THE AMAZING AMAZON STORY
This is the story of an old volvo 122s in sweden
In sweden volvo122 was called volvo amazon
The birthyear of this car was 1965 and it was the sportversion
with the B18 engine with 2 SU carburators .
And the transmission was the m41 with electrical overdrive.
The first owner lived in Borlange and owned the car for over
20 years.
Then a girl was looking for an car and saw
this one for sale without engine and transmission .
Her boyfriend at the time helped her to fix an engine
that become a realy fun thing.
It was an B18 that was overborred to B20 it had forged pistons
and a S-camshaft (very good at high RPM)ported head
And double Weber 40 carburators and a sport distributor.
The transmission was a fourspeed M40
Now the car was running really fast, how fast nobody know
the speedometer only reach to 180 km/h !!
The car had a little rust so her boyfriend goes to the garage to
fix it...and things got out of hand and the car becomed customized
in the front and rear (Micke really likes customizing)he shaved the
roofrail and primed the car .(it also had some scallops)
Later he painted the car yellow and she made an new interior
in white vinyl.
Her next boyfriend inserted the licensplate in the rear bumper .
Finally i come in the picture...now its 1992...
I meet the girl on a party and a little later we become a pair.
I made an front bumper and start frenched the front lights.
The car become thirsty and we tried to change the webers and
installed a single stromberg instead...
It didnt help so much...it only become slower.
The engine didnt like the stromberg
(probably becouse the camshaft was worned)
and it was very hard to get started on the mornings.
We decided to get an donator-car with an fresh engine.
Luckely the donator-car was in good shape on the most part
(but it was very rusty)
The amazon become more rusty and really
getting worn out everywere.....
After a little fire in the cables under the panel
She was so tired of the car that she wanted a better car.
she gave the amazon to me and
almost the same time we separated. (now its 1996)
And i got a lot of spare time to spend on the car...
The car needed a complete rust job...
I changed front , both front fenders , one door , hood and trunkhood ,
I changed all floor pans...and when i was in on it i finished and changing
the customized parts everywere
(some of the rear bumber is now upside down in the front)
I chopped the roof (the roof is from the donatorcar)2 inches
and now i got the droprail in place again...i think it looks better.
I spend over 2 weeks to get the doors in line so it feels like an mercedes
(almost) many of my friends said that i was crazy but what do i care :)
After 6 months of welding and grinding i painted it by my self
in a darkblue colour in a garage.
I fixed the old solid volvo 444 wheels so its now 6 and 7 inches wide
(in the front i had it fixed at both way so the steering-angle is right)
I changed the frontseat to a pair of Nissan seats and build an consolle in
aluminium
And when i got the chance to buy an B23 engine with M46
i change the engine...
No ...it wasnt so easy...it took me over a month.
I still use the amazon original hydraulic clutchcylinders .
and the original radiator with an electric fan.
The engine swap was much better then i first belived
The noise in the car was changed ...the car feel a lot newer and
the performance is like an new car ..topspeed 180km/h.
0-100 km/h about 8,5 sek...gas milage is down to 8liters 100km.
I used the car everyday in winter and the car worked well...
I used the car hard and after a couple of years it getting feeling week.
And at spring 2000 when a rusty volvo 244 turbo
comes in my way i bought it
It become a donator car and i took the B21 ET engine,
m46transmission, front and rear ends.(need the brakes)
This engine swap has become a little more tricky...i had to weld a new
exhaust system to make room for the turbo
i used 42x3mm tubes and tried to have all in the same lenght
after a couple of weeks it fits perfect...maybe its a little high.
The turbo hits almost in the hood when its closed.
some more hood customizing is to expect.
I got an mechanical fuelinjektion from an B21 E that maybe
fits a little better then the original B21ET ..i,m not sure yet.
its very tight everywere....hmm..what should i do?
I,m gonna put an half Scania intercooler in the front somewhere.
but where?...there is no space
So then...Ops i did it again
things got of my hands again.....now it gonna be some
chassi improvment too...
The front suspension i,m gonna change to an volvo 140
to get the spindles to fit the 240 turbo ventilated discbrakes.
The rearend is gonna be the stronger #1031 rearend from
the 240 turbo with discbrakes
I dont have so much spare time to
use on this car...but a couple of minutes a day is a lot of
hours on a year...
This is a lowbudget project and the total cost over the years
is what i earn on a month on my job.
This projekt is not getting finished this year ,
But...i hope it maybe on the road summer 2005
And hopefully the time on the quartermiles is below 15seconds.
This picture was taken in nov 2004..notice the dust layer on the car.
I'm a little confused about vacum and fuel lines...
The B21ET engine is in place with the mild ported B23 head
(its the standard head b23 head...cast no: ????)
the 405 or 531 is a better performance head but this is a budget project)
I used the camshaft from the B21 E engine and i'm gonna make the
camshaft wheel (?) adjustible about 5 degres
Stay tuned