1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post your project vehicles here! One thread per vehicle please.
volvoguy
QFP80 - Contributor
Posts: 63
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:52 pm
Location: Scotland

1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by volvoguy »

This is my dirty, rusty Volvo that I want to get running with FreeEMS on Jaguar. It has the B230 from a Volvo 940 which hasn't ran since it was pulled from the 940 about three years ago. I want it to be a stock-looking daily driver with about 250whp, more of a satisfying commuter than a red hot sleeper. It won't be road-worthy when the Jaguar's finished but a running engine should be good motivation to jury rig everything else for the MOT.

Build page for the Jaguar.
Image

The torq thrusts will be replaced by 17" steels eventually.

The Amazon sump was used so that the normally slanted engine would fit upright, and the 940 oil pump inlet was chopped and welded. Blanking the distributor on the back of the head got the engine 40mm closer to the bulkhead.

The tiny mitsi 13C turbo from the 940 has been swapped for a slightly less tiny, slightly beaten up 15G from an 850. The hot-side was opened up to try and lessen boost creep, and the whole thing was set up for the RWD engine like this. Turbobricks folklore says I probably won't make 250whp with this, but it should suit the new cam's wide torque curve until I get the itch for more boost.

Volvo's 530 and 531 cylinder heads have weeny 35mm exhaust valves that are shrouded by the combustion chambers, and choked by a cranked short side radius in the exhaust ports. I did some photo manipulation of one of this guy's pictures to get a combustion chamber template, then bottled it a bit and made tamer copy of his chambers and biased ports. The head got all the normal things, back-cut intake valves, radiused exhaust valves, some new studs, skimmed, cc'ed and matched. Before the engine goes back together it should also have an RSI stage I cam touted to work well between 220whp-370whp.

Double wishbone suspension in such a narrow car meant I had to trim the intake manifold and move the throttle body inboard by welding a gutted throttle body upside down into the top of the manifold and bolting a working throttle body onto it. The flow is probably garbage but it fits. Because of these space constraints and the UK's treatment of vehicles with modified monocoque structures, I'll use an air-water intercooler instead of punching FMI holes around the front end.
Image

For sensors I've used a Rover/Ford TPS to replace the honking massive Bosch switch.
Image
Image

I used the CHT sensor that's normally used for the 940 instrument panel because I'm deeply suspicious of the other one having two thermistors that earth through the block (like a peasant being scared by a tractor), and the curves of both sensors are pretty similar any way. I'll get timing through the CAS I glued to a 240 distributor like this. A visiting Canadian friend brought me one of Alan's Spartan lambda sensors so I could dodge the tax like a tory. To get IAT I've got a Saab sensor that I'll screw into to a hose-connecting tube just in front of the throttle.
Image

I chucked the huuuge dual-mass flywheel for a slightly less huge cast iron 240 dog dish flywheel. That's getting refaced soon and I'll find a Sachs 940 diesel clutch and pressure plate for it.
Last edited by volvoguy on Wed Aug 06, 2014 2:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by Fred »

Best post on here that I've read in a while! :-) Love your work! Love your dry British humour, too.

What does the UK do to cars with IC holes through the front panels?

What's the story with your CHT sensor? Gauge ones on Jap cars are *very* different to the ones that drive ECUs. Volvo 940 dash = micro controller based gauge? Or?

Awesome start to what will definitely be an awesome thread. I demand a ride in it if I ever make it back to the UK! :-D

Fred.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
sim
LQFP112 - Up with the play
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:17 pm

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by sim »

Sweet!

I love Amazon wagons. Almost as much as I love old 245s.

Looking forward to a third Volvo wagon in the list.
<@TekniQue> but in the end, it's code that makes a computer useful
volvoguy
QFP80 - Contributor
Posts: 63
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:52 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by volvoguy »

Fred wrote:What does the UK do to cars with IC holes through the front panels?
Basically if you modify a monocoque vehicle it's supposed to be subject to the same kind of tests as a brand new production vehicle, from NO2 and SO2 emissions to cable routing and fastening. Once you get into that bureaucratic system there are pretty awful stories of people struggling to get out with their logbook. From the number of people clearly publicly making larger changes than IC holes without consequence it seems fairly unlikely that anything would happen, but whatever the risk I would rather avoid that hazard completely. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if it took the vehicle licensing authority ten years to implement an IT system to record people's registration numbers from the internet, the clamp down could be just around the corner!
Fred wrote:What's the story with your CHT sensor?
The engine coolant temperature sensor has two NTC thermistors in the one housing, each connected to its own spade connector, one of which goes to the injection computer, the other to the ignition computer, both earth through the sensor housing. The temperature gauge sensor has two pins connected to one thermistor, all isolated from the housing, that's a sensor I can trust ;-) The gauge sensor seemed to respond a bit faster and I think the curve is better, I calibrated all three though so if it fails I can just update the firmware and move the wires over.
sim wrote:I love Amazon wagons. Almost as much as I love old 245s.
After seeing my Amazon around and hearing me bang on about big turbos on redblocks my dad ended up with a 245. Now it's stacked with Kaplhenke and Yoshifab parts and he's ticking off the +T list by slowly taking most of my 940 spares. He's using Buchka's wasted spark and TheLostArtOf's chips but if building the Jaguar goes well I'll probably give him the 0.7 and get the latest hardware in a couple of years.

Fred if you're over here when it's running it would be my pleasure to show you some English countryside and the performance envelope of this Swedish 1960s engineering.
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by Fred »

volvoguy wrote:Basically if you modify a monocoque vehicle it's supposed to be subject to the same kind of tests as a brand new production vehicle, from NO2 and SO2 emissions to cable routing and fastening. Once you get into that bureaucratic system there are pretty awful stories of people struggling to get out with their logbook. From the number of people clearly publicly making larger changes than IC holes without consequence it seems fairly unlikely that anything would happen, but whatever the risk I would rather avoid that hazard completely. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if it took the vehicle licensing authority ten years to implement an IT system to record people's registration numbers from the internet, the clamp down could be just around the corner!
Ugh! Ahh well, it's not too difficult to use all existing tin and route your way around things, if necessary :-) You could always ditch the mech fan, and move everything back inside, and simply duct to it.
volvoguy wrote:The temperature gauge sensor has two pins connected to one thermistor, all isolated from the housing, that's a sensor I can trust ;-) The gauge sensor seemed to respond a bit faster and I think the curve is better
I see, that sounds good :-)
volvoguy wrote:Fred if you're over here when it's running it would be my pleasure to show you some English countryside and the performance envelope of this Swedish 1960s engineering.
Cool, perhaps I'll make it over for another FSAE event at Silverstone one year? I've seen a lot of the countryside, though. As you're likely aware the project was founded in Middleton Cheney just outside Banbury. I lived there for 2 years and explored a little from there as a base. I may have even driven recklessly past your house? :-)

Fred.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by Fred »

Volvo guy, are you still out there? I've been having a lot of fun with my newer and way less cool Volvos recently. I think of you time to time due to my own obsession. Let me know where you're at! Hopefully you still have this car. It'd be a damn shame if you had to sell it. Way too rare and awesome.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
volvoguy
QFP80 - Contributor
Posts: 63
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:52 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by volvoguy »

Good news and bad news! I've still got the Amazon but I've backed myself into a corner. I moved to a city where renting a driveway or garage space is out of my budget so the it's two hundred miles away spending winter under a tarp with about 2m^2 of floor missing :( Hopefully in about six months I'll be moving again and I'll bring it along.

I did bring the Jaguar with me though, along with a bunch of sensors so I could carry on building it. I got to a point where I needed to ask a question about combining earths inside the enclosure and couldn't quite think how to pose the question, then I got a job and the excuses started piling up... With the holiday looming I should get it out of the drawer and see where I was up to. I think I realised that I didn't have enough pins in my connectors to run each earth separately and I wanted to know which could share pins.

Attached is a where-are-they-now pic.
Attachments
Jaguar.jpg
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by Fred »

What you can share depends on a lot of things. If I don't do a write up and link it here, nag me until I do.

Looking damn good, though! Haven't seen one with dual connectors like that, yet :-)
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
mintymuller
TO92 - Vaguely active
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2016 11:27 am

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by mintymuller »

That's a beautiful Amazon estate there fella - I can't wait to see it all done!

I've got a '67 California-White 123-GT I'm currently restoring...If you want to sell those Torq-Thrusts, I'd be VERY interested!!! ;)

Keep the good work going...you really need to drag her out of retirement sir!

Regards - Guy. :)
volvoguy
QFP80 - Contributor
Posts: 63
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:52 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: 1968 Volvo Amazon estate, 2.3ltr turbo.

Post by volvoguy »

The tiniest workbench in the tiniest garage is officially useable! Hopefully I'll get an exhaust manifold bashed up and some welding done in the next month or two. Can't wait for this to all get car-shaped again :)

Image


Fred, did you get my email for this thread on Feb 13th?
Post Reply