1990 Volvo 740 Wagon - V8 340hp Swap - 5spd - Richmond, Va - $4000

1990 Volvo 745 GLE - Ford V8 swap Ford Racing Crate engine/T5 trans swap $4,000.

I have only had this Volvo for a few months as I bought it as a non-running project and have gotten it to the point of starting and running, but do not have any more time to put towards it. When I took ownership of this wagon it had a full tank of very smelly, bad gas in it. The engine would turn over, but wouldn't fire a single time. I put new plugs in it, dumped out about half the tank of gas (took forever and I got impatient) and then refilled it with 5 gallons of fresh 93. After that it actually fired and came to life. It smoked for a little bit then cleared up and idled nice and solidly after I fixed a few vacuum leaks. Below is a video of the wagon idling so you can hear how it sounds.

The car idled for around 10mins and I drove it around my building to make sure the clutch/trans was happy and it did fine. By the time I parked it again it started misfiring and smelling of bad gas again. Soon it had fouled a plug or two and I shut it off. Now it takes some effort to try and retire it, but I know for certain that the bad gas needs to be fully drained out of it, probably fresh plugs again (they are less than $2/ea) and it should fire up like a champ.

I am selling this wagon AS IS and in it's currently non-running condition

The crate engine alone that is in this wagon sells for over $3,700 and thats just the long block, not including the intake manifold/fuel system/exhaust/etc. The T5 transmission in this wagon was brand new at the time of the swap, not used or rebuilt. The entire drivetrain has approximately 13-14k miles on it total, thats it. Even if you wanted to buy this wagon just for the drivetrain for another project it would still be a good deal! Here is a link to the engine: http://www.americanmuscle.com/frpp-306ci-crate-engine.html A very common choice for Factory Five Roadsters or countless other kit cars.

All the details for the entire car are listed below:

Body: Slate Grey Metallic Electric sunroof Paint in average condition. Hood and sunroof clearcoat flaking off. Minor rock chips and scratches typical of car’s age.

Body Mods: 760 aero-style headlights with factory foglights next to grill. Factory 760 turbo egg-crate grill. Factory Volvo V-90 door handles. Factory Volvo sunroof deflector/shade. Turbo style blacked out trim. Blacked out emblems. Factory Volvo V-90 power, tinted, heated outside mirrors. Side turn-signal repeaters. Factory trailer hitch (not currently installed.)

Issues: Body does have small dings and scratches. No major damage. NO rust.

Interior: Black Leather interior in good shape. Driver’s seat bottom and LR passenger seat bottom have broken stitching. Leather is not torn. Power, leather driver’s seat New black headliner Heated front seats Power windows Central locking Factory 3rd seat Factory dog gate Rosewood dash trim Momo leather steering wheel with Volvo badged horn button. (Factory air-bag wheel included) Factory Voltmeter and Oil Pressure gauges (working) Tachometer correctly recalibrated to reflect V-8 Correct 5-speed console and pedals

Issues: Dash has cracks typical of 740’s Car has a small electical short that drains the battery after a week or two. Radio not working

Suspension: Wagon equipped with 11.25” Girling disc brakes with Anti-lock (largest ever offered on 740’s) w/ recent fluid flush Lowered diesel wagon springs Bilstein front struts Tokico rear shocks IPD swaybars IPD polyurethane front bushings Factory 4.10 rear gears New alignment Recent strut bearings (>1 year) AT Italia 16 x 7 5-spoke wheels with new Kumho 712 tires

Drivetrain: (drivetrain has ~12,500 miles) Ford Motorsport 5.0 liter crate motor (340 horsepower) Includes: Aluminum heads X-303 camshaft Ford Racing valve covers Roller valve train (lifters and rocker arms) Ford Cobra intake Ford 30 lb/hr injectors Ford Racing 9mm ignition wires Ford A9P engine computer Pro-M mass air meter (calibrated for 30 lb. injectors) BBK chrome headers with 2 ½” true-dual exhaust. Both pipes exit side-by-side at stock location K&N style air cleaner Ford Mustang radiator (NO overheating issues) 3 electric radiator fans 1 pusher fan (factory Volvo, activated by AC) 2 puller fans (1 thermostatically activated, 1 activated by switch on dash as backup) MSD Blaster coil Ford Racing King-Cobra clutch Ford T-5 transmission (new, not rebuilt or used) New AC compressor (not charged) New AC Dryer Exhaust has twin catalysts installed. Factory air pump is installed but not plumbed. All emissions equipment is available and will be included. When hooked up, car can be made 100% emissions legal.

Issue: A/C system hooked up but will not turn on

If you have any additional questions please let me know.

Thanks, -kevin

Video of it idling: http://youtu.be/NlCh5gvGfns

Damn. Very nice car. Hell of a first post.

What are the chances it's just bad gas? Why wouldn't you take it somewhere and have the gas flushed and good gas put in if it's just that?

What's the history on the car - who built it and did you buy it from the builder? Had they given up on it because of the running condition?

dculberson wrote: Damn. Very nice car. Hell of a first post. What are the chances it's just bad gas? Why wouldn't you take it somewhere and have the gas flushed and good gas put in if it's just that? What's the history on the car - who built it and did you buy it from the builder? Had they given up on it because of the running condition?

These are excellent questions sir. So much want.

This car is haunting me. I wish it could make the drive from Richmond to Columbus. I'll be within a couple hours drive of it this weekend.

Great questions and glad you asked them.

I run a shop myself and have multiple ongoing projects at any given time. I actually have 2 other older BMWs that I need to sell as well before I close on a house on the 25th of this month. Time is VERY tight for me currently and the unneeded projects must go, therefore all forward progress on getting them running, or registered, or driving has come to a hault. I know I could make a little more money if I put forth the time, but I'm rarely in town on my weekends off and have very, very limited time to get any of my own cars in the shop for work. Anyone that runs/works at a shop I'm sure knows my pain here. My lifts are full of cars to make money with and make customers happy!

The car was built by a man I have never met. I'm the 3rd owner of this car post-swap. As I was told by the seller I bought it from, the person who did the swap had done quite a few of these in the past. This wasn't his first time putting a V8 of any sort into a Volvo and it shows as the car is not hacked up or ruined in any way via the V8 being shoe-horned into the engine bay. The parts that were used were not cheap by any means and this isn't a junkyard swap. He purchased a brand new crate engine from Ford Racing and a brand new T5 transmission to go behind it. Thats not what a hack shadetree mechanic would do (in my opinion). This swap is done quite nicely and sold to the guy I bought it from back in 2006. The car was driven around the city (Richmond, Va) for 7yrs covering the 13-14k miles described above. The wagon had no issues throughout his ownership and was a very reliable form of transportation.

The wagon actually arrived at my shop in non-running condition. The owner had no real intentions of selling it to me, but my shop was given the task of getting it running so he could make the decision on if he wanted to sell it or not. He told me that the wagon had sat for quite some time and when he returned to finally try and crank it, it wouldn't fire. The battery of course was dead, but even when you jumped it, it wouldn't fire. You could SMELL the bad gas the second the car arrived at my shop. It sat outside for a few days while we tried to work it into the schedule and throughout just casual conversation via email I ended up making an offer on the car AS IS that the seller couldn't refuse.

I bought the wagon and then the curse of running your own shop took over and it sat for even longer. It sat for well over a month before I could even spend an hour on it swapping plugs. I did the gas dump, fresh plugs, fresh gas, jump box routine and thats when it fired to life and idled...after chasing down countless vac leaks. I took the video of it idling, buttoned everything back up, ran inside, washed my hands, and headed to dinner.

It's been sitting there ever since. My contract on a house (of which I started this process in May...short sales shouldn't be called SHORT anything) was finally approved July 25th and I have 30 days until closing. I'm now in panic mode to cut down my fleet, gang up money, and downsize. I absolutely wanted to have this wagon in my arsenal of cars and it was neat enough that I even jumped to buy it without even looking it over. Once I got it running and heard that the engine was healthy (as the owner assured me and he was quite an honest/trustworthy person), I was quite happy with it. It still needs some work, sure, but its a project and the main guts of the build are very solid.

Sadly I haven't had any time to bond with the wagon, so I can't really say that it hurts to sell, but it also sucks to find such a cool project and have it dropped in my lap and now I'm forced to be responsible and turn it back into cash so I can be a home owner....aka, house poor.

If anyone has any additional questions please ask away, I'm hiding nothing and will answer everything!

A potential "track brick". Frack and frell, why now, with too many bills and not enough folding green, does this show up? The gods have forsaken me!

Waitasec. I have a credit card, and a trailer. I also have a sig-other who'd Gibbs-smack me into next week.

Decisions, decisions.

By the way, the wagon is being sold by Kevin Adolf, regular GRM photog. So, yeah, hell of a first post.

I'm too busy taking pics and fixing cars to internet. I might be a forum n00b, but I promise I'm not an idiot.

+1 for Kevin... very trustworthy fella. Someone buy this car!

Jon

flimflammedia wrote: It's been sitting there ever since. My contract on a house (of which I started this process in May...short sales shouldn't be called SHORT anything) was finally approved July 25th and I have 30 days until closing.

Ha, you're not joking. I'm in the same boat myself but on an REO property. We've been working on buying something for a year and a half now and had one short sale process flunk out (not in the 30 day window, you're set it sounds like) and now we're finally closing on another house the 21st. It's a rehab of course so time availability is a huge factor to me. Hence the "wish it was running and driving."

Let me think about this and get back to you.

sounds like "trade for E12" is not an option. very cool wagon, GLWS!

If only you were interested in trading for a snapon box...

AngryCorvair wrote: sounds like "trade for E12" is not an option. very cool wagon, GLWS!

It would have to be a pretty awesome E12.

corytate wrote: If only you were interested in trading for a snapon box...

It would have to be a SnapOn box with $4000 in it.

flimflammedia wrote:

corytate wrote: If only you were interested in trading for a snapon box...

It would have to be a SnapOn box with $4000 in it.

lol. Touche.

Looking to do a partial trade on a 911 track project?

markwemple wrote: Looking to do a partial trade on a 911 track project?

Sounds interesting. Email me details - kevin@performanceautosport.com

Just sent e-mail.

I put a 350 SBC with a 700R4 in an '81 Diesel 244 back in the '90's with a kit from Viking Motorsports. It was a blast, even used it as a drive around car for my second SCCA school at Road Atlanta. John Williams driving/instructing, me, Chet Whittel and another guy as students! Good times, Good times! GLWTS! Mike

Lots of interest, no buyers.

Make me an offer I can't refuse!

Someone go to my trailer thread and buy it so I can put a deposit on this wagon!

SOLD.

Congratulations

I hope the new owner posts up a thread in the build section here.