1986 Volvo 244 Rallycross Beater aka #uglyvolvo

captdownshift wrote: I bet you pick this up to replace the blue sedan and end up selling the blue sedan to someone on here.

That has "rally car" written all over it.

Stripped interior for a daily? I must be getting old - but not for me!

In reply to NGTD:

It's not like you'd be missing plush creature comforts from the early 80s. If I was able bodied and gainfully employed I'd be all over it for fun in the dirt.

Man, it's been a while! I haven't really accomplished much with the car. I put tags on it and have been driving it though. It got me through Jonas without being stuck once!

#snowday #uglyvolvo #volvo A video posted by Corey McKenzie (@corey_mck) on Jan 23, 2016 at 7:09am PST

I've been working on getting moved into a garage / shop. Actual rally build stuff to come.

if you clicked the link you had up a minute ago, it sent you to the right place for the instagram vid.

edit: don't you have a build blog for this, too? I thought I remembered reading it somewhere.

Cool, I guess that's good enough.

I don't think so. I started one but don't think I ever published it. Unless it was late at night and forgot about it... Ha.

Damn. Two 240s and two bad heaters. That's the way it goes when these things are cheap, though. I once bought a MINT, rust-free 240 wagon from Arizona for $900 because HEATER FAIL.

I've done that job 3 times now on 240s. I'm pretty good at it, but I wouldn't wish that task on most enemies.

Does the blue one have a 4+OD or 5-speed? Or auto?

It's that time of year again! I've been meaning to update, even though not much has happened. I did completely clear out my yard full of Volvos except the #uglyvolvo. So goodbye: blue 1989 244 DL Manual - it's in Romney, WV with a Volvo enthusiast gold 1991 940SE Turbo - Volvo enthusiast south of Hagerstown in WV has it white 1983 244 GL Manual - I delivered the shell with suspension attached to a guy in McHenry, MD to be a derby car green 1989 760 Turbo - Same fate as above black 2002 V70XC - Sold to some local guy for $500. It had a bad tranny. He planned on fixing, but may have scrapped it. Good riddance. white 2002 V70XC.5 - .5 because it was only the front half of a car. I still have all it's parts, but it's gone. If you see any of these, say hi. Except the V70XCs. I hate those cars. So that's what I've been doing this winter. Last week was the season's first WDCR Rallycross, and of course I waited until the week before to do anything to the car. It wasn't much, but I ordered some KYB GR-2 (now called Excel-G) (why?) to replace the completely blown out front struts. Other than breaking a few bleeders off in the front left caliper, it was a quick, easy job and made a world of difference. The inserts that came out were OEM Volvo by the way... They were beat.

I also pulled the back seats out of the car. Not for performance or racecar stuff, but because I anticipated loading rally tires covered in mud at the end of the day Sunday. With the help of some friends (thanks Andrew and Scott), I finished bleeding what I could of the brakes Saturday evening and went to rally Sunday! The car felt better than I recalled from the previous season with new struts. I put in a bunch of sloppy runs in the morning but was having a ton of fun. I do notice my Volvo doesn't seem to have a problem driving outside of other's ruts and lines. I guess between wheelbase, suspension travel, and ground clearance the 240 can cut over, around, or go through other cars ruts with no problems. Other cars tend to drive directly in whatever line everyone else is using. There were a few places I could use it to my advantage. I think I was sitting in 4th or 5th out of a class of 6 at the end of morning runs. I started picking up some time (by hitting a few less cones) in the afternoon and ended up 2nd at the end of the day, with Josh Hickey's E30 winning MR and Eric Eisele's E30 right behind me. EDIT: Trying to insert Photobucket, Instagram or Facebook video here. Why can't I do this? Halfway through the afternoon runs, I heard a substantial pop followed by constant rattling in the rear suspension. I knew I had questionable upper trailing arm bushings, and assumed one lost a chunk of rubber. A quick shake of the rear suspension at grid showed that it was upper trailing arms, so I just kept running it. I came home and ordered bushings Monday. Tuesday, I got the car washed and up on jack stands to check it out. It turns out that the threaded nut inside the boxed section of the chassis actually broke loose, and had about 3/4" of fore-aft play in it. The good news is, there's a huge rust hole under the rear seat that gives access to it.

I'm going to weld it back and reinforce it, but I'm pretty sure that incident was the old, rusty, ugly chassis telling me it wasn't feeling rallycross life anymore. I've started searching for another less rusty sedan chassis to begin building into a Rallysprint / stage car.

I still think you should just buy Jason Smith's rally america 240. It's a great deal, already logbooked with cage and equipment, and in really nice condition. Then you just swap in your turbo engine and it'll be a monster ;)

Hey Corey, found this up in your neck of the woods. 240 manual with 58k miles for $1400. Could be worth a look see. Plus you already know how to drive gray 240s

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/cto/5543066273.html

Catch up time! First order of business was obviously fixing the broken torque rod mount. I got it welded up, probably better than OEM.

I pulled the torque rods out to replace the bushings and realized that both of the ends on both torque rods were ovalized. A lot. New bushings weren't going in there, and it was Friday night, so I put them back in. I will be ordering replacement (likely aftermarket) torque rods soon.

After the last event I decided to make an attempt to make #uglyvolvo look better than the farm use car it was. Each decal was definitely good for at least 5hp, and the Rally.Build number plates were 10hp / side. I figured that was enough to go drifting, so I did. https://www.youtube.com/embed/1tCJC2ywhks

The event was Early Matsuri at Shenandoah Speedway put on by Swing Set LLC. It was on the way to a WDCR Rallycross in Catlett, VA, so I left a day early and went sliding. I am really impressed with how the car handled. I had a handful of E30s in the past, and went to a few drifts events with them. The 240 is a better feeling chassis, even at stock ride height. I didn't really have plans on getting back into the drift scene, but I had an absolute blast. Did I mention I don't trailer my car? I swapped street tires back on and shot down Skyline Drive to the Rally Farm in Catlett for the rallycross event the following day. The morning runs went well. The course started as grass and was terribly slippery, but fairly wide open. The Volvo struggles for grip as it is, and slick grass doesn't help. Luckily we had 5 practice laps before timing started due to a timing snafu. The MR class was stacked (13 entries!) with some really fast, smooth guys. We got 3 timed runs in, and I was in first by 6 seconds going into the afternoon. I struggled in the afternoon. The course was moved completely, meaning we started in grass again. It had a ton of very narrow gates, and the 240 isn't exactly small. The last 1/2 of the course was a series of tight turns and chicanes that I had to run in 1st gear as second was causing too much wheelspin. I really had a hard time my first few runs - I lost my lead right away and found myself 10 or so seconds down. All this time, the E30 guys were putting in fast, consistent laps. After 4 or 5 runs the dirt started to show through, meaning I could manage wheelspin a little better. https://www.youtube.com/embed/dh7PiED0nPs I ended up making up some time and actually put in some really fast laps, but I couldn't catch the leaders. The podium spots went to E30s, I ended up 4th. Congrats Josh, Eric, and Eric!

So what's next? For one, I need torque rods. A day of drifting, breaking in a new field for rallycross, and 300 mile round trip was hard on the already-worn parts. I would really like to do a steering quickener. There's enough room in the engine bay, right below the steering shaft u-joint. I am pretty busy with the steering wheel. Mod knuckles came to mind, but I don't know how much quicker they'll make the steering. I'm not seeing any easy steering rack swaps. Any thoughts on this? I really need to start thinking about a seat. I said this last season, but I realized I put a lot of effort into holding myself in place. Anyone who's ever sat in a Volvo 240 would agree that the seats could never be described as sporty. Or supportive. Or lightweight. Last thing, but possibly most important - the car needs to spool faster. 90+ manifolds flow better, so I'll start looking for them. A smaller intercooler could help. So could getting rid of the factory rubber IC piping. Gearing could get me into boost quicker. I have a lot to think about and I'm open to suggestions and input!

irish44j wrote: I still think you should just buy Jason Smith's rally america 240. It's a great deal, already logbooked with cage and equipment, and in really nice condition. Then you just swap in your turbo engine and it'll be a monster ;)

I want that thing so badly. Help him find an E30 so he'll come off it!

brian_c_ahearn wrote: Hey Corey, found this up in your neck of the woods. 240 manual with 58k miles for $1400. Could be worth a look see. Plus you already know how to drive gray 240s https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/cto/5543066273.html

Ooooh. My girlfriend hates when I say I found another Volvo...

I almost forgot one huge improvement I made before the last event - I adapted the 760 turbo's in-tank fuel pump to my 240. Ever since adding the turbo to my B230F, the car would starve for fuel when the tank was low or on hard left turns. I verified a few times that the stock in-tank pump was running, but was possibly just worn out.

As you can see, the 760's pump is much larger than stock.

The process was as simple as trimming ~1.25" off the pickup tube and reinstalling the same way.

If you need more spool, swap to a td04 with the 90+ cause youll need to mill the lip off anyways. I have both a td04-15g on one 240 and a t3 on another 240, the 15g spools WAY faster. Fun fact the -90 flows more but the 90+ spools faster cause more exhaust velocity so thus less flow. I may be able to sell you my 90+ and 15g off the one car cause ive been waiting for a reason to put on my t3 ported 90+ and to4e turbo. Would be great for your application.

Oh and look for a b21 auto car for the better ratios or an auto turbo 740/940 for 3.73. One of my cars has the factory 3.9 diff where the other has the E36 M3 3.23 or whatever it is, im planning to swap between the two

I might be into that 15g / mani. Let me know if you definitely decide to let it go.

Good info on the diffs! I'm probably going to some yards tomorrow.

In reply to corey_mck:

Take a razor blade to scrape the rear axle tag to read ratios. Some say the auto na cars have 3.73 too but reading the tag you know for sure.

Ill let you know when i pull the turbo, its got a fresh rebuild and balance as well as ipd cbv valve

In reply to chiodos:

All of which I need! Lol. I have a wagon that could use that CBV.

Does the tag state the ratio?

Yeah it does, its on the drivers side axle tube under the infamous volvo undercoating. Thats what the razor blades for. Dont use brake cleaner or youll end up with a clean but blank tag haha

I definitely wouldn't get a a smaller intercooler but focus on the hard pipes because those rubber pipes on Volvos expand hard under boost. Also if you can find a decent electronic boost controller that has good gain control, (Greddy profec B or equivilent) makes boost hit harder and more consistent.

Side note: awesome work driving that thing. Great platform to work with. I always dealt with turbo FWD volvos but a rwd turbo manual trans 244 is fantastic to watch get put through to its paces on dirt. You dont NEED a bunch of power of dirt like that and its neat watching it be pretty competitive.

In reply to crankwalk:

Good call. I'm going to look into some different piping. I'm really not a fan of the huge flappy piece of rubber that goes into the IC.

Thanks! You're absolutely right, I could get away with a different gearset and stock-ish power. I don't even know if the turbo makes me more competitive or not. It definitely sounds better though!

Having driven that thing though....and daily -driving a 18psi WRX....your volvo boost hits like a freight train and pulls hard. Makes my M42 e30 feel like I'm pedaling it with my feet lol...

I think if you went full mod class weight reduction it would be extremely fast, and it's pretty damn fast already.

corey_mck wrote: In reply to crankwalk: Good call. I'm going to look into some different piping. I'm really not a fan of the huge flappy piece of rubber that goes into the IC. Thanks! You're absolutely right, I could get away with a different gearset and stock-ish power. I don't even know if the turbo makes me more competitive or not. It definitely sounds better though!

If you can do silicone couplers and metal pipes it will stop that swell (and make the turbo louder incidentally). I had an 850 turbo on the dyno and I thought the pipes were going to pop like a balloon. Once theyve been soaking with a little oil in them for 30 years, most have little pin holes develop and that is likely contributing to it feeling a little lazy under spool.

What are you currently using for boost control? it its just run off the wastegate, a manual boost controller set at even 1 psi more, will delay that wastegate enough to make boost come on noticeable quicker and its cheap.

In reply to corey_mck:

A piece of steel pipe and another connector helps a bit for that 740 style s bend hose. Irrc its 1psi drop there. But i never saw any of mine swell on the dyno so ymmv. On my latests car i use the 240 style piping and theres no difference between the cars but i like the 240 style better anyways

I made a trip to a junkyard on Saturday morning. It's a really cool pick n pull near Hagerstown that is always fun to visit. Some totally not Volvo related pics of some neat cars:

Anyway, I found a '90 760 turbo and snagged the manifold, TD04H-13C, pre-IC piping (the kind with the silicone elbow, short alu piece, and rubber) timing computer, a trailer brake controller for my truck, and some bits and pieces for $80.

The bad news is the manifold has two cracks that need repaired, and once I got the turbo disassembled I realized it really isn't worthwhile at all. I knew it needed a rebuild, but it has some pretty major damage to the casting of the hot side.

So much for a cheap turbo upgrade. You win some, you lose some I guess.

In reply to crankwalk:

I have a homemade boost controller for this exact reason. It's set at 10 PSI, and you're right, it made a big difference.

In reply to chiodos:

Sounds good. I gave a buddy a hand with his S13 today who has a crazy amount of extra IC piping. I'm going to snag a short straight piece from him. I can definitely see that S bend piece deform just standing in front of the car and operating the throttle body.