'92 VOLVO 240 ADVICE PLEASE.

[chappo]

...

[chappo]

I've accidentally bought a 240 SE auto.  Should have asked for pointers before as i know nothing about these but hey ho.

Wondered if anyone could give any advice please?

It's darkening my doorstep next week after it's got a ticket on it.

I'll put some pics on for anyone's who's interested but you'll have to supply your own eye bleach.

Think white estate with blue velour 😷

[chappo]

Looks like this*

www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=%2b7JlJMUT&id=09235A90BD55AEBD1770D1C0156E1C2A3307003F&thid=OIP.-7JlJMUTHBHoIt7xydryYAHaE7&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fst.automobilemag.com%2fuploads%2fsites%2f11%2f2017%2f07%2f1989-Volvo-240-Just-Listed-Rear-Three-Quarters.jpg&exph=1365&expw=2048&q=volvo+240&simid=608036010050520026&selectedIndex=18

* Eventually

[eternaloptimist]

What’s the question? Wise choice btw. Big fan here.

[chappo]

Cheers for the reply. Was for pointers/preventive maintainece/tuning/upgrades etc. Joined a Volvo forum👍

[eternaloptimist]

Volvoforums.org.uk ?

Some interesting threads in there including how to fit a T5 engine.

[chappo]

Yes thanks mate that's the one. Long term project and a lot to learn.

[Dorset_Clive]

The thing I remember from owning one many moons ago is the 'in arm' bush on the rear suspension is a right pig to change. Be very careful of cheap after market bushes as they have a steel 'case' and only 1/2mm oversize will jam solid - I started doing mine, it jammed and then bent a mates press before it would finally go in. Complete curse word!

On the up side, they stand a decent bit of lowering! And I know I'll get shot, but an intelligent spring chop is an easy way to taken them down a bit.

If you're inclined (and can get the spares from a breakers), it is very easy to double up the front and rear ARBs. For the front, basically you replace the existing mounting bolts with longer studs and screw on a second bar below the OEM one.

At the rear you can make a couple of 'drop plates' (iirc I used some 4-5mm steel plate I had laying around). You cut a piece about 200x75mm, drill two holes to line up with the OEM mounting holes, and two holes below and just bolt on a second rear ARB.

Not quite a five minute job, but front and rear certainly achievable in a day.

[discostew38]

What advice are you after
Generally the only problems will be rust due to age
mechanically there pretty strong and you can upgrade pretty much anything
The possibilities are endless

[chappo]

Thanks for taking the time out to reply guys. Yeah discostew after actually researching them seems the possibilities are indeed endless.

Swedish Metal and Rollhard give inspiration from bugout jacked up faux by faux to scraping. Seems the worms have only had a small nibble on one cill surprisingly.

Clive great advice cheers. I'll look into that further. Although the wafting is charming i think I'm looking forward to scraping speedbumps rather than the doorhandles.

On a tight budget so choppy choppy for now...

I'll get my coat🙊

[bugjam1999]

Hi,

Great cars, loads of potential for tuning/tinkering. The turbo engine from a 940 turbo bolts straight in and is highly tunable- 160/180ish just by turning the boost up, Swedish lunatics have made silly numbers -600+.  Handling improves massively by dropping it via the method of your choice.  Huge numbers were sold so there’s a lot of knowledge out there, look at:

volvoforums
turbobricks forum 
uk 240 owners page (Facebook)

I might have managed to attach a photo of mine that was taken at RRG18.  

It’s got 40mm lowering springs, polybush kit, 940 turbo engine and some other stuff... fun times.

Cheers

[bugjam1999]

This might work...

[bugjam1999]

Oh- although the rear axle to trailing arm bushes aren’t exactly easy, they’re not that bad. There are plenty of ways to make a home brew tool to fit them- crutially the shells are tapered... forcing them in the wrong way would be a total nightmare.

Cheers

[chappo]

Thanks buddy I'll have a look through those. Love the look of yours. I think I'm going to go the same route. Handling first then some beans but keeping standard looking.

You got a build thread anywhere or anymore details on yours please?

Cheers👍

[Dorset_Clive]

Sept 2, 2018 20:34:23 GMT bugjam1999 said:

Oh- although the rear axle to trailing arm bushes aren’t exactly easy, they’re not that bad. There are plenty of ways to make a home brew tool to fit them- crutially the shells are tapered... forcing them in the wrong way would be a total nightmare.

Cheers

Interesting. It is ~15 years ago that I had my 240, so I cant recall if I knew the bushes were tapered on not. My very hazy memory is they had a shoulder one end, so would very obviously fit only one way, but I just cant recall.

I do remember hours of sanding to fractionally reduce the diameter so they would fit. Ho hum.

FWIW here's a couple of pics...on a rally day...it was a lot of fun, as no one expected a big old tank to have quite the performance it did...plus it was one of the few RWD competing against all the more modern FWD stuff. ISTR we were well down the table, but probably had the most fun with getting the back end out!

In the second pic you can see the strut and bulkhead braces. Although home made, they picked up on the OEM fixing points - if you peel the sound deadening off the bulkhead, you'll see the mounting points. I think they improved handling!

[bugjam1999]

Dorset_clive - entirely possible that you had a poorly made set of bushes, hours of sanding to make them fit doesn’t sound like fun...

The braces you made make a marked improvement to handling as the strut towers are quite a long way from the bulkhead and making them more rigid is well worth the effort. There’s also a lower chassis brace that can be made for the underside, again picking up on existing mounting points and again making an improvement.

Chappo - All of these can be bought, but if you have access to fabrication gear they aren’t exactly difficult shapes to recreate. The other easy win handling-wise is changing the wheels from the original 14s with 185/80-14 tyres to something else. Volvo 740 and 940 wheels are the same offset and bolt pattern so bolt straight on, my wheels are 16 inch ones from a 940. Steel wheels from a 740/940 are mostly 15s which vastly increases tyre choice. OEM 240/740/940 alloys are fairly available in 15 or 16 inch, much rarer OEM alloys available in 17, but they attract silly prices. Have a quick look at eBay and see what you find... newer Volvo alloys are the same bolt pattern but a greater offset (as Volvo went to fwd after the 940) so you’ll need spacers... doable, but adds cost.

You could swap to a manual gearbox if you wish, the body shell is of course the same as a manual car. In the meantime look up the ‘accumulator mod’ on turbobricks, apparently this makes shifts quicker/harder/something- not sure, my cars are manual so I haven’t looked into it.

I have a couple of build threads on Volvo forums- look for the same forum name. Feel free to ping me a message if you’re wondering about anything, I did all the work to my cars myself

Cheers

[Dorset_Clive]

Sept 3, 2018 13:11:47 GMT bugjam1999 said:

Dorset_clive - entirely possible that you had a poorly made set of bushes, hours of sanding to make them fit doesn’t sound like fun...

The braces you made make a marked improvement to handling as the strut towers are quite a long way from the bulkhead and making them more rigid is well worth the effort. There’s also a lower chassis brace that can be made for the underside, again picking up on existing mounting points and again making an improvement.

Now you mention it, I recall about the lower brace, but I don't think we bothered as we had a big sump guard on there that picked up on the suspension points.