH-350 transmission at D&D Fabrications, Inc. At first glance, the stock exhaust manifold is not a good choice even if it would fit, which I doubt, because the passenger's side dumps right where crossmember is. Overall, the Volvo has a ridiculously large engine bay so no real problems that I can see...

[cesarbarbosa]

I saw a couple of videos on youtube and I think it was from this car or at least one just like this one...

Nice motor you have... and ideas to...

[redbaronmulisha]

I absolutely love 240's and would still give both testicles to have a 242. Very nice car but please don't put a v8 in there, it needs a flame spitting 5 cyclinder motor from an 850 and leave the outside as standard

Health to driving my man

p.s. might need you help translating a few things of sten parner motor works site some day

[dryden]

Heh, I'm a diehard V8 guy so there is no way I'm going to make any other swap if it's a swap I'm making! And about translating that site, I know just about three words of swedish so... ... ...

[Sven]

If you're a V8 guy that's cool, I thought about a Ford 5.0HO and T5 for a long time. I also have a similar vintage Volvo 242, but the transmission is pants and the motor is now failing emissions, so I'm considering replacing both with a Toyota 3SGE BEAMS engine and 6 speed transmission. Normally aspirated and pretty cheap 210hp at the crank. Biggest problem I see fitting the 3SGE is the front sump fouling the steering rack, but there's a ton of space in the engine bay so pushing the motor back a little, maybe even cutting the bulkhead and making a cross member should have it fitting.

-Steve

[dryden]

Today the oil pan got it from the angle grinder. Lowering the engine into the Volvo's bay it was clear that a lot would have to go, so much that in the end the pan would have to be enlarged anyway. So I took off plenty.







Judging by the eye, without transmission and drive shaft in place, the engine is just about in the correct position in that last picture. I'm going to leave that oil pan like that until the engine+transmission package rests on its mounts, in other words until the final placement is clear. So now there's nothing too much to do until the adaptor plate gets here from the states...

[dryden]

While waiting for the adapter plate to arrive from the states, I took on some less interesting tasks. Like flushing the who-knows-how-old brake fluid from the system and replacing it. I patiently fried each bleeder screw with a butane torch before attempting to crack them open and was rewarded for this patience: none of the eight gave any trouble. The fluid coming out of the right rear caliper was especially foul, red in color and sort of watery... I decided to replace it with a rebuilt unit. 60€ plus some change for new brake shoes.



Also, I pulled the clutch pedal and brake pedal, to be replaced with a wider one I already sourced from the active Volvo forums in Finland for 25€. Again, I took great pleasure from the immaculate condition of the car. Diving under the dash was almost a "pleasure" XD.



The last item in this list of accomplishments was dragging in a used TH350 auto box. After scrubbing and wire-wheeling the newcomer clean, I replaced the stock shifter linkage with an aftermarket bracket set from B&M I had lying around in the shelves. By the way, an engine stand is convenient in handling a trans as well, especially when cleaning it. I've found that rubber hoses a are pretty convenient replacement for the steel cooling lines. Easy to route and handle. Just need to source proper fittings first...

[dryden]

Got the adapter plate from the states, a really neat product. It fit right in. Trying to bolt up the transmission, I noticed that the cone of the starter motor protrudes out too much, interfering with the TH350 casing. I could just cut a piece out of the trans casing but that seems like a brute force approach, so I'll be getting a modern high-torque starter that does not have the cone. For now, I just unbolted the starter so I could get on with the engine mounts.





Hanging the engine-transmission combo by the engine hoist, I mounted a drive shaft from some nameless Chevy on the back of the trans. The shaft was almost the right length, maybe a couple of centimeters too long. And does not have the flange to be bolted to the Volvo rear axle, of course. So I used plastic zip ties to fix it into the rear axle flange, just to be able to line up the drive shaft. I just crawl under the axle and look down the drive shaft to see it's straight. The angle should not be, I guess, more than a couple of degrees out of line. Since we're not making a power monster here, this should be just fine.



With the drive shaft straight-enough, judging by eye along its length and from the side, it was time to move into the exciting business of engine mounts. After some head scratching, I figured I would use original Volvo rubber pads, just mounted directly on the crossmember. Then it was straightforward to cut 5mm steel plate into conveniently shaped pieces and mock them up, careful not to disturb the engine position as it hung midair. These I tack welded into place, eased out of the engine bay and added triangular sections for strength.



Then the most satisfying part: welding them up! It was a dead calm night outside the garage, maybe a couple of degrees below freezing. I like to do my heavy welding outside, provided it's calm, as then I don't need to worry about sparks burning the paint on the floor or gases fouling the air. What could be more satisfying after a long day at the office than a nice welding session under a star lit winter sky :)

[Jamirecluse]

Neat work. Look forward to result.

[aws]

Very nice thread and great engine mountings. Cheers

[karlos01]

hi there. i had stuffed a rover v8 in to my 940. its all gone now though.

a helpful hint is that an sd1 sump fits perfectly and looks like it was made for the job. i think a 240 tunnel is different so it all has to sit in a different place. ignore me hahaha

[dryden]

The Volvo 240 seems to have three positions, from factory, to the transmission crossmember. I was really positively surprised to find this! It was then easy to select the middle one as that lined the TH350 mount a couple of centimeters in front of the crossmember. I welded a little "shelf" from 2mm scrap steel plates for the mount and gave it a coat of stonechip.

Here's a picture taken along the transmission tunnel.