1992 745 turbo diesel swap

[anders]

Im now 26hrs into this project total, 8hrs was stripping the 1986 744 and installing a rebuilt head and head studs onto the donor engine. Three days into working on this wagon, been working short days (6hrs/day) as I have other obligations.
I would say it's going together fairly well. The Turbo, alternator and power steering pump have been installed along with a mechanical cooling fan (the electric fan was hitting the hub for pulley that the mechanical fan bolts too) I may install the electric fan at a later date so I left the wiring for it intact. I plumbed the cooling system and heater hoses, installed the needed brackets on the injection pump for the ZF transmission lockdown cable and also installed the correct cruise control spool. I'm hoping to have this car fully operationable just like it would be if it came factory with the D24T.

[ngoma]

Originally Posted by anders

I believe so, I think all of them are after 1986?

I don't remember the date ranges but you will know it upon visual inspection. Think hat cross section, the verticals are boxed in (plates welded in over the open places on the channel where the horizontal changes to vertical), obvious reinforcements.

(LATER) This is the thread:
https://www.d24t.com/showthread.php?t=978

"For diesel owners looking for replacement crossmembers, 1989-1991 740 and 940 GLE models having the 16-valve B234F gasoline 4-cylinder are the only other models that use a welded-on lower mount bracket on the left side like the diesel models have, and they were manufactured after the change to the updated crossmember design, IOW, they use the same desirable crossmember that the diesels only got for their final model year in 1986."

[v8volvo]

Looking great, I really like the D24T swaps into later 7/9 series cars. The later interiors seem to hold up better, you get nice things like ABS and more features, and of course the body wiring doesn't fall apart like it does on the early cars....

Looks like you had a Rex/Regina injected gasser to start with. Interested to hear what you end up needing to do with the fuel system. I think most of those Regina cars had just one high pressure main pump in the tank unlike the Bosch LH cars with the low pressure lift pump in the tank and the high pressure pump inline under the floor. The low pressure LH pump worked great for me as a diesel lift pump, I just bypassed and removed the high pressure pump. I think if you use the old diesel car's tank pickup/sending unit it might not play well with the later style dash gas gauge, seems like they changed something with the sender setup in the later cars. I wonder if you would be able to get the low pressure pump and sending unit out of a similar year Bosch car and swap that right in. It might work with the '92 fuel gauge and having that low pressure lift pump is actually pretty nice, makes changing fuel filters a really quick job and I guess some people think it helps add a little more power. A lot of the TDI guys like to add lift pumps in their VE pump cars, who knows if it's really helping them or not though.

I didn't know the greencar co brought in any TD engines, seems like everything I ever saw them do was NA D24 conversions on gas 240s and a lot of those were pretty hacked together (and they sold them for $17k....). I remember they did quite a few of them back in the day. Maybe they finally figured out turbos were the way to go at some point? Was that motor one they had loose or out of one of their built cars?

Sounds like it'll be great when done, like to see it some day. Will be interesting to hear how the ZF holds up to the extra power but I bet it will be fine, any plans for work on the trans? I've never seen any shift kits for them but seems like they are pretty tough and don't really die from abuse, mainly just from the known A-clutch issue that they have a fix for now.

I remember back when Jason had his motor cranked up quite a bit and was doing fine with the ZF, then swapped in an M46 and broke it within a couple days, then broke another one shortly after that. Guess the ZF wins that contest!

[RedArrow]

You are doing a very nice swap! Share it all


I dont mean to clutter your nice swap thread but i have this 740 volvo gas-diesel question here...
My car was swapped too, it is a 1986 wagon body that was born to be an auto gasser turbo originally but then received a 1985 d24t unit mated with the standard shifter tranny. It BTW has been an amazingly reliable build ... many thanks, huge credits and respect to v8volvo the professional d24t bricker.and perhaps Ngoma.

I have a question relating to the fuel gauge because my gauge reads incorrectly. It marks empty when fully filled. It climbs to the right (towards Full) as the tank starts getting empty. It also does that pretty inconsistently (showing pretty late or last minute) but it climbs towards full and as/when the tank gets empty it reaches the Full mark. When i fill the tank it moves towards the very left to mark "empty". Always been doing this ever since, not a new issue.
IDK why it works this way. What can it be and is there a suggested fix?
Facts that i know:
I never removed the in-tank parts and i did not mix up the wires behind the instrument cluster.

Left side is red zone = empty, right side is Full.
But the gauge works the oppositecway and really incorrect in terms of how slowly it picks up to warn about an "empty" tank. ...that is the factory Full marking on the gauge that itself is located on the left side of the cluster and ***the right side within the fuel gauge***

Thanks for any ideas.
About the crossmember....yes mine is 85 and has cracks both sides ...that i drilled at the ends of the cracks to stop a possible spreading of the crack(s).

I should either get it welded, boxed or replaced one day.
I agree with v8 that it was a good idea for you to use a later than 86 donor with a more modern body.

Your fresh swap-sights of both gas and diesel fuel systems might reveal the secret... Maybe it takes minutes to fix. But i do know that a working fuel gauge in these bricks is already a half miracle...so ..i should have no complaints and be happy that it "works"

[anders]

Originally Posted by v8volvo

Looking great, I really like the D24T swaps into later 7/9 series cars. The later interiors seem to hold up better, you get nice things like ABS and more features, and of course the body wiring doesn't fall apart like it does on the early cars....

Looks like you had a Rex/Regina injected gasser to start with. Interested to hear what you end up needing to do with the fuel system. I think most of those Regina cars had just one high pressure main pump in the tank unlike the Bosch LH cars with the low pressure lift pump in the tank and the high pressure pump inline under the floor. The low pressure LH pump worked great for me as a diesel lift pump, I just bypassed and removed the high pressure pump. I think if you use the old diesel car's tank pickup/sending unit it might not play well with the later style dash gas gauge, seems like they changed something with the sender setup in the later cars. I wonder if you would be able to get the low pressure pump and sending unit out of a similar year Bosch car and swap that right in. It might work with the '92 fuel gauge and having that low pressure lift pump is actually pretty nice, makes changing fuel filters a really quick job and I guess some people think it helps add a little more power. A lot of the TDI guys like to add lift pumps in their VE pump cars, who knows if it's really helping them or not though.

Yep the resistance in the sender is just the opposite on the 92 vs 86. The 86 sender was 36ohm empty 288 ohm full. The 92 was 277 empty and 2 full. I’m glad I checked! I had to eliminate the high pressure in tank pump, it wasn’t being kind about letting fuel being pulled out. So I used some 5/16” steel pipe and made a suction pipe.

Originally Posted by v8volvo

I didn't know the greencar co brought in any TD engines, seems like everything I ever saw them do was NA D24 conversions on gas 240s and a lot of those were pretty hacked together (and they sold them for $17k....). I remember they did quite a few of them back in the day. Maybe they finally figured out turbos were the way to go at some point? Was that motor one they had loose or out of one of their built cars?

When they finally realized they couldn’t build cars they sold off all there parts, at least that’s what I assume. I say the craigslist add years ago with all there late d24 engines for sale. But this engine actually came from one of there hacked up cars.

Originally Posted by v8volvo

Sounds like it'll be great when done, like to see it some day. Will be interesting to hear how the ZF holds up to the extra power but I bet it will be fine, any plans for work on the trans? I've never seen any shift kits for them but seems like they are pretty tough and don't really die from abuse, mainly just from the known A-clutch issue that they have a fix for now.

I remember back when Jason had his motor cranked up quite a bit and was doing fine with the ZF, then swapped in an M46 and broke it within a couple days, then broke another one shortly after that. Guess the ZF wins that contest!

The ZF does seem to hold up well, your old silver 764 currently has a built engine with a 12mm pump, hx30, ported head, 2.5” straight pipe, and large intercooler. The transmission seems to be holding up well and shifts nice and crisp under full throttle. I do plan on building one of these ZF transmissions though.

[anders]

Well it now runs and drives, with some roadblocks on the way of course! 1st startup revealed no throttle control :-( So I was thinking to myself no problem, been there many times before, open up the pump while still mounted on the car and fix the governor and collar. Not so fast, pulled the top cover off and this is what I found.. one little tong broken from the throttle spring cage, not good! Did it happen previously, did I do that? Is there a metal chunk now floating in the pump?!? Ugh!

[anders]

So pump is removed from the car and stripped down, looking for the needle in the haystack. Found it! It also found the governor gear :-( so from the looks of it I didn’t do it, I didn’t break the cage.

[ngoma]

Surprised it would even start/idle.

Good question: Why would that tab break off?

I had a similar, where the "lobster claw" that encages the long spring broke. I figured it was due to my previously replacing the IP top cover gasket and not quite getting the mechanism positioned correctly when replacing the top cover. That is a tricky one. The Dodge/Cummins version of the Bosch VE IP has a much simplified throttle arm mechanism.

[anders]

I think it broke because of the mechanical shutoff lever, it’s difficult to get the top cover off because of that lever, the throttle cage likes to get stuck on it, that’s the only thing I can think of.


Well since I had the nasty pump apart to find the missing piece I went ahead and gave it a good cleaning, re-sealed it all and installed a 12mm head/rotor on it. Even though I don’t plan to make lots of power with it, I like the 12mm head and rotor because I can get more fueling control with the LDA. That means more power with little or no pre-boost smoke.

[ngoma]

That appears to be a common theme. Maybe the best way to reinstall the top cover is to first remove the throttle arm shaft and cage mechanism from it, install that in the IP, then place the top cover, working the throttle arm shaft thru its seal and opening in the top cover.

After pre-marking the position of the throttle lever to the shaft, of course.

Might require a new throttle arm shaft seal there each time.

What do you think?

When it broke on mine it left me stranded on the side of a busy freeway in a heavy rain.