Belgium; centre of the world

[PieterL]

Hi everybody!

First of all: thanks for accepting me to this interesting forum, I'll do my very best to contribute!

My name is Pieter and I live in Belgium, birthplace of a lot of Volvo's. I've grown up with Volvo's as my dad drove about 15-ish of 'em for his work. Two of those were D24's. Since I have a driver's license, I drove a 850 2.5 10V to 601 000km (400 000-ish miles), a 850 AWD to 300 000km (200 000 miles) and a 144 which has currently 500 000km (eh, 310 000 miles), all of those on LPG. Very nice and very affordable. I still have the last two, however the AWD is for sale.
My daily nowadays is a 1990 240 D24 with 650 000km. Amazing how slow a car can be with such a big engine.. Anyways, I like it a lot and it does good work. I'm a freelance technician, so it is mostly loaded with gear and has to get me as close as possible to agricultural machines that are in trouble. It's very obedient. Just this morning, I drove over a potato field to go fix a harvester in the rain. Makes some heads turn ;)

Anyway, I recently bought a 740 DTic as a donor, because the 240 is just too slow. I'm pretty curious to learn about the experiences you guys had!

So far I've been thinking how I am going to do it though. Preferably, I'd use the 740 engine mounts and oil pan and such, but it is not plug and play. I'd like to compare the front axles to see if a switch is possible. But first I've got to strip the 740 ;)

I'll throw in some photo's later.


Greetings from Belgium!
Pieter

[ngoma]

Welcome to the forum!

Your swap might be easier than you think. An axle (front crossmember?) swap is not required. The one I have seen used the 240 engine mounts and oil pan (with modification for turbo oil drain) to maintain the engine tilt for fit in the smaller engine compartment.

The most complicated parts seemed to be the modification of the oil pan, and deciding what to do for an air cleaner.

[PieterL]

That's what I read the most, but I'd like to keep the 740-angle because I'm going to fit it with a ZF gearbox. That would require the 740-angle too if I'm correct :)

I'm not sure about anything yet though. Still got to read and measure a lot.
I saw a nice topic of a Dutch dude on a Dutch forum who cut the original crossmember. Very nice work, but we have this funny little thing in Belgium callled technical inspection, for which a car has to be in original condition. The turbo might be something they'd miss, but a welded crossmember is something else :D

[v8volvo]

ZF trans in a 240 TD would be neat, the ZF trans and D24T are a great match for each other.

I think you will find that trying to put the engine into the 240 at the 740 angle would cause some interference with the heater hose connections at the firewall, and of course it would create quite a bit of work making new solutions in many other areas where you could otherwise use stock D24 pieces if you kept the D24 angle (e.g. D24 radiator hoses that might no longer fit, radiator fan would probably no longer be centered in the shroud so would need custom work there, A/C and steering hoses, etc). That is in addition to the crossmember and engine mounting surgery you mentioned and the possibility that that might make it harder to pass a safety inspection.

Here could be one alternative: If you got creative with the transmission mounting and shift linkage, you might not need to use the 740 mounting angle to keep the ZF trans. You might be able to retain the D24 mounting angle and mount the ZF transmission at an angle also instead of the square orientation it has in a 700 series. I don't think the transmission would mind being installed with a few degree clocking angle, which is all it would be, since lateral forces from cornering are frequently greater than the angle difference would cause anyway. You would need to figure out the right level to fill the trans pan to mimic how it works when mounted at a flat angle but that shouldn't be hard, you could make some custom marks on the dipstick once you have it dialed in.

I think in some of the ZF 4HP22 applications the trans is even mounted at an angle from the factory (Pinzgauer if memory serves?) and uses a canted-bottom sump to compensate for the angle, and the filter/pickup screen might be different for those too. If that is true it could provide some more options.

The 240 D24 M46 or M47 manual gearbox is always an option for a bolt in setup if you don't find a way to use the ZF. But you'd have a unique and nice setup if you manage to get the automatic to work in there. Let us know how it goes. :)

[PieterL]

I don't think the transmission would mind being installed with a few degree clocking angle, which is all it would be, since lateral forces from cornering are frequently greater than the angle difference would cause anyway.

That was one of my major concerns, but you do have a very good point. Those few degrees won't make a big difference. Interesting!
The only important question that remains I suppose, is whether I'll have enough space for a (bigger) turbo (in time). So all that calls for some fitting and measuring I suppose :)

I'm not really worried about hoses and such. Those are easy fixes that I will look after when it's necessary.


Thanks for the tips! I'll post my progress here but you'll have to be patient ;)