Red wagon build

[v8volvo]

The project begins...

[77volvo245]

Nice wagon.

[Jason]

Look at you George with your personalized D24T plate... Don't you feel special!!!

What are the plans for it?

Jason

[v8volvo]

Yes, in fact, I did feel pretty special when I screwed that personalized D24T plate on!

Plans is to build a long distance tourer, a road trip machine. It will be getting the engine and trans, etc from my very scruffy 1985 TD wagon, and some mods for quiet/smooth highway cruising... some chassis stiffening, fresh bushings, cushy Nivomat self-leveling rear shocks, etc. Probably not your cup of tea.... but don't worry, it will be fast too. I have a GT2056V variable vane turbo sitting on the shelf that is ready to do duty on the D24T going into this car... in the Jeep Liberty CRD it came out of, it moves enough air to make 160HP and 300 lbft of torque out of a 2.8L 4 cylinder. Should be able to wake up a D24T pretty nicely, I think, and hopefully make some good low end power too once I get the VNT dialed in right.

Still in disassembly stages for now, will keep updated with pictures as progress continues....

[v8volvo]

Well, I never did a very good job of keeping up with updates on here. This project has now been completed for a long time, driven many miles, and found a new owner, but for posterity's sake I suppose it is still worth putting some pictures of the swap up... Better late then never. Anyway, here goes.

This project started with this:



and ended with this:



With a little bit of work in between.

The story begins with a very ratty 1985 740 Turbodiesel, featuring a solid drivetrain living in a body that was beyond any chance of reasonable restoration. Next to enter the picture is an unusually shiny and straight, fire-engine red 1986 740 Turbo gas wagon with just a few ticks under 400,000 miles showing on the odo. The B230FT+M46 powertrain still ran nicely but had a worn out T3, beat exhaust, and some LH2.2 issues that were going to be tricky to fix. Around that same time a friend happened to wind up with a later 740 Turbo that had a melted motor and was in need of a solid B230FT long block. The solution was obvious...

The dismemberment begins.



Powertrain module free of all its various interfaces, ready to emerge from its ugly host.



Body and drivetrain separated with drivetrain left complete on its mountings with P/S system, steering, exhaust, etc all intact. Beats wrestling it out with a cherrypicker! Forum member "ngoma" provided a second set of hands and, more importantly, a second set of brains during this stage and we had the whole car stripped over the course of a weekend.



A pickup truck full of diesel Volvo, with the remains of the old diesel shell departed on its way to China and whatever future life lies beyond.



On to the next stage: the wagon in preparation for driving its final few feet on gasoline power, into the garage. Still running fine...



The final clock reading for the B230FT gasser powertrain. That's 399,248, with only one engine rebuild @ 300k. Impressive!



Now, the tricky process of doing what was done so easily on a shop hoist using nothing but a cherrypicker, a floor jack, a piece of chain, and some chunks of wood. Note -- we have not attempted something like this before.

Ready for liftoff.



The redblock emerging from its home.



Max elevation, B230FT wrestled out of the way, D24T dragged into place. Assembly is the reverse of removal. :-P



The new setup slipping into place. The diesel crossmember has to be used when doing this swap, since the D24T's mounting locations are different. Since I knew the crossmember needed to go in with the motor anyway, it made sense to just do it all as one plug-and-play unit from below, rather than taking one piece out the top and another piece off the bottom and fussing with the mounts and power steering hoses.



Best part is that the crossmember's integral tapered locating pins do the work of aligning everything for you. Just get it roughly into position, drop the car down, and screw the 4 bolts in.



And we're done. Now for the rest of the car...

[v8volvo]

Sorting out the details.

Swapping from hydraulic clutch to cable:



Converting from gasser fuel filler tube to diesel.



The diesel filler tube is enlarged to accept fatter high-speed diesel pump nozzles and does not have an evap system.



Time for some motor rehab before we rouse the diesel from several years of hibernation and neglect. It's healthy, but needs everything, cam seals, valve clearances, glow plugs, fuel lines, timing belts, cooling system refresh, etc.



Getting there.



Trick for replacing the #6 glow plug -- I find it easiest to stick it onto the end of the bus bar with the terminal nut finger tight, sneak it into the hole partly assembled, and then spin the plug in bit by bit with a combination wrench. Tedious no matter how you do it, but better than the alternatives. It is best to use the original style Volvo pinch nut on the terminal when doing it this way, though, since a normal nut can unscrew itself as you thread the glow plug in...



Narrow view of the plugs in place...



Pump timing...



I failed to take any good pictures of sorting out the wiring and fuel systems, but those were the next steps after this. I retained the stock low-pressure in-tank pump from the LH gas fuel system and eliminated the under-car high pressure pump and filter unit. The original diesel setup has no electric pumps at all, relying on the mechanical injection pump to suck all the way from the tank pickup, but it actually benefits from a low-pressure fuel feed and the in-tank pump from the LH system does that job perfectly.

OK, got fuel and electricity, finally ready for a test start in the new body. It grumbles, it coughs, it smokes. It's alive! Now for the minor bits, like brakes, suspension, wheels, exhaust, etc...
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Sitting on fresh front suspension, full of coolant, and looking more or less like it should, although there are still various redundant gasser bits still visible in this shot that need to be tidied up. Ready for a test drive.





First fill of local B99.



OK, the car seems to be working well. Time to try it out on a brief trip from WA to Colorado and back, and see if anything breaks. On a highway exit off I-90 in Montana:





While on the trip, we pass the 400k mile mark while cruising at an easy 85 through central MT (and getting 29 MPG!). So far, so good.



Parked at the top of Teton Pass outside Jackson, WY.



Back from the trip and in for its first post-swap routine service. It survived!



No hiccups so far, but still a few more loose ends to be tied up in the interior, on the exterior, and under the hood...