Yes, I know, another Volvo build...
Yes, I know, another LS* conversion...

I chose this car because I always had Volvo's when I was younger, it's just kinda my thing now. It is a decent chassis, much lighter than people expect, live axle and a spacious engine bay.

The intention here is for a quick car on a budget, without looking like a quick car. Obviously I'll be using an LS engine with forced induction, details to come once I've decided on exactly which direction I'll be going, but it will be absolute cheapness. Wrecker parts, and a whole lot of eBay...

This build is somewhat inspired by denmah and his whole sloppy mechanics attitude (which is awesome). Unfortunately it won't be quite as sloppy as some of his stuff, mostly because a wrecker LS1 in Australia is about $1500 (if you can find a cheap one...)

Here is the car in question.



I picked up this clean 85' 240GLE recently for the tidy sum of AU$300. The seller indicated that he hadn't serviced it at all during the 2 years he had owned it, and used it as his daily driver. He only stopped using it recently because it kept stalling, overheating, power-steering didn't work, needed a new battery and he didn't have the time/money to clean it up.

I've purchased a new battery for it, reconnected the hose to the idle air motor to stop it stalling, put a hose clamp on the pressure bottle hose to stop it overheating and filled the PS fluid up. Everything is working perfectly now.

As I intend on using this on the street occasionally, I'm going to get a RWC and register it prior to swapping the engine over. I don't have any intention of paying for engineering, so this is the cheaper way.





Couple of things I've noticed that were required for roadworthy are 2 power steering rack boots, which actually turned out to be a completely fucked steering rack. I've replaced this now which was abit of a saga. A nasty oil leak from what appears to be the front cam seal. I pulled the front of the engine apart and cleaned this up now. New seal didn't work, looks like a groove has been worn into the cam. Nothing a bit of glue won't fix though (will hold long enough to pass inspections).



Also pulled the rocker cover off the engine to have a look inside. I dare say this engine hasn't had an oil change for a very long time...



Little teaser shot of some plans...



Quick mock-fit with my junk LS2 block in a mates Volvo 242 chassis. Looks like it'll fit well.







Couple more random photos.





First of the goodies arriving...





My house is almost finished being built so I'll be getting back into this car once I have some space to work on it.

I can't see anything else that should fail the roadworthy inspection now, apart from maybe the condition of the seats.

As this build is denmah inspired, I made a quick YouTube video to show a bit more than photos would.


I'll create more videos like this as the project goes on.

I also picked up a donor car (2002 Holden WHII Statesman International) which has a 221,000km 5.7L LS1 engine in it. Will do nicely for the transplant.



Let me know what you guys think

 

**** yeah. I plan to do the same sorta thing once the nova is finished. I currently have a volvo 440 as a daily and i can't kill it. Pity it's FWD though.

You can pick up the 5.3's for around $500 each complete from the states, buy two. $500 shipping max with craig @ full noise enterprises. There's two engines for $1500.

 

Cheers mate, I'll look into that option when this 5.7 goes bang. I've got another local mate whos keen on a 5.3 so that'd work out well.

 

Figure out a way to get me a Holden to the USA, and I will set you up with engines. ;-)

 

I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. My first car was a 1986 Volvo 240.

 

Nice sleeper, keep the updates coming. I like the video, I can hear all the aussie native parrots, koalas, and roo's in the background.

 

What do you plan on doing for a rear end?

I'm sure this project will turn out great. I love Aussie stuff, you guys always build cool ****!

 

yeah we picked up a 5.3 with intake TB and coils everything youd need for $350 and replaced the cam and lifters, cleaned it up, checked the gap, and put it back together with some ARP bolts and cometics.

They hold much better than the 5.7's sirnemesis so going that route will be beneficial to longevity and the pocket book



EDIT: whatever happened with the AES motor?

 

Hah, if only it was that easy... The Australian car industry isn't going well at the moment with Ford recently announcing they are pulling all production out of Australia in 2016. I wouldn't imagine Holden would be too far behind them...

My first 4 cars were Volvo's. I'm a bit of a fan I've had 2x 1981 244DL's, a 1984 240GLE, a 1980 242GT and now this 1985 240GLE.

Haha, I'm not in the middle of the bush, so you won't get to hear all of those, but there sure are a lot of birds around here

I'll be leaving the rear end alone for now, might weld the standard stuff up later. If/when it goes bang I'll investigate putting a Ford 8.8" in. Apparently these are relatively easy to fit into Volvo's by shortening 1 side and using 2 short side axles.

5.3 is something I'm keen on, but I've got this 5.7 now so I'll at least blow this one up first.

The AES engine I'm using in my other car, build thread here. https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...400-build.html

 

Gotta love LS Swaps

 

Appears I've exceeded my bandwidth cap hosting these photos... They'll be back in a few days if anyone's interested...

 

I'll take a Holden Ute please

 

Awesome! I'd love to have a LS powered 740 wagon.

I just bought my first Volvo in Dec, a '07 XC70. I love it! Just hit 101k, I think it's just about broken in now!

 

by shortening 1 side and using 2 short side axles.

That's what us s10 guys do with the 8.8". Some do leave them factory width.

 

Small update. Took the car in for roadworthy inspection. All passed without incident, and then transferred the registration into my name.

So now the fun begins. In this part of Australia we do not require yearly roadworthy inspections, only on initial registration. So, I can now pull out the Volvo engine to make way for the LS1 engine! This kind of modification legally needs engineering approval here, but I plan on just driving it as-is until I get busted for it, then it'll become more of a stripped out drag car.

 

Holy ****... an update!

So the car finally has a home, granted its full of other **** at the moment but I'm working on that...



Picked up an LS1 engine out of a WHII Statesman that I was wrecking, but then managed to find a VE 6L engine which was cheaper and sloppier, so I'll put the LS1 up for sale and use the 6L instead. Won't be without its challenges though... but that makes it more appealing as I'm pretty keen on keeping costs to an absolute minimum.

So, the 6L is a bit 'used'.



4 knackered pistons and 3 bent rods as a result of a little too much boost and a little too much timing... Block looks pretty good, could probably do with a 5thou oversize but then I'd need to buy new pistons and pay for machine work. Really don't want to have to do that and I managed to pick up a near-new (removed from a crate engine after 500km) pistons and rods to suit the standard 4.000" bore.



I picked up the 6L engine with heads, but got an offer for the heads alone which was over double what I paid for the whole engine, couldn't say no. Doesn't matter though, LS1 heads are much cheaper and will still perform just fine with a bit of boost.

I've got a few sets of 'used' rod and main bearings here so I could make up a 'good' set, which should save me some money. Also got some low km rings here that I could use, but I'm still debating actually spending some money and getting a new set. Not sure it'd be worth it though as I won't be honing the block.

Yesterday I pulled out the crank and took it down to the local machine shop to have the 58x reluctor swapped for a 24x reluctor. I'm not very good with E38 tuning and already have an abundance of LS1 looms and computers laying around, so I'd much rather wire and tune the car to suit. Swapping to a 24x reluctor saves me having to dick around with converter boxes, which have given me the ***** previously...



Also picked up this little gem for a bargain price today. Unsure if I'll use it on the LOLVO yet (although it appears as though it will fit without cutting bonnet), mostly because I want to keep it as cheap and sloppy as possible, but it is the only intake manifold I have spare at the moment... We'll see...



Hopefully I'll be able to make some more frequent progress on this now that I've got a roof over it

 

In for updates.

 

Made some progress on this today.

Got the crank back from the machine shop so I put it back in today. I reused the bearings because I'm a tight *** and there isn't any copper showing on them yet...



Using a 24x reluctor now so changed the crank sensor from a grey to black.



The previous owner was good enough to plug the holes in the top of the block to keep good oil pressure with the L76 DoD system. He also removed the redundant DoD hardware from underneath the valley.







I tried to gap the rings but I've got 2 mismatched sets of 7 rings, so I might actually have to spend some money here.



I'll see if I can find any other 4.000" rings laying around that will work, otherwise I'll be shopping for a cheap/used set.

 

Got plenty of spare pistons and rods now...



The rest of the bits from Brian Tooley arrived too

 

What Turbo's will you be running?