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As far as I know, the majority of Redblock engines are non-interference, with only the 16v ones being interference. The Haynes manual says otherwise, but experience has led me to believe it's wrong. (I've had a timing belt go on a B230 with no ill effects) Also: Add to the 240 section "Rear taillights circuitboard is made of brittle plastic and will almost certainly break over 20 years - so replace your entire taillight assembly before you start monkeying around with the wire runs." Ether Frenzy fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Apr 15, 2010 |
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Apr 15, 2010 19:01
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Must buys for the 240: the IPD anti-roll bar, and Bilstein HD shocks/struts. Your car will love you for these (relatively) minor upgrades. You probably won't need a different panhard rod or rear torque rod unless you're Hellaflush slamming it, an inch or two drop will not need those parts, I don't think. Here's my '83:  Here's my '85. Notice any resemblance? 
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Apr 15, 2010 21:48
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8ender posted:I've caught wind of a 1989 Volvo 240DL for $800. Stick shift, reasonably rust free. What kind of easy performance could I get out of one of these? They look great but the 114hp would be a pain on my commute. It won't be fast, but they have reasonably high torque so 0-30mph isn't anywhere near as slow as the hp rating might lead you to believe. With a couple suspension/unsprung weight changes (IPD anti-sway bar, Bilstein HD shocks/struts, and some lighter 15 or 16" wheels with a stiffer sidewall tire) you can get a pretty fun daily driver that turns on a dime, is no worries to park anywhere and isn't going to get you any speeding tickets. 20 mpg would be a pretty average result if you do a mix of freeway/surface driving. Parts also fit a huge variety of cars across about 16 years of engines/interiors so you can do a custom setup relatively easily (flathoods, dual/single headlights, stuff like that.)
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Apr 16, 2010 19:05
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Get the free '85 240 (because it's actually RWD and RWD is better), put some HD Bilstein struts and shocks on it, some 16" or 15" wheels that are actually lighter than the stock steelies along with some lower profile tires with a stiffer sidewall, find a junkyard IPD rear anti-sway bar, and then take your bulletproof car along with the remaining $4000 and go buy a lot of drugs and beer. Or use that money to turbo.
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May 25, 2010 19:09
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My old Volvo guy swears by 5w30 for the older NA 230s (although this is for southern California temps). It's what I use in my '85, and it doesn't leak at all (which is a first in my experience of owning 240's) But like most have said, you can probably use kerosene and it'd be fine in this unstoppable beast...
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May 27, 2010 18:49
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DONT DO IT posted:Alright, so the fuel filter was oriented correctly, and the oil dump was due to an oil line going into the turbo that I forgot I took off... Have you checked the inline fuel line pump back by the fuel tank? Mine had a situation once where it would crank, spray what seemed sufficient gas, and never catch, all other things checked seemed to be fine (was getting spark at the cylinder however) and I finally tracked it down to that rear inline fuel pump. Been 100% ever since replacing that... But if you're not getting spark you probably have some other/additional issues (like your wiring harness is degraded/the computer is shorting or otherwise flawed.)
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May 28, 2010 00:09
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Xovaan posted:This Saturday I'm pulling a drivetrain from another 240 for my friend and afterward taking the accessories I need to do some more work on the swap. 40 hours a week at the 'bux kills time for doing pretty much anything else. Full time jobs are hard on the old hobbies. My car tinkering has taken a definite hit over the last decade or so - it's ironic, you finally have some money to do things correctly... and no free time or energy to actually get anything accomplished.  ON the plus side, you only have 45 or so years hard labor left and then it's shuffleboard and diapers all day long! Wheeee!
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Jun 7, 2010 20:11
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Eggcrate, yeap. By a good margin.
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Jun 14, 2010 21:38
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Splizwarf posted::we need a Gas Fight emoticon: 
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Jun 24, 2010 20:27
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Crispulus posted:Fun story. I was driving to work when I noticed my battery wasn't receiving a charge. After I parked I tried to turn on again to see if I should call the sec. dept. to jump me for the road home trip, no go. I look at the belts and sure enough they are a little on the loose and brittle side. I ordered replacements and had security jump me for the home trip. Pics next time.
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Jun 29, 2010 22:28
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Revvik posted:Finally decided I wanted to drive again, so I fixed the clutch cable on my 242 turbo. Then mounted new (ish) tires all around - Yokohama ES100s. Balanced and aligned. Insured and registered the car and paid up my license. Spent an hour pulling the front air dam off the bumper and repainting the chipped, beaten gray a nice flat black which clashes kinda nicely with fresh steel bolts holding it in place. The 28 year old factory ones sucked, sheared three of the six off with a ratchet set and broke a ratchet adapter removing them. Is the 242 lowered at all? (There doesn't seem to be the standard monster truck gap on the front there.) You may want to look into a new panhard rod or rear torque rods if it is, which are relatively easy to replace and cheap enough, if you lower 240's they can easily get the rear axle mis-aligned... http://www.ipdusa.com/version.asp?strPageHistory=search&numSearchStartRecord=1&P_ID=163&CAT_ID=0&V_ID=572 http://www.ipdusa.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=802&P_ID=160&strPageHistory=search&numSearchStartRecord=1 (Unless that's not the type of shuddering and grinding you're describing)
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Jul 8, 2010 00:48
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hosed motor mounts can also cause the front to be lower than it should if the engine shifts an inch or two forward. (Happened in my 240, it took me a week to figure out wtf the issue was because nothing else seemed really amiss despite the engine being a bit out of place, the car just felt a little front heavy on turns...) PS: springs on the front of 240/740/940 cars almost never wear out - I would kind of assume the 850 still hits the "Old Volvo" generation for the most part. They're made for trucks and waaaaay outperform the weight of these cars even over a million years.
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Jul 9, 2010 20:10
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Splizwarf posted:Pen and paper? I've got a little mini clipboard in my '85 240's glove box that's about half-height for a regular piece of paper, so I just made a quick chart in excel, print two on a piece of paper and cut it in half. Then I write down boring poo poo like "mileage start" and "mileage stop" and gas and other maintenance expenses. Then after a month you can put the numbers back into excel and it'll do your trip computing. (I only do this because I use the car as a business expense sometimes.)
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Jul 29, 2010 19:28
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Automotive Insanity > Volvo Megathread v 2.0 - The Goatse Here is in Your Diff
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Aug 4, 2010 02:58
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Dealers in the colder states would often either spec them (or change the wiring in? I don't know) on cars on an individual basis. My uncle had an early 80's turbo with a cold weather plug in Minnesota back in the day.
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Aug 19, 2010 03:20
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Ahh, young love. Lloyd's right though - it's the door handles mostly (and skinnier tires - look at the pic Lloyd put up with the 240 doors, and the GT wheels/tire size, and it looks much more like a 240) that make the 140's look a bit more spindly and old school, but it's definitely optical illusion. I'm always partial to the 140s also as a 73 or 74 was my dad's first Volvo when I was a youf... (after a '66 GTO and a '71 Opel GT - hooray for kids eh?) but I still prefer the 240 look just a bit - as long as you stay earlier than the '86 restyle. There's something about a grainy pic of a great Volvo from the past, taken with a proper film camera in ye olden days.
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Aug 19, 2010 08:23
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240's also. 99.9% of them broke off the first time it got below 20 degrees and you hit slush higher than 4" off the ground. And then they immediately lose their ability to drive through puddles of any depth without spluttering and losing spark.
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Aug 23, 2010 19:08
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So my '85 240 has developed an interesting habit, it happens maybe once every 20 times I start the car cold, but it will crank and crank with no fuel or even a 'nearly there' cough... And then if I push the car (in neutral) forward 6 inches, it will start immediately. It seems like if it's really hot out (cold engine though) it tends to need this more often than if it's in the 70's, but it's not that definitive a trend really. This "fix" seemed like a coincidence the first couple times, but it's become my method for solving this. I can't see anything else wrong with the ignition, and the "won't start" problem happens so rarely I'm really a bit puzzled what the underlying issue might be. I replaced the starter maybe 5 years (5k miles) ago, and the rotor/distributor cap are a year or two old, and like I said - maybe 19 times out of 20 the thing fires up on the first crank with no problems at all. I'm still not sold this isn't a random coincidence designed to make me go insane, but does anyone have a rational explanation as to what might be happening here? (Car definitely in neutral, so I don't think the flywheel/starter motor would be revolving at all but...?)
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Aug 26, 2010 22:33
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Yeah, this car has had fuel delivery issues in the past but I thought I'd gotten them all sorted over the years... I'll definitely try the waiting the same amount of time rather than pushing next chance I get, because random waits have fixed this 240's fuel issues in past problems, but the timeline for the instance when I kind of connected the two seemingly unrelated events went: 1) Wife tries to start the car at 2pm, failure. 2) Wife tries again at 4:30pm, still nothing. 3) I leave work early to come move my stupid car so it doesn't get a ticket on the next day, which is street-cleaning day, try it immediately upon reaching my house - fail. 4) 10 minutes later I come back out in clothes suitable to push the drat thing across the street and/or poke at things in the engine bay, pop the hood, check that everything's attached and looking normal, try it again and still no go. 5) Begin to push the car in a fashion such as to turn it around and move it to the other side of the street, move it 6 inches, suddenly remember I'm old and jesus this is more work than it looks, might as well try it again -- Success on first crank! And it's done it again maybe 3 times like this, of course I don't immediately push it to begin with because that solution while cute, makes no sense, but last night I skipped from the end of step 3 to pushing it first and boom, ignition. So I do imagine that there's a fuel pump or line issue involved here somewhere, but the whole retarded "fix" makes me very puzzled.
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Aug 27, 2010 00:17
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Not much - the key factor for handling of course is the width of the contact patch of the tire, not the width of the wheel. I mean, obviously you can eventually get wider tires onto wider wheels, but a 225 on a 15x7 is going to feel pretty much the same as a 225 on a 15x8 wheel, or whatever. You'll find a lot more noticeable improvement by just going with a slightly larger diameter than stock and a shorter/stiffer sidewall. I run 205/15/50's on mine, and it dramatically improves the road feel and responsiveness over the stock size/profiles. I've had that size on my 240 since about 1992 with good results. Warning: Monster Truck Syndrome can occur! Hello fender gap!
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Aug 30, 2010 23:22
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Yep - 205 is the section width of the tire in millimeters, 15 is the diameter of the wheel in inches (hurrah consistency) and 50 is the percentage of the tire width in sidewall height. (So, 50% of the widest portion of the tire would measure out to be the same sidewall height of these tires.) 205/50R/15 is how it would be listed on the tire - the R denotes they're Radial tires, you will hardly ever see anything aside from R or occasionally D (Diagonally plied - rarely seen on spare tires or some light trucks.) B means Belted and you will pretty much never see those any more. As for wheel offset/fitment, Lloyd would probably have better answers. I've been running the same set of American Racing Equipment wheels on my progression of 240's since the mid 90's... Virgos are from the 740 era, yeah? I remember at one point 240 people were using spacers on FWD wheels to avoid that deep set rear wheel look (back when there were hardly any aftermarket options available), but I guess if the wheels were initially meant for RWD offset anyway, spacers are just a bandaid rather than a solution. I think a slight lip (1" to 1.5" maybe?) certainly helps alleviate that overly deepset rear wheel look.
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Aug 31, 2010 00:09
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stash posted:Virgos are the stock 240 turbo wheels. Ahh, right. We didn't have the internet the last time (early 90's) I considered those as an option, and I guess as a result we never had the proper name for them -- we always called them the "GT Wheels" when talking about them back then. There were almost no options for aftermarket then, you'd have to go to the tire store and have a look through their catalog, then you'd order something that allegedly fit your bolt pattern and 3 weeks later they'd show up and look totally different from the picture. And they cost like $120 each!! I ended up with a set of American Racing 5-stars that are very similar to the Mille Miglia there - just a slightly wider blade on the points. They turned out to work perfectly with my parade of black 240's over the years and I've just kept moving them from car to car. e: I'm not as old as this post makes me sound, haha. Ether Frenzy fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Sep 1, 2010 |
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Aug 31, 2010 22:19
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So I think my fuel delivery issue may have been harness-related as well. It finally gave up the ghost and won't start at all, and it seems the main computer is a bit fried due to a short in the harness between the computer/ignition/fuel pump. (The pushing/rocking/whatever the hell it was that "Fixed" it in prior occurances just wiggled some contact together slightly better, apparently.) So is it worth having my mechanic try and find me a new (rebuilt) computer? Or should I investigate other avenues like a swap to a turbo motor from a newer car? Any suggestions guys?
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Sep 7, 2010 23:14
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It's an '85 240 (I think LH 2.2 but I'm not really positive on that).. I also don't know much about the different versions, would a newer version computer work on the car as-is or would I need to make some other component changes? 5 hour later edit: Because if I end up needing to swap out bits, I might as well swap out the whole lump for something with some more guts and a non-30 year old degraded harness.... Ether Frenzy fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Sep 9, 2010 |
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Sep 8, 2010 21:19
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So it turns out the computer was actually okay - my old Volvo guru spent who knows how many hours taking apart the dash and tracing back a short in the ignition wiring that the stupid cowboy PO did (17+ years ago now??) that apparently eventually (I've put 160k+ miles on the car in that time, driven it for 30 hours straight, etc etc...) caused the fuel pump relay to burn up and ground out. There were apparently actual bare wires back there behind the ignition. No clue how the car has not caught fire and melted down at some point, and astonishingly enough, the computer survived this voltage issue. Frickin' PO's.  Still getting me 2 decades later!I guess it goes to the old car stereo adage: Wire it together in 30 seconds and it looks like poo poo? It will work forever. Spend the afternoon using solder and couplers and crimping it and running it all pro? Guaranteed to fail in the first 15 minutes. My mechanic really is a prince - he only charged me for 3 hours labor and the cost of the relay - I got out of there for under $300 and I *know* he probably spent 8 hours on it at least over the last two days.
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Sep 9, 2010 19:55
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two forty posted:Saw this on the Brickboard, thought you all would appreciate it. Can I have $16,000? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110582707114 That's nice... but $16k? I'm amazed it's getting so many bids, I'm a nerd for pristine 240's, but.... this is a white automatic DL with the worst interior color. I've seen mint barn finds with fewer miles and more desirable models (242, GT interiors) go for more like $6-8k. Why would you spec this one and then museum it? (Also, what's up with Asian Volvo owners keeping these things so mint? If the ebay listing with the registration is the original owner, that is... I found an '91 in the Pick-a-Part in Sun Valley that was pretty close to as nice as this one - clearly garaged always, silver, black interior with almost zero wear/sun damage and brand new seats, even still had the owner's manual with an Asian name on the registration section (and all the maintenance records. Alas it had already had the speedo yanked when I found it on its first day in the yard, but I got just about all the rest of the interior. I think the guy must have died and his family just sold the car, not knowing it had been babied in such a way.)
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Sep 13, 2010 18:58
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ch1mp posted:KYB oe replacement shock which are still about half the price of the Blistein TC's. the KYB's are great in the back, but you should go with the Bilstein TC's (or HD's) in front if you end up replacing them down the road, they are much better for the minor variation between prices. I don't know why the KYB's in back are good and in front not so much, but it's definitely true.
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Sep 29, 2010 02:40
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Splizwarf posted:So what's the deal with importing a car for road use that isn't sold in the US market? Wasn't there a big thing with imported Skylines getting taken off the streets for not meeting emissions standards last year? I wouldn't be that concerned about a European market car having many issues with import to the US, it'll just be costly. I see Euro market BMWs & Mercs out in LA a lot. (The Skylines in question were 90's cars from Australia typically and I believe the main reason they got yanked was because they had been imported semi-illegally with no taxing, and emissions was just the excuse.) And in a lot of cars, you need to hold the TCS button down for a few seconds to de-activate it, to avoid accidental pushing - so maybe your second push satisfied the time-held-down counter, Cakefool?
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Oct 1, 2010 19:54
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This is one of my favorite Volvo-related images of all time: (From when Ford owned both and obviously took a lot of care in making sure the Aston Martin experience was a special one, heh. Yes, they just skinned a Volvo key fob and handed it off as a special item with your £200k car)
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Oct 4, 2010 21:12
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Use the Mechan-X Files on Cartalk.com or Yelp to find a less dishonest mechanic next time. Sorry about your rape. Glass half full option: Pretend you leased a car for a month, but then didn't have to do the next 35 months, and move on with your life $23,450 richer (plus interest!)
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Oct 6, 2010 23:00
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Can I Phaser You posted:In case anyone else lives in Charlotte Tip for future mechanic planning: If the word "Tire" is in the shop name, they will rip you off. It's almost a law. Try this one next time. http://www.cartalk.com/ct/mechx/shop.jsp?id=12991 Or find another one from the list. http://www.cartalk.com/content/mechx/find.html
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Oct 7, 2010 01:02
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It's now got a response from Jim the Owner saying your bad review is just bitter competitors. I voted your review up. I'd definitely report it to Google, otherwise their entire rating system seems a bit too easily gamed if this is all you have to do.
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Oct 11, 2010 20:08
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AC is totally overrated. My black '85 has been SoCal since 2001 and hasn't had AC since well before that and it's just fine as long as you can keep moving... True RWD Volvo guys can hand-crank down all 4 windows without taking their eyes off the road. I'm guessing your 1984's compressor lines aren't going to have a whole lot of pressure (or any freon at all probably) so go to town! (Note: no actual knowledge of AC/freon/compressor lines went into this recommendation)
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Oct 18, 2010 19:53
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I've been running 205/15/50's since time immemorial on my 240's, and it's awesome both in looks and improvement to handling. You may have a little Monster Truck Syndrome in the front if you don't drop it an inch or more.
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Nov 12, 2010 22:45
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ch1mp posted:Which specific tires do you get in that size? All I see on tirerack in that size are a couple high performance type tires with tread patterns that wont do well in snow. They have a bit more selection in 195/55 and a few more in 195/60 though - do you think these taller sizes will be noticeably different to look at? I've usually had Pirellis in that size, but I've only ever used them as summer tires as well - had a set of the steelies with 175s on them for winter use. Generally it's going to be kind of not a great tire for the snow due to being relatively fat and flat, but you might have more tread choice luck here: http://www.discountedwheelwarehouse.com/Page.cfm I've bought tires from them in the past and it's been just as quick/reliable as Tire Rack (I live in CA though so YMMV). As for fitment look, 205 x .50 = 102.5mm of tire sidewall height 195 x .55 = 107.25mm of tire sidewall height 195 x .60 = 117.0mm of tire sideall height So even the next closest is going to be about 5% taller than the 205/50's (although it's only 5mm x 2 in real life) -- greater issues that may concern you would be that the narrower tires will look a little sunken in the back of the car, and the sidewall shoulder (where the sidewall meets with the tread) might not be as aggressive (squared off) looking on the narrower tires.
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Nov 23, 2010 01:00
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Quad-Rectangles are the only acceptable headlights.
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Dec 3, 2010 00:29
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They finally added the 240 into Forza 3. Unfortunately it's only got the 85 mph speedometer!
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Dec 15, 2010 06:09
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Yeah, it's highly recommended you not push the trip odometer reset button on the older units when the car is in motion, specifically the 240/850 (presumably the 740/940 as well)... the plastic gears are kind of lovely in there and that's one easy way to break it completely. Most of them are delicate enough they're in a perpetual state of sort of 'mostly working' so that would probably be what happened to yours with the 50km of nothing.
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Dec 20, 2010 22:18
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Splizwarf posted:You're hell of spoiled by SA's megathread rules, that's how. The rest of the internet is terrible. What, you find it easier to just answer people's questions instead of having 400 closed threads with 5 replies each by 5 regulars all saying "USE THE SEARCH FOR YOUR SPECIALIZED UNIQUE QUESTION  " ?
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Jan 25, 2011 02:23
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 13:16 |
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Did anyone see the Volvo C30 PoleStar on Top Gear last night? I was almost dialing my local Volvo Dealer midway through the show to put down $30k when they said it wasn't going into production. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC5rZ7H_dbU I would absolutely buy one of these immediately (and it's even the same color as my first 240)
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Feb 8, 2011 21:01
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