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4.6 32V 240 Wagon

Now for some fun stuff. In post #22, I talked about putting the Mark VIII wheels on the Volvo when all is said and done. Last weekend, I finally made that a reality with some custom wheel adapters from motorsport-tech.com. I'd recommend these guys. The owner called me about my specs before they started cutting metal just to make sure I wasn't insane! The set of adapters shipped was $265. I used a 19mm thickness adapter to make the 39mm offset of the Mark VIII wheel equal to the Volvo's 20mm offset. The Lincoln's wheels are 16x7 compared to the Volvo's 14x5.5 wheels, so an extra 3/4" sticks out on each side. I used 205/55R16 tires making the wheel assembly diameter almost equal to the originals, but a little bit bigger.

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Putting the adapters on was a bit of a chore. I didn't realize, but should have realized, that the Volvo hub studs need to be shortened. Torquing the adapters down was an adventure as well. I used my handy dandy busted broom handle to help with that.

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These wheels are notoriously hideous on a Mark VIII. The worst stock wheels you can have on the car. But on the Volvo? Something insane happens. I love it.

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The tires tuck right in, front and back, without the need for any fender rolling.

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Awesome progress and trip reports. I'm jealous you got yours done so quickly. But happy to read that you're driving it and enjoying it.

The wheels have an almost gothic look to them on the 240, like an old French cathedral or something. Some custom center caps might look sweet on there and finish it off.

Obligatory: needz moar low!
 
Looks and sounds great, and kudos for really putting it to use. Swaps like this are always cool, but ten times more so when you put in the effort to get them to the point where you can rely on them and actually put on some miles that you enjoy.

Well done!
 
lincoln wheels

Holy Molly !!!! your wagon has a helluva character now!!! Glad to hear all is going well with the project.
Would like to get toghether once mine is done Take care
DZ:oogle:
 
Since this wagon is originally a North Carolina car with absolutely no rust, this just might be the first time it has ever seen salt. I took it back to Minnesota again, but this time coming out of Missouri there was really nasty winter weather. Salt and sand trucks were out doing their thing and the car was basically white the next day after everything had dried. I'm mostly posting about this to share pictures of what happened on the front wheels. The snow/slush formation is crazy! Car performed flawlessly otherwise. The heater on these cars is way too good.

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Hope everyone had a happy holiday season. The 32V Volvo sure did. It's time for an update!

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Since that last trip through the salt and snow, I've mainly been driving it to work on day when the roads aren't salty. It's been totally solid, no issues. But I'm still disappointed in my fuel economy of 20mpg highway.

I was browsing craigslist the other day and saw an ad for a wrecked 5-speed car part out in St. Louis, 2 hours from my place. It was an 87 with 100k miles on it. Knowing those have the 3.31 rear end, I contacted the seller and asked if they would be ok with the car no longer having a rear axle. We agreed on a price and I pulled it out the following weekend with the help of a friend. The only trip we had to take to the hardware store was for a 22mm socket. Now I'm just waiting on fresh brake parts and bushings for the trailing arms and torque rods. Hoping these next few weekends aren't too cold!

Of course this wouldn't be a proper trip if I didn't use the Volvo to take the axle home. I actually ended up using every tool I brought...cutting wheel and all!

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Sounds like fun. What's in it now? 3.73?

Would be interesting to do a couple of timed 1/4 mile runs with the current axle and the new one to see what the difference is. Should be more than fast enough either way though, and like you I'd trade a few tenths in the quarter mile for an extra few mpg on the highway.

Any thoughts of putting in a locker or TrueTrac while you've got the axle out? Seems like it'd be the time for it and with skinny Volvo tires and all that torque you could probably make use of it. Someone on here used to sell tone rings to mount on the truetrac to keep the electronic speedo working.

Speaking of tone rings, be aware that at least in the 700 series cars there was a switch at some point in the late '80s from a low resolution speedo pickup tone ring to a higher resolution one that could better support the three-channel ABS. 12t vs ~40t I think, though don't quote me. Using one in place of the other will result in an inop speedo and odo. '87 axle into a '90 car might mean you will have to deal with this since the 700s had the higher resolution setup by then, unless 240s kept the old style longer. Worst case you could probably put in an early style speedo head to make things work if this happens and you don't feel like with the diff.
 
I have a 3.73 now. Based on my research, this 87 diff should also have a 12 tooth tone ring since both cars did not have ABS. I've looked into the TrueTrac or G80 mod and it's been a little overwhelming to take in all the info that's out there. I want 3.31 or lower gears and it seems, based on my research, that the TrueTrac's mainly fit the 3.73 and higher gearsets. It's a headache I frankly don't quite want to deal with given how I use the car, but it will certainly remain on the table for the future. That being said, I welcome enlightenment from anyone wishing to provide it on the topic of using 3.31 gears with a TrueTrac.
 
Sounds like fun. What's in it now? 3.73?
Speaking of tone rings, be aware that at least in the 700 series cars there was a switch at some point in the late '80s from a low resolution speedo pickup tone ring to a higher resolution one that could better support the three-channel ABS. 12t vs ~40t I think, though don't quote me. Using one in place of the other will result in an inop speedo and odo. '87 axle into a '90 car might mean you will have to deal with this since the 700s had the higher resolution setup by then, unless 240s kept the old style longer. Worst case you could probably put in an early style speedo head to make things work if this happens and you don't feel like with the diff.
700 has 48 teeth from model year -89 and up. 240 without ABS got it in -91 or -92.


3.31 works with Truetrac as does any other. Ratio doesn't affect the fitment.
 
I've had a TrueTrac in a 3.54 axle before (old style 240 with mechanical speedo), haven't ever known anything to suggest they cannot be used in the taller R&P setups.

On the other hand, given that you seem to mainly use the car as a fast highway cruiser rather than for stoplight grand prix, and limit use in the snow, you're probably right that the limited slip diff might not really be of that much benefit. Even the open diff and stock size tires ought to put the power down with no trouble at highway speed, it'd only matter for hard acceleration in the lower gears.

I did the same approach with my '89 745 5.0L back in the day, it had stock 185 width tires on it all the way through my time with it, since I wanted to retain an absolute dead stock outside appearance and get the best highway MPG I could with it. I kept the open diff too, and mine had 3.31 gears from stock, since it began life as an M46 car. It could burn off the tires (or at least one of them!) all the way through THIRD gear if I let it. But I wanted the power for highway passing ability and for that even the skinny tires and open diff were no problem. In 5th (T5 trans) it turned less than 2k RPM at 60mph and could return over 25mpg in pure highway driving if you kept your speed reasonable.

Sounds like you would be in the clear on tone ring compatibility based on Lankku's info above. I didn't know if the 240s switched at the same time as the 700 series did, good to know it's different.
 
I'm actually running the Mark VIII donor wheels with 205 55 16 all season tires. The only time I really get the tire, singular, to break free is up-shifting at WOT. And that's mainly because the tune I have on the PCM right now has the 4R70W shifting pretty hard. My new parts came in so I will post an update once everything is swapped over.
 
axle out!!!

Hey Im working on my axle as well too !!!
Im cleaning all the crud and rust out to give it a fresh coat of paint, a dana locker, refurbished aluminum cover, cleaned all fasteners with evapurust, rebuilding dust plates and intalling self made adjustable torque rods including a new set of shocks.
It will take a couple of weeks cause im doing it in my spare time.
I have an extra aluminum cover in case you are interested in it. It only needs cleaning.
Good luck and S:cool:eeya
DZ
 
I have an extra aluminum cover in case you are interested in it. It only needs cleaning.
Good luck and S:cool:eeya
DZ

Thanks but I am all set with my stock cover.

Axle is in. Along the way I replaced the parking brake pads/hardware, brake flex lines, and the axle to trailing arm bushings. Also found out I had a leaky/stuck caliper on the driver side so I replaced that as well with fresh pads.

The car feels more like a normal 4-speed automatic car now. Before, it was kind of like driving a car with a 6-speed but the last two gears don't work. Now everything feels much more balanced. Highway rpm's at 70mph are now closer to 2200rpm. Speed sensor from the 87 axle was identical to my original, so that was a simple plug and play. Overall very happy with the swap. Updated fuel economy figures TBD. I don't know what exactly I was getting for city mpg with the 3.73, but I'd guess it was about 15. Highway was about 20.
 
Nice work, sounds like a great outcome. 2200 at 70 is presumably pretty close to what it would have been in the Lincoln. Probably makes 3rd a great gear for secondary roads with OD locked out, and OD an ideal highway gear.

I'd be surprised if you see much of a change in city MPG with the taller gears but bet you'll get a nice bump on the highway.

The Lincoln wheels look sharp on it, you're definitely the only one out there running those. :cool:
 
Took it on a highway trip doing mostly 70mph and got 24.5mpg. Big improvement from the 20 it used to get!

Congrats! That's almost exactly what my LT1 Roadmaster wagon gets with its 4L60E and 2.56 gears. Much more mass but also lower Cd, and mass doesn't matter much at a steady cruising velocity.
 
Nice work! 24.5 is not much more than a few percent off what it would get with a stock B230F and AW70, with half the cylinders and displacement, and less than half the power, and twice the noise and thrash when working hard. (and probably not much difference in weight -- I forget, did these 32v Lincoln 4.6 have aluminium blocks or was that only the Mustang motors?)

And it's notably better than a lot of the 4cyl turbo cars with automatics do on the highway.

What kind of acceleration difference do you notice? I imagine you would only feel any difference right off the line, if anything at all.
 
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