That’s right, the Trolvo’s back! It’s been several months since you last saw the Swedish brick, back when we had just got the beefed-up rear end back from Mobile Diff Repairs and were getting it ready to slap back into the car.

For a quick recap, the Trolvo is our Volvo 240 with a single-turbo Toyota 1JZ motor and Turbo 400 gearbox, making well over 400rwhp. To date, it has run a PB of 10.95@124mph down the strip.

However, the diff was still standard, and after snapping a few axles, we decided it needed an upgrade to match the rest of the drivetrain so we could chase nines.

Scotty sourced a beefy set of 30-spline axles and a Torsen LSD from the Volvo wizards at GZ Racing in Sweden, before handing the parts to Matt from Mobile Diff Repairs, who fitted them to our standard housing with a set of 3.45:1 gears.

The Trolvo was then put on ice while Scotty knuckled under to get his dad’s VE Valiant ute done, but with that project finished (for now, at least), his attention has turned back to the red brick.

We’ve committed to racing both the Trolvo and Supermang at Haltech’s Birthday Bash at Sydney Dragway on 18 December, which leaves just under a month to get the car ready.

This episode focuses on installing the upgraded rear end. While Mobile Diff Repairs sorted the actual diff out, Scotty still had to fit all-new bushes into the rear end to stop it getting floaty in the top end – which isn’t hard to do at over 120mph!

He also decided to strengthen the lower rear arms by boxing in the lower sections. The Trolvo bent one of the upper arms last time it was at the track at Heathcote when it proved its 10-second capability, so we knew that any added strength in the rear end would be time well spent.

With the rear end installed, Scotty’s attention now turned to the 1JZ mill. It’s run faultlessly since day one, but in the pursuit of more power, he decided to fit an upgraded pair of camshafts.

Because of the high-tech nature of these JZ engines, the best practice when upgrading bumpsticks is to remove the whole head and get the professionals to machine and fit them to avoid any headaches.

The plan now is to get the head back from the machinists with the fresh new cams, bolt it back on with some head studs and then run this thing back up on the dyno to see how much more juice we can squeeze from the stock-bottom-end 1JZ. You’ll see all that in future episodes of Carnage!