We've been kicking around building a chump/lemons (probably lemons) car for a while, and my buddy just roled up in a Volvo 240, slush of that he bought running for $200. Swapped in some vacuum lines for broken ones and the thing idles and runs great.
So what do we need to do to make this thing reliable? Known weak points? The brakes seemed really good, it handled better than I expected but the acceleration would be described best as glacial.
Volvo 240 + Ford 5.0 V8 = blew everyone away (though somehow finished 3rd out of 120 cars due to some issus...)
Other than that inspiration, I've got nothing for you..
What year is it?
In reply to irish44j:
funny thing is my next build is going to be a quite similar setup, only with this opposed to a fox body era 302
http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts/part_details.asp?PartKeyField=12763
I couldn't decide on what new car i wanted, i really really like the fiesta st, but FWD. The BRZ doesn't haul enough crap, same with the forth coming mustang (the 2.3L turbo was tempting to wait for though). So i ended up deciding that for ST money I could pick up a 240, 9.5 aluminator, (along with alternator, engine cover, harness, ECU, xcal3, manifolds, pair of borg warner efr6758's in .94 trim, injectors, 8" rear with differential and JVAB suspension.
There are others here who can tell you more about it, but the above pictured "Jew-Wop-E" is one of the fastest cars on the track in LeMons. It comes up in my mirrors incredibly fast. Thankfully its' drivers are really good and race clean. I'm not sure how much original 240 is left in it, but I don't think it's a lot. But it's a great mark to shoot for, and shows how much potential the 240 has.
Oh...and the Jew-Wop-E makes the most beautiful race car noises of any car I've seen in LeMons. It's just awesome.
The turbo bricks scoot along nicely. The NA engine's are slower but hyper-reliable, and a solid B class car. That's all I've got.
I'm trying to figure out how they get a swapped 5.0 into it and be anywhere close to budget. Do they just take a big hit on penalty laps and blow the doors of everything and catch back up?
Anyone know what it would take to turbo a non turbo'd one?
One of the guys that we ran with in ChumpCar milled their head to get 14:1 compression and ran that way the entire race and used their better brakes to make up anything they might have lost on the straights.
The amount of thermal management needed to keep a turbo motor alive for endurance racing adds a lot of weight to a car and is difficult to manage under budget without getting dinged with laps.
the engine and trans is CHEAP!
If you subtract the cost of the engine and trans going out, you can get it done.
I believe they started out with penalty laps, but through residual values have made the car under the limit.
No cars on teh grid of either series are $500.00 cars anymore.
wvumtnbkr wrote: No cars on teh grid of either series are $500.00 cars anymore.
Reporting you to Judge Phil 
Klayfish wrote: Oh...and the Jew-Wop-E makes the most beautiful race car noises of any car I've seen in LeMons. It's just awesome.
yes, it definitely does. When I was out there I was almost hoping he would lap me a few times just so I could hear the car more....because when you get passed by that car, you only hear it for a few seconds before its 3 turns ahead of you :)
wvumtnbkr wrote: the engine and trans is CHEAP! If you subtract the cost of the engine and trans going out, you can get it done. I believe they started out with penalty laps, but through residual values have made the car under the limit. No cars on teh grid of either series are $500.00 cars anymore.
Beg to differ. Ours was a legit $500, documented, at Summit Point last year. We bribed only because of worries about a penalty lap just because it's an e30....And we still finished 16th out of 120....slow and steady, no breakdowns, no crashes.
It is over the LeMons limit now (by like $100 maybe), but it's only running Chump which has different pricing rules.
Where can you get an engine and trans really cheap ? I haven't seen anything near that orice
Ford explorers ;-) buy one for $600, pull motor, trans, ecu, harness, cluster. Sell your motor and trans and scrap the restof the explorer for $250
You could squeeze in a stock 302/T5 combo on a lemons budget. Our engine was $250 from the junkyard. But that Volvo has far from a stock 302 in it 
I know how much HP we have, and they pull us like we're standing still.
You can add a turbo (+T) a Volvo NA motor. Go over to TurboBricks and search. The requirements are pretty simple.
captdownshift wrote: Ford explorers ;-) buy one for $600, pull motor, trans, ecu, harness, cluster. Sell your motor and trans and scrap the restof the explorer for $250
Ive wanted to do this for awhile now( only starting w/ a 700/900 wagon ). If you grab an explorer that had awd, you can also get a lsd from the truck. And dont forget the bigger brakes and stronger rear end that using the explorer has. The 1998(?)/1999/2000 explorers w/ the Limited package will get you what you want. Then, if I remember correctly you're just cams and an intake manifold away from a diy mustang motor from the same area. Dont quote me on the last part though.
wvumtnbkr wrote: No cars on teh grid of either series are $500.00 cars anymore.
I'm convinced the entire series premise was a racing series where men were able to tell their collective SWMBO that the cost of the car was merely $500, yet it was known all along that it'd balloon to nearly 10x that in most cases (not including safety equipment). The first dummy who returns home on a Sunday night to their loving naive wife and upon being asked, "how was the race honey?" answers with "ugh it was terrible, we the judges gave us 36 penalty laps for having a $3600 suspension and $3-5k in motorwork" is going to ruin it for everyone.
I'd love to see a strict $500 class within the current races. It'd be interesting because at the price point you can have, fast, reliable or interesting, but you can only have 1.
I didn't realize you could sell parts off of a second vehicle (exploder) and recoup your money.
Couple of items:
First, In Lemons, you get a residual value for your car after the race. You start out with a perfectly good and legal $500.00 car. Then you get a residual value of $400.00. You spend $100.00 on something... Your car is still a $500.00 car according to Lemons. However,it is actually a $600.00 car now. That is what I meant by nobody has a $500.00 car anymore.
We turbo-fied our 1987 RX7 (that was a legitimate $500.00 car). Our pieces being sold more than paid for teh upgrade. Therefore we still have a $500.00 car. However, Phil didn't like it and gave us 6 penalty laps. Our residual value is now $500.00 and zero penalty laps.
They don't care if you actually spent $500.00. They have B.S. judging in place specifically to handle this. If you have a Wartburg (Wartbug?) they will give you a LOT more of a budget to spend (if you want to).
Next, you can NOT buy another car and part it out to help your Lemons or Chump budget. You CAN sell off parts from your race car and claim those costs. You then add the costs of the incoming parts into your budget. Basically, in teh above scenario, you would claim whatever price you got for your old drivetrain and can claim the new drivetrain cost you $350.00.
In Chump, everything is documented how you can claim cost in and cost out. It is spelled out explicitly. However, there are some loopholes that may be exploited.
Rob R.
ahem
There's a Vintage Views piece on the Volvo 240 platform in the latest issue of Grassroots Motorsports. You guys subscribe, right? https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/issues/details/220/
There are even tips from the Keystone Kops and the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers teams that run Volvos in LeMons. The story covers what cars to get turbos from, problems with the transmissions, what to do about the rear end, how to increase oil capacity. You should pick up a copy.
captdownshift wrote:wvumtnbkr wrote: No cars on teh grid of either series are $500.00 cars anymore.I'm convinced the entire series premise was a racing series where men were able to tell their collective SWMBO that the cost of the car was merely $500, yet it was known all along that it'd balloon to nearly 10x that in most cases (not including safety equipment). The first dummy who returns home on a Sunday night to their loving naive wife and upon being asked, "how was the race honey?" answers with "ugh it was terrible, we the judges gave us 36 penalty laps for having a $3600 suspension and $3-5k in motorwork" is going to ruin it for everyone. I'd love to see a strict $500 class within the current races. It'd be interesting because at the price point you can have, fast, reliable or interesting, but you can only have 1.
That's a huge overstatement, at least in the regions I've run. Many teams cheat a little, but the vast majority of them at least try to stay close to $500. Very few cheat a lot, and, at least in LeMons, the judges don't stand for it.
In Chump, I've seen far more cars with fresh V8 swaps running brand-new, ceramic-coated headers. The LeMons race at Barber had a V8-swapped 240SX that finished near the bottom of the field because it kept breaking down. Even on the straights, our Miata could outrun the heavy Caprices and Crown Vics with their bone-stock V8s.
I've seen a bone-stock Volvo 240 non-turbo finish in the top 10 at Gingerman because it never broke down and the drivers ran long stints. It did so well on reliability and fuel economy alone. It was crazy slow.
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