My 360 GLT project car

[Peter Milnes]

It is better to have your car as far forward on the trailer as possible, otherwise you will not have enough noseweight on the trailer (but do not exceed 70kgs). This is important to prevent snaking and promote stable towing. I have a 10foot base, single axle trailer and had a touch of snakes over 40mph when towing a Volvo 66GL Estate. The next time I had one of those on board I loaded it as far forward as possible and could reach 60 with no problems. It is like towing a caravan, if the outfit is incorrectly loaded it's towing balance is upset. The same is true of twin-axle trailers as well. I had no difficulty towing a 945 on a 16 foot twin axle trailer as I had it fairly close to the winch at the front. This way I came down the M5 at 60 all the way (no faster as it is illegal).

All the best, Peter

I don't get how all these modified 360s are not having any axle problems. I got rear wheel toe-in on my 340s then twice as worse on the 360s. You can still drive them, but it just gets really unstable especially in the wet. The problem is I think most people accept it, but a 360 with a straight axle handles like a 3 series BMW.

I think the bend in the middle needs strengthened with some webs.

[JOHN 850]

There are obviously going to be different cars for different people with these modified 360's & budget seems to be the main one. What I would like is a cheap mod that will give another 40bhp say on top of the exisitng 110/115 bhp. What is the easiest way to go then ?

The 3 mods I can see are :

1 - 2.3 16v with no turbo (155bhp)

2 - FPT out of 740/940 Turbo (165-170bhp)

3 - fitting a turbo / manifold from a 2.0 Wentworth (155bhp)on to the exisitng engine as this is the B200 unit anyway !

I'm not bothered about modified conrods etc as it would just be a fun car doing 4k a year max.

Anymore input guys ?

Cheers,

J.

[foggyjames]

There are almost limited schemes - possibly a straight B230E would be the easiest?

1) B234E - Thats what Mark Higging (360s) has at present (albeit with turbo pistons, as a turbo is being added at christmas)

2) That's what I'm doing :) (plus, isn't a 740 / 760 TIC (non-cat) 185bhp?)

3) That would work....you just need to lower the compression via the pistons from the 940.

I'm totally agreed on the 'keeping it simple' approach (at least until I catch the bug for more power!). The way I'm looking at it is that I can more or less double my power output for a few hundred quid, and without major surgery or insurance implications (£40 extra) - so I might as well! How many 19 year olds (who don't have rich daddies!!) run their own scooby-slayer?

cheers

James

[davebslater(uk)]

Many ways to skin a cat , in fact the B230ET has weak con rods so it shouldnt be an issue at this point . You can turbo the B200E as long as you add extra fuel for the boost , like an additional fuel controller which will cost £250 from apexi .

Many guys in the us have turboed there 9.5:1 high compresion engines with succes on the std fuel computer , with just pressure switches the open cold stat injectors to run the boost , you should in fact be able to start and run the car even witha std computer since it should be running normal vacuum etc etc (like i said fuel for boost)

crude and simple but works , if the engine goes #### up because of det then throw another one in .

regards fitting a turbo , the major work is engine mounting and oil return plumbing , which is very easy to do since you can quicksteel a pipe into the sump (as long as its above the oil level) in fact volvo produced an R sport kit with a carb which had a pipe return into the sump , 2 headgaskets to lower compression and a fuel pressure regulator under boost conditions and a new needle for the carb - all parts i beleive are still available .

the only maybe costly thing you have to buy is the manifold and turbo - i have one lying about in wait . then its upto you on decided how to fuel the engine with some electronics or simple devices which although not perfect allow your engine to run boost and put a smile on ya face .

the other way is a complete B230ET transplant - still just as workable , but youll need to find a spare or repair motor .

i think the way i would do it is turbo the existing engine since it doesnt have to come out and could be done ina weeks holiday or so


What you waiting for !

[JOHN 850]

Was reading through a 1992 edition of The Driver last night & there was an article on the turbo plus kits you could buy from dealers.

These were for the 2.3 turbo engines & made the bhp up to 190bhp from the std 165 or 170 without cat. It also said that the original 740 Turbos had as much as 182bhp before emission controls got stronger. The cost of the kit was about £450. Has anyone had one of these before ? Thought it might be interest to those of us thinking of coverting 360 GLT's to turbo power !! It mentioned that these held the boost gate shut longer (or something like that ! )

Cheers,

John.

Depending on the engine a simple bleed valve will do, bleeding some pressure off before the wastegate actuator. The main thing you need to worry about is if the engine map has the extra points on it to cover the extra air flow and fuel needed.

When I say a bleed valve, it is really just a valve, a needle (hollow) of the right calibre stuck into the pressure feedback tube would do the same job. Bigger needle more boost. A boost guage is required to calibrate the boost into a resonable area.

A standard 95 940 Turbo has 190bhp as standard with about 5psi, 11psi will give over 230bhp (I think)without any significant reliability problems.

[foggyjames]

Hi Tony,

I thought the figures were 195 for a B230ET and 185 for a B230FT (or maybe 185 and 175?). It's still quite remarkable how little boost they run! There's certainly way more capacity there, you just need (as you rightly say) an ECU remap to accomodate the extra boost (in terms of fuelling, timing, etc).

I can't see any big problems with running up to 20PSI with a re-map - more than that and you need to start thinking about more fundamental upgrades (question mark on rods, crank, head gasket, etc), although we of course have an advantage thanks to Volvo's habit of overbuilding.

A friend of a friend has been pushing a K10 Micra Super Turbo (supercharged and turbocharged) to the limit - just recorded '170bhp' on a rolling road (although those figures are questionable) - from a 900cc motor! He ended up running 1.7BAR of boost (from a factory spec of 0.9). A couple of days later both middle pistons have zero compression....Turbocharging is not for the tinkerer!

cheers

James

[Grizlyadams]

Problem with running 20psi on a redblock turbo is that you will run out of fuel at 230bhp on the later engines and 250bhp on the earlyer ones. The injectors on the B230FT engines (late models) are 804 and flow 330cc, you need a set of 355's (380cc) for more boost.
Also if its an LH 2.4 ecu, then its very adaptable, you can get away with silly sized injectors without a remap as the ecu will adapt, some US guys (www.turbobricks.com) are running 450cc injectors without any mods, or running problems.

Now, the 13C turbos dead after about 15-17psi, its too small so a nice 15G or 19T is needed. Also a 90+ exhaust manifold will give you an extra 10bhp (apparently)

Next the heads, the FT engines have 531 heads (or should) which flow loads better than the 530 heads, so check what you have, also cams are important, as the stock T cam is a load of crap, get either a V cam(all B200E/230E's had it) or if you want a very nice cam, go for the V15 from enem (sweden), that cam kicks ass.
Also no mater the head, big valves and head work can get you huge gains in power as its not exactly a race head from the factory (DBS has heads for sale, they are a bit expensive, but who else does volvo heads in the UK!)

As for fuel pumps Walbro 255GPH intank pump, scrap the main pump, good for 500bhp, as for programable ecu's, ultra megasquirt will be out sometime next year, should kick ass, and not cost the earth with wbo2 built in, then you could run some massive injectors.

Sorry for the rant, i just wanted to get some of the information discovered by the Tbricks forum over to us lot. Any questions?

Griz

It's been a while since i've had internet, though have been keeping the car alive, though i wanna go kill someone if they dont fix my steering rack up properly, as its been off the road for maybe 100hrs now because of the rack, over a period of 3 sessions of repairing it. Though the rack is still carping up even though i have new front shocks in it... it seems to oversteer to the left, understeer to the right, and has a null zone/delay zone of maybe 20degree's between, so i have only been driving to work in it, waiting for a few days off so i can get em to fix the rack again... lucky its not costing me anything...

Though when i get the rack fixed up and tint the windows... summers coming up and its real hot at summer in a car with a dikky air con unit, i am gonna be starting some propper modding.

1:- I've put aside my dead shocks and will be sending em into koni, get some koni adjustables custom made up, i'll post a part number in when i get em so you can just use that, they also come with a lifetime warranty, though havent read through the warranty to see what damage isnt covered by it. Anyone got any AM swaybars springs and suspension parts that are pretty good?

2:- Still not sure about what i'm gonna do with the engine yet, as i picked up a little treasure lately, a garret Ball bearing turbo, so its made it a little tougher, as i was definately thinking of going the B230FT way before, but dad used to race mazda 1300's with the 13B rotaries, and having been in an RX-8, they got a lot of kick for a 1.3L engine... so was thinking of maybe dropping in the rotary, then installing the turbo i got in the garage with it. what do you think of that? has anyone done, or considered doing that before? or if i do install the B230FT, can i swap the turbo's over? My final crazy thought on an engine combo would be to leave the b19e in it, and buy a second turbo... will the b19e accept a twin turbo set up? comments?

3:- with the gearbox/diff, how do i change it to a Limited slip diff? or is it already a LSD? other than that, i have a spare gearbox in the garage (albiet it's a 4 spd) and was gonna strip it down and make a up a lightweight version, has anyone converted other gearboxes for the 360 glt, how did it turn out? Also.. Is it possible to convert it from RWD to 4WD/AWD?

4:- once i work out what engine i'm gonna be doing up and get it, just gonna get it port / valve polisheing / widening, Exhaust system/ intake,and any misc parts. When it's turbo'd, is a wider or narrower exhaust more benefitial? Also, thinking about forged pistons here, though have heard they are only really meant for track racing, and i have no plans for track racing this anytime soon. should i forge up some pistons or leave in the stock?

5:- Rear brakes i wish to convert to disk/pad setup, anyone done this yet? what brakes does it now take and is the setup better, any problems?

6:- I figure the 360 has an ecu, being injected an all, does anyone make programmable ones for the 360? how much they worth, and was it worth it?

7:- bit of exterior cosmetics, After i touch up the paint work(silver), gonna get some airbrushed decals(blue).The mags i'm gonna throw on are 16" starcorp trilogy(see below) and some low prof tires. havent thought any more bout that yet, but the exterior stuff is last on the list, cauz i want it to have some grunt before i go making it look like it has grunt

Thats just my overall plan, though the order will likely change, any suggestions, comments, ideas?