Boxy, but good. 1989 Volvo 740
Discussion
After I posted this:
picture in the 'Show us your ovloV' thread, an old friend who is fanatical about both cars and guitars noted it had to be worth a readers cars thread.
I have a thread on the owners club forum which has also turned into a project blog, and never got round to starting one here, so I'll copy as many of the salient points over to bring us up to date..
This first Mammoth post will be buying the car, and getting it ready to daily drive...
May 6th, 2023:
The last one of these I had was back in 2007, when you could buy them for £225 with a long MOT and 4 spare wheels in the back!
Having finally admitted after six months that I simply didn't like the way my C70 convertible drives (and the fact that my daughter actively hated it), my wife and I agreed I would get it through the MOT and sell it and return to what I originally wanted to do when I decided to give my company car back, which was to find an uncomplicated redblock engined saloon in decent condition to use and tinker with, which prior to Christmas seemed almost impossible without travelling hundreds of miles to look at rusty things.
Lying in bed one Sunday morning looking at my wifes facebook (I don't do 'the socials', and an '89 G reg 744GL appeared reasonably locally - 82k miles on the clock, looked fairly tidy, and a nice clean MOT history confirming the mileage, so we arranged to go and see it the next day after work.
I was determined not to mess this up, so I made myself a list of everything I wanted to check, everywhere I wanted to look for rust, everything I wanted to see.
I spent an hour going over the car, I lay down on the wet road to check the usual rust traps and it passed everything on my list, There was no rust in any of the usual structural places. The only faults of note I could find were already noted by the seller - the back box was rotted out, both rear lights were leaking, and one was cracked. There are a few dings that I reckon a decent paintless dent remover could fix.
It's only a lowly B200E with 119hp, but I was prepared to compromise on that (at least temporarily
) since the rest of the car was sound.
Couple of minor things like the electric aerial doesn't work, a heat crack on the dash and its probably going to require some dedicated waxing to keep it red.
The car drove like something 1/4 of its age. I went back 5 years through service history and couldn't find any evidence of the cambelt having been done so managed to knock a bit off for that and the exhaust, did the deal at the princely sum of £1800 and set off for home, me in the C70 and my wife in the 740.
I literally said to my wife, "We'll get it home, park it up and do the belt and exhaust before it moves again".
Should have kept my mouth shut:
I was so embarrassed I didn't tell anyone for 2 days until I had time to a) calm down, and b) investigate what had happened.
You could choose any tooth at random, and just peel it off the belt with light pressure!
Somehow, the crank managed to do at least 320 degrees independent of the cam, got round to the point where it created enough compression to fire, and kept running!
I was pretty sure that the Kjet motors were interference, but found conflicting opinions on this both here and on other forums. My last experience of a cambelt snap (on a diesel S40) resulted in a s/h head going on as the valve guides were mangled, so I was contemplating a head or even a whole engine going into it, but a post on the 'cambelt horror stories' thread over on the 200 series forum persuaded me to throw a belt on it to see, so a genuine belt and the crank tool (I can't be doing with jamming the ring gear these days!) was duly ordered.
It's more of an adoption pack.
The car was originally a demonstrator for Fisher's of Buckland, with the first owner paying £11,200 for it in June '90 (less the part exchange of a Y reg Golf) and kept it for just shy of 30 years
There is a copy of the invoice, a copy of the cheque used to pay for it, a newspaper clipping about the salesman - a Mike Simmonds, - who sold the car. A copy of a completed questionaire about why the original owner chose the car and how they were getting on with it.
There is almost every old tax disc, a copy of every single MOT from when it was 3 years old, a file of correspondence with the servicing dealers and every single invoice.
A bit of research also turned up this!:
https://www.carandclassic.com/magazine/classified-...
As well as a twitter thread from a previous owner where (on the bit I could see without a login) it sounds like the car very very narrowly avoided being banger raced before he rescued it.
The oil has been changed every six months without fail, right up until a few months ago. Sadly, for some reason they stopped changing the cambelt in 2008??
First I pulled off the camshaft sprocket to make sure the key hadn't been sheared - all good there.
Next I spent some time cleaning all the bits of old belt out from between the teeth, and checked the harmonic balance damper thingy hadn't spun - all good there (so the crank MUST have done at least 320deg, to end up ~40deg behind the cam!)
After all that the belt was refitted, checking It was definitely at for TDC for Cyl1 by looking in through the plug hole, and checking the cam lobes were obliquely up through the oil cap. Using the marks on the volvo belt I ensured the intermediate sprocket was timed, even though that doesn't actually matter on these, and then, after having spun it over by hand a few times there was nothing for it but to stick the plugs back in, hook up the battery and turn the key.
This is actually two videos smooshed together - the first start was with no other belts on, as I thought it would be immediately obvious if there was a cylinder with no compression.
The second part is once I had put the alt/water pump belts back on, run it up to temperature and adjusted the idle speed back down (aa guy had wound it up to keep it going so it could be driven about a mile to a layby so he could safely load it up - it hadn't broken down in a nice location)
May 8th 2023:
It was only raining a little bit this morning, and my compression tester (I wouldn't save it was especially expensive -it cost £40 rather than £15 - but the braided hose still spun in the fitting and I had to uses some pliers to remove it from the engine.. I wouldn't want to thread it into a twin cam engine.) and new feeler gauges had arrived yesterday, so I set about my investigations.
First I started the car up and ran it up to temperature at idle - It was a little lumpy when cold - then shut it off and removed all the spark plugs.
Removed fuses 1 and 11 (Main pump/ignition and in-tank pump), hooked the battery up to the C70 on some jump leads to make sure that was consistent, screwed the tester into No1 cylinder, held the throttle wide open and turned the key.
Nothing.
After a few moments of confusion, and checking which fuses I had removed, I put the gearshift back into P and tried again - at least I know the interlock works now.
Try again, throttle wide open, and cranked until the reading stabilised
No1 - 170
No2 - 195
No3 - 160-170 (a couple of attempts)
No4 - 195
I'd have been happy with 170 across all, but apparently it can achieve 195 (which seems high to be honest, but the engine does only have 82k on it?)
I did each cylinder in turn again to be sure (and a few more on number three) with the same results.
13% lower on 1 and sometimes more on 3; I don't think that is quite what I was hoping for.
Then it started to rain so I went and hid in the shed for a bit while deciding to carry on and check the valve clearances.
By the time I got to this the engine had been cooling off for probably 3 hours. I can do it again one evening so it's definitely cold but really its the differences I'm looking at. (my gauges only go up in 0.05 increments, I should have checked that when ordering..)
1E 0.35
1I 0.5
2E 0.4
2I 0.45
3E 0.35
3I 0.5
4E 0.35
4I 0.45
After I had sought advice, literally no-body I spoke to had said 'ooh I'd take the head off with those numbers', in fact more have said 'wouldn't worry about it' so on that basis I'm took the balance of the (collective) wisdom..
May 11th 2023
A new toy arrived from Amazon this afternoon, a wifi endoscope for the grand sum of £20. It had a lot of good reviews.. when I opened the pack, I found a card offering me a £20 amazon voucher if I left a review with a video and pictures
Free endoscope!
In actual fact though, I'm really impressed with it, the picture is quite clear...
It's actually hit the inlet valve on all 4 cylinders.
That said, I don't think knowing this changes much now, when I went to pick up the C70 from its MOT (a pass) I showed the pictures and the video of it running. His opinion - "if it were mine I wouldn't bother taking the head off for that, the compression is good enough and it sounds alright"
So I'll sleep on it, but I think I'm going to carry on..
May 14th, 2023:
Various packages have arrived over the previous few days:
I had ordered an INA tensioner, but an SKF one turned up. Thats not a problem though.
I had a couple of hours spare yesterday afternoon so I had a bit of a potter about.
Someone had suggest to leave the valve clearances for now, as if a tweaked valve worked its way back to shape, the clearance would close back up again. Sounds logical on the face of it, so I have decided to leave them for a couple of thousand miles. The gasket needed replacing anyway so I've not lost anything.
The last person to fit the rocker cover had done so with silicone over the gasket all the way around, so I spent quite a while removing that from all the surfaces and inside the camshaft housing.
There was quite a lot of oil leaking from the filler cap, even just at idle so a new seal was fitted to the cap.
I'm not sure if someone has tried repainting the rocker cover, of if it came like it from the factory, but the paint went right up onto the sealing surface and was flaking off in places, probably not conducive to a good seal, so I cleaned that up to a nice smooth shiny surface.
With the new seal, the cap fitted a lot more tightly.
So then I was in a position to position the new gasket and refit the cover.
I had a flash of inspiration at this point, since the injectors are fitted directly to the head on this car, removing them would give me a view of the intake valves. The endoscope fits nicely through the hole.
Aside from varying levels of dirtiness, I didn't see anything to get excited about:
E.g:
Cyl 3 being cycled:
Doesn't look bent to me.
Predictably enough the 34 yr old injector seals were all dried up and offered no resistance when being removed and re-inserted, so they'll all need replacing now.
I also found that my Aug 1989 car has the " 'up to '88' " design of flametrap, rather than the " '88 on" version, so I have ordered the wrong one, so I'll need to get the right one ordered.
I'm also a bit dubious about the amount of tension the cambelt tensioner spring is actually applying, it doesn't seem like much - when the nut is loose, you can still see the edge of the hole for the retaining pin, so for the sake of £3.30 I think I'll add that to the order.
I then set about cleaning up a the oily gunk that had built up around the back of the head from the leaky cap and cover. I got bored of that quite quickly...
May 21st 2023
More waiting on parts required, most of which is my own fault!
The tensioner spring, correct flametrap and injector seals arrived from Brookhouse on Friday, imagine my disappointment when I realised that rather than ordering one set of 'fat' and one set of 'thin', I had ordered one singular of each. Completely my own fault. Simon and I had a laugh about it when he rang to check that I only wanted 3 of each on my latest order.
Never mind, I can get the belts on and everything else done.
Except I had previously decided to not bother replacing the rear timing cover as 'it was only cracked in one place".
Cambelt back off, thought I would wipe out the oily mess that the rocker cover / filler cap leaks had created and the second I touched the rear cover it disintegrated into about 15 pieces.
The belt would be exposed, and while its unlikely a stone or something might find its way in, I'd rather not risk it. Partsmonster was cheapest at £17 delivered, we'll see what the quality is like when it arrives, its only a piece of moulded plastic.
I ended up removing the power steering pump bracket to get the remnants off, it seemed easier than removing the intermediate pulley. Of course the cam pulley had to come back off again. Since my old belt has no teeth on it I have created my own Top Tip - the crank holding tool does a good job of holding the cam sprocket, braced against the water pump.
I fitted the new flametrap, the one that came off didn't actually have a trap in it. The hose and the port into the manifold were clear, but I replaced the small hose as it was quite hardened.
I'd forgotten how awkward it was to get to on the injection motors.
Gapped the new plugs ready to go in - they were more like 0.9mm out of the box, now set to 0.7mm
Then I decided to prepare the injectors for the arrival of the new seals. I had found Laird Scooby's very detailed thread from almost a decade ago: https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=18...
Quite a relaxed time sat in the garden:
The thin seals were hardened so they were more like plastic than rubber and three of them snapped when I removed them.
The fat seals actually seemed fine, but are being replaced anyway - I gave up trying to maneuver them off and carefully cut them instead.
I actually cleaned the plastic holders with soap and water in the utility sink.
Everything is now nice and clean in plastic bags.
Next I spent some time with the carb cleaner, some rags and the vacuum cleaner cleaning the ports in the head, so when the seals arrive everything should go straight back together.
Next up was a the cooling system clean out. The coolant in it was red(ish) so most likely the wrong OAT type. Hopefully that hasn't caused too many problems.
I found pretty much what I expected under the thermostat housing, given that there was clear silicone splurging out round the edge of it. Some corrosion of and pitting on the head and in the housing:
I've seen much worse before now, mind.
I do wonder if any of it was caused by the silicone if it was acid curing.
The thermostat seal is all hard and splitting but the thermostat itself is fine so I'll just get a seal.
I'm currently vacillating between putting it back together with a new seal and a smear of some plumbing sealant (if its ok with hot water and corrosion inhibitor it should be ok with coolant) or cleaning out and filling the pitting with some JB weld applied with a stanley blade or similar.
(back in the day we made new seats in the block for the cylinder liner seals on a 1957 B275 tractor with a product called belzona, that tractor is still going today)
Inside the block and radiator is nice and clean. The radiator is a volvo one, but I don't think it is the original - it doesn't look 34 years old, at least.
Flushed out the heater matrix - removed the top hose and then used a section of bike inner tube cable tied to it to adapt to the hosepipe fitting.
Next up I decided to get the oil changed. When I was removing the old filter I noticed a scotchlock connector on the charge warning wire on the alternator, with the wire that used to be joined to it snipped off. With that, it fell off - a perfect example of why not to use scotchlocks:
While I was clearing up the ubiquitous oil spill that comes with removing the filter on these cars, I noticed that the starter cable and earth wire that run on the crossmember were chafing together - there was quite a divot in the earth and a smaller one one the +ve. A bit of 10mm fuel hose cable tied over it wil solve that for the next 34 years:
(I had run out of any more substantial cable ties!)
Overall quite a productive few hours just taking my time and pottering about over the past couple of days.
May 28th, 2023
The rest of the injector seals arrived on Tuesday, so I popped them in that evening - a much firmer fit in the head.
Thursday evening I JB-welded the pitting on the thermostat housing and the head. First up, mangle another tool to make myself a miniature filling knife:
Then clean up the corrosion as far as possible and thoroughly degrease.
I also found this area of damage on the housing:
It wasn't covered by the hose, and the tubing appears to be double-skinned at this point so it wasn't going to leak. I can only assume someone jammed a screwdriver in there to remove the hose and damaged it. I cleaned it up and jb-welded that too.
Once it had gone off, I sanded it smooth this morning. one of the bits I had filled had slightly sunk, but I had to remind myself it only had to be shallow enough that the -fairly thick -rubber gasket would seal, it didn't need to be billiard table smooth:
With that done I set about putting everything back together.
The rear timing cover, a professional parts sweden item, was Okay - there is a warp in it at the top, which I am hoping will straighten with some heat cycles now it is fixed to the outer covers.It's not rubbing on anything.
The new tensioner spring was considerably stronger than the one that came off, so that is reassuring.
For those of you with a similar level of OCD - aligned V-belts:
I also had the rad hoses off and cleaned them out and inspected - cleaned up the water pump inlet, which wasn't too bad, then reassembled with some new stainless steel clamps.
I had actually ended up using the Hexeal antifreeze to fill up the C70, so I needed some more. I ended up getting it from Smith and Allan for £16 delivered, but it is twice the strength - the hexheal stuff says to use it neat for protection to -37, but the Smith and Allan stuff you dilute 50% for that, so works out better value. Not that I am ever going to see -37 mind you, but having sufficient corrrosion protection is important.
With the new plugs fitted, away we went - it took a bit of cranking to fire up (I assume because I had the injectors off etc). I need to borrow a decent tacho to set the idle speed, initially it was somewhere about 550-600 at a guess, when spec is 900. was a bit lumpy!
All ran up to temperature fine, and there were no leaks from any of the hoses or the 'stat. The viscous coupling seems to be in good condition, there was a definite difference in the amount of air being moved between cold and when the lower rad hose got warm.
Stopped and restarted instantly a few times.
It has also moved under it's own power for the first time in a month - only the 2ft forward and back available in the parking space though.
Evri took 10 days to deliver it, and must have dropped it on the way as one of the pipes was slightly tweaked, but I soo straightened that out.
The old one looked surprised:
Getting it detatched from the over-axle pipe was predictably awkward. After removing (snapping) the clamp and belting the silencer rearward with the lump hammer a few times I decided that was 1) an exercise in futility, and 2) more likely to detach something further upstream, so I decided to cut the silencer off as close to it as possible, then cut longitudinally on what was left to free it. I should have gone and borrowed the mini grinder at this point, but sometime later with the hacksaw and it was off. I lost about 5mm of the over axle pipe - nothing to worry about.
This looked serviceable from underneath, I'll have to fabricate a new top strap:
This looks promising:
Ah.
I had already predicted this! the diameters are different. (Or, depending on how you look at it, the same size) Time for a sleeve.
The extra hanger bracket stops just short of the towbar bracket.
I'll probably cut it off, and there will be no problem with clearance then:
Talking of the towbar, I'm in two minds about whether to remove it. From the history it was fitted from new, but I don't think it was ever used - note in the history about the caravan wiring being disconnected and coiled up.
IT's a weird swing out affair that required the rear valance to be mangled. It would be quite nice to replace that with a whole one.
The tailpipe is serviceable but tatty. To be honest, I have never been a fan of the 700's bendy tailpipe, so I may just get something that comes out straight.
Overall I'm quite pleased with that as a purchase, a lttle bit of fettling and it'll be on, and will last much longer than anything one can buy new these days. (I put a Klarius box on a V40 we had and while it did kind of fit, the quality wasn't the best.)
So depending on when I can get a sleeve to fit the box, we should be good to tax + insure from 1st June.
2nd June 2023
I Roll!
I got the backbox fitted in the week, I'm still waiting on a piece of pipe for the tailpipe but we can drive without that.
Why spend £30+ on the backbox fitting kit when you can spend £1.80 on a wallplate strap and use some random allen headed screws you have lying around:
Sleeved joint to the over-axle pipe:
With the extraneous bracket cut off, there is now acres of clearance:
I also spent a cloudy morning cleaning and polishing with 'super resin polish' after it had spent a month getting covered in dust and baking in the sun. The PO hadn't fully buffed off some previous product, and removing that took some time.
50/50:
At the end of it, I think it was looking pretty handsome:
I then had a nightmare that night, I thought I would try and protect it from the sun a bit with autoglyms 'Extra Gloss Protection' - it says apply a thin layer, allow to dry for 30 minutes, and then buff off.
The first two steps I could manage, but then..it wouldn't come off. As in, I had the stepladder out and thought I was going to bend the roof wouldn't come off! after 10 minutes the sweat was running down my face and I had managed perhaps a 12" square section, and the light was failing.
In the end I cut my losses and polished it again which thankfully took it off again, and then this morning I just went out, lightly misted it with water and used the normal liquid spray wax.
I don't know what happened - perhaps I put it on too thick? I think I shall practice on one of our other cars!
On Wednesday night I sorted the insurance and the tax, and then yesterday morning there was nothing for it but to venture out..
It's absolutely fine
First stop was to give it a drink of E5 Super Unleaded, then we toddled off to Tropiquaria for a nice day out.
When we left, a quick look under the bonnet to make sure it still had oil and coolant in it (It did) and then make the return journey.
I'm so used to 5cylinder smooth+relative quietness these days that the 80's driving experience is quite different, but I soon got used to the redblock noises.
I was driving nice and steady with as much mechanical sympathy as possible but I still ended up having to overtake someone on the way home - it comes to something when I'm driving a 34 year old motor with what - 119hp when new?, coupled to a lazy auto, out on a gentle first drive, and get held up by a 72 plate doing 35 in a 50.
I don't think I'll be able to overtake anything going much faster with it however!
Some of the gearshifts are a bit firm. I'm not expecting butter smoothness from an 80's 4 speed, but I'll change the fluid and then assume that is what it is like.
Manual specs Dexron IID which I can get from smith and Allan, but I'm assuming Dexron III will be fine and a worthwhile 'upgrade'.
Just debating whether to do a series of drain and fills rather than interfering with 34yr old unions!
The odometer doesn't work. I checked the trip wasn't at 000 (the usual clue) when I looked at it, then didn't pay any attention after that. I now see the reset button is jammed right in behind the perspex.
It looks like it stopped working a few hundred after the last MOT in August, and judging by what the PO had done before I reckon at the most it's missing 5-6k.
Time for a cog replacement
There is an intermittent bulb failure or possible bad earth (of course!)- it seemed to flash on briefly with the indicators at the same time as braking a couple of times, then it was on permanently for a few miles, then I never saw it again for the whole drive home.
(Nothing unusual from my memory - one of my previous ones flashed the seatbelt warning when indicating left, solved at the time by taking the seatbelt bulb out!)
On the way home I noticed an intermittent squeak from the V belts. Partly I guess because they were seating in, but mostly because I probably didn't crank them up hard enough so as not to risk damaging the bearings.
On inspection, the previously aligned water pump belts had moved away from each other.
Once the car had cooled down I retensioned them with a steel rule to guage them. (and realigned them as that seems like a good way to monitor). I just love how easy this car is to work on - If I had to, I could have done that job at the side of the road with the tool kit from the boot.
Its decided after being driven that ~850rpm is idle speed in D, and ~1050-1100 in P or N I still need to get an induction tach, then from the looks of it drive it a few miles and then set it.
A total of 32 miles successfully travelled according to google maps. We'll do quite a few more local journeys before venturing onto the motorway with it.
Overall, very very pleased with it, I think I am a touch over the £2k initial total budget (but not by much, say £50 max) and have something perfectly useable with a few minor jobs to do.
Even my daughter says "it would be acceptable for you to drop me off at school in it" which is praise indeed!
Thats probably a big enough first post, if you made it this far, well done, more to follow!
picture in the 'Show us your ovloV' thread, an old friend who is fanatical about both cars and guitars noted it had to be worth a readers cars thread.
I have a thread on the owners club forum which has also turned into a project blog, and never got round to starting one here, so I'll copy as many of the salient points over to bring us up to date..
This first Mammoth post will be buying the car, and getting it ready to daily drive...
May 6th, 2023:
The last one of these I had was back in 2007, when you could buy them for £225 with a long MOT and 4 spare wheels in the back!
Having finally admitted after six months that I simply didn't like the way my C70 convertible drives (and the fact that my daughter actively hated it), my wife and I agreed I would get it through the MOT and sell it and return to what I originally wanted to do when I decided to give my company car back, which was to find an uncomplicated redblock engined saloon in decent condition to use and tinker with, which prior to Christmas seemed almost impossible without travelling hundreds of miles to look at rusty things.
Lying in bed one Sunday morning looking at my wifes facebook (I don't do 'the socials', and an '89 G reg 744GL appeared reasonably locally - 82k miles on the clock, looked fairly tidy, and a nice clean MOT history confirming the mileage, so we arranged to go and see it the next day after work.
I was determined not to mess this up, so I made myself a list of everything I wanted to check, everywhere I wanted to look for rust, everything I wanted to see.
I spent an hour going over the car, I lay down on the wet road to check the usual rust traps and it passed everything on my list, There was no rust in any of the usual structural places. The only faults of note I could find were already noted by the seller - the back box was rotted out, both rear lights were leaking, and one was cracked. There are a few dings that I reckon a decent paintless dent remover could fix.
It's only a lowly B200E with 119hp, but I was prepared to compromise on that (at least temporarily
) since the rest of the car was sound.Couple of minor things like the electric aerial doesn't work, a heat crack on the dash and its probably going to require some dedicated waxing to keep it red.
The car drove like something 1/4 of its age. I went back 5 years through service history and couldn't find any evidence of the cambelt having been done so managed to knock a bit off for that and the exhaust, did the deal at the princely sum of £1800 and set off for home, me in the C70 and my wife in the 740.
I literally said to my wife, "We'll get it home, park it up and do the belt and exhaust before it moves again".
Should have kept my mouth shut:
I was so embarrassed I didn't tell anyone for 2 days until I had time to a) calm down, and b) investigate what had happened.
You could choose any tooth at random, and just peel it off the belt with light pressure!
Somehow, the crank managed to do at least 320 degrees independent of the cam, got round to the point where it created enough compression to fire, and kept running!
I was pretty sure that the Kjet motors were interference, but found conflicting opinions on this both here and on other forums. My last experience of a cambelt snap (on a diesel S40) resulted in a s/h head going on as the valve guides were mangled, so I was contemplating a head or even a whole engine going into it, but a post on the 'cambelt horror stories' thread over on the 200 series forum persuaded me to throw a belt on it to see, so a genuine belt and the crank tool (I can't be doing with jamming the ring gear these days!) was duly ordered.
- *
It's more of an adoption pack.
The car was originally a demonstrator for Fisher's of Buckland, with the first owner paying £11,200 for it in June '90 (less the part exchange of a Y reg Golf) and kept it for just shy of 30 years
There is a copy of the invoice, a copy of the cheque used to pay for it, a newspaper clipping about the salesman - a Mike Simmonds, - who sold the car. A copy of a completed questionaire about why the original owner chose the car and how they were getting on with it.
There is almost every old tax disc, a copy of every single MOT from when it was 3 years old, a file of correspondence with the servicing dealers and every single invoice.
A bit of research also turned up this!:
https://www.carandclassic.com/magazine/classified-...
As well as a twitter thread from a previous owner where (on the bit I could see without a login) it sounds like the car very very narrowly avoided being banger raced before he rescued it.
The oil has been changed every six months without fail, right up until a few months ago. Sadly, for some reason they stopped changing the cambelt in 2008??
- *
First I pulled off the camshaft sprocket to make sure the key hadn't been sheared - all good there.
Next I spent some time cleaning all the bits of old belt out from between the teeth, and checked the harmonic balance damper thingy hadn't spun - all good there (so the crank MUST have done at least 320deg, to end up ~40deg behind the cam!)
After all that the belt was refitted, checking It was definitely at for TDC for Cyl1 by looking in through the plug hole, and checking the cam lobes were obliquely up through the oil cap. Using the marks on the volvo belt I ensured the intermediate sprocket was timed, even though that doesn't actually matter on these, and then, after having spun it over by hand a few times there was nothing for it but to stick the plugs back in, hook up the battery and turn the key.
This is actually two videos smooshed together - the first start was with no other belts on, as I thought it would be immediately obvious if there was a cylinder with no compression.
The second part is once I had put the alt/water pump belts back on, run it up to temperature and adjusted the idle speed back down (aa guy had wound it up to keep it going so it could be driven about a mile to a layby so he could safely load it up - it hadn't broken down in a nice location)
May 8th 2023:
It was only raining a little bit this morning, and my compression tester (I wouldn't save it was especially expensive -it cost £40 rather than £15 - but the braided hose still spun in the fitting and I had to uses some pliers to remove it from the engine.. I wouldn't want to thread it into a twin cam engine.) and new feeler gauges had arrived yesterday, so I set about my investigations.
First I started the car up and ran it up to temperature at idle - It was a little lumpy when cold - then shut it off and removed all the spark plugs.
Removed fuses 1 and 11 (Main pump/ignition and in-tank pump), hooked the battery up to the C70 on some jump leads to make sure that was consistent, screwed the tester into No1 cylinder, held the throttle wide open and turned the key.
Nothing.
After a few moments of confusion, and checking which fuses I had removed, I put the gearshift back into P and tried again - at least I know the interlock works now.
Try again, throttle wide open, and cranked until the reading stabilised
No1 - 170
No2 - 195
No3 - 160-170 (a couple of attempts)
No4 - 195
I'd have been happy with 170 across all, but apparently it can achieve 195 (which seems high to be honest, but the engine does only have 82k on it?)
I did each cylinder in turn again to be sure (and a few more on number three) with the same results.
13% lower on 1 and sometimes more on 3; I don't think that is quite what I was hoping for.
Then it started to rain so I went and hid in the shed for a bit while deciding to carry on and check the valve clearances.
By the time I got to this the engine had been cooling off for probably 3 hours. I can do it again one evening so it's definitely cold but really its the differences I'm looking at. (my gauges only go up in 0.05 increments, I should have checked that when ordering..)
1E 0.35
1I 0.5
2E 0.4
2I 0.45
3E 0.35
3I 0.5
4E 0.35
4I 0.45
After I had sought advice, literally no-body I spoke to had said 'ooh I'd take the head off with those numbers', in fact more have said 'wouldn't worry about it' so on that basis I'm took the balance of the (collective) wisdom..
May 11th 2023
A new toy arrived from Amazon this afternoon, a wifi endoscope for the grand sum of £20. It had a lot of good reviews.. when I opened the pack, I found a card offering me a £20 amazon voucher if I left a review with a video and pictures
Free endoscope!
In actual fact though, I'm really impressed with it, the picture is quite clear...
It's actually hit the inlet valve on all 4 cylinders.
That said, I don't think knowing this changes much now, when I went to pick up the C70 from its MOT (a pass) I showed the pictures and the video of it running. His opinion - "if it were mine I wouldn't bother taking the head off for that, the compression is good enough and it sounds alright"
So I'll sleep on it, but I think I'm going to carry on..
May 14th, 2023:
Various packages have arrived over the previous few days:
I had ordered an INA tensioner, but an SKF one turned up. Thats not a problem though.
I had a couple of hours spare yesterday afternoon so I had a bit of a potter about.
Someone had suggest to leave the valve clearances for now, as if a tweaked valve worked its way back to shape, the clearance would close back up again. Sounds logical on the face of it, so I have decided to leave them for a couple of thousand miles. The gasket needed replacing anyway so I've not lost anything.
The last person to fit the rocker cover had done so with silicone over the gasket all the way around, so I spent quite a while removing that from all the surfaces and inside the camshaft housing.
There was quite a lot of oil leaking from the filler cap, even just at idle so a new seal was fitted to the cap.
I'm not sure if someone has tried repainting the rocker cover, of if it came like it from the factory, but the paint went right up onto the sealing surface and was flaking off in places, probably not conducive to a good seal, so I cleaned that up to a nice smooth shiny surface.
With the new seal, the cap fitted a lot more tightly.
So then I was in a position to position the new gasket and refit the cover.
I had a flash of inspiration at this point, since the injectors are fitted directly to the head on this car, removing them would give me a view of the intake valves. The endoscope fits nicely through the hole.
Aside from varying levels of dirtiness, I didn't see anything to get excited about:
E.g:
Cyl 3 being cycled:
Doesn't look bent to me.
Predictably enough the 34 yr old injector seals were all dried up and offered no resistance when being removed and re-inserted, so they'll all need replacing now.
I also found that my Aug 1989 car has the " 'up to '88' " design of flametrap, rather than the " '88 on" version, so I have ordered the wrong one, so I'll need to get the right one ordered.
I'm also a bit dubious about the amount of tension the cambelt tensioner spring is actually applying, it doesn't seem like much - when the nut is loose, you can still see the edge of the hole for the retaining pin, so for the sake of £3.30 I think I'll add that to the order.
I then set about cleaning up a the oily gunk that had built up around the back of the head from the leaky cap and cover. I got bored of that quite quickly...
May 21st 2023
More waiting on parts required, most of which is my own fault!
The tensioner spring, correct flametrap and injector seals arrived from Brookhouse on Friday, imagine my disappointment when I realised that rather than ordering one set of 'fat' and one set of 'thin', I had ordered one singular of each. Completely my own fault. Simon and I had a laugh about it when he rang to check that I only wanted 3 of each on my latest order.
Never mind, I can get the belts on and everything else done.
Except I had previously decided to not bother replacing the rear timing cover as 'it was only cracked in one place".
Cambelt back off, thought I would wipe out the oily mess that the rocker cover / filler cap leaks had created and the second I touched the rear cover it disintegrated into about 15 pieces.
The belt would be exposed, and while its unlikely a stone or something might find its way in, I'd rather not risk it. Partsmonster was cheapest at £17 delivered, we'll see what the quality is like when it arrives, its only a piece of moulded plastic.
I ended up removing the power steering pump bracket to get the remnants off, it seemed easier than removing the intermediate pulley. Of course the cam pulley had to come back off again. Since my old belt has no teeth on it I have created my own Top Tip - the crank holding tool does a good job of holding the cam sprocket, braced against the water pump.
I fitted the new flametrap, the one that came off didn't actually have a trap in it. The hose and the port into the manifold were clear, but I replaced the small hose as it was quite hardened.
I'd forgotten how awkward it was to get to on the injection motors.
Gapped the new plugs ready to go in - they were more like 0.9mm out of the box, now set to 0.7mm
Then I decided to prepare the injectors for the arrival of the new seals. I had found Laird Scooby's very detailed thread from almost a decade ago: https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=18...
Quite a relaxed time sat in the garden:
The thin seals were hardened so they were more like plastic than rubber and three of them snapped when I removed them.
The fat seals actually seemed fine, but are being replaced anyway - I gave up trying to maneuver them off and carefully cut them instead.
I actually cleaned the plastic holders with soap and water in the utility sink.
Everything is now nice and clean in plastic bags.
Next I spent some time with the carb cleaner, some rags and the vacuum cleaner cleaning the ports in the head, so when the seals arrive everything should go straight back together.
Next up was a the cooling system clean out. The coolant in it was red(ish) so most likely the wrong OAT type. Hopefully that hasn't caused too many problems.
I found pretty much what I expected under the thermostat housing, given that there was clear silicone splurging out round the edge of it. Some corrosion of and pitting on the head and in the housing:
I've seen much worse before now, mind.
I do wonder if any of it was caused by the silicone if it was acid curing.
The thermostat seal is all hard and splitting but the thermostat itself is fine so I'll just get a seal.
I'm currently vacillating between putting it back together with a new seal and a smear of some plumbing sealant (if its ok with hot water and corrosion inhibitor it should be ok with coolant) or cleaning out and filling the pitting with some JB weld applied with a stanley blade or similar.
(back in the day we made new seats in the block for the cylinder liner seals on a 1957 B275 tractor with a product called belzona, that tractor is still going today)
Inside the block and radiator is nice and clean. The radiator is a volvo one, but I don't think it is the original - it doesn't look 34 years old, at least.
Flushed out the heater matrix - removed the top hose and then used a section of bike inner tube cable tied to it to adapt to the hosepipe fitting.
Next up I decided to get the oil changed. When I was removing the old filter I noticed a scotchlock connector on the charge warning wire on the alternator, with the wire that used to be joined to it snipped off. With that, it fell off - a perfect example of why not to use scotchlocks:
While I was clearing up the ubiquitous oil spill that comes with removing the filter on these cars, I noticed that the starter cable and earth wire that run on the crossmember were chafing together - there was quite a divot in the earth and a smaller one one the +ve. A bit of 10mm fuel hose cable tied over it wil solve that for the next 34 years:
(I had run out of any more substantial cable ties!)
Overall quite a productive few hours just taking my time and pottering about over the past couple of days.
May 28th, 2023
The rest of the injector seals arrived on Tuesday, so I popped them in that evening - a much firmer fit in the head.
Thursday evening I JB-welded the pitting on the thermostat housing and the head. First up, mangle another tool to make myself a miniature filling knife:
Then clean up the corrosion as far as possible and thoroughly degrease.
I also found this area of damage on the housing:
It wasn't covered by the hose, and the tubing appears to be double-skinned at this point so it wasn't going to leak. I can only assume someone jammed a screwdriver in there to remove the hose and damaged it. I cleaned it up and jb-welded that too.
Once it had gone off, I sanded it smooth this morning. one of the bits I had filled had slightly sunk, but I had to remind myself it only had to be shallow enough that the -fairly thick -rubber gasket would seal, it didn't need to be billiard table smooth:
With that done I set about putting everything back together.
The rear timing cover, a professional parts sweden item, was Okay - there is a warp in it at the top, which I am hoping will straighten with some heat cycles now it is fixed to the outer covers.It's not rubbing on anything.
The new tensioner spring was considerably stronger than the one that came off, so that is reassuring.
For those of you with a similar level of OCD - aligned V-belts:
I also had the rad hoses off and cleaned them out and inspected - cleaned up the water pump inlet, which wasn't too bad, then reassembled with some new stainless steel clamps.
I had actually ended up using the Hexeal antifreeze to fill up the C70, so I needed some more. I ended up getting it from Smith and Allan for £16 delivered, but it is twice the strength - the hexheal stuff says to use it neat for protection to -37, but the Smith and Allan stuff you dilute 50% for that, so works out better value. Not that I am ever going to see -37 mind you, but having sufficient corrrosion protection is important.
With the new plugs fitted, away we went - it took a bit of cranking to fire up (I assume because I had the injectors off etc). I need to borrow a decent tacho to set the idle speed, initially it was somewhere about 550-600 at a guess, when spec is 900. was a bit lumpy!
All ran up to temperature fine, and there were no leaks from any of the hoses or the 'stat. The viscous coupling seems to be in good condition, there was a definite difference in the amount of air being moved between cold and when the lower rad hose got warm.
Stopped and restarted instantly a few times.
It has also moved under it's own power for the first time in a month - only the 2ft forward and back available in the parking space though.
- *
Evri took 10 days to deliver it, and must have dropped it on the way as one of the pipes was slightly tweaked, but I soo straightened that out.
The old one looked surprised:
Getting it detatched from the over-axle pipe was predictably awkward. After removing (snapping) the clamp and belting the silencer rearward with the lump hammer a few times I decided that was 1) an exercise in futility, and 2) more likely to detach something further upstream, so I decided to cut the silencer off as close to it as possible, then cut longitudinally on what was left to free it. I should have gone and borrowed the mini grinder at this point, but sometime later with the hacksaw and it was off. I lost about 5mm of the over axle pipe - nothing to worry about.
This looked serviceable from underneath, I'll have to fabricate a new top strap:
This looks promising:
Ah.
I had already predicted this! the diameters are different. (Or, depending on how you look at it, the same size) Time for a sleeve.
The extra hanger bracket stops just short of the towbar bracket.
I'll probably cut it off, and there will be no problem with clearance then:
Talking of the towbar, I'm in two minds about whether to remove it. From the history it was fitted from new, but I don't think it was ever used - note in the history about the caravan wiring being disconnected and coiled up.
IT's a weird swing out affair that required the rear valance to be mangled. It would be quite nice to replace that with a whole one.
The tailpipe is serviceable but tatty. To be honest, I have never been a fan of the 700's bendy tailpipe, so I may just get something that comes out straight.
Overall I'm quite pleased with that as a purchase, a lttle bit of fettling and it'll be on, and will last much longer than anything one can buy new these days. (I put a Klarius box on a V40 we had and while it did kind of fit, the quality wasn't the best.)
So depending on when I can get a sleeve to fit the box, we should be good to tax + insure from 1st June.
2nd June 2023
I Roll!
I got the backbox fitted in the week, I'm still waiting on a piece of pipe for the tailpipe but we can drive without that.
Why spend £30+ on the backbox fitting kit when you can spend £1.80 on a wallplate strap and use some random allen headed screws you have lying around:
Sleeved joint to the over-axle pipe:
With the extraneous bracket cut off, there is now acres of clearance:
I also spent a cloudy morning cleaning and polishing with 'super resin polish' after it had spent a month getting covered in dust and baking in the sun. The PO hadn't fully buffed off some previous product, and removing that took some time.
50/50:
At the end of it, I think it was looking pretty handsome:
I then had a nightmare that night, I thought I would try and protect it from the sun a bit with autoglyms 'Extra Gloss Protection' - it says apply a thin layer, allow to dry for 30 minutes, and then buff off.
The first two steps I could manage, but then..it wouldn't come off. As in, I had the stepladder out and thought I was going to bend the roof wouldn't come off! after 10 minutes the sweat was running down my face and I had managed perhaps a 12" square section, and the light was failing.
In the end I cut my losses and polished it again which thankfully took it off again, and then this morning I just went out, lightly misted it with water and used the normal liquid spray wax.
I don't know what happened - perhaps I put it on too thick? I think I shall practice on one of our other cars!
On Wednesday night I sorted the insurance and the tax, and then yesterday morning there was nothing for it but to venture out..
It's absolutely fine
First stop was to give it a drink of E5 Super Unleaded, then we toddled off to Tropiquaria for a nice day out.
When we left, a quick look under the bonnet to make sure it still had oil and coolant in it (It did) and then make the return journey.
I'm so used to 5cylinder smooth+relative quietness these days that the 80's driving experience is quite different, but I soon got used to the redblock noises.
I was driving nice and steady with as much mechanical sympathy as possible but I still ended up having to overtake someone on the way home - it comes to something when I'm driving a 34 year old motor with what - 119hp when new?, coupled to a lazy auto, out on a gentle first drive, and get held up by a 72 plate doing 35 in a 50.
I don't think I'll be able to overtake anything going much faster with it however!
Some of the gearshifts are a bit firm. I'm not expecting butter smoothness from an 80's 4 speed, but I'll change the fluid and then assume that is what it is like.
Manual specs Dexron IID which I can get from smith and Allan, but I'm assuming Dexron III will be fine and a worthwhile 'upgrade'.
Just debating whether to do a series of drain and fills rather than interfering with 34yr old unions!
The odometer doesn't work. I checked the trip wasn't at 000 (the usual clue) when I looked at it, then didn't pay any attention after that. I now see the reset button is jammed right in behind the perspex.
It looks like it stopped working a few hundred after the last MOT in August, and judging by what the PO had done before I reckon at the most it's missing 5-6k.
Time for a cog replacement
There is an intermittent bulb failure or possible bad earth (of course!)- it seemed to flash on briefly with the indicators at the same time as braking a couple of times, then it was on permanently for a few miles, then I never saw it again for the whole drive home.
(Nothing unusual from my memory - one of my previous ones flashed the seatbelt warning when indicating left, solved at the time by taking the seatbelt bulb out!)
On the way home I noticed an intermittent squeak from the V belts. Partly I guess because they were seating in, but mostly because I probably didn't crank them up hard enough so as not to risk damaging the bearings.
On inspection, the previously aligned water pump belts had moved away from each other.
Once the car had cooled down I retensioned them with a steel rule to guage them. (and realigned them as that seems like a good way to monitor). I just love how easy this car is to work on - If I had to, I could have done that job at the side of the road with the tool kit from the boot.
Its decided after being driven that ~850rpm is idle speed in D, and ~1050-1100 in P or N I still need to get an induction tach, then from the looks of it drive it a few miles and then set it.
A total of 32 miles successfully travelled according to google maps. We'll do quite a few more local journeys before venturing onto the motorway with it.
Overall, very very pleased with it, I think I am a touch over the £2k initial total budget (but not by much, say £50 max) and have something perfectly useable with a few minor jobs to do.
Even my daughter says "it would be acceptable for you to drop me off at school in it" which is praise indeed!
Thats probably a big enough first post, if you made it this far, well done, more to follow!
Edited by chris1roll on Friday 22 September 21:27
Edited by chris1roll on Friday 22 September 22:43
Early June 2023:
I was getting somewhat concerned by what the fuel consumption was looking like, after doing pretty much 100 miles (going by google maps and noting it down) it was suggesting I had used the best part of half a tank. A quick calculation in my head made that about 15mpg
I bottled it and went to fill up again and it only took 19.4 litres, for 97 miles the consumption is actually 22.7mpg - acceptable for having been doing the school run with it, and only slightly less than the family V70XC does on the same trips, so perfectly fine as a daily for me in that respect.
The fuel guage has thus been proven to be a random number generator. In fact about 5 miles after brimming it decided to remove all doubt and told me I only had quarter of a tank, then half, then nothing. Par for the course, to be honest I was quite surprised when I thought it worked! My previous GLE I filled up every 200 miles or so. Of course, with no odometer..
Just as well then, that the odometer cog has arrived.
Turns out the reset knob was snapped:
I reckon that it was pressed while moving which broke the cog and jammed everything up, then pressed increasingly harder in a misguided attempt to 'fix' it, until it snapped and disappeared inside the cluster.
I guess that it now being missing will at least prevent me from being tempted into pressing it and breaking the cog again!
Getting the speedo needle off was a bit nervewracking - mine was the thicker spindle with the splines, so no glue to twist, just gentle brute force upwards. After 10 minutes of trying to twease it up i had to put more force than I relly wanted to on it and it thankfully popped off.
A filler knife (you can get a pack for a few pounds at toolstation) worked well for peeling off the face:
95% of the colouring stayed attached to the face, so hopefully the lighting will remain consistent.
And there is the little beige tooth off the cog that had found its way into the outer ring and jammed everything up:
Before I reassembled it, I tested all the bulbs with a multimeter and only found one blown - the dip beam light. I swapped it with the one from the traction control indicator (didn't know that was even an option in 1989!), then on switch on I discovered that it was on all the time even with the headlamps off, (it must indicate the day running lights are on) and it was also a horrible dirty yellowy green colour and promptly swapped it back again. I don't see any point in having a lamp lit 100% of the time?
What was left of the reset button wouldn't stay in the hole so I have left it out completely for now, with a tiny a piece of black felt stuck over the back of the hole to prevent an annoying light leak (and being able to see the white housing through the hole) It looks just fine like that.
I did notice that a) someone had been in before - witness marks on the little trim bits and the retaining screws - and b) one of the copper tracks that connects to the multiplug has been damaged - typically enough on the side that feeds the rest of the circuitry. I teased it back up and made sure the plug went on nice and square, and everything is working (bar the fuel guage) but If i do get any unwanted behavior that will be a first point of call. I'm not awesome with a soldering iron tbh.
Also the little white clip that fits over the wiring to the back of the speedo was just floating around back there because the tabs have been snapped off. The wiring connector feels pretty tightly fitted though, so it must just be there for belt and braces. I might keep my eye out for a set of clocks for some spares.
Found a bit more non-factory wiring:
I hate scotchlocks.
I'm kicking myself for not replacing them with a couple of crimps or wago connectors at the time, would only have taken seconds. I might do that in the near future if I can do it without having to redisturb that weakened copper track.
And... we have a working odometer
I then checked it against a gps app on my phone (The app is called DigiHUD, its quite good, you can make it project onto the windscreen).
The odometer is accurate to the GPS.
The speedo itself appears to read 4/5mph fast all the way up - perhaps the car isn't _quite_ as slow as I first thought.
My daughter and I also worked out why the electric aerial didn't work - It isn't electric!
Pulling the aerial up and we now have music!
The previous owner had just tapes for 3 years!
I was getting somewhat concerned by what the fuel consumption was looking like, after doing pretty much 100 miles (going by google maps and noting it down) it was suggesting I had used the best part of half a tank. A quick calculation in my head made that about 15mpg
I bottled it and went to fill up again and it only took 19.4 litres, for 97 miles the consumption is actually 22.7mpg - acceptable for having been doing the school run with it, and only slightly less than the family V70XC does on the same trips, so perfectly fine as a daily for me in that respect.
The fuel guage has thus been proven to be a random number generator. In fact about 5 miles after brimming it decided to remove all doubt and told me I only had quarter of a tank, then half, then nothing. Par for the course, to be honest I was quite surprised when I thought it worked! My previous GLE I filled up every 200 miles or so. Of course, with no odometer..
Just as well then, that the odometer cog has arrived.
Turns out the reset knob was snapped:
I reckon that it was pressed while moving which broke the cog and jammed everything up, then pressed increasingly harder in a misguided attempt to 'fix' it, until it snapped and disappeared inside the cluster.
I guess that it now being missing will at least prevent me from being tempted into pressing it and breaking the cog again!
Getting the speedo needle off was a bit nervewracking - mine was the thicker spindle with the splines, so no glue to twist, just gentle brute force upwards. After 10 minutes of trying to twease it up i had to put more force than I relly wanted to on it and it thankfully popped off.
A filler knife (you can get a pack for a few pounds at toolstation) worked well for peeling off the face:
95% of the colouring stayed attached to the face, so hopefully the lighting will remain consistent.
And there is the little beige tooth off the cog that had found its way into the outer ring and jammed everything up:
Before I reassembled it, I tested all the bulbs with a multimeter and only found one blown - the dip beam light. I swapped it with the one from the traction control indicator (didn't know that was even an option in 1989!), then on switch on I discovered that it was on all the time even with the headlamps off, (it must indicate the day running lights are on) and it was also a horrible dirty yellowy green colour and promptly swapped it back again. I don't see any point in having a lamp lit 100% of the time?
What was left of the reset button wouldn't stay in the hole so I have left it out completely for now, with a tiny a piece of black felt stuck over the back of the hole to prevent an annoying light leak (and being able to see the white housing through the hole) It looks just fine like that.
I did notice that a) someone had been in before - witness marks on the little trim bits and the retaining screws - and b) one of the copper tracks that connects to the multiplug has been damaged - typically enough on the side that feeds the rest of the circuitry. I teased it back up and made sure the plug went on nice and square, and everything is working (bar the fuel guage) but If i do get any unwanted behavior that will be a first point of call. I'm not awesome with a soldering iron tbh.
Also the little white clip that fits over the wiring to the back of the speedo was just floating around back there because the tabs have been snapped off. The wiring connector feels pretty tightly fitted though, so it must just be there for belt and braces. I might keep my eye out for a set of clocks for some spares.
Found a bit more non-factory wiring:
I hate scotchlocks.
I'm kicking myself for not replacing them with a couple of crimps or wago connectors at the time, would only have taken seconds. I might do that in the near future if I can do it without having to redisturb that weakened copper track.
And... we have a working odometer
I then checked it against a gps app on my phone (The app is called DigiHUD, its quite good, you can make it project onto the windscreen).
The odometer is accurate to the GPS.
The speedo itself appears to read 4/5mph fast all the way up - perhaps the car isn't _quite_ as slow as I first thought.
My daughter and I also worked out why the electric aerial didn't work - It isn't electric!
Pulling the aerial up and we now have music!
The previous owner had just tapes for 3 years!
Mid June 2023
The washer jets were non functional.
Once I had removed the tank, the nozzles and all the hosing and it was clear why they are blocked, as expected the tank was full of black slime:
A common issue usually caused by being filled with plain water rather than screenwash and probably exacerbated by extremely low mileage and ths turnover of the water over 34 years.
I didn't even bother trying to clean this filter
That went in the bin. If I'm the only one filling it up I can make sure I don't pour sand into it!
It is good that Volvo apparently anticipated this and provided a second access hole for cleaning. Even then it was a bit awkward to get right into the corners.
Thus, with pleasure I present the Chris1roll patented washer-tank-cleaner-outer:
Ready to be refitted and filled with actual screenwash concentrate and not whatever had fed that mould before:
I gave up trying to clean the pipes out, I'm pretty sure they have a layer all the way through them too - every time I thought they were clean the next lot of water through them produced more slime. In the end I decided my time was more valuable than doing that for hours and ordered some silicone hose for a few pounds. Should be less likely to grow slime than rubber.
One of the inlets snapped off the jet while cleaning so I also ordered some 'universal' fan type washer jets for the princely sum of £2.88. They were the only ones that actually gave the dimensions on them so I could tell if they would fit the holes.
For the money they work really well.
The self destructing entity that is Royal Mail finally delivered the piece of T304 pipe that I wanted to use for a tailpipe - who knows what they did with it for almost a fortnight on a 48 hour service.
Just a simple, standard sized, unpolished piece of stainless clamped on with a t-bolt clamp. I think that it looks quite tidy:
If I can remove the towbar and find an unmolested rear valance I think that will do just fine.
I gave the car it it's first vacuum out and found a wet drivers carpet - the quarter back towards the seat and door - I felt around under the matrix on both sides the same as I did when I looked at it and it was all dry there
I couldn't leave it uninvestigated so off with the panel above the pedals.
Ah.
crusty redness from the old incorrect coolant and a slight tinge of the new blue stuff it is running now.
The carpet immediately below the valve is also dry - it must be running down behind and then only surfacing in the position I found the wetness in, which is how I missed it when buying it. (tbh I'd still have bought it).
(That's not crustyness on the matrix in the photo, it looks like some dried adhesive of some sort)
It hasn't lost any measurable amount of coolant since I've been driving it, but of course the vavle has had no flow through it being closed, its probably a different story with the heating on.
Of course, you can't get these any more, so I will have to do some improvising!
First things first, set the car to "summer mode" with a nice 16mm brass barbed fitting:
tbh it took more time to find a way to secure the now 'loose' pipes so they weren't rubbing on anything than it did to loop them together. It's not pretty but it works...
The washer jets were non functional.
Once I had removed the tank, the nozzles and all the hosing and it was clear why they are blocked, as expected the tank was full of black slime:
A common issue usually caused by being filled with plain water rather than screenwash and probably exacerbated by extremely low mileage and ths turnover of the water over 34 years.
I didn't even bother trying to clean this filter
That went in the bin. If I'm the only one filling it up I can make sure I don't pour sand into it!
It is good that Volvo apparently anticipated this and provided a second access hole for cleaning. Even then it was a bit awkward to get right into the corners.
Thus, with pleasure I present the Chris1roll patented washer-tank-cleaner-outer:
Ready to be refitted and filled with actual screenwash concentrate and not whatever had fed that mould before:
I gave up trying to clean the pipes out, I'm pretty sure they have a layer all the way through them too - every time I thought they were clean the next lot of water through them produced more slime. In the end I decided my time was more valuable than doing that for hours and ordered some silicone hose for a few pounds. Should be less likely to grow slime than rubber.
One of the inlets snapped off the jet while cleaning so I also ordered some 'universal' fan type washer jets for the princely sum of £2.88. They were the only ones that actually gave the dimensions on them so I could tell if they would fit the holes.
For the money they work really well.
The self destructing entity that is Royal Mail finally delivered the piece of T304 pipe that I wanted to use for a tailpipe - who knows what they did with it for almost a fortnight on a 48 hour service.
Just a simple, standard sized, unpolished piece of stainless clamped on with a t-bolt clamp. I think that it looks quite tidy:
If I can remove the towbar and find an unmolested rear valance I think that will do just fine.
I gave the car it it's first vacuum out and found a wet drivers carpet - the quarter back towards the seat and door - I felt around under the matrix on both sides the same as I did when I looked at it and it was all dry there
I couldn't leave it uninvestigated so off with the panel above the pedals.
Ah.
crusty redness from the old incorrect coolant and a slight tinge of the new blue stuff it is running now.
The carpet immediately below the valve is also dry - it must be running down behind and then only surfacing in the position I found the wetness in, which is how I missed it when buying it. (tbh I'd still have bought it).
(That's not crustyness on the matrix in the photo, it looks like some dried adhesive of some sort)
It hasn't lost any measurable amount of coolant since I've been driving it, but of course the vavle has had no flow through it being closed, its probably a different story with the heating on.
Of course, you can't get these any more, so I will have to do some improvising!
First things first, set the car to "summer mode" with a nice 16mm brass barbed fitting:
tbh it took more time to find a way to secure the now 'loose' pipes so they weren't rubbing on anything than it did to loop them together. It's not pretty but it works...
Pre-MOT work and other fixes:
The high beam switch had smoke coming out of it
Taking it all apart proved it to be full of 34 years of gunk:
Filling it with contact cleaner has solved that issue.
Next up the rear lights that kept filling up with water. I knew we would need to get some new lights at some point before we even went to look at it, with all this rain they keep filling up to above the hole for the bulb and then making the boot wet. (and triggering the bulb failure lamp when cornering)
The crack luckily isn't showing any white to the rear, so should be fine for the test (as it has been for several years loking at the history)
Bodgetastic fix until I can justify new lights - a 3.5mm hole in the bottom corner to let the water back out again
Fault traced a fauly front fog to a crappy crimp:
Discovered this leaky Kjet fuel accumulator:
And replaced it (and the filter) with a new old stock part I found in Germany:
Resulted in a first time pass with only the expected advisories:
Tester clicked the wrong button, its actually the rear tyres that are a bit aged. Not as aged as the spare though, that says made in West Germany on it!
The high beam switch had smoke coming out of it
Taking it all apart proved it to be full of 34 years of gunk:
Filling it with contact cleaner has solved that issue.
Next up the rear lights that kept filling up with water. I knew we would need to get some new lights at some point before we even went to look at it, with all this rain they keep filling up to above the hole for the bulb and then making the boot wet. (and triggering the bulb failure lamp when cornering)
The crack luckily isn't showing any white to the rear, so should be fine for the test (as it has been for several years loking at the history)
Bodgetastic fix until I can justify new lights - a 3.5mm hole in the bottom corner to let the water back out again
Fault traced a fauly front fog to a crappy crimp:
Discovered this leaky Kjet fuel accumulator:
And replaced it (and the filter) with a new old stock part I found in Germany:
Resulted in a first time pass with only the expected advisories:
Tester clicked the wrong button, its actually the rear tyres that are a bit aged. Not as aged as the spare though, that says made in West Germany on it!
Awesome Chris, glad you posted this up! Sounds like a fun ownership experience so far - we all love a bit of tinkering!
The 740 estate I owned for a bit in 2006 (bought off eBay for £26 after an MOT failure) was a 2 litre manual on a G reg. It had only 130k miles on it…until I went through the history and found a clock change at 220k miles…So circa 350k and still ran like a peach. Never got it on the road though, it needed new shocks and uni was approaching so I sold it for £75 to a banger racer.
Great cars, really wish I bought a 760 turbo back when I finally sold my last 480 (went for a Peugeot 406 instead which blew the head gasket after a week of ownership and I ended up swapping the engine on my mums drive
).
I vaguely remember the passenger floor pan can get crusty on these - is yours OK? I feel like it might even have been you who told me this!
The 740 estate I owned for a bit in 2006 (bought off eBay for £26 after an MOT failure) was a 2 litre manual on a G reg. It had only 130k miles on it…until I went through the history and found a clock change at 220k miles…So circa 350k and still ran like a peach. Never got it on the road though, it needed new shocks and uni was approaching so I sold it for £75 to a banger racer.
Great cars, really wish I bought a 760 turbo back when I finally sold my last 480 (went for a Peugeot 406 instead which blew the head gasket after a week of ownership and I ended up swapping the engine on my mums drive
). I vaguely remember the passenger floor pan can get crusty on these - is yours OK? I feel like it might even have been you who told me this!
What a cool thread. I currently trudge around in a S80 automatic which I dislike more and more each day and I am actively leaning to an old rear drive Volvosaurus as a daily.
At my age the next car I buy will probably be my last and I really don't want an EV so a "classic" looks like the way ahead for me, perhaps with stockpiling a few spares in The Shed.
Also I'm tired of idiotic contraptions like nanny computers and stupid alarms for everything. I'd rather do my own thinking while I still can.
Your adventures have absolutely reinforced my notion of a classic Volvo, but it'll have to be an estate with a tow hitch for me.
Thanks for the interesting read; bookmarked.
At my age the next car I buy will probably be my last and I really don't want an EV so a "classic" looks like the way ahead for me, perhaps with stockpiling a few spares in The Shed.
Also I'm tired of idiotic contraptions like nanny computers and stupid alarms for everything. I'd rather do my own thinking while I still can.
Your adventures have absolutely reinforced my notion of a classic Volvo, but it'll have to be an estate with a tow hitch for me.
Thanks for the interesting read; bookmarked.
guitarcarfanatic said:
Awesome Chris, glad you posted this up! Sounds like a fun ownership experience so far - we all love a bit of tinkering!
Had to be done really!guitarcarfanatic said:
Great cars, really wish I bought a 760 turbo back when I finally sold my last 480 (went for a Peugeot 406 instead which blew the head gasket after a week of ownership and I ended up swapping the engine on my mums drive ).
I vaguely remember the passenger floor pan can get crusty on these - is yours OK? I feel like it might even have been you who told me this!
I nearly bought a 760 turbo sight unseen (due to it being 5 hours away) on e-bay last October/November time, but Mrs1roll and my daughter didn't like the colour - gold with gold velour interior.). I vaguely remember the passenger floor pan can get crusty on these - is yours OK? I feel like it might even have been you who told me this!
It may have been me - the floorpans rust out along the length of the chassis rails and up towards the bukhead. Also where the track control arms mount can go. That and the battery trays rotting out were the main places, but at this far beyond the design life of the vehicle, anything could happen!
My battery trays are spotless, as is the drivers side footwell, the passenger side has a bit of pitting I have temporarily covered in hammerite, and the wheel arches are starting to bubble on the inner edge in a couple of places. Next month those patches are getting attacked with a wire wheel, some hydrate 80 and some fresh paint.
Error_404_Username_not_found said:
What a cool thread. I currently trudge around in a S80 automatic which I dislike more and more each day and I am actively leaning to an old rear drive Volvosaurus as a daily.
At my age the next car I buy will probably be my last and I really don't want an EV so a "classic" looks like the way ahead for me, perhaps with stockpiling a few spares in The Shed.
Also I'm tired of idiotic contraptions like nanny computers and stupid alarms for everything. I'd rather do my own thinking while I still can.
Your adventures have absolutely reinforced my notion of a classic Volvo, but it'll have to be an estate with a tow hitch for me.
Thanks for the interesting read; bookmarked.
Similar to my feelings, but being realistic at age 41 its unlikely this one will see me out - but you never know! At my age the next car I buy will probably be my last and I really don't want an EV so a "classic" looks like the way ahead for me, perhaps with stockpiling a few spares in The Shed.
Also I'm tired of idiotic contraptions like nanny computers and stupid alarms for everything. I'd rather do my own thinking while I still can.
Your adventures have absolutely reinforced my notion of a classic Volvo, but it'll have to be an estate with a tow hitch for me.
Thanks for the interesting read; bookmarked.
My last Co. car was a 68 plate Hyundai Ioniq. As a method of transportation, it was great, but it was so....soulless.
Everything on my list for its replacement was full of f
king touchscreens, which I hate in a car.Having the V70XC as the main family car (which to be fair, we do really like), I wanted something simple for me - air, spark, fuel. No sensors to tell me the sensor isn't working, etc. The only two sensors on the Kjet 740 are knock, and cam position for the worlds most basic ignition map. If that went wrong I could change to the block mounted points+condensor distributor.
Having something so simple is quite liberating, once I had recovered from being bringing it home on an AA dolly, I wasn't at all worried because I knew that no matter, I could fix it.
A few other little jobs that have been done in between:
Cleaned out the auxillary air valve.
Come the winter this might need some modification or replacing with something manual, I've 'adjusted' it a few times but it never stays open long enough when the engine is cold in traffic, resulting in about a 500-600rpm idle in D until the car has warmed up. Starting at home and driving out of the village is fine, its leaving the office at 5pm that is the problem.
Replaced this crazed header tank with a new genuine volvo item (being in a jam on the M5 and seeing an E30 lose its magic steam gave me the fear!)
Replaced the non-existent gear shift linkage bushings:
Replaced the distributor oil seals, the 20 yr old distributor is in need of replacement:
Sanding them clean and refitting resulted in a somewhat smoother idle in D. I'll replace it at the next service in Dec.
Replaced this Kjet metering block mounting rubber, which got a little more involved than I first anticipated:
Performed 4 drain and fills of the gearbox, which has greatly improved it, It is still coming out brown but at least now has a red tinge, so I'll keep going:
I've done over 2k since the cambelt/valve/piston interface, so i'm starting to think if it was going to grenade itself as a result it would have done it by now.
On a motorway run it does 28/29 mpg, on average its doing 24/25.
This past fortnight I've been in the office everyday, so its done 21...
The picture at the top of the thread was taken on a geocaching trip round Dorset, with that and a business trip that Monday it did the best part of 300miles in 3 days.
Re: distributor.
I don't know what the spares situation is for Volvo but I've had my fingers burned in recent years with poor quality modern distributor and ignition parts.
(My other car is an MG Midget).
The only place that has given consistent high quality and service is Distributor Doctor in Taunton. I have no connection with the business other than being a very happy customer but I recommend them highly, if that helps.
I don't know what the spares situation is for Volvo but I've had my fingers burned in recent years with poor quality modern distributor and ignition parts.
(My other car is an MG Midget).
The only place that has given consistent high quality and service is Distributor Doctor in Taunton. I have no connection with the business other than being a very happy customer but I recommend them highly, if that helps.
Thankyou, it may well do, not far from here either.
The general consensus seems to be as you say, there is a lot of poor quality and/or fake tat about; and to use genuine Bosch for the dizzy cap+rotor, and genuine Bougicord for the leads, all of which are currently still available - for a price.
If it lasts 20 years like the last one then the price is irrelevant.
The general consensus seems to be as you say, there is a lot of poor quality and/or fake tat about; and to use genuine Bosch for the dizzy cap+rotor, and genuine Bougicord for the leads, all of which are currently still available - for a price.
If it lasts 20 years like the last one then the price is irrelevant.
chris1roll said:
Thankyou, it may well do, not far from here either.
The general consensus seems to be as you say, there is a lot of poor quality and/or fake tat about; and to use genuine Bosch for the dizzy cap+rotor, and genuine Bougicord for the leads, all of which are currently still available - for a price.
If it lasts 20 years like the last one then the price is irrelevant.
Somewhere in my Mums garage, I have a brand new set of Volvo leads for the 2 litre (assuming it's the same leads for a 1990). But...the chance of me locating them are slim! If they turn up, you can have them - will have a nose next week.The general consensus seems to be as you say, there is a lot of poor quality and/or fake tat about; and to use genuine Bosch for the dizzy cap+rotor, and genuine Bougicord for the leads, all of which are currently still available - for a price.
If it lasts 20 years like the last one then the price is irrelevant.
Lovely cars.
I had three estates - a 740, which never ran properly, and a 760 with the 2.3 turbo, an awesome car which I very much regretted selling for a long time afterwards.
The daytime running lights can cause the fusebox to overheat as they age, many owners simply removed the fuse since they aren't a legal requirement here.
There was a design flaw in the front suspension which which caused the NS front tyre to wear more rapidly than it should - there used to be a repair kit from Volvo to correct it, but it was expensive, so I just replaced the tyre when it wore.
The third estate with the strong 2.3 engine was acquired for £30 - a small coolant pipe for the cold start enrichment had sheared from the back of the carb and emptied the cooling system before the driver noticed, affecting the head gasket. I repaired the pipe, and appart from being a bit tricky to start from cold it just continued to run, even with a weakened head gasket.
The turning circle was amazing on them.
I had three estates - a 740, which never ran properly, and a 760 with the 2.3 turbo, an awesome car which I very much regretted selling for a long time afterwards.
The daytime running lights can cause the fusebox to overheat as they age, many owners simply removed the fuse since they aren't a legal requirement here.
There was a design flaw in the front suspension which which caused the NS front tyre to wear more rapidly than it should - there used to be a repair kit from Volvo to correct it, but it was expensive, so I just replaced the tyre when it wore.
The third estate with the strong 2.3 engine was acquired for £30 - a small coolant pipe for the cold start enrichment had sheared from the back of the carb and emptied the cooling system before the driver noticed, affecting the head gasket. I repaired the pipe, and appart from being a bit tricky to start from cold it just continued to run, even with a weakened head gasket.
The turning circle was amazing on them.
SirGriffin said:
Lovely cars.
I had three estates - a 740, which never ran properly, and a 760 with the 2.3 turbo, an awesome car which I very much regretted selling for a long time afterwards.
The daytime running lights can cause the fusebox to overheat as they age, many owners simply removed the fuse since they aren't a legal requirement here.
There was a design flaw in the front suspension which which caused the NS front tyre to wear more rapidly than it should - there used to be a repair kit from Volvo to correct it, but it was expensive, so I just replaced the tyre when it wore.
The third estate with the strong 2.3 engine was acquired for £30 - a small coolant pipe for the cold start enrichment had sheared from the back of the carb and emptied the cooling system before the driver noticed, affecting the head gasket. I repaired the pipe, and appart from being a bit tricky to start from cold it just continued to run, even with a weakened head gasket.
The turning circle was amazing on them.
Interestingly enough it is feathering the outside edge of the NSF tyre I had three estates - a 740, which never ran properly, and a 760 with the 2.3 turbo, an awesome car which I very much regretted selling for a long time afterwards.
The daytime running lights can cause the fusebox to overheat as they age, many owners simply removed the fuse since they aren't a legal requirement here.
There was a design flaw in the front suspension which which caused the NS front tyre to wear more rapidly than it should - there used to be a repair kit from Volvo to correct it, but it was expensive, so I just replaced the tyre when it wore.
The third estate with the strong 2.3 engine was acquired for £30 - a small coolant pipe for the cold start enrichment had sheared from the back of the carb and emptied the cooling system before the driver noticed, affecting the head gasket. I repaired the pipe, and appart from being a bit tricky to start from cold it just continued to run, even with a weakened head gasket.
The turning circle was amazing on them.
I don't recall it being an issue on the two I had before, but perhaps they had had the fix.There is a bit of vibration/wobble in the steering to investigate, and I think I am going to have a go at the fishing line and ruler method of doing the tracking - its easy enough to get to the track rods on this with it on the floor.
Failing that I'll probably let it chew this one up, then buy 4 decent new tyres and keep the good OSF as the spare; then just keep rotating them.
I'll check out the fusebox and get some contact cleaner on the go.
guitarcarfanatic said:
Somewhere in my Mums garage, I have a brand new set of Volvo leads for the 2 litre (assuming it's the same leads for a 1990). But...the chance of me locating them are slim! If they turn up, you can have them - will have a nose next week.
That'd be fantastic if you could 
Love this, haven't read it all yet but very jealous!
My first experience of a 740 was one I purchased for £100. A blue GLE with tan leather. Drove it for years until I lost the arse end on a wet bend and it went through a hedge backwards.
Still gutted to this day I crashed that, as I LPGed it too and it was brilliant.
Upgraded then to a 940 and had a few 740 turbos as well.
Long for another 7 / 9 series but finding one in good nick for reasonable money is hard now!
My first experience of a 740 was one I purchased for £100. A blue GLE with tan leather. Drove it for years until I lost the arse end on a wet bend and it went through a hedge backwards.
Still gutted to this day I crashed that, as I LPGed it too and it was brilliant.
Upgraded then to a 940 and had a few 740 turbos as well.
Long for another 7 / 9 series but finding one in good nick for reasonable money is hard now!
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