1980 Volvo 242 SBF swap

[SheaMoose]

Thanks, today I got the Ford Racing shorty headers on there and played with coolant hoses until it was too cold out to work with bare hands.

I may want to do fair bit of driving in this car, which makes me lean towards the single 3" with a proper muffler. It would also come in handy if I slap a turbo on this thing

Hmm, good point.
The single 3" with a muffler would also help keep it a sleeper

How do you like Mastercam?
And have you ever used SolidWorks?

[MattRabbit]

Hmm, good point.
The single 3" with a muffler would also help keep it a sleeper

How do you like Mastercam?
And have you ever used SolidWorks?

Sleeper is pretty much what I'm going for here


I like Mastercam a lot, It is even more powerful than I had originally thought. We actually use Inventor where I work. I've played around in Solidworks, and it seems like it is just as good as Inventor, but it's more clicking as opposed to the text entry in Inventor. Since I'm used to Autodesk stuff, I kind of like Inventor better.

[MattRabbit]

Cooling system is all hooked up, filled and bled. I filled the trans with fluid, got the shifter and clutch cable hooked up, and found that I'll need to make some brackets for the throttle cable to mount correctly. I also lined up somebody to build my exhaust. Now, I am going to try to get everything bolted in place and securely fastened so that when the exhaust is complete, I can drive the car back home instead of towing it.

[Daviticus]

I'm liking where this is going. Reminds me of the '79 242 project I had to abandon back in New Mexico - I've got a soft spot for these cars.

Trust me when I say you won't need to worry about the stock Volvo rear axle - a buddy of mine is making a G-Force T5 whine behind a big-turbo B230F+T and the stock 260,000-mile axle with a modded G80 diff is still holding fine. The car kills ZR1s on the freeway, to give you an idea of the insanity.

I'll be looking for more updates from this, I can live vicariously through you lol.

[MattRabbit]

I'm liking where this is going. Reminds me of the '79 242 project I had to abandon back in New Mexico - I've got a soft spot for these cars.

Trust me when I say you won't need to worry about the stock Volvo rear axle - a buddy of mine is making a G-Force T5 whine behind a big-turbo B230F+T and the stock 260,000-mile axle with a modded G80 diff is still holding fine. The car kills ZR1s on the freeway, to give you an idea of the insanity.

I'll be looking for more updates from this, I can live vicariously through you lol.

Thanks. Yea, I'm planning to leave the spooled stock diff in the car for a little while. I have no doubt that it holds up for a turbo 4cyl because it isn't making much torque down low. I am pretty sure the low end torque of a v8 is what breaks drivetrain components, especially with a sticky tire.

[Daviticus]

I still wouldn't worry, but to each is own. While you're in there get some SN95 Mustang knuckles up front and enjoy 13" rotors and matching bolt pattern with the 8.8. I've always wanted to try that combo, seems like it would be rather beastly.

[MattRabbit]

I've heard that the stock front calipers on the 240s are pretty good, so my plan was to just redrill the front to the ford pattern when I do the rear.

[MattRabbit]

The car is now en route to the guy I use for all of my aluminum and stainless welding needs.

I also ordered the brake lines that are missing from the car, and a full set of replacement fuses (kind of a weird style that doesn't seem to pop up in local autoparts stores). Hopefully I'll have the car back this weekend to put on the finishing touches. In the meantime I still need to make some throttle cable brackets and seat adapters for my corbeau forzas.

[ItsaCorolla]

Really interesting build look forward to seeing future progress, please though clean up that wiring or at least hide it in some loom/3m black tape. Lol also grab and shovel and clean your garage, looks like someone emptied a few trash cans in there.

[MattRabbit]

The wiring will be cleaned up eventually. I wanted to get the car running before I started hacking out the unnecessary stuff.

The garage has the misfortune of me being a slob combined with a wind tunnel drive way that forces all leaves directly in there, as well as a family of squirrels that like to tear apart all the seat foam and cardboard boxes in the rafters of the garage and rain them down on everything. I'll be doing some real cleaning next time I have access to a dump trailer. Lots of e30 and e36 junk in there that doesn't do me any good now.

[Jlyons617]

I think with adapters you could bolt up RX7 Turbo front brakes, if you were interested.

[MattRabbit]

I can't really do anything about brakes until i get bigger wheels on there. Until then, I think the stock 4 piston front calipers and 2 piston rears will do just fine with some new pads and rotors.

[MattRabbit]

The exhaust is going to cost me a little more than I had originally planned but it will be done right so I suppose it is worth it. I'm going to have the Ford Racing headers going to a custom Y-pipe bringing it to a single 3 inch pipe. From there it will go to a magnaflow xl round resonator, over the axle to a magnaflow xl 3 chamber suitcase. I'm hoping that despite the 3 inch pipes, it will be reasonably quiet. I want this thing to be a real sleeper.

[MattRabbit]

3 inch exhaust is all done. Sound clips to come as soon as I get it home. I am quite pleased.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[MattRabbit]

Finally got around to taking a video of the car running with the new exhaust. Enjoy...

http://youtu.be/hMuaEyz-mh0