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Mike K's '79 242 Barn Car Revival

Stick that in a different car entirely ;
... came home with something for the car :ninja:
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You have a great 8v engine with big turbo in yours, :(
look for an Amazon or something to stick the new carbed engine inside ...
 
I just read the entire thread. Great project! How do you think te paint will take the risk and sand under the car? I've been wondering what to cover the bottom of my car with.

Jordan
 
I just read the entire thread. Great project! How do you think te paint will take the risk and sand under the car? I've been wondering what to cover the bottom of my car with.

Jordan

Thanks for the kind words. On the paint, I guess time will tell! So far so good, I will only be using the car during the nice months when the roads are clear which will help. Also it's enjoying indoor storage which keeps it dry. Otherwise I'm hoping it lasts as well as the paint anywhere else on the car.
 
I had been wanting to start getting parts together to build a new engine for the car, and after kicking it around for a while I decided that if I was going to do a redblock I should do a 2.5 liter. I live in a good area for hunting boat parts so I spent a few months searching for extra displacement. I wanted a rear thrust crank, so it was a little tough to find the right year/model... especially since most were listed vaguely. Eventually I found one on Long Island listed as a 1991 AQ151 with a 290 outdrive. The build plate on the block was 250a, which according to the net should be rear thrust. The Buy it Now was $100 for everything so I just jumped on it and hoped for the best. Seller (who lived in a beautiful house) had it in his 23' fiberglass fishing boat and pulled it because it was underpowered (duh!) and "wasn't really running right". Nice guy, and I was getting a haul of boat parts for the money, so there was no risk besides wasted time.

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I tore it down the next day, little ugly but looked pretty good. I was really only concerned about the crank at this point, I figured the 531 was an unknown and if it was good it'd be a nice bonus. Thankfully the exhaust manifold came off without taking a chunk of head with it.

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Considering it was a salt water engine the #4 port isn't in bad shape. It has two Heli-Coil repairs and is a little pitty around the holes (most of what you see is unscraped gasket crud). Looks like I should be able to get it tested, touched up and use it - nice! Notice it has an '89 build date, now I was really wondering.

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Popped it open and happy happy it's a rear thrust. Everything in the bottom end looked really good so I'm in business.

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Now, the guy had said it just ran a little off and was low on power so I figured it was, like most boat problems, some carb issue. He wanted a bigger engine so he didn't spend any time looking into it. But when I took off the valve cover there was something a bit odd

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Head bolt was completely loose, all others were torqued properly. I'm curious when the boat had head work done last.

yep that'll do it
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The cylinders and pistons had some light scoring but not bad. I'm going to get everything checked out at a machine shop, if they can clean the cylinders up easily I'll probably just use this block and drill it for squirters and oil return. Need to get it sorted so I can get moving and find forged rods and pistons. The goal is to put the car back on the road next Spring with the new engine, so hoping I can make it all happen this winter.

Besides that new side project I'm still trying to finish the car. I brought it to a local cruise night and got a great reaction which was really nice (and a stark contrast to what I got with my SAAB 900 10 years ago :lol:). Picking away at the interior, I swapped over the power windows which are really nice to have. Still have a list of needs and to-do's... finding the set of seats I'm after is top right now. What I've got now is unbelievably uncomfortable and smell musty.

Re did the rear parcel shelf with the same material as the headliner.

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Replaced razor sharp window scrapers with nice new. Have gotten most of the interior panels back in and gave the MS box a better home in the glove box vs. the old clamp to the dash brace.

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The car was doing the civic bounce like crazy so I went back and put a little more compression and rebound back in. Huge improvement, will fiddle more but it's a lot more confident in the corners. I also lowered it a little bit (under half an inch) which seems good besides one smack to the lower chassis braces on a g-out I learned to drive around. Which reminded me I should get a splash pan on!

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Also need to get my skinny bumpers/trim and belt line trim on
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Also realized the grill doesn't camouflage the intercooler as much as I thought
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Fall to-do
Finish the damn interior!
bumpers
wet sand and polish
new trim and tail lights
boost controller - I have it on the shelf, and if I'm going to have a new motor next year it's easier to push it a little more. Car's parked for winter anyways!
 
Well, I bought the car a present this weekend.

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I was ready to get started assembling parts and building the 2.5 when this block came up locally and I couldn't pass it up. Last year I went down to Paul/psac's to get the header, turbo and exhaust and this year I went back to get his motor. It's a fully built zero-mile 2.3 with RSI rods and Wiseco pistons, squirterized, o-ringed block, hardened crank, ARP head studs, all new bearings and everything assembled sparkling clean and new. It's really impressive and a nicely done build, gaskets, water pump, pcv box are all Volvo oem - always a good indicator.

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I felt a little guilty for taking the "shortcut" of buying a built block, but after seeing it I'm not feeling so bad anymore. I was pretty excited about the extra displacement of the 2.5, but I would have ended up spending more for a less "done" motor so it ended up being an easy decision. The 2.5 crank is wrapped and stored, so maybe I can find a use or it down the road. Now I have something ready to go and make some serious power. But first there was something I needed to address immediately...

Strip it down, scuff it up.

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Ahh, much better :cool:

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I do need to get threads tapped in the oil return, otherwise it'll be ready to go when I am. I think I will finish the season off with the engine in the car and just start putting some more boost on it. Over the winter I'll pull it, do some re-wiring and get the new engine in for Spring. I have the 531 head from the boat motor at the machine shop now, planning on getting it cleaned and freshened up and maybe do some minimal work on it without dumping too much money into it. Should be a nice combo for the block. Intake manifold is going to become the restrictor at some point...

Also got from Paul a mint Nissens HD radiator and efan with a really nicely made aluminum shroud. If you recognize the color on the top piece this is another part from Jordan's old build to make it to the car. It takes a turbobricks village to build a car.

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Morning drives to work are in the 50s now and the car loves it, can't wait to turn up the wick a bit. Do need tires though.
 
Fantastic. Have I mentioned too many times that I really like this car?

Great work. Love seeing your updates.



Also, anodize the intercooler. I've thought a LOT about doing mine.
 
Have I mentioned too many times that I really like this car?

My friend, there is no such thing haha. Sure you understand it's hard for me to not just see all of the not-yet-done things, so every time someone likes the car I get excited.

May end up doing something with the IC eventually, for now I've kind of started to like the little bit of showiness since it's only if you get it from the right angle.

New tune from Kenny this morning and a 50degree drive in - car's running better than ever!
 
Looks so good!

How's the road notice with no undercoating?

Thanks! It's hard for me to give any kind of before/after comparison since I did so much stuff in big chunks and never drove the car when it was "normal". But I did drive it some when everything was stripped and the inside of the car was bare and it made an absolute racket. Tons of noise from sand hitting the bottom of the car and resonating exhaust noise. The dampening/insulating I did inside the car made a huge difference in that respect, and road noise through the floors is minimal to not even noticeable. It's not as quiet as my 940 but it's really a pretty civilized car to cruise in (considering it's a pretty aggressive setup). After getting intimate with that undercoating I'd say that given the thickness of the layer and the shape most of it was in I'd be surprised if it was doing much at that point anyways.

I know you have your shell all beautifully stripped to bare metal, so I will say it just looks wicked cool in person, and the nice clean surface under the car makes working underneath it a real pleasure.
 
Thanks! It's hard for me to give any kind of before/after comparison since I did so much stuff in big chunks and never drove the car when it was "normal". But I did drive it some when everything was stripped and the inside of the car was bare and it made an absolute racket. Tons of noise from sand hitting the bottom of the car and resonating exhaust noise. The dampening/insulating I did inside the car made a huge difference in that respect, and road noise through the floors is minimal to not even noticeable. It's not as quiet as my 940 but it's really a pretty civilized car to cruise in (considering it's a pretty aggressive setup). After getting intimate with that undercoating I'd say that given the thickness of the layer and the shape most of it was in I'd be surprised if it was doing much at that point anyways.

I know you have your shell all beautifully stripped to bare metal, so I will say it just looks wicked cool in person, and the nice clean surface under the car makes working underneath it a real pleasure.

Good to hear. I figure I'll do the chassis on mine with heavy layer of clear rockguard which should dampen it down some while still being "body color".
 
Best of luck my friend. Glad to see it go to a great home and Awesome person. Better get some videos when your building real boost!!
 
Best of luck my friend. Glad to see it go to a great home and Awesome person. Better get some videos when your building real boost!!

Thanks Paul. Glad it was still in the garage. We'll have to meet up in the Spring once I've got it in the car.

I got the boost controller on yesterday, will start turning things up tomorrow. I bought a Hallman a while back and took the opportunity to overdue it a little and use -4 aeroquip stuff instead of vacuum lines.

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I'd like to change the intake a little and try to build some kind of airbox that brings air up from in front of the wheel. Plenty of stuff to keep me busy this winter.
 
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