340 1.7, 5 gt turbo conversion

[nicksonmotorsportltd]

hi people, im new to the forum, i am a motorsport prep company specialising in rollcage fabrication, i am about to aquire a volvo 340 1.7 which i intend to use as a drift car as i am involved in the drift scence doing lots of rollcages and would like to actually do some driving as well. the car already has a few mods like lowered suspension and front struts, welded diff, minilites, and a few other bits and bobs.
it has the renault 1.7 engine which is a bit gutless.
im told the 16v engines from clio/19 is a simple and cost effective swap but i had a clio williams running 180 hp in the past and wasnt that impressed with the engine. i prefered a 200hp r5gtt i previously had.
going on this im thinkin of puttin the 1.4 r5gtt engine into my rhd 340 1.7
can any1 pls tell me what exactly i need in regards to parts. and any issues i may have to overcome. i realise the manifold may need modding to relocate the turbo to stop it fouling things.
also how does the transmission of a 340 cope with 160-200hp. and how can i improve it if needs be.
if any1 has any suggestions on other engines that i could use. turbo charged is the way i wanna go.
i know the 440/480 is possible but how tunable are these engines compared to the gtt lump.
i take it the larger turbo engines such as t5 2.3 are a lot more work.
pls advice. cheers

[-x-salmon-x-]

haha i know you or know of you, you just bought bennies 1.7 the guy you did the nice rollcage in the soarer for? right?

[nicksonmotorsportltd]

lol yeah, i aint bought it yet, but very likely i will. just doin a bit of reasearch on how i can make it go faster first
do i know u.

[-x-salmon-x-]

no you dont know me at least i dont think so lol. but im good friends with him, and i just sort of knew u were called nick and that bennie had just sold his to you and you do fabrication work. so yea. have you seen the car at all.

[nicksonmotorsportltd]

cool mate, i have not seen the car, just some pics, buyin on a whim really lol. looks pretty cool to me tho. will get me started in drifitng anyway for cheap, then can slowly add to it etc, then get summin better once im half decent.
will prob use it as a bit of a rolling advert aswell. put some stickers on it and do all the work myself, then take it to drift days and maybe get some work out of it at the same time as havin a laugh. may aswell chuck a decent cage in there lol.

[-x-salmon-x-]

haha lol yea its a good little car just needs a tad of tuning so it doesnt run so high, but its good fun. apart from i hate the the no grill on the front lol. and yea ive seen your work on your cages and would love you to do one in my volvo although i couldnt afford it but when i get my rx7 in a couple of years i will be finding you to get you to do me one and yea seeing you can do it yourself why not one in your own car and as you say good advertising.

[nicksonmotorsportltd]

im sure i can easily sort the idle out. ben said it only runs at 1500rpm anyways so its not to much of a problem. plus engine will be changed soon enough lol. i can do a cage to any spec mate, i can do cheap ones aswell as full blown ones. and if there were a few volvos wanting cages im sure i could do a good price. just so u know lol.
but yeah once u get your rex get in touch. info@nicksonmotorsport.co.uk will also have a website www.nicksonmotorsport.co.uk soon so keep an eye out and spread the word. i actually have an rx7 in the workshop right now in for a cage, then after that got another one in lol.

[-x-salmon-x-]

ah nice and yea i will get in touch once i get it, and yea it does its not too bad, but seems to loose some power becasue of it, but seeing your changing the engine thats ok, im changing mine to going for a 2 litre williams i think. will be enough with extra mods to make it drift easier. and how much would a cheaper cage be and what sort of structure would it be.

[nicksonmotorsportltd]

cool, cage prices depends entirely on the spec. i can do anythin from a simple hoop which is connected to the pillar by a few brackets, to a rear cage, to a full blown wrc spec cage. all depends on what u want and how many u wanted. if other volvos wanted them then a group buy could be sorted and a big saving would be made.
do u know much about puttin r5gtt into 340 then, and also how transmission will hold up with 200plus hp.

[-x-salmon-x-]

dont know much about the r5gtt or at 200 plus i think i have read that it can cope but u may be forced to uprate or change components at some point, but not too sure but alot of guys on here know their stuff so they would give you better answers. and i think i have seen a few people on here that are or have been interested in cages so yea i am interested in a lower end one as at the end of the day it is only a volvo so dont wanna go to mad on it and have a cage worth more than the car lol. but yea i would be interested at some point in a basic and low key sort of cage.

[kaos]

R5GTT engine you will require:

1.4 sump
1.4 bell housing
1.4 engine mounts
1.4 water pipes
1.4 alternator brackets( i assume)
1.4 clutch cable


that should be it. Others will add more stuff to it.

340 drive gear with 200bhp should cope if everythings bolted up right etc, a few people on here have had problems with breaking props more than anything.


cages, eyh im sure the majority of people here would love a cage!, i'd love one but way cheaper than safety devices prices! full cage, door bars maybe( depends on my audio build.)

[pistonpen paultje]

Why don't you go for the B18FT -> 1.8 turbo of a 440/460/480. Thats the same basic block as a 1.7 340 (F-type renault) When tuned it can cope with even more power than a GTT. The user Frits did this conversion (1.4 to 1.4 GTT). but its one of the hardest swaps there is. Plus you need all kinds of other parts of a 1.4 (C-type renault)

[nicksonmotorsportltd]

thanks kaos, seems pretty simple to me really. i think the turbo location is the hardest bit.
with regard to cages, how much do sd charge and whats included.
the cages i do are of a much higher std than any off the shelf item, so u will have to pay a small premium, but depending on what people want and how many r wanted i can usually do a decent price.
can people tell me more about the 440/480 turbo engine. where do i find info on tuning them. what sort of power is easily achievable.

[kaos]

SD was the following (this info supplied via the people i would have had to ordered through)

The full cage would be £638+carr+vat

This isn't a stock item, so we would order it in for you (20% deposit needed).

The standard spec is...
4point rear cage, with single fixed diagonal
Front cage consisting of 2 front side bars, the top cross bar, and 2 removable door bars, creating a 6point full cage.
Additionally, we spec a rear horizontal bar for the harnesses within this price.

which is what i want, although i have a sun roof but £638 is a bit much.

[Chris_C]

Must ring up and find how much they'd charge me for the front bars, I've got a rear sat here.

Turbo is 125stock, but chippable to 175 with lots of torque on the stock T2. Have a look round 480 club europe and you'll learn a fair amount.