Does these suspension upgrades sounds good.

So, i have a 244 project car which need suspension upgrades. It's not gonna be a drift car or rally car it would be a street toy, so i dont need coilovers or any kind of aftermarket torque rods or trailing arms etc.

What i need is a suspension that is stiff enough and handles good enough, ride quality is not priority number one.

I think i buy a 60/40 lowering kit from classic-swede, then i box rear trailing arms and front wishbones. then i make front strut and a lower chassis brace.

Shocks will be Konis sport dynamics to rear and bilstein b6 set to front.

Poly bushes set i think i order from classic-swede, all the bushes will be poly.

And anti roll bars will be classic-swedes 27/27 kit.

I think i can get all the parts at something about 1300€.

I also strip the interior and put only front seats, some light rally seats will be my choice.
Then i lighten the doors and put a aluminum door panels from retro turbo.

All possible body panels i buy from acm and they will be fiberglass.

I think i can get a 100kg or 220 pounds away from the car, it is something about 8%.

This make car accelerates 8% faster, brakes 8% faster and corners 8% faster.

I will not drive at race tracks etc etc. so i dont need huge brakes. Actually i think that in 1200kg (2650 pounds) car original brakes is good enough. I will change all the discs and pads and i rebuild all the calipers, including all the pistons. If needed i had to upgrade to a s60r front brakes, but i avoid this because i think i'm gonna put "only" 16" wheels to it and s60r brakes need 17" wheels to fit, thats why i think i rehaul original brake system, it is powerful enough to a 10% lighter car.

Tyre size is something that i need to consider, wheels gonna be 16" i need a rims that are light. I don't want to increase unsprung weight at all.

What u think if i put a 225/50/16 tyres to it.

I dont want huge wheels or anything "tuning-stuff" to it because i am building a sleeper, not a drift missile.

What you think about my plans?

My project will be build a paycheck by paycheck style, in english: i can only use something about 600€ per month to this car, and i plan to build this slowly and steadily and i plan things carefully before i buy anything. three years is a time limit when this thing has to be finished.

I also paint the whole thing. but thats is another topic.

Edit: i will also remowe the power steering and put a non power steering rack&pinion to it. I know it will be harder to steer but this way i can make room under the hood, i also save 10kg weight, and i will also get little more power.

Sounds good. All you got to do is get started!

Don't use poly in the rear lower arms, and don't box them until they start breaking from huge power or abuse. They twist a little since they are a channel, and when you box them, they are not going to twist at all. The poly on the rear lower arms will further limit articulation on the soft springs you are planning to use.
And 27 mm rear bar is going to hike an inside rear tire with those springs.

Don't remove the power steering. The Volvo manual rack is a very slow ratio. You need quick steering in order to do what you have planned for your 240.

Good advices.

I dont know that manual rack ratio is slower, and if this is so, i will keep power steering.

Maybe i put a new rubber bushins to rear trailing arms, and poly to the other places.

What comes to anti-roll bars i think best option will be ipd:s 25/22 bars. Especially 1200kg car the ipd set is maybe the best option.

Thanks for advices, i have a long project ahead, but i'm working hard to get money to all the parts, but everybody had to had hobby, and this one is maybe little expensive if compared to running or cycling, but when you have your car to the road is a great feeling and will pay off all the effort and hard work!

You can get a quick ratio manual rack, however, they are very expensive. They are not original equipment. The Volvo factory installed power steering racks are approximately 3.5 turns lock to lock. The manual rack is somewhere between 5-5.5 turns lock to lock.

In normal road use the poly bushes are not an issue in the rear axle to replace the original void bushes. As we carry a lot of load and often tow with our 240's the poly is a must as the rubber just does not take the beating. The down side is with a empty car the unloaded rear wheel can lift on very tight corners taken at speed

Anti roll bars, as to what size and front to rear ratio will depend on how you prefer the balance of the car to be. If you prefer the balance more towards understeer go smaller at the rear. Even size front to rear for oversteer. Bear in mind the 27mm bar is hollow giving the same stiffness as a 25mm but with reduced weight.

I would probably keep the power steering, whilst I am happy to drive our non PAS 240's and do not consider it an issue the PAS is better and gives great steering feel. There are better places to loose some weight.

You have not said what you are doing engine wise but with the focus on weight reduction I get the impression the power will not be that high. In that case tyre wise I would go with 205/60/16 or a 55 profile. It will look more sleeper that way. That size tyre works great on a 240.

Our donkey 240 is a GLT saloon fully poly bushed, on 40mm front lowering springs and heavy duty rears combined with the 27mm ARB's sitting on Virgos with 205/60/15. It get hammered around the local lanes and used for a lot of towing. Last year my dad took it on a little trip to Denmark to collect a early Amazon.

classicswede said:

In normal road use the poly bushes are not an issue in the rear axle to replace the original void bushes. As we carry a lot of load and often tow with our 240's the poly is a must as the rubber just does not take the beating. The down side is with a empty car the unloaded rear wheel can lift on very tight corners taken at speed

Anti roll bars, as to what size and front to rear ratio will depend on how you prefer the balance of the car to be. If you prefer the balance more towards understeer go smaller at the rear. Even size front to rear for oversteer. Bear in mind the 27mm bar is hollow giving the same stiffness as a 25mm but with reduced weight.

I would probably keep the power steering, whilst I am happy to drive our non PAS 240's and do not consider it an issue the PAS is better and gives great steering feel. There are better places to loose some weight.

You have not said what you are doing engine wise but with the focus on weight reduction I get the impression the power will not be that high. In that case tyre wise I would go with 205/60/16 or a 55 profile. It will look more sleeper that way. That size tyre works great on a 240.

Our donkey 240 is a GLT saloon fully poly bushed, on 40mm front lowering springs and heavy duty rears combined with the 27mm ARB's sitting on Virgos with 205/60/15. It get hammered around the local lanes and used for a lot of towing. Last year my dad took it on a little trip to Denmark to collect a early Amazon.

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Engine is b21, with ported 530, 46/38, cam 280 *0.050, 12mm, holset hx40, microsquirt, wasted spark. Goal is 400hp.

The RX7 front caliper swap might save you some weight. I think the calipers are lighter than the 240, but you have to use the bigger 940 rotors.

Yoshifab and DVS performance sell kits.

I searched internet for couple of hours and i found weights about mazda and volvo front calipers, and yes, mazda calipers are about 2kg:s lighter than volvo original.

The saving in the caliper weight is lost in the extra weight of the disks and brackets however the increase in heat disipation is what it is all about.

400hp with low weight is a lot of poke for a fun B road car. IMO a smaller turbo that spools sooner would be a better choice. A HX35 is more what I would be looking at.
Tyre wise then yes 225's is where you will be at

Removing the interior very quickly makes for an awful street car. And agree, that turbo is far too large for a b21 in a street car.

What are the rates on those springs?

Lowering the car without a ball joint/tie rod spacer like Kaplhenke sells seems unwise.

If the dynamically ideal thing to substitute a given bushing with is solid, poly is a good choice if you are willing to maintain the bushing with grease etc. If the ideal piece in that location is a ball joint/spherical bearing poly bushings will induce binding. These cars are far too soft in the front from the factory, compromising turn-in/contact patch in the front. Aggressive alignment settings will do a world of good (lots of front negative camber+as much positive caster as you can get+zero toe) I would stay with a stock rear bar or none at all especially if you are planning to make power. Setting up a front-engine RWD car to oversteer off-throttle is unwise given the way the car's driving dynamics change under power.

Weight reduction is cheap to start but expensive to finish.

mikep said:

Don't use poly in the rear lower arms, and don't box them until they start breaking from huge power or abuse. They twist a little since they are a channel, and when you box them, they are not going to twist at all. The poly on the rear lower arms will further limit articulation on the soft springs you are planning to use.

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Dang... My trailing arm boxing plates literally just arrived in the mail today. I didn't realize the arms were designed to twist. I have a 100% stock suspension and my rear arms are old and I found a broken weld joint at the front bushing sleeve to one side of the arm. I was planning on buying new arms and boxing them. I guess I'll just throw the new arms on and call it.



If anyone needs a set of trailing arm boxing plates...

That is my experience with all other open boxes. Plate them if you want, you can always go back to stock arms.
I might do a test of how much they twist sometime. I need to finish other stuff first.

It makes sense. Seems like it will put more stress on the trailing arm bushings in hard corners or when one wheel is dropping.

The Full Banana said:

Removing the interior very quickly makes for an awful street car. And agree, that turbo is far too large for a b21 in a street car.

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This is not gonna be an street car.
ANd here in finland ve have many many turbocharged volvos, and some guys drive hx40 even with a b19 engine.

And i need to have some growth, because i made an evo2 some day.
We have some practical experiences that shows that hx35 wakes up about 500rpm before hx40, but in 7000rpm especially when used e85, mass flow rate grows so big that hx35 chokes engines max hp.

I'm aiming at 400whp now, but if i buy zf gearbox instead of m90, i will then raised my goal to 500hp, which is maximum hp level at my engine internals (balanced forged crank, Ksr:s h-profile rods and a mahles piston set with 9cc dish, engine is bored and honed and all clearances is machined to high-power turbocharged engine in mind.

Luckily we have bakaxel.se, which sells zf gearboxes already changed to a redblock bellhousing, there reinforced m90 costs 500? and a 6-speed zf gearbox from 320d bmw costs about 800? with redblock bellhousing. And it holds about 800nm of torque (about 600ft/lbs).

I know that clutch is about two times more expensive to zf box, but then you don't have to think about evo2, just rise the boost up.

I don't know what is max hp number to 1031 rear axle. but if it brokes down i think i buy a Toyota Hiace van's rear end, which holds about 800hp and have a couple of good gear ratios as well (4.1:1 and 4.4:1).

Greetings from Finland!

aharres said:

It makes sense. Seems like it will put more stress on the trailing arm bushings in hard corners or when one wheel is dropping.

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In a 240 with soft springs, yes. More articulation.