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240 DASH OVERLAYS	Chrome Prancing Moose Emblem MADE BY SWEDEN EMBLEM	Chrome Slanted Body Emblems
3D Swedish Flag Emblem	Prancing Moose Edition Die Cuts	CHROME MADE BY SWEDEN EMBLEM
240 DRIVERS CLUB		Chrome Prancing Moose Edition

How do YOU feel about the 240?
If you actually read the TEXT in this ad to the left you'll realize the intercooler description is technically INCORRECT. I guess ad writers and engineers didn't talk to each other much. We still love the 240.
I've been a fan of these cars since way before I ever owned one. They were too expensive for me when they were new, so I had to buy one later.

If you have an affection for the 240, read Chris Driver's blog linked below.
I think you'll share a similar opinion.

https://www.hardbarned.com/blog/my-volvo-240-wagon-slow-heavy-practical-timeless

And here's a good video: Why the Volvo 240 is Actually a Good Enthusiast Car + Walkthrough and Drive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNq-AoqukLI

240 VIN Decoding Page

https://www.240turbo.com/240vin.html

240 SPECS:
The below image (reproduced from the 1983 US and Canada brochure below) shows the specifications for 1983 240 models.

240 Model Sales Brochure 1983

240 Accessory Brochure

I'm a Volvo 240 hobbyist. I've been playing with Volvos (mostly 240s) since 1988. My pages here are an attempt to share my experiences with other Volvo hobbyists and to chronicle the knowledge and information I have gathered over the years so it may be passed on to others.
I've owned 10 Volvos since 1988. So I thought I'd list some of them below....
My second Volvo (but first 240). A white 1983 244 DL. I bought it in 1990. Non-sunroof car, roll-up windows, auto trans, marginal AC, ok gas mileage. It was exceptionally clean with only 50k miles when I found it in Huntington Beach, CA. Cost me $5,000. Already being an avid iPd customer, it soon got their anti-sway bars, sport springs and Bilstein HD shocks, as well and a few other fun goodies. I bought the back half of a 240 Turbo exhaust and installed it from the cat-back. That was a really nice improvement.

It originally came with 14 inch steels wheels with beauty rings and hubcaps. I installed the 15 inch alloy wheels from my '88 760. I drove this car everywhere for 6 years and put over 100,000 miles on it. In 1996 I gave it to my daughter when she got her drivers license. Unfortunately it was destroyed a few months later when some nit-wit pulled out directly in front of her in a Chevy Caprice. She couldn't avoid the Caprice and hit it broadside at 50 plus mph.
More info HERE (continued).

Here's my CURRENT Volvo as it looked when I bought it back in 2003.

I bought this 1984 242 Turbo from the 3rd owner, who had bought it 6 months earlier in 2002. The original paint and leather interior was in rare exceptional condition because the car was always garaged. And it still is.
It's very important for an old car like this to live indoors if you want it to stay nice for this many years. This car was a rare find and it' still a nice car to drive.

This 242 came with iPd TME sport springs and iPd 25mm anti-sway bars when I bought it. I actually helped the previous owner install those a few months before he sold the car to me.
Otherwise nearly everything was original.

This car was all very original and stock when I got it. This is an under-hood shot taken at the 2003 Annual Westside Volvo Show at Westside Volvo in Culver City, California.

I resisted the urge to modify this car for a few years, but slowly that urge began to win. So it has undergone a few modified changes since then.

This car originally came with the AW71 automatic transmission. I have always preferred manual transmissions in cars like this, but a prime 240 Turbo with a manual transmission did not come along very often. Then a few years later the auto transmission totally failed more than 100 miles from home (during a road-trip to the annual Davis Volvo Show). I called for a flatbed tow (having a premier AAA account was a great decision) and the car was sent back home while I hitched a ride in friend's Volvo, also on his way to Davis. That transmission failure finally soured me on automatic transmissions, so I swore them off and replaced it with an M46 4-speed plus overdrive transmission (photo below). Years later I would upgrade to the Ford T5Z transmission mentioned further below.

The Eiker E1 wheels (Polaris replicas) seen here and in some of the below photos were imported from Finland in 2004. Back then the Eiker Wheel Company would not ship to U.S. customers, so a Finnish friend arranged for a relative of his to purchase and ship then from Finland. It wasn't cheap, but I loved these wheels and at that time this was the only way to get them and almost no one else in the U.S. had them on their cars. Years later these wheels became more popular and became available in the U.S. through a few importers. They started appearing on other 240s at a fast rate. These are 17 x 7.5 inches (offset ET 20 mm) and mine fitted with 215/45-17 rubber. These are now available in 18 x 7.5 inches also.

CENTER CAPS FOR EIKER WHEELS
Back in 2004 I used the generic 62 mm plastic center caps that came with these Eiker wheels and I glued on a round Volvo logo from a random Volvo cap. I get questions all the time now from people with Eikers who have trouble finding an existing and available VOLVO cap that will fit. When you search, keep in mind that some discussions will pertain to original Polaris wheels, which seem to have a 57 mm center bore, and NOT the same size as an Eiker wheel, which reportedly has a 56 mm hole. An original Polaris wheel used center cap Volvo PN 3529610 (no longer available).

There's some info on-line that suggests VOLVO center cap PN 30638643 (pictured HERE) from a first generation S40 (2001-2004) will supposedly fit an Eiker wheel. This does NOT appear to be correct according to some people I know who bought and tried them. The 30638643 is made for a 55 mm hole and is rather loose in an Eiker wheel.

If anyone knows FOR CERTAIN of an existing AVAILABLE cap that actually fits well in an Eiker, please let me know and I'll add that here.
I have some measurements of a few different common VOLVO center caps here: https://www.prancingmoose.com/centercaps.html#commoncaps

Here are some discussions thread that will add to your confusion: https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=244307
https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?p=6059650
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=280569

If you're looking for these Eiker wheels, Kaplhenke Racing offers them in 17 or 18 inch in their site: www.kaplhenke.com/collections/240/products/eiker-classic-e1

Later I decided to install a Ford Motorsport World Class T5Z 5-speed transmission. I bought it brand new from Summit Racing, pretty much the same as this: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/awr-trfo-30001/. This version of the Ford T5 transmission was originally used for 1979 to 1993 Ford Mustangs with the 5.0 liter V8. The input shaft has 10 splines (1.0625" diameter). Output shaft has 28 splines. It had a 7 tooth speedometer drive gear.

Gear ratios:
First Gear:	2.95:1
Second Gear:	1.94:1
Third Gear:	1.34:1
Fourth Gear:	1.00:1
Fifth Gear:	0.63:1

The T5 transmission can be installed with a one-piece or two-piece driveshaft. For this installation I chose a two-piece. It's the bottom one in this photo. The top one is the stock 240 Turbo driveshaft.

A Hurst performance short-throw shifter was added when I installed the T5. My setup began with the original cable style clutch, but I later changed that to a hydraulic clutch after stretching and breaking a couple of clutch cables. More info about hydraulic clutch setups can be found in my Hydraulic Clutch Page.
This Hurst chromed shifter stick is detailed below.

People have asked what I did for my shifter.
I began with this chrome Hurst 8550 shifter stick.

The knob position was a little tall for my comfort, so I cut off about an inch from the bottom.

The holes I'm using are shown in this photo of the modified shifter: I'm using the BOTTOM hole (which was originally the top hole) and the third hole from the bottom in this photo, which I drilled. The other holes were experimental and I not in use now.

The final shifter position is now perfect in my opinion. It's comfortable and and easy to reach any gear without any strain.

This is a rubber bushing from Hurst. PN 1140015. About $11.

The bushing adapts the flat shifter stick nicely to the round hole of the original 240 rubber shift boot.

Then some new taillights in 2007. That kept me content for a little while. I've been asked where these taillights came from. They started as ALL CLEAR taillights I found on eBay. Then I bought some transparent red spray paint from the model section in a hobby store.
More info on painting tail lamps can be for HERE.

That rear spoiler is a very rare Volvo 240 accessory made by Zender in the 1980's.

This may upset the 240 purists . . . . but I don't prefer the traditional humped "coffin" hood that originally came on the U.S. 240 models. Some people do. I just don't.

So in 2010 this car received a flat hood and matching flat grill.

For those that don't know, that flat hood I used above is the same hood used for the 1983 242 Turbo "Flathood" model outlined in the following pages.
http://flathood.saliv8.com/
https://silodrome.com/volvo-242-group-a-homologation-flathood/
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/08/07/homologation-rarity-1983-volvo-240-turbo-flat-hood-to-be-auctioned-at-bonhams-quail-motorcar-auction

It's also the same hood used on 1975-1977 U.S. 240 models and 1978-1980 242 DL and GT.
NOTE: Some of these early cars had some thin metal trim attached to the front leading edge of the hood to match trim around the turn signals. One year (1976) had a single washer squirter hole instead of two on other years. The latch on the flat hood is unique, as is the latch pin and spring (both are shorter). Also the hinge springs have less tension for a flat hood, because the hood is lighter, so get these parts if you find a salvage yard flat hood.

ALSO this is the same hood used on European 240 Turbos, including those that were used in racing, like this one above.
The Euro 1981-85 version front ends came with different headlights, fenders and turn signals as pictured below. These fenders are the same fenders that later appeared on U.S. versions for 1986-93. A different grill was used in Europe. And the slightly different sheet-metal directly below the grill and headlights (part #13 in below diagram) was used to accommodate those Euro style parts. That #13 part is the same part used later on U.S. 1986-93 cars.

The engine in my car is still the original B21FT, but a few added features have crept in slowly over the years. I'm using SDS EFI programmable fuel injection and programmable ignition. SDS EFI is in Canada and may be found here: http://www.sdsefi.com.

I installed a Mitsubishi TD04HL 15G turbo (originally from an 850R Turbo), which is mounted on a later (1990+) exhaust manifold. A turbo like this is more responsive on a small engine with low compression like the B21FT (compression ratio of only 7.5:1). The original Garrett T3 turbo was much slower to respond.

Adapting a Mitsubishi turbo is not difficult and there's a good basic tutorial here:
https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=83929

Later I decided to go old-school on the front grill and lights just for fun. In November 2010 I took the 242 on a road trip to the annual Arizona Volvo Day in Tucson, Arizona. It was awarded first place in the rear wheel drive class.
I have photo albums from a large number of Volvo meets going back many years in my
Volvo Meet Photo Album page.

I added these "GT style" driving lights in 2011. No, those are NOT standard 242 GT lights. Those are 100 watt Dick Cepek driving lights. They're larger than 242 GT fog lights, so I carefully enlarged the fog light buckets from a GT grill and fitted the larger off-road lamps. They light up the night like the sun! That's useful on long, dark roads.

In 2012 I decided it was time for some different wheels.
The Eikers had been used on this car for 8 years. They're very nice wheels and I still like them, but when I first installed them there were almost no other Volvos with them in the U.S. After a few years a lot of 240s had them, so I wanted a change to something I wouldn't see on so many other 240s at every Volvo meet I attended. I have always loved the look of BBS mesh style wheels.

These wheels are NOT genuine BBS, but they look nice. I found them on eBay. The size is 17 x 7.5, same size as the Eikers, but these have a BMW bolt pattern (5 x 120 mm, with 72.56 mm hub center) and 35 mm offset.
I had some hub-centric billet adapters custom made by http://www.motorsport-tech.com. More on the adapters below.

The tires shown here are 235/40-17 Goodyear Eagle F1. If you fit a tire this wide on the rear of a lowered 240, you WILL absolutely be trimming or pounding some of the inner rear fender metal to make more room. The back half of the rear arch will rub on a wide tire on bumps. If the car is lowered, it'll rub even more on bumps. I have created an article in my 240 Mods Page on how I made clearance for these tires on my 240: https://www.240turbo.com/volvo240mods.html#rearwheelclearance.

WHY DID I CHOOSE A BMW BOLT PATTERN?
The reason I decided on wheels with a BMW bolt pattern with adapters is because there are MANY more wheel styles to choose from for a BMW than for a Volvo 240. So shopping for something I liked was easier. Nowadays adapting non-Volvo wheels can be done with custom drilled hubs offered by https://www.bneshop.com/.
These wheels are 17 x 7.5 inch wide with 35 mm offset. I chose 20mm thick adapters in front and 40mm thick in back. Adding the extra 20 mm in the back helps push the wheels out more toward the outer fender. These specs worked nicely for me with the rear inner fender sheet metal work I did.

Most custom adapter makers will tell you their minimum recommended adapter thickness is somewhere between 20 and 30 mm. Motorsport-tech.com told me their minimum thickness is usually 19-20 mm. The wheels you choose will need the right offset to compensate for your adapter thickness. Also keep in mind that a wider front wheel/tire may also get closer to the front strut tube on the inside, so your offset calculations should be compensated for that clearance too. I put some more info together on calculating wheel offset for a Volvo 240 here: https://www.240turbo.com/volvo240mods.html#wheeloffset

Here's a pic of the front 20 mm adapter/spacer bolted in place.

<<< In 2019 I changed tires to 225/45-17, since I could no longer find the previous size in a tire I liked. The new tires are Dunlop SP Sport 01, a more aggressive summer tire with a stickier rubber compound. They had great reviews and I have always been very happy with Dunlop performance tires in past years.

WHAT DID I DO FOR A SPARE TIRE?

I used the original Volvo spare for a few years. I began thinking that if I actually had to use my spare, I would have to remove the adapter first. So I decided to look for a spare with a BMW bolt pattern. I wanted a wheel larger than 15 inches in case it became helpful for larger brakes. Also I wanted the spare tire diameter to be fairly close to the same diameter as the tires on my car. And the spare tire would need to be narrow enough to fit inside the spare tire well. Plus I really wanted a NORMAL tire, not a space-saver temporary spare. And it needed to be inexpensive.

It wasn't easy finding a wheel I liked, since so many BMW wheels are much wider than I wanted (usually 8 to 10 inches). I would have preferred a 17 inch wheel with a 6 or 6.5 inch width. These can be found, but then I searched for an appropriate tire. I could NOT find one in 17 inches. I discovered that no one offered a 17 inch tire narrow enough to fit such a 6.5 inch wheel, unless you want a tall SUV tire. Try searching.

While searching, I found lots of USED space-saver spare wheels on eBay. Those all seemed to have a 3.5 or 4 inch width. Too narrow! Plus have you seen how damned expensive used BMW space-savers are on eBay???

I finally found this new wheel on eBay (pictured). It was only $60. It's a steel wheel, 16 x 6.5 inches with an ET of 45. Listed as part number BMW9153.
Then I found the below Federal tire in size 175/60-16. It was CHEAP. It all fits nicely.

What else is in the trunk?
For those long cross-country trips, I keep a small, lightweight aluminum jack from Harbor Freight in my trunk. It's strapped down using eye-brackets bolted to the floor just behind the rear seat. I've never needed it yet, but if I ever have to get under the car during a trip, it will sure beat having to used a factory jack.
33 lb. Harbor Freight Jack: https://www.harborfreight.com/15-ton...ack-64545.html

In 2017 I completed a HUGE conversion of the AC with a complete new in-dash system from Classic Auto Air.

Sounds pretty drastic. It was, but it's working so much better than the old AC ever did before.

Click HERE to see this in my 240 AC Page.

If you're curious about the hood vents, they're originally from a 1987 Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth from the United Kingdom. They function very well getting hot air out of the engine bay and they look nice on the Volvo hood.

In 2018 I completed a build project to make a DASH TOP GAUGE POD similar to the rare accessory Volvo gauge pod offered in the 1980s.
This project has it's own page and can be found here: https://www.240turbo.com/dashgaugepod.html

SUSPENSION
My car has front coil-overs with 2.5 inch springs and rear adjustable coils with 5 inch springs. The front strut setup was made many years ago my a company that no longer exists, but if this interests you, you can find these and lots of other 240 performance suspension parts at BNE Dynamics.
More info about coil-overs and performance 240 suspensions can be found in my 240 SUSPENSION PAGE.

- 240 SUSPENSION PAGE -

BRAKES
240 factory brakes were considered better than most other cars when they were developed, but improving on that performance is a good thing in my opinion.
My 240 BIG BRAKE PAGE will illustrate things than can be done you any 240 to make your brakes awesome.

Recent pics.

Here's an under hood shot.

There's a lot going on under my hood, but it's pretty reliable and keeps my car going as it needs to. That's a big custom Griffin aluminum radiator with a Lincoln Mark VIII fan. I have more info on this cooling system installation and past cooling system projects here: 240turbo.com/ElectricCoolingFans.html

SDS EFI ENGINE MANAGEMENT:
I've been using SDS EFI to control fuel and spark for many years. It'l fully programmable for both fuel injection and ignition.
Before converting this car to EFI, I used SDS EFI in my 245 Turbo for many years beginning back in 1990. I get occasional grief from Megasquirt users who think SDS deserves no respect. Maybe Megasquirt is better. It has more stuff, more options, maybe more potential.
While Megasquirt does offer more peripheral options than SDS, I've never had an SDS related issue or failure in either 240s I used it in over more than 20 years. I DON'T know many Megasquirt users who can say that.

I'm not a Megasquirt hater. Not even close.
It just didn't exist yet when I began using SDS and so far I just have never used Megasquirt on a project. I may try it someday if I get sufficiently motivated.

SDS uses a proprietary Hall sensor for crank position sensing. Since installing this on a Volvo engine was pretty much custom, I needed to make a bracket to hold the sensor. The Hall sensor then reads a set of small magnets (supplied by SDS), which I had embedded into my crank pulley. It can be as simple as drilling a couple holes and gluing them in, but for the pulley I used, I felt the magnets needed a bit more material to hold onto, so I had a shop weld on two pads as shown below.

The bracket was a simple thing to create using a piece of 1/4 inch aluminum angle stock, which I added slots to so it could bolt onto two oil pan bolts. I also added an extra layer of aluminum to the front, since it needed to come out toward the pulley a little more. The result was a bracket that is rigid and fully adjustable, so it could be set to space the Hall sensor the correct distance from the pulley magnets.

Not seen in the photos is two short spacers (washers) that space the bracket down from the oil pan about 1/4 inch so it clears the oil pan lip.

SDS EFI uses a programmer as shown below to set parameters. No Laptop or tablet is used.
There are some videos that will show how the programmer works.
Programmer Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlhgz_vVMuM
Programmer Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iBNlYUAf9M&t=7s
Hall Sensors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0eCX2AcM9w
SDS EFI YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rv6ejguy/videos

- P A S T V O L V O S -

Humble 245 beginnings..... This was my first 240 Turbo. I bought this 1984 245 Turbo back in March of 1997. I paid $3200 to who I think was the second owner in Rialto, California. It was completely stock and original. When I started to do a few little modifications, I really had no idea the direction it would eventually take. This was my first 240 Turbo, so I found myself in a strange new world when it came to understand things like K-Jetronic fuel injection. I had no clue what made it tick, but I was learning.

I wanted to modify. It was not fast enough. But this Volvo was my daily driver, so as many of you know, there are limits to the kinds of mods you can do to a car that needs to get you to work in the morning.
For those of you who were into modifying Volvos in the 90’s, you'll remember there were not many sources for performance parts. I was no stranger to hot-rodding, having previously owned a ‘66 Chevelle (my very first car)

Then for my second car a friend talked me into buying this 1967 BMW 1600ti Alpina. It was a former German Group 3 racer that was later imported to the U.S.

I bought it in 1978.

This Alpina was complete with box fender flares (pig cheeks), racing suspension, roll-cage and 2 liter racing motor with dual Weber 45 DCOE carbs. 160 BHP in a car that weighed around 2100 lbs. This car was a handful. It had a 4.37:1 rear gear ratio with a 4 speed and handled like it was on rails. More about this car be seen HERE: https://www.240turbo.com/volvo240.html#alpina

By 1997 when I bought the 245 Turbo, I had already been a customer of iPd for a number of years. They were the best source (often the only source) for Volvo performance improvement parts. So mods started getting done slowly as I could manage.

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