Brighter lights, Better sound and More power please

[volvological]

Hi there, great forum by the way, ive found out how to rewire my tailgate and fix my heated sets already!. I own a 93' 240 Torslander estate and like a lot of later 240's, it seems the headlamp reflectors have desilvered themselves. My local dealership quoted me approx £55 per reflector! for replacements which whilst i'm not surprised about, seems a bit steep. Is there any way to respray these/repair them etc or does anybody have any for sale / have any details of a cheaper source.

I am also considereing a speaker replacements in the car, I think that the present system has oem 10cm coax units to the front and 13cm woofer/tweeter components in the rear doors. All these units have seen better days. I am therefore considering replacing them with alpine 'custom' series loudspeakers do give greater clarity, has anybody tried this conversion, has anybody any advice to offer?

Finally, my 240 is fitted with the B200k (catylyst) engine, and whilst this is a briliant engine, it is slightly hindered by the weight of the car, knowing that the engine has some version of Bosch Efi, has anybody 'superchipped' this engine with any useful increase in power?. I understand that a lot depends on the condition of the engine.

Any help on these matters would be greatly appreciated

Steve

get new lights from a scrapyard/volvo breakers - should cost you less than £20 per complete light unit

[Clifford Pope]

If you can get them out! The fixing nuts are notorious for rusting solid, and the hexagonal bolt heads are held only in the plastic moulding. Any I have ever tried to remove have simply twisted in the plastic and wrecked the assembly. Then you have to get your own undone.
Europarts or German/Swedish are cheaper, I think.

[chris m]

Hi Steve

Concerning your engine: Isn´t a B200F fitted with a Bosch LH 2.4 Jetronic fuel injection?
Generally speaking, the 240 doesn`t weigh that much, your Torslanda should be around 1350kg. Compare that to todays Ford Focus (or Volvo S40/V50 if you like), they carry at least 100kg more with them!
Problem with the B200 engine is, it was just introduced to markets which where in need of engines under 2liter to avoid higher tax. The "proper" engine for the late 240 has 2.3 liter.
I never heard a positive thing about superchipping a non-turbo Volvo engine and I don`t know if there are some chips on the market for your car. My opinion: if you really want more power, fit a B230 engine and you will be surprised, how nice your 240 drives. And if that`s not enough, you will add a turbo later on;)

Cheers, Chris

[ravennexus]

first thing for more power in any B200/230F is to toss the M grind camshaft in the bin, it's junk. it was made for emissions purposes for the US, stick an A,V,K or if you can find one a H cam in there and you'll be alot better off.

[volvological]

Cheers for all the advice guys, i found new reflectors at German and Swedish for £20 which are on the way to me, I suppose my next task is to disassemble the originals! It's probably not gonna be worth upgrading my existing engine by the sounds of it, but may consider installing a larger turbo-charged engine later on, the car feels like it easily cope with a more powerful unit.

Thanks again

Steve

[ravennexus]

goto where ihang out

http://forums.turbobricks.com/

[cbyard]

A bit squalid, but having encountered the twisting bolts in the lamp units, I resorted to the angle grinder... this melted the plastic but at least got the units out in one piece more or less. To replace them I tidied up the melted holes as best as possible (with a Stanley knife) then used some brass M6 screws with D shaped cut down washers soldered to them to spread the load and provide anti rotation properties. You can then fix the screws in the lamp unit with some silcone sealer to stop them falling out on replacement (and stop water getting in afterwards).

Some brass nuts and star washers co,plete the refix, though I doubt the car will last long enough for anyone to appreciate the fact the the nuts will now always come off again!

If you costed the time, I'm sure new units would be MUCH cheaper, but.....

Chris

[ravennexus]

true my 244 falied the MOT as the lights were to low due to adjusters seized. also bad reflectors too, so i just replaced the whole lot.

[volvological]

Well ive got my brighter lights, thanks for the advice on rusted headlamp bolts, i gave them a good dose of plus gas dismantling fluid before i took the headlights out, and the nuts came off no problem. The replacement relectors from German and Swedish came with all the parts required, clips, replacement seal etc to replace all the bits you break when dismantling the headlight units!. Its been a a new experience driving at night over this weekend, i can finally see where i'm going!.

Next job to sort the front bumper out

Cheers

Steve