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From Swedespeed.com Feature Cars My son fell in love with the poor old 122S one day while we were looking for a car for him. It was in reasonable shape, and the people who were selling it insisted it had a rebuilt motor and much, much more. He was 19 at the time and thought the car was terribly exotic and unusual. I had never owned a Volvo before, but remembered test-driving a new 1800E in 1971. I couldn't afford that Volvo and wound up with a Firebird. I could afford this one, however, and after a bit of haggling we drove away with a 1968 2 door 122S, sort of greenish ivory in color, brown interior, no rust and an alleged rebuilt motor with Weber Carb conversion. The kid was pretty happy with the car, and drove it all over. There were a couple of mishaps, a broken timing chain was the memorable one, but by and large the old car did pretty well. Then things changed.
We got a B20F from Revolvo in Tucson and took it apart. The cylinder head went out to Huffaker Engineering at Sears Point for porting, polishing and combustion chamber work, while the bottom end was bored by a local performance machine shop. We began to put the engine together. Carlo insisted on a D grind camshaft and racing valve springs. He just doesn't like the hotter cams in street cars. About this time the painter finished with the car, and we had it hauled on a flatbed to Carlo's shop. We dug around and came up with all the CIS fuel injection parts we would need and began trying to fit that system into the limited space in the 122 engine compartment. During this time I read an article that said it was impossible to adapt the CIS system to a 122. I didn't show that to Carlo. We relocated the battery to the trunk, and mounted the fuel distributor in the battery well. Keith was staying up nights at this point thinking about how we would work out all the details. He was really remarkable in his ability to adapt and engineer great solutions. One great day, we installed the engine and transmission. Getting the M41 transmission in required us to cut the transmission tunnel to allow room for the short shift linkage. Volvo still makes a sheet metal part that adapts the transmission tunnel to fit the M41. We bought one and pop riveted it in place. The car now ran, and you could tell it was very powerful, but every time you took a left turn the engine would die. We determined it was surge in the fuel tank starving the high-pressure fuel pump the CIS system requires. We pulled out the gas tank, got a tank from a 240, cut the baffle system and pre-pump mount out of the 240 tank and welded it in. The 122 tank had to be made taller to accommodate the pre-pump, so that added a complication or two. We added a Jacobs electronic ignition system, an IPD header, an electric fan, and all sorts of other performance stuff. We think the engine makes about 160 - 170 HP. It is a little quirky because with the cylinder head modifications, header, and free flow exhaust (it is a little noisy) the power band is really in the top end of the rev range. The car is very quick, goes to 100MPH easily and is still pulling strong and with the overdrive cruises at freeway speed at about 3000 RPM.
We finished the car off with a pair of Recaro seats, new aftermarket instruments and tach. We did not put the rear seat back in, instead carpeted the floor all the way to the rear shelf. I added a nice stereo system with a CD Player. In the spirit of "no project is ever finished" after driving the car for a while I decided it really needed four-wheel disc brakes (like a fish needs a bicycle). I found a rear end from a 1970 1800E and Carlo found us a posi-traction unit. I bought new rotors and calipers. We cross drilled the rotors and painted the calipers red so they look like Brembo stuff. Of course changing to the newer rear end meant the lug bolt pattern changed so I had to get new wheels. I chose some 17" Oz racing wheels for a C70 and had spacers made to correct the offset. You don't see 122s with 17" wheels too often. The car works very well. It has been on some long road trips and does very well. Except for the lack of air conditioning it is as comfortable as a newer car. It has now won several awards at national Volvo shows and every now and then I enter it in a local car show where they think it should have a V-8 in it and are disappointed when it doesn't. It is very fragile because of its lack of bumpers and chrome "ding" strips on the side. I don't usually drive it unless I know exactly where I am going to park, and I don't leave it in parking lots or parked on the street. With those limitations, I really have a ball with it. People surround it whenever we take it out, and holler compliments as we drive down the street.
We entered it in the May Madness classic car show and parade here in San Rafael, and were one of two foreign cars of the 250 entries. When it was our turn to drive by the announcers stand in the parade, the whole crowd was yelling Volvo! Volvo!, Volvo!. Marin County is the Volvo Wagon capital of the world and everyone seemed really thrilled to see an old one fixed up. My wife wasn't nearly as excited as I was about this. From her position, curled up in the passenger foot well, she said, "Somehow this isn't how I pictured living my life". I couldn't really hear her above the crowd noise. My son now wants to buy the car back. We have yet to agree on a price. He is thinking in terms of what I paid him for it 5 years ago and I would like to recoup 50% of what I have sunk in it. We are a long ways apart. Yeah, I spent more money than I will ever get back. This isn't an investment, it is just fun.
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