Buddy of mine asked tonight about buying my '78 244. Seems he has an old 4x4 Blazer (late-'60s) with a wracked-up body. He had a wacky idea (a pattern with him) of putting a Volvo body on the Blazer frame. Sort of a step in the right direction, I guess. Anyway, I was just curious if it would even come close to working. My reference says the Blazer wheelbase is 104", width is 6 feet.

P.S. I told him to look elsewhere for a donor.

From my 85 Volvo Specifications book.

Length : 189.4"/481cm (USA Models) 192"/489cm (Canada models)
Width: 67.3"/171cm
Height: 56.3"/143cm (242,244) 57.5"/146cm (245)
Wheelbase: 104.3"/265cm
Ground clearance, full load: 4.7"/12cm
Track: 56.3"/143cm (Front) 53.5"/136cm (Rear)
Turning circle: 32.2ft/9.8m
--
85 245 DL - 91 Mazda MX6 Turbo

Heh. It might actually work, looking at the specs that t4d posted.
It doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. Remember that the Volvo
body is a unibody - a body with a frame built in - and the Blazer
is a body-on-frame truck. Dropping the Volvo body on to the Blazer
frame would result in a vehicle with two frames which would thus
be unnecessarily heavy. A more creative approach, like welding
only the front and rear sections of the Blazer's frame to the Volvo
unibody would probably work better. He'll then have the only 4WD
"240" on the block... ;)

Well, believe me, it wasn't MY idea- replacing a perfectly good Volvo motor with a Chevy motor (even if it is pre-'80s) doesn't make sense to me.

It'll never happen, anyway. My buddy Nate will find some creative way to destroy the truck before his "plan" comes to fruition. A couple years back he had a Ford F-250 4x4. He was driving it one day when BOTH back axles blew right out of the pumpkin (!) A "normal" person would call a flatbed, possibly from the local junkyard, right? Nah. His solution? Exactly- put the poor beast in four-low and drag it home.

perfectly good Volvo
motor with a Chevy motor (even if it is pre-'80s) doesn't make sense
to me.

What's wrong with Chevy motors? I had a 1992 Caprice with 190,000
miles on it, and there were no problems with the engine. The motor
was a cast iron version of the 350ci LT-1 engine used in the Corvette -
output was 275 hp, I believe. Gas mileage was almst as good as my 240,
believe it or not - mid to high '20s highway. Oh, to install one
of those motors (preferably with a 6-speed Tremec) in a 240...


-b.

I've got pretty limited experience of Chevy V8s, I'll admit- MOST of it good. And Nate's Blazer is a '60s-vintage, which automatically elevates it's ruggedness & reliability, IMO. My mother once had a '67 Malibu wagon w/ a 283- hell of a car.

You'll notice I did say "pre-80's". My prejudice stems from my experiences with 1980s & early-90s GM V6 FWD models. Universally, J-U-N-K.