My Big Swedish Box - Now With TURBO POWER

[philibusmo]

If you want Phil, get the belt and any other bits you need at the same time and we can do a cam belt change on my drive. It sounds pretty simple and must be about 1000x easier than an Avantime cam belt change.

 

Obviously if it goes horribly wrong and we manage to make a non-interference engine interfere with itself then you'll be pretty stuffed and will have to walk home while I push the Volvo into the Grand Western Canal - but I think it's unlikely. Then once done, you can help flush the Lancias cooling system! YAY!

[phil_lihp]

^ I like this idea.  The belt looks fairly newish but there's no history and anyway it's been sprayed with oil from the leaking cam seal which I'd do at the same time (a job I'm not so confident on).  PM incoming.

 

The good thing is that the cambelt looks dead simple on these and access could not be easier, being at the front of the engine with loads of room around it, although the only belt I've ever done was my Nova's which was a little simpler than the Avantime.  The procedures was 1. Take old belt off   2. Put new belt on.  Took about 10 minutes including some time thinking "it can't be that simple".  PM incoming.

 

I thought that one of the benefits of using the philibusmo Good Garage Scheme was the fine selection of quality courtesy cars?  I'm sure it wouldn't come to that, killing a redblock Volvo would be a considerable achievement even for me.

[danthecapriman]

These old Volvo's are a piece of piss to do cam belts on. The Ford pinto is about as easy as it gets, but these old red blocks are a close second! As you say, it looks ok but as there's no history and they are so easy to change it makes sense to do it anyway just for peece of mind.

 

I've done a 240 with the 2.0 red block before where the belt snapped. Re-timed it up and put on a new belt and it fired up and drove! You can't kill these engines!

[twosmoke300]

Is no-one going to make a Ulrika jonsson joke out of the thread title ?

 

 

This place etc .....

[phil_lihp]

It was unintentional but as soon as I spotted it I wondered who'd be first.  It was Bren on Page 2.

[twosmoke300]

Bugger , missed that. Good man Bren . Faith in humanity restored

[phil_lihp]

Min volvo inte längre läcker olja!

 

Big, big thanks today go to Philibusmo.  Without his not inconsiderable talents, not a lot would have been achieved today.

 

Since I've had this car, I've been aware that the front cam seal was leaking oil which was clearly visible spread over the front of the block.  I also had no idea how old the cambelt was and anyway it had almost certainly been contaminated with oil from the cam seal.  The leak was likely due to a blocked up crankcase ventilation system - at 136,000 miles this one was well overdue for a cleanup.

 

 

We started the stripdown and, after a bit of swearing, decided to let the pinging hot engine cool down a bit.  That time was usefully exercised changing the failed alternator on Phil's Supra - that seemed to go well enough although the Toyota now has other issues.

 

Back to the Volvo, the forums all suggested that, instead of buying an expensive cam-locking tool, the best option was to pull all the spark plugs, line up the engine to TDC, rotate it to 90deg TDC and then feed rope down the no.1 plug hole until no more would fit.  Phil found a perfectly-sized reel of nylon garden string which was fed into the cylinder using a length of old fuel pipe.  The engine was then turned on the crank until it locked on the bundle of string, allowing the bottom pulley to be undone - clever stuff.

 

The cam seal was persuaded out with the help of some small holes and long self-tapping screws and the new one tapped in.  It became clear during all this work that the seal had been leaking for some time, the engine block was caked in oily muck and the cambelt, whilst not perished or damaged, was stained with a light coating of oil along with the pulleys.

 

 

All cleaned up and back together along with a new power steering belt I found in the boot to replace the badly perished original.  Turned the key and found it still worked.  Time for a cup of tea.

 

The last job of the day was to quickly swap over the old crankcase ventilator with the new one sourced from a Volvo dealer and give the rest of it a clean.  Easy, right?  

 

In theory, yes.  It was only held on with two bolts and the rubber pipes just pull off.  In reality, it was a profanity-laden nightmare of a job.  Metal pipes which form part of the turbo's air feed were bolted to the same bracket as the ventilator, all of which which was buried deep under the inlet manifold and coated in a caked-on layer of black muck.  It took the best part of two hours to get everything off, mostly thanks to the completely seized pipe union which took a massive amount of brute force, leverage and WD40 to shift, in turn requiring the removal of various wires and air intake pipes to provide room for the breaker bar.  

 

The breather pipes turned out to be clogged almost solid with black muck and the breather box itself weighed almost twice as much as the new one.  Shiny new bits were bolted on and the remaining pipes were unclogged and given a thorough wash and brush up with white spirit and brake cleaner, all the disconnected cables,brackets and pipework were reassembled (with no bolts left over, bonus!) and we were finally finished.

 

 

Just time for Phil to experience the joy of a good turbo brick with a quick test drive before the sun set proving that the car was now running a little better and all was well, although not enough to convince Phil that he needs a Volvo in his life.

 

This message was brought to you with the help of Phil's mum who once again kindly supplied a constant stream of tea, biscuits, bacon sandwiches and a superb chili.  

 

I'm extremely grateful and have learnt a lot today.  It's been a good day!

[phil_lihp]

Thread resurrection alert.  This big box of Swedish joy is still here but not doing a great deal of late.  I could probably justify its existence for the rest of time but as I've just arranged to buy a flat I ideally need to release some capital.  I'll do a proper Sale post and photos later but I reckon if I could see £700 for it I'd be happy.  It's a 2.3LPT manual and has got about 138,000 miles on it now, recently had 2 new Toyo tyres on the rear.  I'll even give it a wash and polish.

 

Any takers?  It's in Bideford, North Devon so it's a long way from Scotland but I'll do my best to help get it wherever it needs to go.  One warning to any interested parties, it's known to be heavily influenced by the UK Volvo Welfare Balance and therefore any work done to it tends to have rapid and catastrophic effects on the condition of CMS206's fleet.

[phil_lihp]

Update time.  As the sole remaining member of the South West England Volvo Collective (Essexman has, I believe, disposed of his 760 diesel and therefore has had his membership revoked and his badge taken away) I feel it's my obligation to rally some support.

 

Obviously I decided not to sell it because, frankly, selling a Volvo estate just before moving house is so stupid it should be illegal.

 

It's not been doing a lot since then as I cycle to work near enough every day but it's got a few journeys ahead of it in the next few weeks so I thought I'd treat it to a service.  I only got enough daylight this evening to change the oil and oil filter, CarParts4Less kindly sent me a similar but incorrect air filter and it got too dark to do the (possibly original) fuel filter and rotor arm so I'll try and finish off tomorrow.

 

However, much oddness as a result.  I was reaching down from the top of the engine bay to try and unscrew the oil filter (tip: don't do this, there isn't room to get a good grip on it and also the exhaust manifold you'll repeatedly press your arm against is very hot, do it from underneath like you're supposed to) and I happened to discover a loose pair of connections, a metal bar protruding horizontally from the turbo area and a vertical rod which seemed like it was supposed to be fixed into the hole in the end of the bar.  With a bit of effort I reconnected them and when the oil change was done, I took it for a run.

 

Verdict: Well bugger me but I've been driving it around for the last 12 months with no turbo! 

 

I had always thought it seemed a bit slow but put it down to being a big heavy car with a very low-pressure turbo.  Reconnecting that lever seems to have reactivated the turbo when I had no idea it wasn't working (this is the only 2.3 Volvo I've ever driven so didn't know they weren't meant to be like that).  The difference is amazing.  Alright, it's hardly doing sub-5 seconds 0-60 but it's gone from being a sluggish, heavy thing off the line to being quite lively.

 

On the downside, it does now stall when braking to a stop (e.g. pulling up outside my house).  No cough or splutter, it just turns off.  It'll restart again immediately and otherwise seems fine.  It always used to do that occasionally anyway but now it's almost every time which is a bit annoying.  I wonder if someone disconnected that lever for that reason?  The garage who did the oil change for me last year after I failed to get the seized sump plug off missed it, as did the mechanic who sold me the car a year ago.  It seems likely, from what I've read, to be either the idle control valve needing a clean (it does idle a little unsteadily) or a vacuum leak somewhere.  I'll have to try and work out what's amiss fairly soon though.

 

Does anyone have an idea of the mechanism I'm talking about?  This is my first turbo car so I'm fairly ignorant about exactly how the turbo's various pipes and connections work, although I understand more or less its function.

 

Despite the stalling issue, I'm delighted, it's made it so much nicer to drive, plus, given that my credibility as a man got a serious blow when I was forced to hand the sibling's i10 over to a professional to change the clutch as (a) I couldn't get the driveshaft out of the gearbox and ( had no spare time I feel vindicated that I've fixed something that at least 2 garages have missed, albeit by accident.

[Bear]

Wonder if it's like my SLK and the clogged PCV system has also fouled some sort of MAF-like thing. The rod is a wastegate control?

[phil_lihp]

Maybe - I wouldn't rule something like that out.  I'm not convinced the PCV system is actually completely clean despite last year's work, it mists a little oil from the filler cap and about 6 months ago blew the dipstick out on a vigorous run.  I put a tin of Wynns Super Charge in it which turned the oil black but seemed to help a lot.  Obviously that went out with the old oil tonight so I do want to try and clean the PCV pipes out again when I get time.

[phil_lihp]

Thanks Richard, wastegate it is.  I could only feel it and not really see much but it's definitely this:

 

[phil_lihp]

I've just been out for a drive and decided to come back via one of my favourite country roads for a bit of hooning action.  What's that, you want to see a sinister 80s music video-style photo as proof?  Go on then.

 

 

At the moment, I love this car.  Having the turbo back has transformed it, it's got heaps more power and pulls so much better, it has remarkable levels of grip with 4 new Toyos on it and can be thrown around windy roads with surprising enthusiasm. All that and it still remains a pleasant and comfortable motorway cruiser as well, as proved when it took 5 of us from my local running club to Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday (one guy asked if it was mine or if I'd hired it for the occasion).  The engine's lovely and quiet, particularly after a big glug of Castrol GTX last week, I need to finish the service by changing the fuel filter (probably the original) and cleaning the ICV, then it's pretty much sorted.

 

On the down side, the interior is still a bit minging as the heater matrix is still leaking and the plastics around the driver's area are all off pending replacement of said matrix (I do have it, it's just finding time to rip the entire dashboard out).  Also, it appears that the radiator is now leaking, the heater is hopeless as a result of the knackered matrix and it has more or less neat water in the cooling system at the moment due to regular topups.  All that can be dealt with in one big messy job so I just need to knuckle down and get it fixed.

 

Nonetheless, I'm delighted how this scruffy old thing has gone from an evil-handling, grubby, neglected workhorse with flat paint and a rough, underpowered engine to the absolutely fantastic, pretty much sorted car it is now. I keep thinking about selling it because it's been a year and I get bored easily but every time it has a job to do, it does it so well I instantly decide to keep it again.  I may not be able to get rid of this one any time soon.