Project Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - Dolomite in "most reliable" shocker - 08/02/24

[Spiny Norman]

Volvo brake calipers do seem to be a bit shit at that age. My old J reg 240 developed a badly seized NSF caliper resulting in some very hot smells coming from the front of the car.

Nice pics btw, what's the new lens?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

9 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Last Sunday tried to get the engine run in. Starter wouldn't work, kept sticking. Tried adding more power with jump leads, no help. Smacked it with a bit of wood, moderate improval. 

Replaced that with the old starter motor off the Herald. The engine span!

And wouldn't fire. Not a sausage.

So turned out we had the ignition timing out by 180 degrees. Correcting that got it to splutter a bit. Spark was pish, points in the dizzy were sitting wonky for a start.

Then we did a compression test, 25psi per cylinder... Ah. Either we've fucked up the cam timing or somebody has sneaked into the workshop overnight and nicked the pistons.

Fuck it, problems for another day. The car was relegated to outside under the Cover Of Shame as @GingerNuttz has restarted working on the Herald during the week.

I wonder how @djoptix will fare with the reassembly of that Renner 6 engine....

[captain_70s]

Camera lens is just an older version of what I already had. This lacks the electric zoom which is what broke on the original so hopefully it'll be a bit more durable...

Despite the calipers being in a poor state they're much nicer to work with than the Civic'd. You undo one slide pin and remove it and the thing hinges up on the top pin.

[danthecapriman]

The calipers on most of the big old Volvo’s are pretty good at their job, but they really don’t like sitting around unused and can seize and stick very easy. I’ve had that with my two 740’s and the previous 244. You can get brand new slider kits for them too, which is part of the seizing problem, They’re good but the new rubber dust covers don’t seem to last long! I fitted a set of the new slider kits to mine a couple of years ago and it’s so far cured the problem of the brakes sticking. Tbh, I doubt just exercising the pistons in yours will prove to be a very long term fix, they usually start doing it again sooner or later in my experience.

One little tip I did get from someone on here, inside one of the rear door shuts should be a sticker which tells you which type of brakes you have on your car front and rear. If it’s still there.

[captain_70s]

FFS.

Yes, that's oil.

More info when arsedness is present. 

[big_al_granvia]

sump plug or sump gasket failed in a spectacular manner??? not good

[GingerNuttz]

Just torch the POS and be done with it 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

This would be considered normal for a Citroën 

[captain_70s]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

This would be considered normal for a Citroën 

Even by French standards a puddle that size appearing within 15 seconds is a push...

[Tadhg Tiogar]

30 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Even by French standards a puddle that size appearing within 15 seconds is a push...

I'll let you have that one.

[Ghosty]

Pretty sure I had to replace both rear calipers on my 740 as they were shagged. 

[Talbot]

On 9/17/2020 at 11:20 PM, captain_70s said:

we did a compression test, 25psi per cylinder... Ah. Either we've fucked up the cam timing or somebody has sneaked into the workshop overnight and nicked the pistons.

I laughed too much at that.  25psi does suggest the cam timing is 180 out too.  Is it an easy mistake to make on that engine?

[GingerNuttz]

15 minutes ago, Talbot said:

I laughed too much at that.  25psi does suggest the cam timing is 180 out too.  Is it an easy mistake to make on that engine?

Seems so if you're a spray painter and not a mechanic 😂

[Talbot]

Thinking about it, it would be the crank timing that is 180 out in relation to the cam, rather than the other way around, as the cam 180 out would be fixed very easily by simply turning the engine over by one crank rotation.

Does it sound correct when turning over, or does it spin a bit quick?  Also, is it a non-interference engine?  A crank 180 out would possibly cause clash between valves and pistons if it's interference.

[captain_70s]

Here is your scheduled weekend fleet update:

Volvo

Needs the brake calipers rebuilt, a PAS pipe made up, welding and some tyres swapping over. Other than that it's going well, using it to lug shit over to work on the Dolly. MOT is at the beginning of November

Acclaim

Running the commute as usual. Need to adjust the handbrake. MOT due at the end of November.

I've further defiled it's basey goodness by fitting head restraints, so at least a 15mph shunt won't decapitate the occupants.

Doloshite

Engine. At it on Saturday.

Me and @GingerNuttz had been discussing potential causes for the lack of compression and refusal to start and I'd been talking with @Jikovron about the same. Essentially it had to be cam timing, as losing such a huge amount of pressure anywhere else would be majorly obvious.

@GingerNuttzset the cam timing exactly the same as he did with his Herald using a micrometre to get the maximum lift on No.1 piston and aligning the cam sprocket with a degree wheel. This brought the compression down to a less than optimal 0psi per cylinder.

Right. The books were consulted, research was done, timing marks were checked and when I arrived on Saturday I was informed that the timing had been set again and we now had compression! Turns out we were probably 1 1/2 teeth out on the cam timing, enough to ruin compression but not enough for valve/piston interfacing. When it was done the second time it must have been 180 degrees out.

So, we went to fire it up. Nothing, not a cough. Checked spark, was acceptable. Fuel was being gravity fed straight to the carb so that was good. We looked at the dizzy, from memory I placed it roughly how it was back when the car last ran and from that we positioned the plug leads appropriately. Now it spluttered.

Right. Initial break in procedure is to start the engine and immediately take it up to about 2,500rpm for 20mins and run it up to temperature while full of 30w break in oil....

 

 

 

This is a pant shitting experience. If anything major is going to go wrong this is when it'll happen most spectacularly. I both didn't want to explode my new engine or get a rod through my face.

As it transpired nothing at all happened, oil pressure was great, coolant temp was stable, nothing leaked. After 20mins of solid running with my varying the throttle between around 2000-3000rpm we dumped all the break in oil and swapped filters. In doing this we drained the hot oil into a leaky bucket. Hence this picture:

Yes, there was no disaster, merely a cunning jape. Hohoho.

Then we filled it up with regular 20w50.

A compression test was done, 150psi per cylinder. Absolutely bang-on. Hot oil pressure at idle is 25psi, gaining another 10psi per 1000rpm, ideal. Crank float while using the clutch is 4 thou, right at the low end of the tolerance.

I had to spin the car around to allow us to continue on bodywork on Sunday.

No issues there at all aside from the brakes being utter shit from mostly just standing for 2 years...

That's a most acceptable sound.

Right. Engine confirmed good. Need to replace the springs in the dizzy as the timing wanders and rebuild the carb... Then find another HS4 and go for twins...

Saturday complete. Mission success.

Sunday:

Not a whole lot to report really. I'd bought a MIG welder from @Tickman and today was the day I got to test it out.

 

Hole:

No hole:

No, I didn't bother to replicate the body pressings. It's 1.2mm steel so it'll be strong enough, it's been wafer thing crap for the last 30 years so that'll do, it also lives under the petrol tank and will never be seen.

The car is now one small triangle of steel away from have an entire boot floor for the first time in God knows how long...

That was it for Sunday. We were going to dual wield welders for maximum progress by my welding mask died to death so I borrowed @GingerNuttz's far nicer one and he gave instruction and tips.

As thanks when I went to drive the car out of the workshop it'd only run on three cylinders. The plugs are black and you can smell it's running too rich so that'll be the cause.

[dave j]

Excellent update, its good to see it running and driving. Must be a real morale boost. 

[Yoss]

150psi is better than new! Mine was around 120 last time I checked it and mine goes well enough, yours is going to fly. 

[Spiny Norman]

Might just have been the camera angle but that post looked mighty close to the NS wing as you turned out the garage! 😮

[big_al_granvia]

superb stuff lads, the 1st start is always when your ticker is going... still think your a cunny funt for winding us up like that

[Jikovron]

I can sit easy on my ludicrously comfortable corner sofa, and enjoy my pear cider whilst no longer whittling pine now that engine has stopped being a massive fauntleroy fondant. 

[dozeydustman]

Excellent progress as always Cap’n

[jaypee]

Excellent work! Glad the bastard started and is running! 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

I trust @djoptixis following this. There might be hope for his R6 yet.

[sloth]

mmmmmmmmmm triumph blllaaarrrrpppp noises. 

 

*shuffles pocket billiards*

[GingerNuttz]

Sounds like a sports exhaust but in reality the exhaust baffles have ejected themselves at some point 😂

[captain_70s]

13 hours ago, GingerNuttz said:

Sounds like a sports exhaust but in reality the exhaust baffles have ejected themselves at some point 😂

Nature's sports exhaust...

It is a motivator to have a running, driving car for the first time in nearly 2 years. Especially when the new engine sounds as good as it does.

There is a long road ahead as far as bodywork is concerned though. From memory the to-do list is something like:

Both sills
Finish the boot floor
Finish outer arch on OSR
Inner and outer arch on NSR
All four jacking points
Lower trailing edge of both front wings
Any rot in the floorpan
Bits of the chassis legs to finish

Pulling out the dent in the rear panel
Straightening the bootlid

Then fully stripping the car back to bare metal and ensuring it's perfect before prepping for paint. We're aiming for the car to be painted in Spring next year.

So far we've used 30 cutting discs and 20L of welding gas. I reckon by the end of the project we'll be over £400 in consumables alone!

[captain_70s]

Well. Work was closed today as they're deep cleaning due to two confirmed cases of COVID in the quality control team. So I spent a while fucking about with cars.

Firstly lights and wipers on the Volvo.

Bought a load of bulbs for the thing, didn't need any. The non-functional fog and reverse lights were bad connections, as was a dead side repeater. Oh well, more for the spares stash.

Never had a wiper fall to bits on removal before, the rear one was mouldy. Explains the rubbish performance...

Shiny new goodness. Bosch because they were super reduced on eBay.

Next I reattached the weather stripping for the rear window that's been flapping about in the wind since I bought the car.

Yeah. I think that' might be a bit past it's best... Also evidence the car has had a blow over at some point under the trim.

Explains why the paint is flat as fuck.

Then I started trying to work out why the passenger side window won't work.

Mmmmm. Mouldy.

Having wiggled all the wires, cleaning all the contacts and battering the motor with a hammer my electrical repair techniques were utterly exhausted and the window still doesn't work.

If you press up on the switch the motor clicks, pressing down does nothing. This is the same on both the passenger and driver's side switches (driver's side window works fine). I suspect the driver's side switch goes through the passenger side one and that's what's not functioning.

At this point it was starting to get cold so I put it all back together again. I then scrubbed up the interior a bit and cleaned some of the mould out of the door jams/boot surround. It's also parked next to a descendant that is wearing it's years a fair bit worse...

Also, a bonus shot of the Acclaim being tiny in the works car park from Monday.

[sloth]

fuggin hell that last pic is hilarious. well done on the big swede fettlin'.

[Talbot]

On 9/21/2020 at 9:01 PM, captain_70s said:

So far we've used 30 cutting discs

Blimey!

Can I interest you in a plasma cutter?

[captain_70s]

26 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Blimey!

Can I interest you in a plasma cutter?

We've got one! You really need to be cutting clean metal with it though, and moving quite quickly, not handy for shitty old steel covered in underseal...