The new adventures of Brownnova. Actual progress… 2CV and XC90 both running!

[Bear]

18 hours ago, brownnova said:

You’re thinking 90s estate/Dustbuster swap deal: round 2.. 🤣🤣🤣

Aftermarket immobiliser… 

Joy. 

Immobiliser shouldn't cause a drain per se, but if there's a backup battery over 8 years old in the module...

Interior light is my bet. Also the door lock modules if they are not fully disengaging, but the interior light is prone to capacitor leakage and PCB damage as a result 😕

[brownnova]

Made some small progression on some 2CV related things this week.

First up was the Yellow one. It hasn’t run properly since it threw its spark plug on the way home from the AS meet at the Truckers rest. Having done helicoil, inserts and failed to get any of them to stay in the engine more than 10 minutes before being unceremoniously ejected. Fast forward to the Volvo MoT where my tester (a very experienced mechanic) suggested that as the head was likely junk anyway putting some heat resistant loctite on the helicoil would be a last resort that might just work. Long story short, it didn’t. The Helicoil came out after about ten minutes running on the drive despite having been rock solid when it went in and having had plenty of time to cure. So with all easy solutions exhausted we’re either looking at a new head on that side or possibly a replacement engine.

Talking of which… 

One of the two projects I picked up almost two years ago (where the fuck has that time gone?!?) has a complete and free turning engine, but so far I’ve failed to get it running. It was last on the road in 2008, and I believe it’s been laid up since then undergoing some welding work until the owner passed away and it just sat.

I’ve changed the leads and plugs and coil to no avail, so today I changed the condenser and points. Fan came off relatively easily, and the change was straightforward. I’ve not actually done the points on a 2CV before as my main one has electronic ignition.

Fuel into the carb and no dice, persistence maybe? And we get a cough and a splutter. Then eventually it runs… well… sort of. Spluttering on one cylinder.

It was at this point I realised I had only put one spark plug in…. Doh!

The next lot of fuel in and we have running! And not only running, but very smooth and nice running! It’s not run in many many years so this was really exciting. It’s had an aftermarket electric fuel pump fitted, so I want to check the lines before putting fuel into the tank.

Started the green one too. It’s not been run for a while, but the children interrupted any attempts to dig into the brake maladies which are preventing it from being on the road. 

Cobwebs galore! 

I’m torn now between taking the Pontiac to the local show in the next town I am booked into or whether to stay home and tinker! 

[brownnova]

On the engine front there is now a decision to take.

a) swap the engine from the white D Reg to the Yellow one as a temporary measure 

or b) as a permanent swap

c) work on getting the D reg white one up and running again… and either source another engine/pay to have the original rebuilt. 
 

I’m supposed to be leading a 2CV run in a few weeks… no pressure.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Some good progress has been made but you've left it rather late in the school holidays to start your homework young man. 

Isn't getting a new head for the yellow one (which is otherwise working?) less work than an engine swap? When you move onto the white one it will at least be able to be moved about under its own power which might be handy during recommissioning. The yellow one is also a known quantity, the white one won't be until you start digging into it.

[Floatylight]

Glad you've made some progress amd hopefully found a bit of mojo.

if its just the head on the yellow one i personally would get that swapped in situ with a replacement, get the brakes on the other one sorted and have a long think about whether to move the two projects on as is, at least one is now running, or make the white one a winter project..

Bon chance!

[brownnova]

1 hour ago, Sunny Jim said:

but you've left it rather late in the school holidays to start your homework young man

Very very true! 
I do this every year, leave it I’m until it’s too late really. One of the reasons I’m on a self imposed project buying ban! 

1 hour ago, Sunny Jim said:

Isn't getting a new head for the yellow one (which is otherwise working?) less work than an engine swap?

With a 2CV engine swap not being over complicated (or so I’m led to believe by 2CV racing friends) I’m not sure it is that much more work. The Yellow one’s engine could do with some other fettling, it leaks oil increasingly and idle can be hit and miss….

I had contemplated swapping a head off the other white one but that engine looks somewhat crustier… 

[brownnova]

1 hour ago, Floatylight said:

hopefully found a bit of mojo.

I hope so too… 

[dollywobbler]

I think a 2CV engine swap is actually easier for the home mechanic than a head swap to be honest. I've never buggered up an engine change but I've definitely made messes when fitting cylinder heads. You can knacker up the oil feed pipes, strip the threads of the oil feed pipes, ruin the pushrod tubes, strip the manifold threads...

By comparison, an engine swap is four bolts, disconnect wiring and cables and off you go. (Don't even have to disconnect many wires if you just put the headlamp bar to one side).

EDIT - I did forget you've still got the exhaust battle with an engine swap. Getting five clamps to line up is always an arse!

[brownnova]

Couple of updates on the fleet: 

First up the XC90 had been laid up after the  repair to the electrics I had enacted was no longer functioning reliably. A while back water got in to the little well behind the wheel arch where a main electrical connector lives following a leaf based blockage in the roof drains. This had corroded the connector, and try as I might I couldn’t find the right connector. I had tried repairing by stripping wires and putting new ends on the connectors, and whilst this worked for a few months it started playing up again more and more often. I managed to keep things together for the MoT in August, but any longer drives would result in the car losing electrical power until you jiggled the wires again. Today the Auto electrician was in attendance and these two connectors were replaced.

I’ll run it about for a week or so and then as long as it’s definitely fixed the XC90 will be readied for sale. Fleet changes on the horizon mean that this and the Saab 9-3 convertible will be moving on. 

[brownnova]

On to 2CV news now. Following proof that the engine would run on fuel down the carb it was time to work out whether it would run from the tank. The tank had been drained, so I had to get some fuel into it. No dice. I could hear that nothing was getting to the electric pump.

At this point it was still light-ish… 

With the fuel pump ticking away and therefore very alive I investigated the lines too and from, and they looked good. 

so a length of fuel hose and a half full jerry can was tried: 

(Not as precarious as this photo makes it look) and we had great success! The car ran, idled and revved very smoothly with fuel from the can. The engine itself seems lovely. So the good news here is that the engine genuinely seems a good one.

Having primed the pump now, I wondered if connecting it back up might have the desired effect and it certainly appeared to, the car ran beautifully for several minutes connected up to the tank. However after about 10 minutes the pump suddenly ran dry and the car stalled.

By this point it was pitch black and starting to rain… 

 

Further investigation of the fuel lines needed. Maybe.

So now we have a runner I need to decide next steps.

This car seems fundamentally solid. A good poke around seems to reveal one possible grot spot on the front of one sill. But elsewhere is very solid having clearly been done to a good standard in the past. However, it does sit on an original chassis, which whilst it seems solid to me can hide grot where you can’t see it. 

Choices exist: 

a) use the engine from this as a donor for the yellow one. Then use the rest of the car as spares. 

b) continue to fettle this one back to life and get it back on the road.

c) do a temporary engine swap, and then get the original engine rebuilt from the yellow one.

In any case I’ll attempt to get it moving this weekend if I can. And take it from there. 

[brownnova]

On 24/08/2025 at 22:32, dollywobbler said:

By comparison, an engine swap is four bolts, disconnect wiring and cables and off you go. (Don't even have to disconnect many wires if you just put the headlamp bar to one side).

Do you know if there’s an idiots guide on how to do this somewhere? I’m a bit mechanically challenged, but I’m keen to give it a go if I go down that route, and whilst I am sure I could call on 2CV racer friends for help I’d like to try and tackle it. 

[Sunny Jim]

I'm not as knowledgeable or skilled as your racing chums but I am closer - holler if you need a hand I'd be happy to help.

[Surface Rust]

7 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Do you know if there’s an idiots guide on how to do this somewhere? I’m a bit mechanically challenged, but I’m keen to give it a go if I go down that route, and whilst I am sure I could call on 2CV racer friends for help I’d like to try and tackle it. 

Have you got a Haynes?  As Dollywobbler says, the exhaust is the worst bit, and that's just cause it is a bit fiddly to get sealed correctly.

It would seem a shame to break the white 2cv, they are worth quite a bit now, so I'd certainly think about rebuilding the engine with a new head and putting it back in.

[brownnova]

15 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

Have you got a Haynes? 

Yes, I’ll have a gander, but I’m not sure it covered full engine removal. (I may be wrong).

21 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

It would seem a shame to break the white 2cv,

Very much agree here. A lot of work was done to it by the previous owner, but it did deteriorate once he was ill and left it standing.