1989 245 b230 to D24t build
 

I have started another build, but this one isn’t for me though, it’s for a forum member. The goal is to have a bone simple, reliable, fuel efficient and peppy diesel Volvo wagon. It will be getting a D24t with some modifications. Modifications will include head studs, tuned injection pump, increased boost, modified NA intake, better exhaust, etc. The transmission will be a stock m46.
I picked up the car from an auction house on the 3rd of July. It was a bit of a challenge to get onto my trailer as the car was extremely low, riding on Bump stops low! But my son and I managed to get it on :-)

Looks sharp! It's a gasser manual now?

Yep, b230/m47 combo

Made some progress! Engine and transmission are out!

Also got the rear springs swapped out for some overload springs, look at the difference in length, overloads are on top and bottom, the ones I pulled out are in center. Now I just have to do the more time consuming front springs next.

Started to change the front suspension, removing the diesel specific springs and sway bar from donor front end.

That is a huge difference in spring length! I don't recall that much difference from when I put the ipd overloads into my 745.

That's gonna be a nice 245. I like them in white. A very forgiving color and makes these look bigger in size and 'younger'. Will the 700 series original unmodified d24t crossmember bolt right into the 245 chassis, with the turbo motor on top? Or did you have to source a nonturbo d24 crossmember for this swap?

The nice thing about the 240’s is the engine crossmember for the gas and diesel are the same :-).
I do need to use a modified d24 oil pan when going with a d24t or d24+t. The oil sump on the 240 is narrower and wider then the 740 sump, so using the 740 pan is a no-go unless modifying the crossmember and building engine mounts since the 740 engines are more vertical while the 240’s slant over to the starboard side.

I made a little bit of progress yesterday, I didn’t get anything done on Tuesday and not as much as I wanted on Wednesday because I was exhausted from the heat on Monday and I think the paint fumes got to me :-(

I got the engine painted ford blue on Monday night, and I started re-assembling it on Wednesday. The engine is one of my previous engine builds, bored over with KS pistons, cylinder head rebuilt by Aluminum Head Rebuilders in Oregon, ARP headstuds, and all new bearings. It runs nice!

The blue really “pops” I’m thinking it would look really good with the valve cover painted to match the block, maybe the timing cover too. Lately I have been painting the blocks to match the cars there going in, not my standard Detroit green. I went with blue because the wagon has blue interior.

blue, black
 

"The nice thing about the 240’s is the engine crossmember for the gas and diesel are the same"

Awesome.


Also,
that blue paint looks Really good, motor looks like you dipped it into thick industrial shipyard enamel.... I think it would be a huge match with exh manifold in black; belt covers in either same blue but maybe also in glossy black, valve cover also black but maybe not super glossy but flaky/bumby textured and flat like a HD flatbed paint but high heat version (sprinkled effect).
A black manifold would worth it too, I`m so glad I went with spending time on that for my d24t. The highest heat VHT 2000F paint is not super glossy black at all but it is black (not greyish black)... not glossy but it stands out perfectly near the semigloss real black on the shields.

Your motor would look like a marine engine in action, sprinkled with water :)

And, especially, with freshened up internals. And it is a standard shifter. And in a wagon. Awesome. Such a great build already. Can`t wait to see it run.

Made some progress after my vacation in the San Juan islands. Got the suspension all together with the diesel sway bar and got the engine bolted in!
I’m always surprised with the variances of these 240’s, some have tons of room for the turbo and some do not.. this one is on the tight side, but it fits. I was originally going to use a little larger turbo but I’m not going to cut into the frame rail for compressor clearance. The stock Garrett will provide all the boost this build needs anyway:-)

Could it have something to do with variances in the engine mounts or trans mounts?

Looks good! Got one of your 240 TD pans on this?

Any thought of using the M47 that's in the car, or are you going M46? I have been thinking about swapping M46 to M47 in my 764, seems like they hold up better than a lot of people give them credit for if the driver is reasonable and the clutch is not too aggressive. If you use the M47 I will be interested to hear what you think behind the D24T.

Well that’s usually the case, but this one is unusually closer with good mounts.

Yes, I’m using one of my custom pans on this, it’s the easiest way to turbo a 240!
I wouldn’t mind using an M47, but the one that came with the car popped out of third gear.. but I do have some other good m47’s.

Do you know if the input sleeve for the diesel is available?

I don't know, I'm not sure if it was ever sold as a separate part. I might have a parts book I can look in to try to find a part number, now I'm curious too.

I don't think it would be too difficult to pull one off of a diesel M46 with a decent puller though, that was what I was planning to do. Or probably could even get a few new ones machined.

More progress! I got the M46 transmission installed along with the driveshaft. Also got the steering rack boots changed on both sides and also installed a fresh timing belt, water pump and timing belt idler.
Tomorrow I hope to get the valves adjusted, all the hoses and radiator in, power steering hooked up, install the alternator, install the diesel specific overflow tank, and hopefully get the wiring sorted out, should be easy though, I don’t even need an ignition wire as this car is getting a manual fuel shutdown along with push button glow plugs.

Cooling system is complete! Got the valves adjusted too! I went ahead and got the valve cover stripped and painted the same color as the block, I really like how these D24T's look with the valve covers painted to match the block color.

It’s been awhile since I updated the thread... car is nearly finished! I fired I up today! Yay! Had some extra work that I really wasn’t expecting, I could not get the fuel system to work with the in-tank pump, I could not pull fuel through it for some reason. So I went to drop the tank to change the sender/fuel pickup to a diesel unit.. well one of the fuel lines on the underside was rusted out! I also broke the bolt for the filler neck clamp, the joys of a 30 year old car.. So I ended up replacing the fuel pickup and fuel lines from tank all the way to the injection pump with the diesel specific lines.

Sorry for this off-topic question Anders, in your case do you also need to change/swap the fuel gauge in the instrument cluster to make it work properly with the `new` diesel-specific sending unit that you just installed? Is the fuel gauge part in the cluster also diesel-specific, partly or in any way?

(I`m just trying to figure out what to do with my ``once gasser then td- swapped`` 745 car`s annoying fuel gauge. It doesnt work correctly, it actually works the opposite way: showing empty when full... and vice versa; or not showing anything at all, until either fully full or fully empty. )

I do have four full clusters from other 700 cars,
one of them is from a 146k 1987 780 gasser v6 Bertone, the other is from a 242k 740 gasser appr 1985-88, and I have a cluster from a factory TD 1985 740. ((And I have the cluster from the 442k TD which belongs to my daily car--I DONT KNOW WHETHER OR NOT IT HAS THE CLUSTER FROM THE GASSER 1986 740 B230FT OR NOT. MAYBE IT IS FROM THE DONOR 85 TD CAR-- but I think I can see an orange wire that sits in the third spot of one electrical main joint which is glowplug related so I think the cluster is NOT from the donor td car and it simply got the glow feature created by v8.)

These 4 instr clusters look Very similar but have differences in wiring and solder connections are at various spots But the fuel gauge part looks identical in almost all of these clusters. I thought of swapping the fuel gauge part and see. But the secret may be in the fuel tank sender unit differences of a TD car versus a Gasser car?
Thank you for reading. tyt sending your ideas if too busy with the nice build. Sorry for the offtopic question again.

Update. Oh, I realized your build is not a 700 but a 200 car.

As far as I know all the 240 fuel sending units read all the same resistance full/empty.
Now the 740/760’s ect.. I do know there is different values on the senders, when I did my 1991 745 diesel swap I went to install the diesel sending unit and it measured just the opposite of the original gas sender.

Update!
 

The car is alive! Drove it out of the shop yesterday. Just a few little things to finish up here and there; wire the mechanical gauges for the backlighting, wire up the OD and put some miles on it before it leaves to its new home! Hopefully all the surprises have been found and I won’t have too many while road testing it.

Injector rebuild time!
 

Well.. I now need to rebuild/clean the injectors. I installed this sweet low mileage engine that I built a few years back and installed into this wagon. The engine ran great but the injection pump was worn out and leaking so I replaced it with a pump that I built about 6 years ago.

The engine went from easy starting, clean burning and peppy to hard starting, smoky and sluggish after I swapped pumps. Checked timing several times, all good. I ran this injection pump years ago and it was perfect. Well I decided that possibly there was gummed up diesel in the delivery valves and it sent it out to the injectors. I pulled all six injectors and tested them, all failed! So now it’s time to clean/rebuild them!

I have the same POP tester. Do you find it leaks at the valve stem?

For POP testing I like to use a tallish glass jar with a metal screw cap with a hole cut in the center of the cap. Hole large enough for the injector to sit in, so most of the fumes and spray droplets are contained in the jar, not my lungs. Still easy to see the spray pattern in the glass jar.

Jar not needed for testing for drips at just under POP pressure.

Mine doesn’t leak, it’s been used a lot testing Cummins 12v and 24 valve injectors. I did notice my gauge is around 10 bar off when testing 155 bar injectors, so they usually pop at 145 according to my gauge.

Help!
 

So I’m baffled! I can’t get this engine to run as it should. It’s hard starting, smoky, loud, slow throttle response, and has maybe 40% the power it should. The smoke out of the exhaust is unburnt fuel.

So this engine has roughly 10,000 miles on a fresh 1mm overbore and rebuilt head by cylinder head rebuilders in Portland. Ran great when I pulled it out of the car I had it in. What I did when getting it ready for this project; new timing belt, water pump and idler, checked and adjusted valves, and installed ARP head studs.

Before installing the rebuilt injectors I compression tested it, 400-430 psi on all, so compression is good.

I have rebuilt the injectors, all spray and pop correctly, I have checked the fuel lines and fittings several times for air intrusion and have adjusted the timing from anywhere from .60mm to 1.1mm, no change.

I have ran it without the intake, without the exhaust, with the turbo removed, ect, no change. I’m stumped.

I guess I will try a different injection pump.

Wondering if when rebuilding the IP you could have reassembled it 180deg out? This came up recently on another thread. The inner end of the main shaft has those two prongs, they are not really keyed, can fit either way into slots in the distributor. There is a specific clocking orientation where you visually align the key slot in the main shaft with a pin in the distributor plate, but it will just as easily install 180 out and rotate freely and not bind.

Suggest before swapping the IP, retime it 180 deg. out.

Don’t I feel stupid!
 

Well the pump was 180 off. So when I rotated the sprocket 180 I noticed another notch.. well it just so happens that the sprocket that I was using had a near perfect chip on the edge what looks to be nearly 180 from the factory notch. So when I assemble these I always mark the ‘0’ mark and the notch on the IP sprocket with a silver paint pen to make it easy to spot. Well I marked the non-factory chip/notch in the sprocket. I’m so surprised I didn’t notice it before! Well I threw that sprocket in my scrap pile as it cost me many many hours :-(

I’m surprised that the engine was able to start that easy 180 off. The engine took about 4 seconds of crank time to start, and it actually idled smooth! I have never had one start this easy 180 off or idle that well.

Timing is now correct and it’s running like it should! :-)
Thanks ngoma!

Amazing, and a good call from ngoma to check it.

Funny how when you are "sure" it's not one thing, you'll try a million other less likely things first before coming back to what should have been obvious all along. I hate getting bitten by that situation. One time I had one go 180 off like this, but due in that case to a mistake on my part, and I was so sure I couldn't have timed it 180 out that I think I started looking at glow plugs, fuel prime, etc, even though it was an engine that had just been running no problem before I took the belts off it. Sounds like the same kind of outcome here. But in your case even more crazy because that trick sprocket would have made it look exactly right even when it wasn't, what a trip!

At least you know it must have great compression if it started and ran that well with the timing 180 off. :D So what else is left on the swap now, must be pretty near done?

I had to share the sprocket, the correct one is on the right.
I’m pretty sure the one on the left was modified because someone had built a pump with the cam plate 180 off., now I’m unsure if my leaking pump that I pulled is 180 off or not. I’m assuming it is as I usually keep the sprocket with the pump when I remove them from the engine.
If you look closely you can see the factory notch has a chip in it and the 180 notch looks factory, but it’s actually cut deeper now that you compare a factory sprocket with it side by side. Crazy! I don’t know how many needless hours I spent tracking non-issues because of that sprocket!

I wonder if you can visually verify the pin/key slot mismatch when you have the cover off for the reseal? Might be too buried.

Crazy. That is a nasty trick, and everybody would have fallen for it -- why would you ever have expected there to be a second notch, after the first pump timed up just fine using that non-factory notch??

Never going to get back the time that part stole from you, I'd be pretty mad at the thing. :mad:

However, if it makes it any better, thinking about it now, I bet whoever put that notch in that sprocket suffered for a long time too before they figured out they built the pump itself 180 off. There's a long chain of misery attached to that sprocket now, everyone will be better off when it is melted down for scrap. :p

Ha, I never even thought about how much time someone else spent and then finally just notching the sprocket 180*

Car is 99% done now though!

First drive oil powered!
 

I put 50 miles on it, all went well, yay! No leaks discovered, engine runs nice like it should, very quite too when using the D24 exhaust, it might be too restrictive though. Rear end gearing is low, I discovered that this car was originally an automatic ( ugly hole drilled in firewall for clutch cable) so it probably has 3.91 gears in it which I think are too low for the m46 OD of .82. But overall it drives decent and has decent power (it’s been awhile since I have driven a non modded out d24t).

Didn't the factory M46 get 3:54 or 3:31 final drive ratio?

What kind of hose did you use for the VC breather?

The extra short M46 first gear must be even more pointless than usual with the 3.91 axle, it's barely useful even with the 3.54. Nice setup for towing though maybe. :)

I believe regular 240 M46 cars had a 3.31 rear axle and diesels with M46 had 3.54 (both for 200 and 700). Probably wouldn't be hard to swap a different axle in someday as the 3.31 ones I assume are plentiful.

Or the owner could keep the current axle ratio, raise the suspension, and put on a set of big AT tires -- then the short gearing might be a benefit!

Sharp looking engine bay, nice color choices.

m90
 

An m90 gearbox is a massive improvement over the m46. I do miss the OD green light on the dash though!

Wire it up to the highest gear :) or the headlights

Well the rear end is 3.73, so not as terrible as a 3.91 gear set. So the owner and I came up with the decision to leave the current rear end in it and install larger tires.

I built some lift blocks from 2.5”x .250” square tube. Worked out well.

Nice, sounds like the right call. I ended up going the same way with my 745 which does have the 3.91 rear. It did help bring the revs and noise down (although with speedo error of course) at freeway speeds.

How does the car overall look now with the taller suspension and tires?