patrickstars 1983 242 4.8L/AR5 swap

[Tfest]

Originally Posted by patrickstar

Cool, I need to explore out there more. I've gone our Lower River Rd a few times and enjoyed it

I've lived here my entire life, there's a ton of hidden gems around here. Once the world opens back up all of us vancouver people should meet up at the Brickhouse for a beer/volvo meet. The owner, Steve, is a super rad dude and supports car culture.

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by Tfest

I've lived here my entire life, there's a ton of hidden gems around here. Once the world opens back up all of us vancouver people should meet up at the Brickhouse for a beer/volvo meet. The owner, Steve, is a super rad dude and supports car culture.

I would love to, I cruised my van to Brickhouse once or twice this summer to grab some food. I mentioned it in the OT PNW chat, but the coffee shop I go to (Brewed Cafe & Pub downtown) is owned by a Volvo guy. A Volvo cars & coffee would be fun

[patrickstar]

Spent some time this morning finishing up the rear suspension. BNE hybrid torque rods, panhard, Billy HDs, B&G lowering springs







Put the Epsilons on, I'm thinking I'll want a spacer in the rear.



Installed the STS heater core port as well, I'm not running HVAC right now but I wanted to get it installed while the dash was out. Eventually I'm going to swap in a universal JEGS heater core, just for defrost and stuff

[LC4CARL]

Fancy heater core bits.

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by LC4CARL

Fancy heater core bits.

Grabbed it during the christmas sale, I thought it would make my life easier later on

[tibboy12]

Here for the inside scoops!

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by tibboy12

Here for the inside scoops!

Ayyy welcome to the forums Namgyal!

[patrickstar]

I had been having issues for weeks that the LS wasn't running correctly. Driver side bank wasn't firing, which was causing a super rich condition and backfiring. I checked all the usual suspects (grounds for the Terminator X, injectors, plugs, wires, coils, etc) and everything was fine! Finally, I found a facebook post that sounded like my issue where the guy had installed his coil sub-harness wrong. I thought back to a few summers ago when I painted my coil brackets, ran out to the shop and the driver side coil harness was installed backward. Flipped it around and it runs perfect now!

I'm a lot more motivated to get it on the ground now that it idles. I need to torque all the rear suspension stuff, find some wheels/tires, and finish wiring the taillights. Hoping for a real test drive in early march

[Harlard]

Neat!

[patrickstar]

After four years of owning this car and two years of working on the LS swap, I have driven my 242 under its own power for the first time. It was incredible.

Still a lot of loose ends to clean up. I need to install the B&G springs and billy HDs up front. Need to wire my e-fan. Clean up the fuel lines under the car.

This might be a stupid question, but can I take it in to a shop for an alignment with all the Kaplhenke stuff in the rear? I feel like no one is going to touch it, but I'd like it to be aligned by a professional and get everything torqued down.

[Harlard]

Congrats!

For an alignment you will have to take it to a specialist and pay more than at a regular shop. I have lifetime alignments at firestone and they will align the front end no problem but with all the adjustable stuff out back it still pulls.

I know of Trackside in Vanport and AR in Tigard. Maybe English Racing can point you in the right direction for Vancouver-based shops...

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by Harlard

Congrats!

For an alignment you will have to take it to a specialist and pay more than at a regular shop. I have lifetime alignments at firestone and they will align the front end no problem but with all the adjustable stuff out back it still pulls.

I know of Trackside in Vanport and AR in Tigard. Maybe English Racing can point you in the right direction for Vancouver-based shops...

Thanks Harald!

English Racing was who I had in mind since they're out in the Camas area where my shop is. Might give them a call tomorrow and see if they can suggest anyone.

[Duder]

Inspiring stuff! I hadn't seen your thread in a while but just went through the whole thing. I can definitely relate to having a long-term project while simultaneously getting caught up in "quick" side projects, random purchases, flips, etc. Happens a lot.

Here in the LA area (South Bay to be more precise) there's a shop called West End Alignment which is run by one guy and his son, both road racer types, who use old-school manual alignment tools and techniques. They end up doing the alignment on pretty much everyone's track day cars, projects, etc. I've taken quite a few weird cars there and they are never fazed by anything that can be adjusted with hand tools. They make you sit in your car while it's on their 4-post lift and hold the steering wheel dead straight so it's no one's fault but your own if it's off center Maybe there's someone like that in the greater Portland area - my advice would be to talk to local trackday champions and racers to see who they use.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/west-end-alignment-gardena

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by Duder

Inspiring stuff! I hadn't seen your thread in a while but just went through the whole thing. I can definitely relate to having a long-term project while simultaneously getting caught up in "quick" side projects, random purchases, flips, etc. Happens a lot.

Here in the LA area (South Bay to be more precise) there's a shop called West End Alignment which is run by one guy and his son, both road racer types, who use old-school manual alignment tools and techniques. They end up doing the alignment on pretty much everyone's track day cars, projects, etc. I've taken quite a few weird cars there and they are never fazed by anything that can be adjusted with hand tools. They make you sit in your car while it's on their 4-post lift and hold the steering wheel dead straight so it's no one's fault but your own if it's off center Maybe there's someone like that in the greater Portland area - my advice would be to talk to local trackday champions and racers to see who they use.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/west-end-alignment-gardena

Thank you! I was just looking through your build thread as well and was thinking how similar ours were. Long term, no rush, it'll be finished when its finished. Yours is much more complex though... Love the way its turning out.

Good call on local alignment shops, there must be someone out here who will take it on. I have mondays off so I'm going to spend some time tomorrow trying to find someone.

[Josh]

I’ve had great experiences with alignments from A&T / Trackside. I take shop cars there all the time and all my personal stuff too, modified or stock. They always have some sweet rally cars you can check out while you wait.

[LC4CARL]

Trackside.

[culberro]

Nice man! That’s awesome the car is up and running!

100% take your car to Trackside. They build some sweet vintage rally cars there, and are not afraid of adjustable links.
Do you still need to set your pinion angle up? If so, might be better to do that before, or accept the fact that you might tweak the rear alignment as you get it dialed in.

Kyle (alignment guy) can even talk to you about what you want from the car and set it up for that, he has a few volvos as well and is very familiar with them. They do all the alignments on the rally cars I work on, my personal DDs, and the drift car.

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by Josh

I’ve had great experiences with alignments from A&T / Trackside. I take shop cars there all the time and all my personal stuff too, modified or stock. They always have some sweet rally cars you can check out while you wait.

Originally Posted by LC4CARL

Trackside.

Originally Posted by culberro

Nice man! That’s awesome the car is up and running!

100% take your car to Trackside. They build some sweet vintage rally cars there, and are not afraid of adjustable links.
Do you still need to set your pinion angle up? If so, might be better to do that before, or accept the fact that you might tweak the rear alignment as you get it dialed in.

Kyle (alignment guy) can even talk to you about what you want from the car and set it up for that, he has a few volvos as well and is very familiar with them. They do all the alignments on the rally cars I work on, my personal DDs, and the drift car.

Sounds like we have consensus from the local guys, I'll give them a call today!

I will need to dial in my pinion angle, although I didn't feel any weird vibrations the other day. I only got it up to 3rd gear though, so need to do some more testing there.

Either way, happy to hear they have a good reputation with Volvo guys. I got tired of shops in Walla Walla not wanting to touch it because "we don't work on those foreign cars"

[joel142]

Congratulations!

Sweet to see that green on white number plate on there! I have a set on the '71 (for testing and driving to car events...of course). When it was on the road it seemed like every 20-something cop pulled me over (a) to BS about the car and (b) because none of them were old enough to recognized it as a valid plate.

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by joel142

Congratulations!

Sweet to see that green on white number plate on there! I have a set on the '71 (for testing and driving to car events...of course). When it was on the road it seemed like every 20-something cop pulled me over (a) to BS about the car and (b) because none of them were old enough to recognized it as a valid plate.

I think they go really well with the beige, but I'm not sold on running them. I'm thinking about a (corny) custom plate for it. We'll see, registration is on the long laundry list of things it needs before "road legal".



On that topic, I ran it to the closest gas station today. It runs pretty well and sounds good, and the transmission feels incredible with the short shift and solid trans mount. However, I'm having some small issues that I need to figure out before I can start trusting it:

-Idles high, ~2200rpm. I think its an IAC issue. Hopefully my tuner can iron it out, but it may be a mechanical issue

-Battery isn't charging. ECU shows ~14.7v while driving, but the car just won't start after I drive it around

[LC4CARL]

I’ve got two alternators on the shelf it you need one.

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by LC4CARL

I’ve got two alternators on the shelf it you need one.

Thanks Carl, I'm not sure if they'll fit on the LS or not. I'm thinking its an issue with my battery (hoping it is)

[Harlard]

does your car use the 2- or 4-pin voltage regulator connector?

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by Harlard

does your car use the 2- or 4-pin voltage regulator connector?

4-pin. I'm running the Sloppy Mechanic alternator harness which plugs into the Terminator X harness.

[Harlard]

Bet it's something dumb like the low wattage light bulb signal missing.