Another frikken Volvo ?

[NONHOG]

Well another weekend with some progress but not near as much as I hoped for.
I found a computer box out of a burned out Mazda Navaho for free.
Turned out to be not such a great deal but it was fun making it work.
(still to be realized)
After cleaning with wheel cleaner and a brush I started working on fitment.
I found the face to be warped, no surprise. It fit the computer fine but was tight on the firewall. So I got out my high end "imported" poor man's CNC.
And went to work. Also got the chance to use that "Super Alloy Welding Rod"
to fill holes and low spots. Finished with Epoxy because that "county fair" special welding rod, while fun to use, is super hard.
Worked till late and stil have some triming to do so box will fit.

Now to decide how to seal the box to the firewall. BlackJack? 3M panel bond?
*IDEAS WELCOME*

[NONHOG]

More pics...

[dammitmitchell]

3m body bond.. the glue you use on body seams to stop them from opening up.
it's liek10 bucks a tube.

[NONHOG]

I ended up using some seam sealer/adhesive to attach the box.
Bent up a section of brake line to mount at an angle. Had to clear the a/c
expansion valve.

Today I found out I had the wrong extension housing for the trans.
Was swapping the Explorer housing for a car housing that will accept a smaller yoke for the driveshaft.
Since I was dead in the water w/o the proper housing I turned my attention
to the crossmember and cut out a slice to add exhaust clearance.

Was hoping to install engine this weekend. Ah well.

[NONHOG]

Spent way to much time blowing holes(with the MIG) in the cross member, but its done. Not nearly as nice as I was hoping for but will add room for a 3" pipe.
Engine is in for the 4th time. So far so good. paint was still wet on the cross member last night so I called it a night. Today I'm not feeling it.
So it can wait.
Really happy with my "new" exhaust clearance that the modded control arm mount gave me.
Next hurdle (beside seeing if I warped the cross member) room for shift linkage.
Looks like it may be a go. Wish me luck.

[Frizzle Fry]

http://bringatrailer.com/2011/03/07/...-bertone-282c/

[NONHOG]

Saw that on e-bay recently. I like the tail lights better.
There is a LS powered Bertone on Turbobricks.
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showth...ertone+sleeper

http://grandnationalvolvo.blogspot.c...&max-results=7

As far as my project. I have been fighting shift linkage for a number of days.
Its a pretty tight fit but do-able. The computor box worked out so I'm happy about that.
Not much else going on.

[Sillyoldman]

"The Ford V8 in the a Volvo chassis is a straightforward swap"

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by Sillyoldman

"The Ford V8 in the a Volvo chassis is a straightforward swap"

Good humor right there. I bet the Mustang engine swap is much easier.
The Explorer swap has proven itself to be a complete pain. I think it will be worth it.
Today I spent a couple hours in the local pull a part. Got a couple more shift linkages I needed as well as a couple of speedo cables for review.
Oh who could pass up a couple of 15X7 Mopar police wheels.
Hoping to work out the linkage this week as the rain all week forecast will help keep me in the shop.

[NONHOG]

I may have gotten the linkage done, less paint. It shifts from Park to 1st which is really 2nd? shifter is a 3 spd while trans is 4spd. Mrs.Nonhog wont be using 1st gear and wanted to retain the original shifter so its all good.
Can't even count how many times I've crawled under the car test fitting linkage heating, welding and bending till its fits. It does fit and its tight but I think it will be fine.
Happy to be making progress!

[NONHOG]

More baby steps.... small amount of progress on the exhaust. Not really happy with my exhaust fab work but if it helps to get it running its worth the time.
Been playing around with wire harness routings, hose routings underhood boring time consuming stuff. Not the stuff to make threads interesting.
Factory service manuals, will come in handy!
Just got the driveshaft back today.

[NONHOG]

Months later and I find myself under the Bertone. I had massaged the trans tunnel to get more room for the Ford yoke. Lowered the crossmember a bit and now I have room. But? Is this right?
The yoke has 2.5" showing while installed. Total is 4.5"
It does have 3/4" of spline out the end of the tailshaft.
Run it? or take it back to the driveline shop?
Its got a center support bearing so it wont need to slide back and forth much.
(if at all)

Dont look right to me.

[Frizzle Fry]

Found this.

[LEEVON]

Nonhog, this is cool! You mentioned true Volvo owners, so I have to tell you about an old neighbor. They drove Volvo's exclusively, his whole life he never owned anything else (with exception of a sweet '55 chevy). His wife had a wagon and he had a sedan, brown and tan. Each of them had multiples of 100k miles. He was a real interesting character, extremely anal about everything. Each of the cars had redundant ignition systems, batteries and charging systems, fuel systems (yes, extra fuel pumps!), remote oil filters, you name it. He also carried a large arsenal of spare parts on trips, of course they were never stranded which I thought was pretty neat.

Here's where it got interesting...wait for it...wait for it...he bought another Volvo new at the same time as the last two, then disassembled the entire car and stored it on cataloged shelves/bins in his basement. Each part, individually tagged, wrapped and in it's proper place ready for service. The one and only time my Dad and I went down there we were literally speechless. We smiled and waved after that but stayed on our side of the fence more.

This is pretty irrelevant but caps the whole thing. Same guy walked miles/day religiously and preached to anybody who would listen about his diet of rabbit food and water. Wait for it...massive heart attack. So you can be prepared all you want but you can't beat the odds!

[NONHOG]

LEEVON,
Wow what an interesting guy. Pictures would have been awesome.
rabbit food? sounds like he ate cocoa puffs.




Waiting for word from the driveshaft shop.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

Waiting for word from the driveshaft shop.

Driveline guy made good on fixing it, bit of a communication thing. Fits right now. (has for months actually-overdo for an update)
Not much work getting done on this one. Did test my therory on homemade oval tubing. My issue is clearance but I hate the idea of choking the exhaust.
Even on a stock engine. So my thought was buy some oval tube and bends
but after checking prices I came up with my own plan.
Put the 2.5" pipe in tension using the engine hoist heat the pipe a bit and hammer and stretch till oval (or close as in my case).
I had 2 different size bars and it ended up smaller on one end than the other.
Turns out it fits now and this was the easy part. A test run. Now to make some down pipes that fit.

[NONHOG]

Had a moment of clarity.
Was overthinking the head pipes. My goal was not to have to lift the engine to install head pipes. Decided to remove the rear A arm mount and see how that went. Still really tight. Mocked (hacked) up a head pipe just to see if I will follow through with the 2.5" which is pretty tight but I could always ding a bit where needed.

So the big question: Run 2.5" and ding (dent) as needed.
Or..........................Run 2.25 and no dings(remains to be seen)

Input welcome.

HP is not a big goal, but hey Hot Rodders gotta Hot Rod!

[NONHOG]

Not much happening that is post worthy. Some boring steps but needed steps.
Pulled the injectors for cleaning, waiting till its just about ready to start.
Pulled the fuel tank as the gas it had was around 10 years old. Felt the need to rinse the bits and pieces floating around in there. And take a look see what shape it was inside. Happily it was very good!

Fought with the Mustang headers and ended up messing up the ball flange
with my cutting and welding. Bought some block huggers and may have a "shorty" on one side and a "block hugger" on the other.
I would not have been able to sleep at night with that thought when I started this build. Now I'm good with....whatever works.
Heck look at some of the factory log manifolds they worked o.k.

If I end up with a shorty I'll chop off the ball flange and add a V-band clamp.

We will know soon.

[Jonboy]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

Had a moment of clarity.
Was overthinking the head pipes. My goal was not to have to lift the engine to install head pipes. Decided to remove the rear A arm mount and see how that went. Still really tight. Mocked (hacked) up a head pipe just to see if I will follow through with the 2.5" which is pretty tight but I could always ding a bit where needed.

So the big question: Run 2.5" and ding (dent) as needed.
Or..........................Run 2.25 and no dings(remains to be seen)

Input welcome.

HP is not a big goal, but hey Hot Rodders gotta Hot Rod!

I have had quite a few Mark VII's, and the tailpipes neck down smaller than 1 3/4 in the tailpipes. If you can run the 2.25 and make it fit well, it shouldn't affect performance. On the VII, it is quite an accomplishment to fit 2.5 all the way out.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

I have had quite a few Mark VII's, and the tailpipes neck down smaller than 1 3/4 in the tailpipes. If you can run the 2.25 and make it fit well, it shouldn't affect performance. On the VII, it is quite an accomplishment to fit 2.5 all the way out.

I think the Explorer had 2" down pipes going into a single but don't recall the size. I was wanting 2.5 going into a single 3" exhaust but that would be overkill and harder to route. It'll be 2.25 going into a single3" (because I have it) then down to 2.75 or maybe 2.5?

I installed the block huggers last night, had to trim the LH mount mount bracket. Still need to "ding" the header so the steering yoke can make it all the way around. I'm very happy with the ease of fitting these compared to the shorties. Big plus is the downpipes will be so much easier to run.

The Summit headers are not as nice as the BBK. But should swork out just fine.
Bout time something goes right on this build!

1st pic shows the LH BBK "shorty" and the "block hugger"

[NONHOG]

Block huggers would have saved me countless hours of cutting/welding and the big time waster...... Head scratching!

Many mods I did for the shorty headers are not needed for the block huggers.
Live and learn! It was fun, Not out of the woods yet. Trying to figure out the dip stick routing. Wont follow the same area anymore.
Also the starter nose is really close to the collector flange.

Dent got bigger but still o.k. in my book.

[NONHOG]

Bought some mandrel bends in 2.25. Finally had time to build some decent (IMO) header pipes.
I had to make a protractor to figure my cut angles (stole the idea from someone on the HAMB) Seems to be going my way. About time! I was getting use to every darn thing fighting me.

Now I have to wait till I get a Y pipe to finish running the exhaust.
Seems to fit pretty tight.











New shop name? "Blue tape Fabrication"

[NONHOG]

Not done (exhaust) but getting closer.
Working under the car while on jack stands is no way to build an exhaust system. At least for a guy pushing 50.

[NONHOG]

Redoing the Y pipe. Heck I redo everything else I've done on this car so why not?

Cut about 60* out of the 2.25 pipes then tacked together. Cut off end that'll dump into a short section of 3".
More this weekend! (If anyone cares )

[Frizzle Fry]

Nice work! I like the angle jig idea. I find exhaust fabrication to be a love/hate situation