Quote:
Originally Posted by v8volvo
What are you planning to run for rear gears? I assume that B21 car probably has a 3.54 or 3.73 in it? Turning those big swampers may be interesting if it's got a tall gear in it, stock TD/M46 is 3.54 in a 7 series, and it's short enough that 1st gear is pretty limited but with those shoes I would not want it any taller than that.
Since you live in a hot part of the world, what are your plans for cooling? Common challenge for these, especially for mountain driving on hot days -- you probably will want as much radiator as you can get in it.
Will be fun to watch it come together, if it turns out like some of the others you showed above, should be very impressive!  |
Currently my lifted 245 has a 3.91 R&P and the donor car has a 3.73 in it. I'll try the current 3.91 first (no work) and see how it goes. It should be really close to where I THINK I want it. 2500rpm at 70mph with the 28.9" tall tires. I mostly want something I can cruise comfortably at 70mph and still get good fuel mileage so I'm probably going to have to experiment a bit with these big tires and the D24T I'm not super familiar with. Just crossing my fingers the d24t torque will maintain that speed easily at that rpm and still get close to the 38+mpg I'm getting spoiled with.
As far as cooling, it hasn't been an issue yet with the current set-up in the donor, so I'll transfer all that over. It has an Auto-Meter water temp gauge and EGT gauge so I monitor the temps all the time. 180* at 0-3psi, 195* at 5psi (sustained highway cruising) and 210* at 10psi sustained (long uphill mountain). I'm not opposed to a larger aluminum aftermarket radiator if I start having problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by v8volvo
BTW, nice work on the PS bracket -- their main failure point is the skinny lower ear and even that only really fails due to mechanic error, but boxing it like that certainly can't hurt it anyway.
One thing to note, that's a 740 bracket which is slightly different than the 240 design, the 240 moves the pump down on the bracket about an inch further to make room for the upper rad hose to wrap around it. Not a problem if you're going to run 700 style hoses and rad like your donor car has, but if you want to use the original 200 series setup you'll need a different bracket or will have to get creative with the hose.
The 700 design is less prone to breakage of that lower ear so wouldn't be bad to use it if it works, especially now that you've improved it further -- but worth keeping in mind as you plan the cooling system.
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I just picked up a 240 power steering bracket at PNP. So I'll try to run that unless I run into problems.
I'm getting really anxious to start this swap as I'm tired of the boring stock looking 245 donor. Unfortunately I'm out of town for a few weeks and have a few other projects so my plate is pretty full at the moment. The "pretty" swap might get post-poned until later as I'd really like to get this swapped into my lifted wagon asap. Spending 3-6 months on making it all perfect isn't very realistic for me right now.
I do love the D24T so far though. I like the way it cruises, billowing black smoke at the whim of my right foot and of course the fuel mileage is amazing. I'm up over 39mpg on this trip with mostly flat highway.