My poor '89 Volvo 244. My relationship with it started when my mother purchased a 1991 Eagle Premier. My mother was not one of means, and as a single parent was just getting by. The Eagle was nice, modern, with lots of electronics... That all proceeded to stop working within a week. Naturally she took it back, and the only other car they had in her price range was this little 240 with peeling primer paint on the hood. We both looked at each other with a mix of uncertainty, but as it was the only option, that's what she got. Fast forward about 10 years of no maintenance, and it becomes my first car at 21. I had to buy it from my mom for $500, and it was the worst financial decision I've ever made. Through a conflict between two shops, I found out how easy they were to work on, as within the first week of ownership, I had to replace the radiator. Couple that with the early fuel injection that was mustering 12mpg due to none of the sensors working, I had a lot to do. Along the way of trying to get this old girl running right, I found aquaintences and community in Swedish minded gear heads that helped me out a lot. They also told me of the possibility of turbocharging, and what it could do. I lost all sense of reason at this point, and purchased parts with money I didn't have, to spend money to get the parts installed and running. I was immediately blown away by how much performance came from such a modest boost pressure of around 5psi. What could 8 do, 10, 15? Up and up it went until I preemptively swapped out my transmission for a unit meant to withstand such power, which failed. So we swapped in another unit, which failed. Then we went for another, and this one lasted a little while before I started to notice it wasn't shifting into it's final gear. So I decided at that point to go for broke, and do a t5 World Class transmission swap. Brand new Z-spec transmission and driveshaft from Jegs, brand new clutch, pressure plate, flywheel from Yoshifab. It took a few years for me to accumulate funds for this swap, as the 240 sat, waiting. I took it to a performance shop for the install, and other than the clutch being ridiculous, and the exhaust fumes coming up from the shifter, it did pretty good. Then came the new boost controller. I got a new boost controller that not only monitored pressure, but also monitored afr's through a wideband o2 sensor, so that if it ran lean, it would kill the boost. It did this from the beginning. I never figured out why, as when trying to diagnose the issue, I blew the motor. I down-shifted into 4th,hit the boost hard, and it stuttered and stumbled, before a loud bang, and debris went under the car. Surprisingly, I limped it 10 minutes home, puking oil and steam everywhere, stalling as it rolled into the garage. Teardown showed the #1 piston sitting diagonally in the cylinder. The con rod smashed through both sides of the block before becoming Bluetooth, and it still got me home. Now, she sits and waits as I am building a 16 valve motor, with forged internals. The build is going to take a while, but I'm working on it. Upgraded valve springs in the head, powder coated valve cover, slightly bored out block. It will run again.
