The Morbidmobile Blog

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Oh no, a bad thing just happened I've seen this picture on facebook and thought naughty, naughty thoughts! I know, I know, I'm hopeless...



A) The hearse would look really, really cool with a lift Perish the thought!!!

B) We could fit higher aspect ratio, squishier tyres to our nice 17" steel wheels, which would make it more comfortable with imperfect roads. We wouldn't go for offroad/mud grabbers but good quality, tall low rolling resistance types. You'd run into cleanrance problems

C) The extended shock absorbers supplied with the kit have longer travel = more comfort No they wouldn't. It is merely the mountings that are extended, standard suspension has an amazing amount of travel

D) Ground clearance would no longer be a problem! It's surprising how often the exhaust catches a road hump, or road when there is a sharp incline change, the long body means we have to be a bit carefui. I advised you many moons ago to revert to standard suspension all round, that advice still stands! Also fit the correct 15" wheels with 195/65/15 tyres


Obviously this will affect the handling and likely the economy aswell, but as both are pretty damn poor in the first place why not? Because you will make it seriously unsafe as well. The mods done by LCM are on a standard wheelbase so the centre of gravity remmains lower. By raising an extended chassis, the centre of gravity will be raised that much more. Also i thought the Penta conversion was in the quest for improved economy?

Comments added in red above Tom - in short, forget ever seeing that ridiculous idea and just fit the correct, normal suspension with new springs and shocks all round. Much cheaper and might even make your insurance cheaper too as you will have reverted to standard. Also saves having to fit an adjustable Panhard Rod and then set it up properly.

[360beast]

That poor 940 looks atrocious! These cars need leaving be or lowering not turning in to a pathetic attempt at a crossover SUV! Which by the way is a stupid idea in its own right.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by 360beast

That poor 740 looks atrocious! These cars need leaving be or lowering not turning in to a pathetic attempt at a crossover SUV! Which by the way is a stupid idea in its own right.

The only time cars should be lifted is for service, repair and maintenance unless they happen to be equipped with air suspension that gives the option of a raised height for navigating rough terrain.
Then dropped back to normal height ASAP if not sooner!

When i had my XJ Cherokee and used to lurk on http://www.birtydastards.com/frm/ there were quite a few on there that had been lifted. They looked just as daft, even though they are lifted above "normal" ride heights as standard.

One or two people had lowered them which on something about 18" shorter than a 7/9xx sitting at a similar ride height looked even more weird as everything was out of proportion..

[360beast]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

The only time cars should be lifted is for service, repair and maintenance unless they happen to be equipped with air suspension that gives the option of a raised height for navigating rough terrain.
Then dropped back to normal height ASAP if not sooner!

When i had my XJ Cherokee and used to lurk on http://www.birtydastards.com/frm/ there were quite a few on there that had been lifted. They looked just as daft, even though they are lifted above "normal" ride heights as standard.

One or two people had lowered them which on something about 18" shorter than a 7/9xx sitting at a similar ride height looked even more weird as everything was out of proportion..

I found the link to it

https://lucacarmods.com/en/volvo-inf...-940-5-inches/

I can see the point of air suspension but lifting a 940, just no.

I have seen a couple of lowered off roader vehicles and if done well they can look really nice.

[Laird Scooby]

I fond that one as well Luke, the white one as in Toms link i'm fairly sure is a 740 but can't find it in the vids for LCM.

I know in one of their vids, they drop a 1UZ 4.0 V8 into a 740 (or was it 940) to make it move a bit quicker.

The lowered 4x4s i've seen just looked weird, maybe it's my perception of them.

There is another suspension option nobody has mentioned yet - juice it!

https://youtu.be/ZlVyayjS8ek

Optional equipment of a 7 year old operator not included!

[classicswede]

There are a lot of things not thought of in that lift setup. If you want to lift with comfort you want to increase spring and damper length, this is how we do gravel rally suspension and they are smooth on the road. Using spacers just lifts the car. With the amount of lift they have the wishbones could do with being longer as do the rear axle arms want to be a bit longer

[TomSaintJames]

We have the hearse back, hurrah! It is much nicer to drive now due to:

-New downpipe exhuast section fitted (I missed this when I replaced the rest of the system a while back)
-front propshaft UJ replaced
-Centre prop bearing and housing replaced
-Rear prop bearing and housing also replaced

The guys ran into a difficulty finding the correct bearing for the rear section of the prop, as it's a hearse and has an extended body, there is a 3rd prop section which is skinnier than the main two. SKinnier prop means smaller bearing, likely not a volvo item as the mechanics coudn't find one to replace it with. So they used the same bearing and housing as the centre, but had a spacer/bush fabricated so that the smaller prop runs well in the larger standard bearing. Problem solved! Also I now know the correct part if it needs to be done in the future.

Result? No more bloody bearing whine! It is quite odd driving it now without that noise. The bill wasn't small, but well worth it in my book.

A small Lexus detour - now that the hearse is back, today I have been removing the Lexus' radiator to inspect for leaks, we've been loosing coolant gradually in increasing amounts which is always worrying! They are known to crack as the radiator is made from metal and plastic, and where the two meet - leaks happen, as has done in this case. What a fiddle! The normal radiator is clipped, bolted, screwed, hashed, bound and tagged to the a/c condensor and the hybrid system radiator, so many fixings and pieces of plastic! It's out now anyway, new one ordered and hopefully delivered tomorrow/thurs, £65 job done. The coolant (10L!) cost more than the radiator, daft.

Back to Volvo's - we are off to Ware on Saturday to fetch the Penta engine, i'm quite looking forward to the drive now that the tracking/wheel balancing are sorted and the prop is silent. It will be a very interesting economy comparison too as it'll mostly be M3, M25 and a couple of A roads. 320 mile round trip, will it do it on one tank? Probably not!

[Laird Scooby]

Hope you fitted new Jubilee clips when you replaced the radiator on the Lexus Tom? If memory serves, the bottom one is prone to catching all the road dirt/salt/moisture and can rot spectacularly resulting in breakage and the bottom hose being blown off.

When i saw the first line of your post, i thought "Yay, he's got the Penta installed!" and was all excited to read about it!

Then i read it and thought "Aaaah-ha, maybe next time!".

Good luck for your road trip, be careful if you ask for directions when you get there, people are likely to ask "Ware is it you want to go?"

[TomSaintJames]

Sorry to disappoint Dave! We menat to collect it last Saturday, but didn't have the hearse back for chariot duties.

The original spring clips still had enough spring that I struggled to remove them without the special tool - so I hope they'll be good still. There are stories on the Lexus forum of people replacing them with hose/jubilee clips, and the hoses working loose over time until they come off! Some poor chap had this twice!

[TomSaintJames]

Engine acquired! Picked up yesterday, all went well bar a tyre issue. Engine looks precarious, but was well chocked and strapped down within an inch of it's wossnames Didn;t move an inch all the way home.

Filled up before we left, a not so gentle 70 mph all the way up there, filled up again after collection. Best mpg ever in this car! Well balanced tyres, tracking sorted, prop bearing lovely and quiet and downpipe not rotten and holy added up to better economy than we've yet had.

MPG= 168 miles / 31.63L
MPG= 168/7.029
MPG= 23.9



The way home however would have been very much less economical, 2 hours in we stopped for refreshemnts and I noticed the front passenger tyre looked a little low on pressure, odd as I checked them all before setting off. 6PSI! No wonder the steering wobble was back, we must have picked up something and gotten a slow puncture, will have to see how it is this morning but I think the tyre shoulders/sidewall suffered from driving on that low a pressure.

The front tyres are 'stretched' onto the wide steel wheel, so I wouldn't mind replacing them with a) better quality tyres and b) correct width tyres for the rim. *Sigh* another spend on this car!

I hope to get around to looking at the Penta engine later, but I may not have time.