340 Rally Car Advice - anyone out there??
 

Hi, Way back in the 1980's I used to rally Mk2 escorts. 25 years on!! I'm getting the bug again to build another car and fancy a go at good spec 340 (something different). I've had loads of 340's over the years but they have always been shopping cars rarther than rally cars!! I know this is a big topic but if anyone has any advice it would be appreciated. Firstly I would like to spec it to handle as well as escort - surely it can be done. One problem I see however with the 340 is sourcing a close ratio gearbox and LSD using the standard Volvo setup. I had thought of converting to a Ford Atlas axle and conventional box but this approach would end up being a MK2 escort with a 340 body shell. If anyone has any experience with 340's it would be appreciated. Thanks, Ian

IT depends on which class you would rally in as to choice of engine and gearbox,
anyway if it was mine i would have a 4 or 5 cylinder turbo or non turbo (depending on class) volvo alloy engine with M90 gearbox from the 960 2500 6 cylinder and use the final drive from a 960 after 1988 with the independant rear suspension ,It would be all volvo then ! You would have to modfy the floor and bulkhead to give room for the large M90 gearbox though .

The weak link with a renault based engine is the propshaft of course unless you used the 360 engine and gearbox which could still be very potent with a 2300 turbo ...

Volvo themselves developed a 363CS in 1976 with the volvo V6 which fits a treat , they used an alfa 90 or75 type gearbox/cluch transaxle in the back ..

or the 1980 rallycross championship winning 343 with 1400 gordini turbo 250bhp engine .

lots of ways of doing this !
see you on the wyedean rally sometime soon !

There are a lot of rally and race car builders/drivers over on

http://www.turbosport.co.uk/

pop over and ask there, they are a friendly bunch.

Thanks for your comments. I'll have to check out the 960 as suggested. It would be interesting to find out what transmission setup the 1980 rally cross car used. In terms of engine I suppose I'm a little old school as for me you can't beat a N/A engine on twin 48's. I'll have to find out what is available for the 360 engine etc. Back in my rally days I could never afford to run a BDA but I did manage to find the money to build a 2.4 all steel Holbay Pinto. This was a fantastic engine and my thoughts were perhaps the 360 engine could be built to produce similar power? I don't know much about the 360 engine and whether the bottom end is strong enough to handle revs and power as standard?

Are you looking at road rallying or stage? The new road rally reg's next year look to put paid to cars like the one I rally, I'm currently working out the new way forward.

If you want it to handle as well as the mk2 Escort, I take it you don't mean standard? 340's don't understeer as much as a stock escort... A sorted one on the other hand ;)

Hi, I thought road rallying died in the 80's. My first road rally was in 1983 and in those days you could virtually run anything as long as you past the noise test. I'm sure the first road rally I went to there was a Triumph TR8 in the entry. By '84 the rules started to change outlawing twincams and restricting engines to twin choke carbs. Soon however people managed to get around the restrictions by using single side draughts on manifolds such as Lynx. The manifold however wasn't ideal in terms of max flow for really good power so the next way forward was to use split webbers. Basically cutting 2 side draught webbers in half and using a manifold similar to a manifold used for twin solex carbs. It wasn't as good as using twin sidedraughts but came a very close second. I had a 2.2ltr road rally Pinto engine which produced 170BHP at the wheels running on split 48 webbers. In those days road rallying was brilliant (albeit totally illegal). By 86/87 competitive road rallying had virtually been killed off by more and more restrictions and the Police deciding it was finally time to act. Back to handling - yes it would be great if you could get a 340 to handle like a well sorted Mk2 Escort..

you could use the 2.3 B234F engine from the 900 it is a 16 valve version but strangled to 150 bhp , so as not to give more power than the 2 litre turbo version lots of potential if you dont want a turbo .

Can tell you have not been in the rally scene for a long time.

Here it is a very big thing and the escorts are the car of choice. Most of them run the Volvo engine with a EVO head if they can afford it or some where they can have opted for the vauxhall red top engine. The Volvo engine is engine of choice as it makes better power than the ford lump and will last forever. Gearbox again tends to be volvo for stregth and a volvo 240 axle to take the power.

There are a number of 340's and 360's used for rallying but only very few in the UK. Handling is no problem with only basic suspension upgrades.

My choice would be 360 simply because I prefer the Volvo engine but it would greatly depend what class you would end up. There is a 340 1.4 that is used as it puts them in a more competative class for the car.

Thanks classicswede. Yes you're right it's been a very long time. The 360 does sound a good option as I assume someone manufactures tuning parts for this engine? What gearbox and axle would you use if you could manage to build an engine to 200 bhp mark. Can you buy an LSD for the 360 and is there a gearbox that has decent ratios ratios. I did read somewhere that a straight cut close ratio gearkit was once available for the 360?

The factory drivetrain will cope with 200BHP but is fragile and can break. By Ford standards its probably quite good but for Volvo's if you can break it that is very wrong.

There are/were gear sets available for the gearbox from Sweden. A bit of research should bring them up. LSD there have been some home brew ones done. There is someone on V3M that has had one made and can get more done - the only down side is they are yet to be proven in a 360 however I doubt there will be issues.

I do stock tuning parts for the 360 and there are also other places that do.

If you were going for a ultamate build with a modest 400-600BHP from the volvo engine then I would be changing the gearbox to front mount and use a 240 rear axle with LSD

have a look at this

http://motoburg.com/2035-volvo-363cs.html