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'74 242 T6 Recreational Vehicle

Something small: turned some bushings for the shifter linkage. The oem rubber ones are really soft and probably dont make for a solid feel.
Yes, left and right are different, the sleeve is all tapered, stepped and has different diametres left/right :uh:







It feels a lot more direct now, we'll see what it does.
 
Plans changed a little. while sitting (read continuously browsing) at home with a broken toe I found a NOS HX35.
I was a little reluctant to get started with the piping for the tiny twins; I would have to build a 2-1 downpipe, but the exhaust flanges are straight opposed to each other which would make it quite awkward to fabricate something both good fitting and good flowing.
Also the inlet and pressure side piping would be quite a challenge since they're clocked towards the engine and clocking the cold side differently would require a custom bracket for the wastegate actuator.
Long story short, it would be a lot of work to make it all work and fit properly AND making it look good as well. So I went with a single turbo.

IMG_0197

IMG_0199

IMG_0173
(Old iPhone 4 for reference)

It's a twin scroll HX35 with a 7 blade inducer and 16cm2 hot side. I've been reading into a lot of articles last couple of days and it may seem a little on the big side, although there are lots of 16cm units or even bigger ran on 4 and 6 cilinders. Still in doubt a little.

So then comes the header(ache). I don't have the means and time to calculate/design/build a perfect header concerning equal runner length.
I found some examples of nice headers and also stumbled accross the M50 header conundrum. I looked into that and did some research, and found a Chinese M20 header on Aliexpress ($117) which seems to be a perfect match. Also 91mm spacing as the M50 or stock T6 header.
Havent order it yet.

Did a test 'fitting' of the turbo tonight and there isn't much tolerance in how and where to put it.
Ideally the T3 flange would be around runner #2 so the compressor housing is just a little behind the timing wheel.



[url=https://flic.kr/p/29SL2cp]


[url=https://flic.kr/p/277VDDU]


[url=https://flic.kr/p/L7SdiX]


As you can see the T3 flange is around the second runner, and the distance from the head itself seems (maybe) just enough to fit the HX35.
Of course it would need a lot of work;
-Volvo flange, which also gives it the chance to tilt it a bit to gain needed clearance
-WG outlets
-baffle for twin scroll
-Support for weight of the turbo

(I'm not too afraid of the Chinese stuff by the way, I have a set of stainless eBay headers on my Chevy and they're real nice and hold up for years now.
I did some welding on them and no problems in any way. )


The thing I'm not a 100% certain about is the primaries diameter, I can hardly find specs on the M20 heads or headers but I found a couple of suggestions they're 1.5".
The M20 ports seem a little small on the pictures but by calculating it hardly differs.
Converted to millimeters thats 38.1mm = 114mm2
The Volvo oval port is approx 44x29.5mm=101.9mm2 (ellips formula)

Any thoughts maybe?
 
I finished my post a little quick last night but to continu on the math for a bit I dug into it some more. There are some formulas to calculate the primary tube size and I came about this one a couple of times.
Peak torque RPM x 1 cy displacement / 88,200=PPA (Primary Pipe Area)
In case of say peak torque a 4K that would be 4000 RPM X 28.33 cui / 88200 = 1,28in2 = 8,25cm2
In case of 5000 rpm it would be 1,6in2 = 10.3cm2

It seems the M20 header would be a safe choice regarding the pipe diameter, if it would be 1.5" ID.
The Volvo exhaust port isn't exactly ellipse shaped so it would be some more surface than I calculated.
I contacted the seller if he could provide some details, to be continued.
 
So, the turbo manifold got delivered. Unfortunately not at my home address but somewhere on the other side of the planet.
Hope someone in West Palm Beach is happy with it.. took over a month to get a refund but ok, in the end I received it.
Can't really get over how it was shipped from China to Japan, to Anchorage, back to Japan, and to Florida finally..

Delivered
2018-08-17 17:38:56 [US,WEST PALM BEACH,33412]
Out For Delivery Today
2018-08-17 08:41:16 [US,Riviera Beach]
Loaded on Delivery Vehicle
2018-08-17 05:38:30 [US,Riviera Beach]
Destination Scan
2018-08-17 05:27:57 [US,Riviera Beach]
Arrival Scan
2018-08-17 04:05:00 [US,Riviera Beach]
Departure Scan
2018-08-17 02:34:00 [US,Hialeah]
Arrival Scan
2018-08-16 20:42:00 [US,Hialeah]
Departure Scan
2018-08-16 19:34:00 [US,Miami]
Arrival Scan
2018-08-16 18:59:00 [US,Miami]
Departure Scan
2018-08-16 16:31:00 [US,Louisville]
Import Scan
2018-08-16 11:40:02 [US,Louisville]
Arrival Scan
2018-08-16 00:40:00 [US,Louisville]
Departure Scan
2018-08-15 21:57:00 [JP,Narita]
Departure Scan
2018-08-15 14:47:00 [US,Anchorage]
Arrival Scan
2018-08-15 11:29:00 [US,Anchorage]
Arrival Scan
2018-08-14 20:50:00 [JP,Narita]
Departure Scan
2018-08-14 17:04:00 [CN,Shanghai]
Export Scan
2018-08-14 01:28:56 [CN,Shanghai]
Arrival Scan
2018-08-13 21:45:00 [CN,Shanghai]
Departure Scan
2018-08-13 21:30:00 [CN,Shanghai]
Origin Scan
2018-08-13 18:18:48 [CN,Shanghai]
Pickup Scan
2018-08-13 15:14:52 [CN,Shanghai]
Order Processed: Ready for UPS
2018-08-13 11:04:59 [CN]


Anyway the project is gonna be on the back burner for a little bit. I will continu to work on it but it's in my shop ± 20 mins from home.
Couple of weeks ago me and some buddies did a 600 km round trip in my Impala and about 50 km before home my oil pressure started acting up as well as a rod knocking sound.
At idle there already was a slight knock in there, but I always pretended it wasn't there. Oil press always was strong, but I'm afraid I overfilled the engine after an oil change (the night before the trip) and lost oil pressure on the test drive b/c of the oil foaming up -> damaged the bearing(s) I'm think.
I thought the pressure sender wasn't working properly at first, so in disbelieve I floored it a couple of times seeing the oil pressure drop.
At home I let off some oil and it seemd OK. Only to found out that 550 km later something worse developed..

Long story short, the Impala needs time, TLC, bearings and money (because head job, other cam etc) thrown at it and I will be doing that in my home garage, so not around the 242.
I can come up with a lot more excuses but the 242 will be touched whenever there's time.

tl;dr here's a pic of the engine getting picked out of the car. Minor Volvo content in the back.

IMG_0650
 
Any news here?

Well, no.. It's been outside (again) for almost a yr now.
It's been a very busy year and I've blown my budget with medical bills (nothing serious tho), a Japan trip, rebuilding the Chevy engine and some other set backs. Also had a 2nd kid in january and hardly any space for the 242 in our shop lately so nah, not satisfied with it but it is what it is.

On the other hand, we're moving to a new shop with a LOT more space to keep the car on my own lift instead of sharing it and keep moving cars around all the time. Actually, I can leave it not moving at all and get to working to the rotten floors and stuff.
I am contemplating looking for another body, maybe a 245, because there's a lot of rust repair to do and I'm not really feeling like spending all the time with just that before I can get to suspension, ECU, interior and what not. I spent about 9 yrs doing all that on my Impala and I want to drive the T6 engine before all the environmental crap politics take over.

The new shop will be a lot of work as well (tearing some walls, buiding a 2nd floor, benches, etc) but hopefully in a couple of weeks/months I can get back to it again and sure post some updates.

Time f#cking flies man..
 


It's there, sitting inside again since a year and dry again :)

Now we gotta tear some stuff down first, build a second floor, put in the lifts, power, and a whole lot more :)
 
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So, time flies.

Long story short, spent a lot of time on the shop and the Impala and finally made the decision to scrap the 242 (insert dramatic sound effect).
It's been in my head quite a while, but I wanted to keep the car because of sentimental reasons and the fact you dont see these eraly (or any) 242s a lot over here.
But, it's soo rusty and I decided I dont want to spend my time anymore restoring parts of the car which will ultimately look like they havent been touched at all.
Some rust repairs are fine, but the floor pan, rockers, front chassis, core support, window frames etc, pretty much everything would need a lot of work to get it back to a solid base.

I've always been a wagon guy and even though you see 245s pretty much every day still around here I started looking for one.
Of course it has some rust and probably needs a lot work work than I account for right now but thats accounted as well :D
It's an '84 (which will become tax exempt in 3 yrs, one of the reasons to buy this one) and has LPG registration which I like.

It looked like horse**** when I bought it mainly because it was sort of covered in dusty horse****. Also smelled like it.
Steam cleaned it and it came out nice, rear wheel arches are rusty, weird spot at the left rear window and some bad patching on the rockers but the floor pan looks solid.

Plan with the 242 already was to use front fenders for rear arches, and I have some new rockers as well so I think I'll put those in anyway to keep rust out of there definitively.
Doors are a bit rusty as well so I'll replace them as well.
Also bought a set of quad squares, not sure if i'm going coffin or flat hood yet.

I also bought a BMW E39 touring rear axle so if it all works out with the RDW (DMV) the plan is to put that in as well.


So this is kind of a teaser since I havent started working on it yet, but it's some progress again :)

Pics:





 
It seems like car modification has been keeping you busy for years now.
I just saw this thread and it sure is interesting seeing this build.
 
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