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Hey guys, new to the forum here . currently on deployment but when i return to california I am going to start my first build. well start to finish on my own anyway, so Im going to do a 1982-83 volvo 240 sedan . and would REALLY appreciate some guidance from some of the LS volvo guys on what parts combos really worked for them . like oilpan/intake combo. but id like to run the truck intake. motor mount kits ,harness conversion kits anything helps , not much time on my hands ,budget build and id like to have it done within a month or two . no lack of motivation here! thanks guys any help appreciated.
There's a handful of us working on them over on Turbobricks at the moment, one or two to the point of a test-fire. We've got kind of a formula going:
STSMachining mounts: http://www.stsmachininginc.com/produ...x-motor-mounts
Holley 302-1 pan, Hooker 8501 cast iron manifolds
Potentially a 12" 48-spline steering shaft - steering clearance is still pretty tight even with that.
STSMachining also has a transmission adapter designed to fit a 4L60E; I adapted it to work with a TKO. I had issues getting an F-body T56 to fit with this setup, but at least one guy made it work, so I was probably just Doing It Wrong :p - a Magnum looks like it would avoid the clearance issues I ran into anyways.
The radiator from a 92-95 NA 940 adapts pretty easily and gives a bit more surface area, and comes set up with a decent e-fan and relay setup. The stock axle will hold up to a mild 4.8 or 5.3, but much beyond that and you're going to want to do an 8.8.
No two of us that kept AC and talked about it, did it quite the same way. Probably want to stay low-mount - that space is otherwise unused, and you need the area around the passenger head for stuff like the intake.
Everything else beyond that (wiring, exhaust, plumbing) is pretty generic swap / DIY stuff for the most part.
Truck intake will clear the 260/81-85 everything/"coffin" hood and the 86-93 hood (but not the 75-80/83 GrpA/"flat" hood), but you might need to shave it; a strut tower brace is pretty much out of the question. It will save a ton of work to keep it vs. converting a truck block to a car manifold (been there, done that). If you're trying to clear CARB, don't try to use a truck motor, period.
Ive been thinking about a swap like this also for a very long time. What about a trans mount? Im guessing something like that would have to be custom correct?
Most of the builds ive researched ppl have modified factory volvo transmission crossmember and made them work for the t56 and t5 tranny swaps fairly simple . Im thinking the biggest challenge of the build is actually getting the LS mounted in the car and having good clearances all around between steering shaft and the intake and exhaust manifolds all stuffed in, also power steering rack clearance and AC compressor . know of any good prefabbed crossmembers? motor mount kits?
My build has been on the road for about a year now. Budget built '75 242 with a 5.3/TH350 swap. Stock truck intake manifold and pan, no AC. The only real surgery required on the car is notching the front crossmember for the oil pan, massaging the trans tunnel ever so gently (heh) and welding a flat chunk of plate to the front of the trans crossmember to rest the tailshaft mount on. The "coffin" hood fits after removing the bracing (about 5-6mm's of clearance with a playing card of air between the front sway bar and oil pan). The oil pan WILL hang low, even with the V6 front springs, but so far it's been manageable. The LM7 power steering pump bolted straight up to the volvo PS rack and seems to be working just fine. I took the cheap way out with the exhaust - the manifolds were switched side to side and the left pipe runs behind the rad support to a 3" merge exiting underneath the right cylinder head. No, not turboing it yet...
The rest are just details - but well worth the hassle. The 5.3 starts out with about as much power/torque as a "max effort" stock rod B230FT and there's no waiting for the turbo to kick in. With 3.54's and an aussie locker in the back it will lay stripe at will
As everyone has said before you can fit the truck intake manifold and oil pan.
i didn't like how low my truck pan sat below the crossmember so i ended up using the Holley 302-1 pan and it sits about .25" above the crossmember. i did have to notch the crossmember but it wasn't too difficult.
do you plan on going NA or turbo? the flipped truck exhaust manifolds fit perfectly facing forwards if you plan on going turbo. i never tried them the original way but i don't suspect there would be any problems.
i'm running a 4.8/4l60e and i only have to "massage" the trans tunnel a little bit to get everything to fit well.
electrically everything was fairly straight forward as far as swaps go.
lt1swaps.com is your friend.
I cant remember what company does this, but i think its...American Powertrain (?) that makes transmission swap cross members. Possibly you could see if a company that does that could have something you could use? I for one dont have the skills or resources to properly fab up a decent transmission mount,thats why im suggesting a prefabbed universal trans mount........I would also start with the 240 diesel model. I think those have the stronger suspension and brakes to keep up with the weight of the diesel engine.
I just wish i knew of a company out there that would definitely do this. Ill be definitely following this thread, i would love to gather as much info about it myself since ive had this idea bouncing around in my head for a long time.
Diesels don't have any bigger brakes (aside from vented front calipers being added at various points in the run for various trims before becoming standard, and ABS in the really late cars, brakes are pretty much identical, 75-93), but their front springs are a little stiffer and taller, by roughly the weight difference between the iron and aluminum blocks. An aluminum LSx weighs about the same as the Volvo's original redblock. If you're doing anything performance-y, all available factory springs are soggy noodles.
As a mid-budget oil pan option, the H3/"muscle car" pan hangs below the front crossmember like a truck pan, but doesn't require the subframe to be notched. If you are notching it, the F-body pan is probably the one to go with. The Holley 302-1 is really the best option all around, but it is a little $$$. The STSmachining mounts space everything perfectly, so notching isn't required (but it does make installation/removal a bit easier).
Last edited by vertigosity; 07-04-2016 at 10:49 PM.
Another tip to avoid a lot of headaches down the road: replace all the rear suspension bushings before laying into the throttle, starting with the torque arms. The pinion angle is often 2-3 degrees nose up and with the stocker 300K+ kilometer bushings the axle wrap is nasty enough to grind the driveshaft against the floor pretty much all the way up to the transmission. This induces some pretty insane wheelhop, the "fillings will fall from your mouth"-kind, not to mention the wonderful noise it makes. The luxury (and absolutely worthwhile) remedy is a set of adjustable upper torque arms, both to combat the axle wrap issue and adjust the pinion angle. I'd use heim joints at both ends as the poly bushings have a disturbing tendency of disintegrating under a lot of traction/power in these cars. If using the stock torque arms, shorten them to adjust the pinion angle (shorter arms were available from Volvo for a number of years). Make sure to reinforce both ends or they will oval out the bushing holes and fail. This is true for the lower connecting arms as well; add a plate across the top of the "U" in front of the shock mount holes to avoid them curling up into a neat little ball of crunched metal. A friend of mine managed to do this with about 450-500whp, a car full of people and some judicious burnout action - the car tracked kind of funny on the way home, no wonder when one of the LCAs was an inch or two shorter than the other one!
I wanted to get the engine as low and as far back as possible - so I made my own motor and tranny mounts and used the Mast Motorsports Pan. If you want to be able to remove/install engine/tranny as one unit with the Mast pan WITHOUT removing the crossmember, you'll need to notch the crossmember. I was able to get the engine/tranny in together without the notch using the Holley 302-1 pan -- just barely, but the engine's going to sit about 3/4" higher with that pan than with the Mast. I used the cast stainless steel exhaust manifolds from Speedway Motors. They exit differently than the more commonly used Hooker cast iron units and I found the head pipes were a bit easier to fab and stayed much further away from the firewall/back of the engine compartment. This approach did require modifying the steering linkage to clear. I used new maf sensor, O2 sensors, gas pedal, wiring harness and a used 08 Corvette ecu (with VATS, evap purge valve and rear O2 sensor control removed) all supplied by PSI. Car started on the first turn of the key with minimal bugs to work out. Used a new crate LS3. DW300 in tank fuel pump with GM/Corvette filter/regulator at the back of the car. Dual 2.5" exhaust with '14 Coyote 5.0L mufflers. Ford 8.8" 3.55's TrueTrac. Howe Racing custom radiator. Dual Spal 11" shrouded fans controlled by DCC variable speed controller. Classic Auto Air hvac. Bigger front brakes and my suspension had already been 're-newed' in anticipation of the swap. Mine was 5.0L Ford powered for 19 years before the LS swap, so sorting out the wiring connections wasn't too difficult with the PSI parts.
Have fun - and thanks for your service!
Last edited by Michael Yount; 06-23-2017 at 10:06 AM.
Hello, I want to swap a 5.3 Ls in my Volvo 5.3. I’m pretty young and I don’t have much experience on working on engines although I get the basics of it. I was wonder if anybody knows if a 5.3ls will fit into my 240 and will there be any issues with it, what to expect when swapping, and any tips and tricks to help me swap this car. I don’t want to spend too much money I have a budget of about 3-5k and I want to finish this project by the end of summer. So please any help I can get will be useful, thank you!
To anyone that's interested in an update , I DID buy a volvo 240, I did swap an LS1 in it, and then things got out of hand very quickly . I'll post some pictures of how the car currently sits. Feel free to ask any questions if you have them. The car is a forged LS1 ,T56 ,Ford 8.8, holley HP EFI . And of coarse , BOOSTED! Twin disk going in.
Hello, I want to swap a 5.3 Ls in my Volvo 5.3. I’m pretty young and I don’t have much experience on working on engines although I get the basics of it. I was wonder if anybody knows if a 5.3ls will fit into my 240 and will there be any issues with it, what to expect when swapping, and any tips and tricks to help me swap this car. I don’t want to spend too much money I have a budget of about 3-5k and I want to finish this project by the end of summer. So please any help I can get will be useful, thank you!
I suggest reading the link in Michael Yount's post that was right above yours.
06-27-2016, 06:10 AM
Volvo 240 swap/parts gathering. 
