Volvo 240 Estate T5 Turbo project

Hi all,

I've lurked here for a long time and decided its time to start a thread for my project, even though its nearly finished.

History:
I've always wanted to have a go at the drifting lark but never really got past a T junction peel out in my MK2 Escort and I've never dared give it a go. Now I've decided I want to actively get out, attend some noob days and hopefully have some fun.

The Beginning:
I bought a mk2 Escort when I was 17 in 2005 as a daily driver, retired the Escort from daily service in 2006 and bought a 1991 Volvo 240 GL Estate which I loved but got bored of and in 2009 I sold it which I instantly regretted.

Bored at work one day back in 2011 I had a look on Google and found a topic on how to put a 5 cylinder Volvo T5 engine into a Left hand drive Volvo 240 and when I told people I wanted to have a go at it, people laughed.....and quite rightly so as I had ZERO mechanical knowledge at all (I didn't even know how to do an oil change) but being a stubborn ass I thought "ill show you" and it added fuel to the flame. Even more so, I didn't own a Volvo 240 or have anywhere to do it.
2 weeks later I saw a 1988 Volvo 240 GLT Estate Auto on eBay, 127k miles from new with full service history and 4 owners from new.....so I bought it and driving it the 238miles home it promptly dropped onto 3 cylinders but that didn't stop me. It powered all the way home at 85mph and I still drove it around all weekend running on 3.


I had a car and whilst I was waiting for things to fall together I re-vamped the car, fitting clear indicators, ditched the heavy roofrack, lost the spotlights & junked the towbar.


I rented a workshop, bought my very first socket set and set to work to see how difficult this mechanics thing really was.


Old engine & box out, engine bay cleaned up.



Thing bolted together.


Set of mounts from the USA , sump welded, gearbox arms shortened and things started to come together.



At this point I realised I was missing some conversion bits and after failing to track them down, I found a Volvo 960 with another gearbox on eBay and I was the owner of a dough rough 960 with a locked drivers seat that was so un-comfy, smashed headlights, gutless worn out engine, scrap PAS and enough suspension knocks that I felt like I was in an active gold mine. But it had the bits I wanted.




Whilst this was going on I poked some holes in the car. Some friends came over and welded this up for me and then I finished off the rest.






Suspension was next. Kilen 40mm springs (couldn't afford to import Coilovers or make my own at the time Ill address this later). Superflex bushes, Gaz front & rear adjustable dampers, DVS Panhard rod, DVS Upper strutbrace and lower body brace, IPD 25mm rear sway bar and a Whiteline 24mm front roll bar.





Back to the engine. Things starting to come together now.

 

Then found a spare pair of Galaxies to use on trackdays. They were in really poor condition so I sprayed them myself in silly colours as a laugh. Haters gonna hate.



Brakeswise I fitted some RX7 FC3S calipers with DVS brackets and Yoshifab lines



Outside the local exhaust shop waiting its turn.




Interior is kept simple with Recaros from a Rover 820 Vitesse, Nardi wheel I got from the junkyard for £3 and a nice hydraulic handbrake (more on this later)



ECU is being taken of by a Omex 710 unit which was all wired in by a friend....then I didnt like it.


So we decided to re-wire the whole thing again with a proper sparky this time so back to square one.


So that brings me up to date. I've got all the hydro system in and hooked up but it wont bleed nicely. I've given up on this for now and ill pressure bleed it when I can.





So what's left to do? Try and get the damned thing running! Its not picking up any crank or cam signal which is driving me mad. I've spoken with Omex and we keep running tests but they aren't being very clear and I'm not fully understanding what they want so things are slow. I know a guy with the same engine and the same ecu in a buggy so I'm hoping he will send me his map in a couple of weeks as I know that works. If the car doesn't then I know its a wiring issue and not a map issue.

Once that's done its mot time, bit of bodywork to spray up, Tax it, bleed the hydro and book myself on a noob day!

Havent felt this excited or frustrated in years. Its close to being done but so far. I just wanna go play haha

 

Their help is really good but trying to get to the bottom of it is a nightmare. It must be something so simple but there's a million things it could be.

Oh yes, lots. Think the worst one was when my hand got trapped between the gearbox and the jack, or when I was fitting the turbo from underneath and I dropped it, luckily my face stopped it hitting the floor. Not happy and it bled for ages.

 

I've tried two different crank sensors, two cam sensors. For some reason the sensors aren't syncing to the software. I need to go and try Omexs latest tests and report back to them but it'll be the weekend when l get chance.

 

Thanks for the commenrs everyone.

Im hoping to get some time on it this weekend to see if I can get any further with the map. Still hoping that the lad I know with the same ECU and engine in a off road buggy can send me his map in the next week or two which should rule out any possible inaccuracies in the map and then its just down to my wiring and sensors themselves.

Looking at buying another 240 to break for spares so I can rob the rear axle, throw in a Detroit Truetrac diff and swap the axles over to save time. Its the final piece of the jigsaw that I need.

 

Small update time.

I went on a massive parts haul at my local scrapyard. I bought this full 1988 240 GLT from them and was given 7 hours to strip whatever I wanted off it to keep and they crush whats left.

So 4.5 hours this:


Became this:




With that out of the way and parts slowly filtering out the door to improve and keep other 240's on the road, I kept some bits for myself including a genuine Volvo headlight lense to replace one of my reproduction copies that looked rubbish. Ive kept the axle and its 3.54 diff to drop a Truetrac in once I decide weather to swap to a 3.54 or stick with the 3.73 in the car.

Fitted a spare panic handle to the drivers side since they never came with one and it already had the fixing behind the roof lining. Seemed like a handy idea.


Finally got hold of a leather shift boot cover which i was missing since mine was originally an auto. (yes I know its the wrong way round. Ive changed it round since I took the photo) and fitted a couple of other trim bits I rescued from the car to replace broken ones of mine.


Because you have to...


Now onto the juicy stuff. I wasnt getting anywhere with Omex's base map and the more time I spent on it the more I realised it was garbage. I managed to get hold of a known working map from a lad I met on a forum running the same engine on the same ECU in a offroad vehicle who had the same problems. He had a new map made from scratch by ACR in Wales and his car now runs perfectly.

So I loaded the map from him and Ive gone from absolutely nothing being registered by the crank sensor to finally having an engine RPM under cranking although it is only reading about 40rpm instead of 250ish rpm, the ECU is counting teeth, power is there and it keeps telling me there is a sync error now. So Im getting close.....but something still isnt right as its not sync'd to the software and I cant start it until it is.

Ive emailed Omex the new map and a video of the live data when cranking to see what they suggest next. Ive also emailed ACR who said they would be willing to take a look to see if its a wiring problem or their map needs adjusting for my car but they are 6 hours away in Wales and only have an engine dyno so can only take me to the base map runnign stage and itll ened a session on someone elses rollers to get it right finalised. Northampton Motorsport have also said they will take a look and can fully map it once finished but they are booked up for 4 weeks and are 4 hours away.

Now I have a tough decision to make. What to do and where to take it. Im going to take a look this weekend and explore a few ideas Ive had to see if things will improve and mull over my options. Baby steps. Not at the finish line yet but finally making progress towards getting it running.

 

There isnt much to it and theres a few gearbox choices. The most popular being the Ford T5 gearbox which you can buy adaptors for from places like Kaphlenke in the USA.

The other popular choice is the Volvo M90 gearbox which came from a 1994 onwards Volvo 960 2.5 24v with the 6 cylinder ally engine.

Engine mounts are from the same Volvo 960 as is the sump, pickup pipe, starter motor & bracket, dip stick & tube. Gearbox corssmember is a stock Volvo 240 manual gearbox one with I THINK a Volvo 940 mounting.

I made a guide here: So you want to T5 a 240 - The guide on what you need to know - Volvo Owners Club Forum

 

Thanks guys! Spent some more time on the car today but it's not playing ball. I'm absolutely positive that the problem is somewhere within the mapping but I don't know why.

Think it's time to admit defeat and book it in with Northampton Motorsport to see if they can sort it. I've already spoke to them and they said they can take a look but are fully booked for 4 weeks. The way I see it, it gives me 4 weeks to keep trying and if it runs then I'm already booked in for mapping, if it doesn't then they can sort it.