Nick's OM617 powered Volvo 245 project
Nick's OM617 powered Volvo 245 project
As a little introduction being my first post, my name is Nick. Cars have been the hobby since high school. I'm an avid fabricator and have a pretty good mechanical aptitude which make for a dangerous combination when cars are a hobby. In the past it was all about going fast for as cheap as possible. The first project was a 1990 Plymouth laser that was getting into the 400whp territory for about $3000 spent including the cost of the car. Later on I played around with turbo rotaries in my 88 RX-7. Another long term project is a 68 Mustang.
It's approaching the 10 year mark since I started playing with cars and my interests have changed in the last few months, an interest in Diesel's that lead me to this site. I went to Bonneville Speed Week with a friend this year who built a 1.9 TDI powered Volvo 245. We took the car from San Diego to Wendover, UT. I loved the car, I don't know why but it was awesome. The concept of having a car that can haul a bunch of stuff in the back, tow, get 50mpg, and travel for extended periods was all new to me. I never could do any of that stuff in my two door sport compacts that broke parts left and right. After being around my friends Volvo, and seeing some fast Diesel stuff on the salt flats, I wanted something Diesel powered to play with.
There are some requirements to this project, being a broke college student requires that the project be low cost. The chassis had to be a wagon, no sedans or coupes. Parts for the chassis had to be easily obtainable and cheap. The chassis MUST be RWD. Same with the engine, had to be cheap to obtain and maintain. After doing some searching around I came to the conclusion that the Volvo 245 was the best candidate for my requirements. The Salvage yards here in San Diego have an abundance of Volvos. There's no part on the car that would cost over $100 to replace. The engine was sort of tough as diesel engines are NOT cheap. I recalled all of the times I was in the yard seeing Mercedes diesel engines. That was the winner, the OM617. Now, all I had to do is buy a car and a motor and start working on this thing!
I obtained the engine the day after Thanksgiving. A local salvage yard was having a 50% off day making it the ideal day to get an engine. There were 6 300D's in the yard that day, each one had lots of engine pieces missing. I came across an 85 300SD that was untouched. It had pretty high miles at 289,000 miles, but any engine is a gamble in the salvage yard. I left the yard with an OM617.951 for $150 complete. I brought the engine home and gave it a good wash to clean it up. I turned it around by hand to make sure everything was in fair shape mechanically, filled it with oil and water and fired it off on the engine stand to make sure everything was OK. It seemed a little rough so I decided to do a leak down test to make sure everything is OK. Every cylinders intake valves were leaking except #2. I pulled the head to do a valve job and leak down the block. Turns out the head was cracked around the 3 rear cylinders' prechamber holes. Another head is in order soon as well as new rod and main bearings since they've seen better days. Right now it's a game of waiting for the machine shop to get back to me on their finds for heads, and all of the other parts to freshen the engine up.
![[Image: DSCF4139.JPG]](http://pictures.nsfabrication.com/d/11106-4/DSCF4139.JPG)
![[Image: DSCF4142.JPG]](http://pictures.nsfabrication.com/d/11112-4/DSCF4142.JPG)
The chassis was obtained about 2 weeks ago. I found a 1988 Volvo 245 on craigslist for pretty cheap so I called the guy and checked it out. It was close to what I was looking for so I got it from him. The car is a project in itself. There's certain expected issues with 20 year old Volvo's, specifically their wiring and interior plastics. I've been pressing away at the non engine related items to make the car a well driving car.
![[Image: DSCF4170.JPG]](http://pictures.nsfabrication.com/d/11149-2/DSCF4170.JPG)
I'm still in the parts gathering phase of the project. Next is the transmission, another junkyard item. I prefer manual transmissions in my cars. While a 240D manual trans would be the easy route, I'd like to mate the engine with a T5 so that's the goal. Like the chassis and the engine, T5's are abundant and cheap. I have a few ideas for mating the trans to the engine so once I obtain the trans I'll see if any of the ideas work.
I'll close for now answering a question that a few people have asked so far: If I want a cheap Diesel project, then why not just buy a 300D? Well, to be honest, I don't like the 300D's. Sure, if I wanted a cheap diesel vehicle then I'd just buy something already diesel powered but it wouldn't be much of a project then. The fun in this project is taking all of these parts and making them work together. I've done it for customers cars, so I wanted to do one for myself now.
My original post was lost as a result of the forum change so I'll give this another shot.
As a little introduction being my first post, my name is Nick. Cars have been the hobby since high school. I'm an avid fabricator and have a pretty good mechanical aptitude which make for a dangerous combination when cars are a hobby. In the past it was all about going fast for as cheap as possible. The first project was a 1990 Plymouth laser that was getting into the 400whp territory for about $3000 spent including the cost of the car. Later on I played around with turbo rotaries in my 88 RX-7. Another long term project is a 68 Mustang.
It's approaching the 10 year mark since I started playing with cars and my interests have changed in the last few months, an interest in Diesel's that lead me to this site. I went to Bonneville Speed Week with a friend this year who built a 1.9 TDI powered Volvo 245. We took the car from San Diego to Wendover, UT. I loved the car, I don't know why but it was awesome. The concept of having a car that can haul a bunch of stuff in the back, tow, get 50mpg, and travel for extended periods was all new to me. I never could do any of that stuff in my two door sport compacts that broke parts left and right. After being around my friends Volvo, and seeing some fast Diesel stuff on the salt flats, I wanted something Diesel powered to play with.
There are some requirements to this project, being a broke college student requires that the project be low cost. The chassis had to be a wagon, no sedans or coupes. Parts for the chassis had to be easily obtainable and cheap. The chassis MUST be RWD. Same with the engine, had to be cheap to obtain and maintain. After doing some searching around I came to the conclusion that the Volvo 245 was the best candidate for my requirements. The Salvage yards here in San Diego have an abundance of Volvos. There's no part on the car that would cost over $100 to replace. The engine was sort of tough as diesel engines are NOT cheap. I recalled all of the times I was in the yard seeing Mercedes diesel engines. That was the winner, the OM617. Now, all I had to do is buy a car and a motor and start working on this thing!
I obtained the engine the day after Thanksgiving. A local salvage yard was having a 50% off day making it the ideal day to get an engine. There were 6 300D's in the yard that day, each one had lots of engine pieces missing. I came across an 85 300SD that was untouched. It had pretty high miles at 289,000 miles, but any engine is a gamble in the salvage yard. I left the yard with an OM617.951 for $150 complete. I brought the engine home and gave it a good wash to clean it up. I turned it around by hand to make sure everything was in fair shape mechanically, filled it with oil and water and fired it off on the engine stand to make sure everything was OK. It seemed a little rough so I decided to do a leak down test to make sure everything is OK. Every cylinders intake valves were leaking except #2. I pulled the head to do a valve job and leak down the block. Turns out the head was cracked around the 3 rear cylinders' prechamber holes. Another head is in order soon as well as new rod and main bearings since they've seen better days. Right now it's a game of waiting for the machine shop to get back to me on their finds for heads, and all of the other parts to freshen the engine up.
The chassis was obtained about 2 weeks ago. I found a 1988 Volvo 245 on craigslist for pretty cheap so I called the guy and checked it out. It was close to what I was looking for so I got it from him. The car is a project in itself. There's certain expected issues with 20 year old Volvo's, specifically their wiring and interior plastics. I've been pressing away at the non engine related items to make the car a well driving car.
I'm still in the parts gathering phase of the project. Next is the transmission, another junkyard item. I prefer manual transmissions in my cars. While a 240D manual trans would be the easy route, I'd like to mate the engine with a T5 so that's the goal. Like the chassis and the engine, T5's are abundant and cheap. I have a few ideas for mating the trans to the engine so once I obtain the trans I'll see if any of the ideas work.
I'll close for now answering a question that a few people have asked so far: If I want a cheap Diesel project, then why not just buy a 300D? Well, to be honest, I don't like the 300D's. Sure, if I wanted a cheap diesel vehicle then I'd just buy something already diesel powered but it wouldn't be much of a project then. The fun in this project is taking all of these parts and making them work together. I've done it for customers cars, so I wanted to do one for myself now.
On the car side of things, I found a set of factory Volvo wheels I like while down at the salvage yard. I spent the last few days stripping and blasting them to prep them for powder coating. I powder coated 2 of the wheels today, the other 2 will get coated next weekend after I finish stripping them.
![[Image: DSCF4244.JPG]](http://pictures.nsfabrication.com/d/11281-1/DSCF4244.JPG)
rough idea of what they should look like on the car:
![[Image: DSCF4251.JPG]](http://pictures.nsfabrication.com/d/11284-1/DSCF4251.JPG)
While the engine has been apart, I built a pop tester to set my injectors after cleaning them. After seeing the fine mist of diesel these injectors produce, I decided to try something that worked quite well:
![[Image: IMG_3673small.jpg]](http://home.tiora.net/tony/Favorites/IMG_3673small.jpg)
Gross Polluter
01-12-2009, 06:01 PM #3Nothing much going on with the engine side of things. Since I'm sourcing another head, I took apart the bottom end the rering and change the bearings. I was greeted with cracked ring lands on #4 piston. Tore the entire block down and everything is gone to the machine shop to get cleaned. Once I get the block back I'll put new bearings in, mount the crank, and start sourcing another piston.
On the car side of things, I found a set of factory Volvo wheels I like while down at the salvage yard. I spent the last few days stripping and blasting them to prep them for powder coating. I powder coated 2 of the wheels today, the other 2 will get coated next weekend after I finish stripping them.
rough idea of what they should look like on the car:
While the engine has been apart, I built a pop tester to set my injectors after cleaning them. After seeing the fine mist of diesel these injectors produce, I decided to try something that worked quite well:
(01-12-2009, 06:01 PM)Gross Polluter While the engine has been apart, I built a pop tester to set my injectors after cleaning them. After seeing the fine mist of diesel these injectors produce, I decided to try something that worked quite well:[/img]
Now imagine that happening 150 times per second inside your engine at 3000rpm.
ForcedInduction
01-13-2009, 03:00 AM
#4
(01-12-2009, 06:01 PM)Gross Polluter While the engine has been apart, I built a pop tester to set my injectors after cleaning them. After seeing the fine mist of diesel these injectors produce, I decided to try something that worked quite well:[/img]
Now imagine that happening 150 times per second inside your engine at 3000rpm.
You'll have tons of fun working on that engine, its very straight forward.. like banging on an anvil.
- Forced - I found that number staggering.. so I did some math. I got 25 times per second @ 3000rpm.
never though about it like that.
edit: - duh. X5=125
totaldisaster
01-17-2009, 05:28 AM #7Looks like you made it to the hall of fame, props on your... ahem.. 'test'.
You'll have tons of fun working on that engine, its very straight forward.. like banging on an anvil.
- Forced - I found that number staggering.. so I did some math. I got 25 times per second @ 3000rpm.
never though about it like that.
edit: - duh. X5=125
ForcedInduction
01-17-2009, 06:31 AM
#8
You're right, 150 is how many times per second the pistons change direction of movement at 3000rpm.
that number (125) should be the quantity of detonating compression strokes only. Shouldn' that number me multiplied by four to obtain the number of direction changes for all the cylinders @ 3000?
4 x 125 = 500
totaldisaster
01-17-2009, 12:33 PM #9now I'm a little confused.
that number (125) should be the quantity of detonating compression strokes only. Shouldn' that number me multiplied by four to obtain the number of direction changes for all the cylinders @ 3000?
4 x 125 = 500
![[Image: IMG_4678small.jpg]](http://pictures.nsfabrication.com/d/11336-2/IMG_4678small.jpg)
Wiring harness does not matter much when the engine that's going in there won't utilize anything on the LH 2.2 harness. It's fine for now, however.
The project is currently on hold. The engine I bought back in November was garbage. 30% leak across the board except cylinder 2 which leaked at 9%. The head gasket was blown between cylinders 4 and 5. Something went through cylinder #4 as the head and piston were pitted pretty bad. The pre-chamber in #4 was smashed into the head as well. The head cracked around the pre chamber hole in #4. It was evident that coolant was leaking into #4 as the cylinder walls had a huge ring pitted into it where water sat until I turned the engine over. Really the only thing I got out of the engine was the accessories.
I've been tied up with other Jobs as well since the Redline Time Attack season just started and I'm supporting two cars for that. Once I get some free time and another 50% off day I'll go find a good bottom end since I have a good head waiting for a good block.
Gross Polluter
04-17-2009, 04:36 PM #12I got rid of the Rigel's, they're pretty ugly. I obtained a set of Virgo's at the junk yard back in January and powder coated them, that's what I'm on now:
Wiring harness does not matter much when the engine that's going in there won't utilize anything on the LH 2.2 harness. It's fine for now, however.
The project is currently on hold. The engine I bought back in November was garbage. 30% leak across the board except cylinder 2 which leaked at 9%. The head gasket was blown between cylinders 4 and 5. Something went through cylinder #4 as the head and piston were pitted pretty bad. The pre-chamber in #4 was smashed into the head as well. The head cracked around the pre chamber hole in #4. It was evident that coolant was leaking into #4 as the cylinder walls had a huge ring pitted into it where water sat until I turned the engine over. Really the only thing I got out of the engine was the accessories.
I've been tied up with other Jobs as well since the Redline Time Attack season just started and I'm supporting two cars for that. Once I get some free time and another 50% off day I'll go find a good bottom end since I have a good head waiting for a good block.
![[Image: IMG_5688small.jpg]](http://home.tiora.net/tony/Drew/IMG_5688small.jpg)
(04-17-2009, 04:36 PM)Gross Polluter Wiring harness does not matter much when the engine that's going in there won't utilize anything on the LH 2.2 harness. It's fine for now, however.
you could probably cluck that off on a volvo forum and get a few more ends to help you on your way to a new bottom end....
W123 Mods: 4 speed ** manual climate control ** '85 Kalitucky intake ** manual windows & full tint ** Euro headlights retrofit w/bixenon projectors ** 4 brake light mod ** Vogtland 50mm drop front & Lesjofors S600 drop rear springs ** 16" rims ** late w126 brake spindles, rotors & calipers ** full suspension rehab ** Bilstein HDs ** AL129X alternator & 1/0 starter and charging cables ** 300GD clutch/flywheel ** AFCO 80103N radiator & Earl's 41610 oil cooler ** custom block-off plate, remote oil filter & t-stat ** MW IP w/ tomnik's 6.5mm 'Holly' elements **
S124 Mods: 400E Rear subframe ** SL600 Brakes ** Late 300E 210mm diff ** SLK230 6 speed ** 17" CLK rims ** Vented RF Fender ** Facelift Hood, Headlights, and Lower Cladding **
OBK# 62
SurfRodder
06-08-2009, 11:22 PM #14(04-17-2009, 04:36 PM)Gross Polluter Wiring harness does not matter much when the engine that's going in there won't utilize anything on the LH 2.2 harness. It's fine for now, however.
you could probably cluck that off on a volvo forum and get a few more ends to help you on your way to a new bottom end....
W123 Mods: 4 speed ** manual climate control ** '85 Kalitucky intake ** manual windows & full tint ** Euro headlights retrofit w/bixenon projectors ** 4 brake light mod ** Vogtland 50mm drop front & Lesjofors S600 drop rear springs ** 16" rims ** late w126 brake spindles, rotors & calipers ** full suspension rehab ** Bilstein HDs ** AL129X alternator & 1/0 starter and charging cables ** 300GD clutch/flywheel ** AFCO 80103N radiator & Earl's 41610 oil cooler ** custom block-off plate, remote oil filter & t-stat ** MW IP w/ tomnik's 6.5mm 'Holly' elements **
S124 Mods: 400E Rear subframe ** SL600 Brakes ** Late 300E 210mm diff ** SLK230 6 speed ** 17" CLK rims ** Vented RF Fender ** Facelift Hood, Headlights, and Lower Cladding **
OBK# 62
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