I have an 1988 245 which i have a chance a get a 740 exhaust manifold with a garrett turbo in good shape. Question is can i mount this on my stock engine with minor mods ??? what do you folks think..milage is about 185,000 runs great just want a little more power

You're talking about significant work. The turbo engine runs lower compression pistons for a reason, but even discounting that, you'd need all the plumbing that goes with it, the airbox, silicone hoses, the intercooler, the special front exhaust pipe and cat converter, the different computer, the oil drains in the block for the turbo, the special T radiator hoses.... getting a feel for the size of the project?

My friend has a running, driving example of a conversion- 89 244GL with 91 940T drivetrain. Used all the engine, transmission, hoses, intercooler, wiring harness, computer, AMM, coolant reservoir from the 940. Reused the 240 distributor, made the two wiring harnesses splice together under the hood... custom exhaust. It's a pretty big job.

More power for your car would be more easily obtained just by installing a cam. Beyond that, it's fairly involved and you'd be better off with a complete donor car on hand.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 221K, 88 744GLE- 202K, 91 244 181K, 88 244GL 145K

Hi Aye Roll.
I was wondering if a cam would show a difference in a fairly strong engine?
Would you know the gain roughly in HP between the cams that are availible?
Would it be nessicery to totaly rebuild the head, meaning new tappets,springs ect.ect.?
THANKS!!
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Kevin * HONDA spanking,1985 240DL * VOLVO ON!!!!

Supposedly the VX or IPD cam gives a boost of about 20 HP- that's 15-20% for these engines. The effect on a turbo (B21FT or B230FT) is apparently less- Turbobricks.org has a good thorough rundown of all the different cam profiles that he could locate and the resulting power, 0-60 times, etc.

The VX/IPD cam should give the engine 136 HP vs. 115 HP for the normal US-spec engine. I don't remember what the torque peak moves to, but the cam is designed for more high-end power. Most folks use an adjustable cam gear to advance the cam timing 3-6° in order to keep some strong low-end power (this sacrifices high-end, but unless you work around the rev limiter, you can't go over 6000rpm anyway).

If the valvetrain is in good shape, it should not need a rebuild, but most higher mileage cars will at least show some wear on the valve stems or need new "hushers". These cars don't really wear out valves, springs, seats, or guides as some other cars do. IPD recommends buying a shim kit too for setting clearances with the new cam. A machine shop ought to be able to set that too- it may be cheaper than buying the whole kit and doing it yourself.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 221K, 88 744GLE- 202K, 91 244 181K, 88 244GL 145K

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Volvo uses a special type of exhaust valve in their turbo vehicles. It looks just like a regular exhaust valve, except that the inside is hollow and filled with Elemental Sodium. Since Sodium improves thermal conduction within the valve, it reduces the temps on the valve by channeling the heat away from the lower edges and upwards to the stem. This will prevent burning the exhaust valve, which can be a common failure in high-temp (and/or lean mixture) applications that can be found in turbo charged engines.

How do you tell if the valves are Sodium filled? Hmmm... I'd ask the dealership if there's an easy way to distinguish them, aside from taking note of the vehicle that you're pulling them out of. I guess if you really want to find out, try cutting one in half and dropping it into a bucket of water. If you get a response similar to a hand-grenade (I'm not kidding), then you've got Sodium.

God bless, and please don't try the bucket of water test.
Fitz Fitzgerald.
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'87 Blue 245, NA 223K

I don't know how you can tell which valves are sodium filled. If you handed me one of each, I'm sure I couldn't tell you. I don't even know if the part number is visible on them.
A turbo head will have the special exhaust valves; a regular NA head will not have Na filled valves! (Isn't that clever?)

This is just one other good reason why simply bolting on a turbo is not a good idea, and I had forgotten to mention it.

By the way, right near here, in eastern Connecticut, we're lucky to have one of the best turbo conversion shops in the world- Callaway Turbos. These guys did the Callaway Corvettes among many other things. Interesting bits of their legacy show up around here all the time- last week at a yard sale, we came across a '77 BMW 320i conversion car. Supposedly it was capable of 150 mph. Had significant engine and suspension mods, though looked stock besides the BBS wheels and "CALLAWAY TURBO" etched into the quarter window glass... reportedly it was the third car they ever did.
Their approach to conversions was that it had to be an engineered package, not merely a bolt on.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 221K, 88 744GLE- 202K, 91 244 181K, 88 244GL 145K

Compression ratio is too high on stock engine, I believe. I don't know the B230FT, but B21FT has "dished" pistons to lower CR.
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Bruce Young,
940-NA (current)
'80 GLE V8 (Now gone)
'83 Turbo 245
'73 142 (98K)
'71 144 (track modified--and going to be crushed unless...)
New 144 from '67 to '78
Used '62 122 from '63 to '67

Try checking at turbobricks.com, good place for info on an NA - Turbo swap.