We need more BEIGE, 83 242

[James M]

Originally Posted by J ripper

The fella I got it from said he had some paint “matched up” and painted the cowl vent and I believe the A pillars were done too.

That seems about right, it matches up the A pillar pretty well but the cowl is flaking off and it's noticeably different

[James M]

Drove the 242 to sac, open downpipe is a little much after a week.
Got a shifter from a SN95 GT, had to trim the front of the hole a little with an angle grinder supplied by the mustang guys I got the shifter from


Also picked up a foxbody swaybar, about 6 inches in diameter based off my measurment. Someone about a decade ago here said it would work so naturally I took that information without any salt grains and bought one


To quite down the open downpipe I grabbed a mangaflow somthing or other off a mustang at the Pnp, came with an over axle section I may try to use. No pictures but it's about as sketchy as it sounds.
At this point the car is about 50% 240, 30% 850r and 20% mustang

After driving the car for a week and a half I missed the wagon so I put the driveshaft back in that. Should have all the parts for the Colman shaft soon enough and get that balanced soon

[James M]

Finally put the 242 back together again, now with its own driveshaft and intercooler bits.

Seems like the driveshaft I got was from a SN95 V8? Had to throw a different front slip yoke on it. Still waiting for the right flandge to make the Colman shaft



Also finally put in a muffler, no more deafening open downpipe. Accidentally got a flowmaster from the junkyard , it will work for now.
****ty axle dump because I had 30 minutes to make it:



Driveshaft angle isn't the best, I probably need the Crossmember spacers from an automatic and to adjust the mount some more, I used a IPD adjustable panhard bar to get it to stop rubbing but the diff side isn't the issue



On a side note anyone else notice the adjustible panhard bar doesn't get all that much shorter? I could make it 2 inches longer but no more then 1/4 inch shorter. Maybe a thinner locking nut when I swap it into my wagon

[James M]

Added a lip to some charged air pipes and installed a BCV, still trying to get that to work but when it does I hope to not blow my intake pipes off




Also had the fan turn on so I'm less spooked of a missing temp gauge, surprised it takes until 205f to get the low speed to trigger

[honeylake]

Did I miss the video of that sweet 5 pot singing it's song?

[James M]

Originally Posted by honeylake

Did I miss the video of that sweet 5 pot singing it's song?

Didn't miss it, I got around to taking some today, not very good videos, then ****ed up more by email compression but the sound is alright



Also set up Datalogging with the ECU, I guess I technically have a tach now?



After messing with the ECU some more and doing a few runs I got it to make 5-6psi, then discovered my issue is the throttle bracket is very poorly adjusted, only allowing ~52 percent throttle opening. Gotta tighten the cable and adjust the bracket a little. I'll probably make a new one down the line as I don't think this one will open all the way

[James M]

Did some towing with my wagon this week, blew a tire on my tow dolly on the way up, and an oil seal in the turbo on the way back, but It made it both ways




Dropped another car over the front of my dolly, might be a little design flaw


Also finally got a nice ratchet, cost nearly as much as the E30 I was towing, but its nice and smooth


I'll be dailying the 242 now, with the throttle adjusted I get ~66% open, better and able to make maybe 8/9 psi, but not ideal or permanent. I need a longer rod linkage and a new cable, then maybe I'll get close to WOT. I've seen some spools that look like they go between the intake runners? Anyone have any close ups on their setups to share?

Both cars tucked into my gf's driveway, just to show the 242 since this is it's thread

[The Full Banana]

This throttle setup works great, but will require some welding:





IIRC, it’s brackets, spool and cable from a b230 equipped 240, and a 850 or 960 linkage rod. The arm that the linkage attaches to on the throttle body also had to be cobbled together out of two arms, but it was too long ago to recall what they were from.

[James M]

Looks much cleaner then mine, the deeworks TB adapter unfortunately puts the TB at a slight angle, I also using the same cable and spool but without welding on the manifold. Seems more and more like I need some 100% argon

[James M]

Finally did some general cleanup on the car, Installed taillight cover and spare tire carpet, took my **** out of the trunk and put the interior back together.





Shift boot wants to pull the transmission out of 1st 3rd and 5th, I'll have to get one that's not the rubber accordion style but still looks pretty natural in the car.

Anyone have the brown radio face-plate I'm missing in the third picture?

[James M]

Got back to the car, remade the throttle bracket, now goes WOT and feels like a whole different car. Looks really ****ty so I'll probably get some 100% argon and try MIG welding aluminum. Have a spare intake manifold and 960 throttle body I may use.

Also fixed a misfire, dead coil on cylinder 2, had an issue with it before because of my ECU soldering so maybe that wore out the used coil.

Installed a triple gauge pod, looks good but only have the boost gauge working. Now to get a 5Bar oil pressure sender (VDO-360-002) and wire it up.

[Stiggy Pop]

Originally Posted by James M

Finally did some general cleanup on the car, Installed taillight cover and spare tire carpet, took my **** out of the trunk and put the interior back together.





Shift boot wants to pull the transmission out of 1st 3rd and 5th, I'll have to get one that's not the rubber accordion style but still looks pretty natural in the car.

Anyone have the brown radio face-plate I'm missing in the third picture?

This used to happen to me, would slowly pull it out of 5th. I had an aftermarket accordion booty that was pretty new. I picked up a used OE boot at a swap meet and it was much thinner and more flexible, haven't had the problem since swapping them out.

[James M]

Originally Posted by Stiggy Pop

This used to happen to me, would slowly pull it out of 5th. I had an aftermarket accordion booty that was pretty new. I picked up a used OE boot at a swap meet and it was much thinner and more flexible, haven't had the problem since swapping them out.

It's got the original one, the issue is more with the adapter depth and my mounts. My redblock powered car has the same OE accordian style one but doesn't pull the T5 shifter at all as it sits much more centered in the shifter hole.



With the 242 going again it's taking over DD duty, wagon smokes a ton on hot starts and stalls when going from load to idle, don't need a cloud of smoke at every light.

[James M]

Gauges all wired in, Voltage reads well but I bought the wrong size oil pressure sender, 2010 Volvospeed lied to me listing it as m12x1.5, popped the oil dummy light twitch out to find it's m14x1.5




Also wired in the tach, reads a little off but I may correct it with a faceplate down the line, assuming there is a faceplate to match the reading of a I5

Next up in the gauge department is to fix all the lights, currently only two LED ones come on, going to replace them all with normal bulbs that arn't blown. Then figure out why the gas gauge reads about half all the time and get a Me7 thermostate housing for it's second port, install a b23 Coolant temp sending unit. Then maybe if I want this to be my one car with a working spedo get an adapter build for T5 transmission to 240 spedo cable

[Dijon]

Great progress man🤘 Is this thing running and driving? Thought I saw you just now crossing Cohasset

[James M]

Originally Posted by Dijon

Great progress man�� Is this thing running and driving? Thought I saw you just now crossing Cohasset

Thanks! It's up and running, I drive it every day but haven't been back in Chico since Rona took over. I'm yet to see another beige 242 up there, should have chased them down as I try to do when I spot a brick.

Thanks for the bump, needed a reminder to get the right oil pressure sender. VDO 360-028 on it's way, this one has an idiot light switch that I might as well wire up, get one more dash light working

[James M]

Correct sending unit arrived in the mail, this time I shelled out for the one with the idiot light but have yet to hook that wire up


All the accessory gauges are now up and running, gonna fix the gas gauge when installing the DW pump but I've got other stuff to focus on


That other stuff comes in the form of another damn wagon I picked up. 84 245 from the original owners, came with all the manuals and warranty cards, detailed logs of maintenance for the first 150k miles including literally every gas stop during that period and even the original window sticker.

While matcha waits for a motor and transmission my GF will daily this, no more honda fit I don't enjoy working on or looking at. I'de make a build thread but it's hopefully just gonna be little stuff after the stage 0 it's getting now

[122power]

When 2 or more volvos are around they start multiplying lol

[white855T]

Originally Posted by 122power

When 2 or more volvos are around they start multiplying lol

Got to learn to say no...

[TurboDutch]

Tell me all about that pliers you made there for knurling intercooler pipes? Need that!

[James M]

Originally Posted by TurboDutch

Tell me all about that pliers you made there for knurling intercooler pipes? Need that!

Just a pair of harbor freight crimping cutting pliers with the tips cut off, works pretty well but go slow a few times around

[TurboDutch]

Great idea thanks m8 !

[James M]

This is pretty rambly as it's a combination of several nights work

Fixed the cut spring issue, installed lowering springs, swapped rear shocks with the yellow wagon pictured above and installed bilstiens tourings up front. Turns out the front shocks where blown so it handles much nicer now.



To solve the lack of front swaybar I tried heating and bending the 32mm foxbody swaybar I got a while ago. Somone about a decade ago said it works so why not. Bending it went well but now the end link eyelets are facing the wrong way.

When in doubt use your girlfriends car to hold it down while you torch it


Spend one night fixing all the lights, now the front turn signals don't work again, lots of ground cleaning ahead of me.

Going to try to move to a electric Spedo to avoid getting a custom cable made, the cluster I got is missing the 32A pin for 12v from the fuse panel so idk how that's gonna work. Hopefully the new cluster has a working fuel gauge.

[Vol242vo]

Looking good.

[James M]

Not a whole lot of work on the car recently, more just driving it.

Went on a spirited drive at berryessa two weekends ago when you still could. Loved the powerband but could use a few more PSI (8 right now) and a front swaybar. Might have to install an LSD down the line as the power transfer was a little off on corners.


Then snagged some rims to replace the 14 inch enkies, full set of Geminis with caps and the original cap tool. Have some paint scuffs and one curbed spot but got a good deal on some rare stuff so I'm very happy.





After the rims I went to Lake 2o in tahoe, saw 4-5 Volvos and enjoyed talking to their owners. Car did great yet again, although I had some stumbling when boost first came on a few times I'm going to blame on the stock fuel pump. Still gotta install the DW pump one of these days






Between Friday and Saturday we went camping, I was relegated to the back of the 242, would have been a little more comfy sleeping in the wagon but not all that bad