4.9ltr V8 turbo Volvo 940 Turbo 1998 10mths MOT £1500 Gloucs

[stav]

EDIT- NOW £1500, get it out of my sight.

As title really. Don't really wanna, but need to finish paying for the RX7 which is rapidly nearing completion, so needs must!

Built this ourselves (well, me with stupid ideas and money and tech info, my friend who's a pro tuner/mechanic/fabricator getting his handy dirty and taking my money), originally with a £1000 budget, which actually got it going, but making it as it is now ended up well over £2.5k, and that's with mega bargains, stuff I already owned, and mates rates labour- You can imagine what this stupid car would normally cost to build...!

The car-
R-reg Volvo 940 2.3 Turbo (Still is a 2.3 on the log book).
Only 1 or 2 previous owners before me IIRC.
Full Volvo service history from new! Last stamp about 4000 miles ago!
Ridiculously good condition inside and out.
Full leather, electrically adjustable, heated, etc etc.
Electric mirrors, windows, sunroof, etc etc.
Everything works barring the aircon has been removed and stock rev counter (Aftermarket one fitted).

10months MOT and 2months Tax

The conversion/mods-
4.9ltr V8 turbo block/heads from a 1981 Pontiac Trans-Am Turbo, low compression pistons etc- 20psi+ has been done on stock internals and turbo.
Custom 4-1 tubular turbo manifolds.
T3/4 turbo with carbon seal etc for draw-thru use and Holset HX35 adjustable wastegate actuator on custom bracket.
4barrel Holley carb on custom adapter.
3in stainless front wing exit exhaust with Scorpion slash cut tailpipe.
Heat wrapped exhaust etc etc.
Malpassi carb fuel pressure regulator.
Welded diff.
Uprated (HEAVILY strengthened) rear diff subframe.
Slightly lowered.
Custom propshaft.
Solid engine mounts.
Two speed electric fan.
Custom aftermarket ign leads.
TH350 3 speed automatic with drag spec reverse pattern conversion and manual valve body conversion (so now it's P, N, 1, 2, 3, and gearchanges are HARD and FAST, not at all like a normal auto!).
Line lock for burnouts and generally acting like a dick.
Decent head unit that takes CDs, SD cards, etc and sounds bloody good (maybe uprated speakers, never checked).

Starts from cold on the button every time.
Drives nice to be fair, VERY loud and awesome with exhaust bung out, VERY quiet with exhaust bung in. Even without bung it's nice and quiet with the windows shut as it's a posh spec late Volvo so it's very very well sound deadened!

Needs taking to a tuner that's good with Holley carbs to set it up properly- Currently running hardly any boost and has a slight hesitation just off idle which is annoying but totally dissappears above about 1200rpm, but that's just mild tuning stuff I've not got round to doing yet.
Due to low boost etc it's not mega power, but a LOT of torque still, potentially STUPID fast once set up! Turbo is good for 400-500bhp I'd say and even more in torque, though we planned to fit a much bigger one! 4.9ltr will spool anything!

Has not got a high top speed! Around 100mph at 5000rpm on the current diff ratio and wheels, but cruises fine at 70-80 on the motorway.

ABS light has just came on, which is odd, not sure why, it all still works as standard, maybe the welded diff has made the light come on.

Due to the crazy low idle (sub 500rpm!) and using the Volvo oil pressure gauge, the light is on at idle, but goes out once the car is at normal sort of revs.

Towbar with full electrics.

Some videos...

Cold start with bung in- Quiet!


Burnoooot


Flames and a normal launch


More flames (manual choke on a little to make it richer, can do from drivers seat if needed )


PICS-

Tax-


Tubular manifolds-


Engine-


More engine-


Holley carb-


Engine and exhaust-


Turbo and carb-


Tailpipe-


Handbook-


More engine-


Service history-


More service history, goes right back to new!-


Current miles, pretty high, but the car is amazingly good nick-


Interior-


MOT-


Boot-


More interior-


Even more interior-


Dash-


More interior-


Shifter-


Tacho-


Line lock-


LOLVO-


The car...







Heavily strengthened rear end as even at low boost and low RPM it twisted and snapped the original setup like twigs!











So yeah, a driving, MOT'd, Tax'd, burnooooot crazy noisy mad thing, that's 99% done, just needs setting up etc to be made curse word daft. We was gonna stick a massive turbo on it, get it pro set up, and go mad in it, but the RX7 is coming on so fast and eating my money so fast this car has to go to pay for it!

At the moment due to needing to be set up it's not great on fuel to say the least lol, and though I've done 40mile+ Motorway journeys with it, if was me I'd still trailer it home unless you was local and get it set up properly, but whatever.

I want £2250 for it, which is losing me money, not to mention the mega time and effort put in, but that's life.

Car is located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.MORE PICS AND INFO ON NEXT POST....

[Paul]

All I can say is...

[AB car pix]

Wish I swapped you when I had the 360!
Awesome thing!

[dubmeister]

Laughing @ LOLVO .
Man that motor is exactly what i am after to fit in my front engined v8 Kubelwagen but alas it is way to dear to buy for the engine unfortunately
GLWS

[stav]

Oct 9, 2013 22:28:14 GMT dubmeister said:

Laughing @ LOLVO .
Man that motor is exactly what i am after to fit in my front engined v8 Kubelwagen but alas it is way to dear to buy for the engine unfortunately
GLWS

I have a pretty much complete spare funnily enough, inc carb and turbo, albeit would be wise to rebuild it all.

I wont sell it until the Lolvo has gone though.

[jonmsm]

Your Lolvo is truly deserving of the word:
EPIC

I'd love to take that off your hands but unless your willing to swap for a mk2 scirocco and a golf v5 then I'm snookered lol

Good work though sir!

[sutty2006]

That. Is. EPIC.

GLWS!!!

[dubmeister]

Oct 9, 2013 22:39:25 GMT stav said:

Oct 9, 2013 22:28:14 GMT dubmeister said:

Laughing @ LOLVO .
Man that motor is exactly what i am after to fit in my front engined v8 Kubelwagen but alas it is way to dear to buy for the engine unfortunately
GLWS

I have a pretty much complete spare funnily enough, inc carb and turbo, albeit would be wise to rebuild it all.

I wont sell it until the Lolvo has gone though.

If you fancy selling the turbo set up separate give me a shout and a price please
Or if you decide to sell the motor before the LOLVO has gone again give me a shout
Was looking for a cheap chevy or if i got really desparate a rover v8 to put in the kubel but your motor and turbo set up sounds a lot better but as usual it all depends on where you are and the price
Just got stung for £3000 to send my kids to a wedding in Australia so be gentle lol
Cheers Ian

[stav]

PM'd you Ian.

And now the pics are working again, stoopid Photobucket.

[dubmeister]

Pm'd you back
Photophucket is rubbish

[dreadnought]

Having a line lock and doing burnouts is NOT acting like a Dick!. It's acting like a responsable modified car owner. LOL. Trying to do burnouts in your mum's Clio when you're 17 in McDonald's car park is being a dick.

[collielaa]

That thing is absolutely incredible and a bargain for the money your asking.

Any idea what sort of bhp it is currently running mate?

Good luck selling this and I bet it puts a smile on the next owners face.

Great work with this thing mate and I hope you get the money to finish your other project.

Glws!

[welshpug]

210 bhp stock accodring to Wikipedia

main thing, is the 345 lbft...

[Lankytim]

That is a GREAT car, Is it MOTable with the exhaust like that?

[dubmeister]

I read somewhere 220bhp ,which to be honest is pitiful for a near 5ltr turbo but that torque figure is not too shabby
Reckon you can get another 50bhp no bother with a bit of porting work and decent free flowing exhaust .
Push my fibreglass bodied tube frame kubelwagen/beetle along anyway lol

[CFmania]

You will get more horse power but it will take a good bit of ingenuity as the engine set up was ill concieved.

1) The ideal turbo charger is a blow through design. Instead Pontiac relied on a draw through design. This is less efficient. 2) When you’re dealing with power adders which create lots of heat, you should add some kind of cooling system for the engine oil as it gets highly stressed. Pontiac did add a heavy duty engine coolant system but there was no intercooler or any supplementary engine oil cooling added. 3) The turbo charger ideally delivers a wider range of torque and horsepower through the rpm range than on a normally aspirated engine. Here, the 301 has a problem. It is really an economy engine designed for fuel efficiency at low to medium rpm operation. The intake ports are small, rather poor and the intake manifold is the same. It doesn’t matter on cars with high gearing and intended usage for steady highway cruising. Using small port heads and intake manifold with a relatively weak turbo boost and then selling it as a high performance engine sets you up for failure. The Garrett TB305 charger is about as large as you can go using the 301 turbo heads because the gas flow is all out of room by 4200 rpm. A larger camshaft won’t help. Nitrous Oxide will work but the crankshaft has less counterweights than usual to reduce rotating mass and you need a strong crank to take nitrous oxide. It’s simply the wrong engine for impressive horsepower.

[stav]

I don't know where you got the above info, but it's absolute curse word lol. Whoever wrote that seems to know nothing about turbo engines.

Fact is, almost nobody has bothered tuning them, turbo engines were slated in the early 80s when this was made, but the ones who did had very good results.

They were made in the emissions era of Yank V8s, so had a hugely restrictive exhaust setup with early spec cats and EGR and other awful stuff, and made 220bhp and almost 400lb/ft- Even the 6.6ltr big block Pontiacs were producing only 180bhp from the factory by then!

Without all that, they're a fair bit more without more boost (which is where the Volvo currently is), and a LOT more with decent boost- I know of a trans-am on the stock turbo running I think 21psi and was running 10.9sec 1/4s.

The crank thing is funny, making out it's weak, but nobody ever seems to have any info on someone breaking one, and the lack of counterweights is down to the fact its VERY short stroke, hugely undersquare, rather than a long stroke lumbering thing, so doesn't need massive heavy counterwieghts.

The heads and inlet manifold are the only bits that aren't exactly a great design, but the port and valve sizes are still HUGE, plenty enough for easy double standard power, if not more.

Hope that helps- It's probably good to have facts on a for sale thread, rather than 3rd hand internet BS...

[dubmeister]

Lucky i have a mate who owns a flow rig then lol .

Any idea how much a motor weighs and if manual boxes are easy to get ?

Not much info about 4.9 turbo motors out there it would appear .

[stav]

Not mega heavy, not light of course, but the Volvo handling or ride height hasn't noticably changed with it fitted, and we moved two of these engines around with two of us no bother.
Typical small block V8 weight, which is similar to a J inline 6 like a JZ or RB.

The bellhousing pattern is the same as on all Pontiacs, Buicks, and Oldsmobiles, so a T5 box or similar from one of them will bolt straight on.

Next to no info on the 4.9 Turbo as they didn't make a lot or for long, and they were nothing amazing, and in a country rammed full of giant V8s and had almost zero interest/knowledge in turbocharging at the time.

Shame really as while they're certainly no 350SBC or LS, with a turbo there's no need to be- Even a stock 350SBC can do 750bhp on stock internals, and 4.8 and 5.3 LS truck engines have done 1000bhp+ on stock internals. The ports and heads on this engine aren't hugely smaller, and for 99% of people 500bhp and similar torque (and 10sec 1/4s) is way beyond what they'll ever get regardless of engine, and I've no doubt these 301s could do that with relative ease.

[CFmania]

I got the info from the Pontiac owners club, the engine inc ancillaries weighs 630 lbs or just over a quarter ton.


www.highperformancepontiac.com/