Here are a few pics of the installation of the '89 Volvo 740 radiator in the '78 Spider. On a side note, it just passed the LA county smog check...without a cat! Yeah, I'm pretty happy about that Now I just need to correct the popping from the exhaust- too rich methinks.


Overflow mounted in the stock location

This shows the very tight clearance between the back of the fan and the front pulley

...and the tight clearance around the belt/pulley

Wow that looks great. What did it cost/how difficult was the swap?

FiatforCupcake


I have the same setup. What did you use for a lower hose? I spent hours at autozone trying to find something that would match. I finally gave up and pieced something together.

Thanks,
Ralph

Cool mod! Any way you could put a thinner fan in like a spal?

It's been well documented here: http://mirafiori.com/faq/content/volvor ... adconv.htm

It cost $60 for the used radiator including the hoses, overflow bottle, and temp switch. The fan was $28 from a seller on eBay that operates here in Burbank.

For the lower radiator hose, I used one of the stock volvo hoses.

The way I installed the fan, I'm certain that you could put anything you want in there. I had just enough room for the one I used but, if you're worried about clearance, you could easily install a thinner unit the same way. I ran aluminum flat stock through the slots behind the upper and lower shroud mounting holes, bolted them up, and then drilled mounting holes into the aluminum for the fan mounting locations. Just don't try drilling the holes for your fan when the flat stock is still mounted to the radiator There is ZERO clearance behind the plates.

are you removing an upper hose to fill the system? The hose from the tank connects to the midpoint on the radiator, so filling the system would require more than filling the tank. The size of the rad looks good though

That is very "cool"

If you use the Volvo pressure bottle with the Volvo radiator conversion, you fill the system from the Volvo bottle just as the Volvo owner does. The bottle has both vent and liquid hose connection to the radiator. The pictures show the vent line correctly connected to the top corner of the radiator as well as a liquid line connected to the middle of the radiator.

Richard Ridge

the only issue i see is the expansion tank is mounted lower than the top of the radiator and the highest point in the cooling system needs to be the expansion tank cap or bleeding will become necessary. just my .02 worth

ps i am using a vw radiator in my zagato, nice aluminum drag racing thng

Yes, the bottle is installed too low in the picture. There is room to properly position the bottle higher on the rear firewall as Pininfarina did on the 85.5 model. The coolant level in the bottle should be the high point in the coolant system.

Any pressurized coolant bottle requires some air above the coolant to allow for expansion. The Volvo bottle requires more air than some because it has no overflow line. If the bottle is overfilled, coolant will simply exit out from under the pressure cap as the engine heats up and it will likely wind up on harness and ignition wires below.

Richard

I just finish my radiator conversion. Somebody early ask what is the cost, well, $81 for the radiator, $10 for the brackets, expansion tank and temperature sensor from junk yard, $40 on hoses and $70 on the electrical fan. For radiator lower hose I I used the standard Volvo hose,

Looks good, are you planning on going to the black pressure cap?

I got a green and a black one. The black is marked as 75 kpa and the green is 150 kpa, so I will replace the green with the black. Good catch because I was sure I used the one with lower pressure. Thank you