I wish that I could be like the cool kids

Hello one and all. I am starting this thread in hopes that I will get a bit more motivation to get several things done on my car prior to the IPD garage sale that is a little over a month away. I'll start off with a little back story...

Before I bought this car (86 244 for those of you not wanting to wait and find out at the end of the story) after a long string of car trades that I was slowly losing money on. I was fresh out of high school and was keen on making it big in the car scene. In the Fall I started going to college and kept trying to make a little money through trading and selling cars. I owned a total of 6 cars in 6 months and by the end of it, I had pretty much run out of money for both paying for cars and school tuition. I felt quite crappy about all this, so the day after I sold an 86 Cressida that was leaving me stranded everywhere I went if I let it cool down, I decided to go back to where I started. I bought the first 240 I could find.
I ended up with an 86 244 with a m46. I didn't put much thought into the purchase, I just wanted something I could drive without being scared of getting stuck wherever I was going and something I wouldn't want to try and sell or trade to make money. Because who in their right mind would want to trade for an old Volvo?

I was happy, my parents were happy, and all was right in the world.

I could tell right away that the front struts were pretty bad, the odometer didn't work, the speedo was spotty, and the air coming through the vents was foreshadowing that the blower motor was on its way out. So the first thing I did, being a sensible person, is I bought a roof rack (not terribly sensible). I proceeded to cut the springs and throw an obnoxious glasspack muffler on it.

Enough talking/typing. Here's some pictures...

Here's the car as it was when I bought it, plus the roof rack; completely stock.







Before long the blower motor crapped out and I quickly grew tired of driving around in winter weather with my windows down to keep things from fogging, so I threw a new motor in. At the same time, I ordered a new odo gear, and kaplenke coilover sleeves. I also bought (for a second time) some turbo gauges from the owner of my previous 244. Replacing the blower motor was a good learning experience... The odometer gear replacement didn't change anything, so I'm thinking the issue is with the speedo itself, but I don't yet have the need to fix the problem.







While I had the interior all apart, I decided to take the time to clean some stuff.






A little while later, I got some Dave Barton stuff...













I painted some stuff black, and at that point it was looking something like this:







Then Summer came and went and I was really busy with working so I did pretty much nothing to the car; except for driving it every day, of course. I felt the need to give the old thing some love. I called the Volvo shop that it used to frequent with previous owners and learned that the car hadn't been in for service for over a year.
Over this last Christmas break I did the head gasket, timing belt, radiator, and tail lights. I had a strong suspicion that the timing was off because often times it would feel like the engine was choking when I accelerated. My suspicions were correct:













I got it all back together and she started on the first turn of the key!




So I guess that's about where I'm at now. Sorry for such a long intro.
As for what I'd like before IPD this year, I feel like this is an attainable list for me:
- the rear brakes need new pads and rotors
- the alternator belt needs some tensioning
- I'd like to get all my lights working properly
I think I'll take the car to a shop for the brakes because I don't know if I want to be messing with something that has to do with the safety of the passengers...

Future plans beyond the next month that I would like to see come to fruition are:
- +T for a while, then explore bigger and higher, but reliable power output options
- Coilovers. I still have the adjuster sleeves sitting on the shelf
- wheels (undecided)
- bigger brakes, which may be a pipe dream
- sound system (I already have most of the necessary parts)
- e codes
- different turn signals
- eggcrate grill
This list has potential to change at any time, and it probably will have adjustments made as time goes on. I will be asking questions, and thank you in advance to anyone and everyone that gives input! I am open to anything.

Nice start! looks like I might just have my Wilwoods on for the garage sale. But they havent posted what weekend it is... I'm thinking it will be the 16th, but I'm not sure.

What about a cage? A cage is nice when you flip cars.

John V said:

What about a cage? A cage is nice when you flip cars.

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that's a great selling point, but I think he plans on keeping it.

John V said:

What about a cage? A cage is nice when you flip cars.

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I don't know,doesn't seem to be working very well for John Lane.

The cool kids are moving on but you are reAl smart to go for a d Volvo. How many miles? Looks good. Any wear when you had the head off?

Nice project, curious to see pictures of the cylinder head and all! Are the hone marks still existing!?

dmax99 said:

I don't know,doesn't seem to be working very well for John Lane.

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This kind of flipping


And the cage I supplied him has worked real well.

photoman327 said:

The cool kids are moving on but you are reAl smart to go for a d Volvo. How many miles? Looks good. Any wear when you had the head off?

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I not sure how many miles are on it. The records that came with the car indicated that the car was serviced in 2009 with 159k miles. The odometer was broken at 164k when I got it in December of 2013. So my guess was that the car had close to 200k in reality when I bought it. Since I've owned it, I've probably put around 16k miles on it. So I'd roughly approximate that it has 216-220k miles.
This was my first time replacing a head gasket and I didn't have any guidance outside of the Bentley manual. That said, I did not do a very thorough inspection while the head was off. I did what I could to clean it up, and that was about it. I also did not know that the head should be resurfaced. After I had it all back together, I took it to a buddy's place and we did a pressure check and there were no leaks, even when we put way more pressure through the system than the car makes. So I think I'd be safe to assume that there was not much wear at all.

Old Iron said:

Nice project, curious to see pictures of the cylinder head and all! Are the hone marks still existing!?

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As I just described above, I did not perform too thorough of an inspection. Where would these hone marks been located?

If you can do the head gasket and timing belt, you can definitely tackle the brakes. Save you some money too!

ethor said:

After I had it all back together, I took it to a buddy's place and we did a pressure check and there were no leaks, even when we put way more pressure through the system than the car makes.

So I think I'd be safe to assume that there was not much wear at all.

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What do you mean--not "way more" pressure? How much is way more? XXX.. The car Makes upwards of 75 bar which is like 1175 psi POUNDS per square inch...and you have about 6 square inches on every piston..

You put in more than 1175psi?

The real test isn't compression test---if that's what you did, the best test is "Leak down" test with FULL LINE PRESSURE...

Go read about leak down.

John V said:

What do you mean--not "way more" pressure? How much is way more?

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It wasn't a compression test. We just pumped some air into the hose at the bottom of the coolant reservoir to check that everything was airtight. So we put "more pressure" into the cooling system than what the car makes while it's running. We found only one leak at the thermostat gasket, but only because we put an excess amount of pressure in. I haven't had any issues with it.

Now that IPD is only a week away, I suppose it would be a good time for and update...

I was correct in assuming that with my school and work schedule I would not be able to find the time to do the brakes and fix the squealy V belt. There was one gap of time that I figured I would be able to quickly give the belts some tension. With haste I tightened the adjustor bolt on the alternator a few turns and fire the car up to see if there was an improvement. It still squealed loudly. So I gave the bolt a few more turns, then a few more. Started the car, more squealing. Since I was in a rush, I quickly gave it one last turn! Right before I stopped applying force, the bolt snapped. There was, however, enough threading still left to keep what tension it had. The belt was still squeaking though.

So I took my car to a mechanic (first time for everything) in town. He drilled out the hole, and threw in a new bolt and got the belts tensioned to where they needed to be. He also replaced the rear brake pads and the rotor on the driver's side. Evidently the driver side caliper had pistons that were beginning to rust, so they would frequently cause the pads to remain locked against the rotor even after the pedal, or parking brakes were released. This, in turn, caused some awful damage to the old rotor. I didn't get a picture of it after he pulled it out, but I felt the depression that was left by the pads and it had ground down close to a quarter inch of metal!

Needless to say it is VERY nice to be able to stop again without hearing the painful grinding sound. In the next few days I will be thoroughly cleaning out the inside as it has accumulated a fair amount of junk recently. I will also give it a wash, hopefully run a clay bar over it, wax it, get the headlights cleaned up a bit, and then clean the ridiculous amount of brake dust off the wheels. Oh, and I'm hoping to throw the splash guard back on the bottom (it's been off since December when I did the head gasket). Hopefully there will be some pictures rather than a boring amount of words.

The IPD garage sale has come and gone. I bought a new grill insert for my car that has a Volvo badge on it because I have gotten tired of the all black look. The plasti-dip was starting to look pretty poor anyways. So it has been stripped off and there is a badge on it once again. I don't have any pictures of that at this point, but here's some shots from right before I left for IPD...




Clean wheels, prettyyyyy...








OH! and I also forgot to mention that I found an armrest at the junkyard. That's exciting. It's tan but it does the job, so I can't complain. You can see it in the last picture.

My oh my, so much has happened. This summer has been super busy with work (just like everybody else) so almost nothing has been done on the 244. Right around the time that school got out, I was given the opportunity to buy a 79 242 that a few of my buddies from high school have passed around. The car started with the first guy looking pretty nice, but it fell a long ways down the scale over the course of about 3 years. Their plans and intentions gave way to laziness... So now it's mine. I bought it for $600. Here are pictures:







Damage to the front passenger fender, however the car came with a pair of fenders and a bumper from a newer 240










GT interior sans steering wheel





She's got a b230f.




yummy stash of sunflower seeds




The car ran really well when I first got it, except that it always took at least two tries to start. I checked the air filter and it was caked with several years worth of grime, and the oil filter was 3 years old, there was also almost no oil in the motor at the time of purchase. And the battery was out of some small Honda (so it was tiny). I've attended to all of those things and she starts up like a champ immediately, like it's supposed to!

My current plan is to sell the white 244 to pay for a paint job for the 242. I've always liked the 2 door/single-round headlight style more anyways, and in this case the green car's body is more straight than the white's.
The 242 will go in for paint tomorrow, it will just be an exterior job to make it look presentable once again, and maybe in a few years when I'm out of college and am able to set some more car money aside I can address the engine bay and other areas...

on the trailer when I took it in for an estimate (before all ext trim was removed)



How many Volvos can you spot in one picture??? (the answer is 4)



And a couple pictures with everything pulled, except the door handles




Stay tuned for "after paint" pictures

That was a big turn out of nowhere but the 242 seems like a great starting point for a project!

Awesome! I'm jealous, 242's are awesome.

Subscribed. Keep it up!

save your money, just b/c you get out of college doesn't mean that money gets easier to deal with, you just find bigger more expensive things to pay for! Do agree with you, nothing like a 242 with flat hood and single round! 242's look aweful with the coffin hood but 245's look great with the coffin hood, that's just 240's for you!

ethor said:

The car ran really well when I first got it, except that it always took at least two tries to start. I checked the air filter and it was caked with several years worth of grime, and the oil filter was 3 years old, there was also almost no oil in the motor at the time of purchase. And the battery was out of some small Honda (so it was tiny). I've attended to all of those things and she starts up like a champ immediately, like it's supposed to!

My current plan is to sell the white 244 to pay for a paint job for the 242. I've always liked the 2 door/single-round headlight style more anyways, and in this case the green car's body is more straight than the white's.
The 242 will go in for paint tomorrow, it will just be an exterior job to make it look presentable once again, and maybe in a few years when I'm out of college and am able to set some more car money aside I can address the engine bay and other areas...

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amerbritcan said:

Awesome! I'm jealous, 242's are awesome.

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Especially when they don't burn on the highway! I should stop before I jinx myself! Haha!

Coupid said:

the 242 seems like a great starting point for a project!

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That's what I'm thinking!

amerbritcan said:

Awesome! I'm jealous, 242's are awesome.

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They certainly are...

VulvaDipper said:

Subscribed. Keep it up!

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I'll do my best!

Old Iron said:

242's look aweful with the coffin hood but 245's look great with the coffin hood, that's just 240's for you!

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As a general rule, I would agree; although I'd make concessions for certain circumstances...