1) After driving my friends 245 turbo today I am wondering whether I can install an aftermarket turbo system. Man, that was fun. Would that be a pain in the rear, is it even doable?

2) Definitely shootin' for the ipd sways as well, what a difference! Is there anything else going on in that suspension that is different than my normal '90 245 suspension?

3) He also says he has a special rally clutch. Is there such a thing?

Excuse my ignorance, just an excited newbie.
Kev

The 245 Turbo probably has at least 15" wheels with slightly wider tires with shorter sidewalls than your '90 (if it still has 14" wheels).

Larger sway bars of course on the Turbo. The 23mm front bar would be roughly twice as stiff as a 19mm front bar, which is probably what your '90 has. Both have relatively small rear bars as the wagons always had.

The Turbo springs might be a little more sport oriented. My '90 244 was REALLY high on the front and the springs seemed quite soft when I had them off to do the struts. A friends '84 242 Turbo had shorter springs that were ground flat on both ends, suggesting they were not cut as we had assumed before taking it apart. So Turbos might have stiffer springs.

The Turbo came with orange DeCarbon struts which are pretty good. The junk on a '90 240 is REALLY soft.

There are lots of clutch options. Spec and Clutchnet both sell clutch kits (pressure plate and disc basically) for both the flat and stepped flywheel (8.5" and 9" clutches respectively). Centerforce did make several stages of clutch for RWD volvos but I don't know what they offer now. The other two I mentioned are better.

Turbo and exhaust manifold, Intercooler and all IC piping, ECU/ICU from a LH2.4 Turbo car (700/900 series). That's most of what you need. Injectors, resistor pack, some wiring. Custom oil feed & drain lines. You can drill the oil pan, flush it out, weld on a pipe or threaded fitting to run either a soft line or SS braided (or drill the block and tap it or braze a fitting). Oil feed can tee from the oil pressure sender port, or run off the 1/4" npt hole on the front of the block under the water pump. Downpipe and adapter pipe to the stock n/a exhaust if you're cheap, or full 2.5" or 3" exhaust. There's not much to it, but it takes some work and knowledge to put it all together and make it work.
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forums.turbobricks.com

First, consider the easy option: find something like a 90 740T, your choice, sedan or wagon. A 91+ 940T is very similar. A car designed to make that power, all built by the factory and no fabrication to do. Probably find running examples for under $1000 all over the country.

If you're thinking about a big project/upgrade thing, think about doing it in a factory way. A friend of mine took a nice clean 200K mile 89 244GL, and installed a 91 940T engine and trans (230FT + AW71). Used the complete 940 fuel and ignition system, with the exception of changing over to a 240 style distributor. The 940 has it on back of the head, no clearance there in 240 engine bay. The gear was in place on the intermediate shaft, so installing the 240 dist meant simply pulling the plug out of the block and installing the dist, then capping the hole for the old dist with a 240 cam plug.

Use a 240 wire set instead of a 7/940 type and it all works. I've heard not every engine had the drive gear installed so there could be more work if you do a swap, needing to change out the int shaft. I'm not even sure how you do that but that doesn't mean it isn't striaghtforward to do.

Integrating the 240 engine bay stuff and the 940 harness did take some wire-by-wire tracking. Overall the engine mounts, cooler lines, shift linkage, fuel lines, hoses, etc all lined up and worked fine; they are essentially the same block. A custom downpipe and exhaust needed to be made up. I think the driveshaft yoke had to be changed out.

It was a medium sized project for a person who is intimately familiar with Volvos. If you're not already, you would be by the time you completed this swap. And you'll have a 240 with 160-180HP, which is a great deal of fun (and for a lot of people, just a starting point).

Good luck with it!

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::: Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244 M47 212K ::: 90 745GL M47 275K ::: 90 745T AW71 213K ::: 90 745T Parts Car ::: 88 245DL SOLD! ::: 84 242DL Project ::: 70 VW Bus ::: 70 VW Pickup Project ::: 71 VW Notchback :::

Go check on Turbobricks, there are probably seveal articles/posts/faq's on "+t'ing" an N/A Volvo. It can be done cheaply. Dirt cheap if you live in some sort of Volvo mecca where turbo 700 and 900 series cars are laying about in junk yards. If you don't go insane on the boost levels, and tune it well, it won't really shorten the life of the motor that much, but it will make the car more fun. And if it does shorten the life of the motor somewhat, just get another junkyard B230FT motor and keep on trucking. You are unlikely to set a new world record mileage for an untouched B230FT even if you keep it N/A anyway.

Suspension: In descending order of necessity: IPD sways, good shocks and struts (I like my Bilstein HD's), wider wheels and tires, lowering springs, camber plates and braces for the front. And replace worn bushings, with poly if you really like flinging the car around.

Clutch: I swapped the automatic out of my car for a manual. And quickly found out the stock clutch is rather limited in the power it can transmit without slipping. I had to turn the boost *way* down for a few weeks until I got a Clutchnet 'red' pressure plate and kevlar spring centered disc.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic 245 + turbo

You can turbo ur brick for around $500.

which is the best bang for the buck performance wise.. You will nearly double your horsepower.

What you need is a good source with the same fuel injection system (i'm guessing you have LH2.x) You'll need a 700series turbo car to swap over the turbo, green top injectors, resistor pack, 700 turbo ECU's, custom hacked up 700 downpipe. A tricky part is the brazing of an oil return line in the oil pan... i'm also pretty sure i'm forgetting something else too.... Check out www.turbobricks.com for much more detailed +T swaps. You can run a manual boost controller and bump up the boost a bit too, but be careful.. a bad tune could cause ur motor to detonate (you have a high compression motor)

it wouldnt be hard to find an intercooler set up for an older 200 series too.

sway bars are most excellent. I recommend giving yourself a good base to work with starting at suspension and working to HP mods later. Sway bars, new shocks/struts, strut-firewall bracing all helps. Have fun.
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'89 240 All original xcept. exhaust, 25/25 sways, guages, slight airbox mod, fogs, custom sound.

Aftermarket turbo system?? You've got $3000 to spend on improving the performance of your 240?

The guys on turbobricks turbocharge their b230f's all the time, but they do it on the cheap, substituting knowledge and tinkering (and a little luck!) for the money that an engineered aftermarket turbo system would cost.

I've thought about turbocharging my '93, I can get all the parts for around $200, but I'd rather keep it as a very long-term daily driver and n/a is the best way to keep the stress low and drive it forever...and avoid changing the oil twice as often.

If you're ready to shell out the bucks for an aftermarket turbo system, can I suggest buying a later 760? They're pretty slick looking cars and come pre-turbo'd, probably cost you somewhere around $2000 for a very nice one. A black '92 760 Turbo was for sale here last year for $1200 with only 90k miles! I test drove it but passed.

If your friend's 245 is a stock turbo from the early 80's then the only thing I can think of significantly different on the suspension are the sways. If you spend a quarter of the money an aftermarket turbo system would cost you on suspension components you can make a 240 handle like a new car.

Good luck!
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Sean - now frolicking in the Land of a Thousand 240's (aka, Fredericksburg) thrice a week.

I'm with Sean - I started with an 89 740IC Turbo, sold it, later got a 92 240N/A. I put the IPD sways on the 740 and it moved like it should. I could hold my buddy's 6Cyl Honda (98) coming up the 26 West out of Downtown Portland.

If you've got the money to turbo a 240, you're really better off getting a factory turbo and upgrading from there. It'll be lot easier. I talked with a local Volvo independent guy (who also worked on his own cars) and he said the same thing. The guys on Turbobricks do the homebrew stuff because they want the pleasure of doing it, as opposed to simply having a fast car. Your approach should be the same; if you're just going to give money to someone else in order to achieve the speedy car, you'll be better off and happier with a later model (post 93) 7/9 series with a Turbo, I'll bet.

Best,

Lanval

PS - I dig the 240, and it's been a good teacher, but I really wish I had the 740 back. Don't tell anyone!

Sway bars, strut braces and good shocks are about the biggest bang for the buck for suspension mods. Do those first, then add 15-16" wheels and good 205 rubber. Along the way make sure you update all your suspension bushings, using urethane wherever you can.

I'm not sure about aftermarket turbos; probably easier to find a turbo motor in a wrecked 200. Check out turbobricks.com for ideas. But anything is possible - there's no substitute for cubic dollars. If you're looking for a real project with real gains, look into a Converse V8 swap.

There are a few performance clutches out there for the 240's, but you sure don't need them until you get at least to the 140-150 hp range. That said, if you have to pull your flywheel for a rear main seal job, give some thought to having it lightened and balanced while it's off. Each pound of rotating mass reduction amounts to over 1 hp gain at the rear wheels.
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Thank goodness we don't get all the government we pay for. -- Wiley Post