juular Posted January 7 Author Share Posted January 7 Nearly there. Block didn't look too pleased about being left out in the open, but that was sorted with an abrasive pad. Also drained the oil and coolant. Gasket. Heed on and torqued then angle tightened. I seem to have lost one of the exhaust gaskets, and I need to try and compress then timing belt tensioner to refit it, so I did everything else I could then called it a day. Can't feel my toes now. MorrisItalSLX, Six-cylinder, Saabnut and 17 others 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juular Posted January 19 Author Share Posted January 19 This is so close to being pushed into the canal. Thats with the new valve installed. There's almost nothing left except taking that piston out. rm36house, Dyslexic Viking, Rust Collector and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juular Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 I have sorted the 240 problem by once again pretending I don't own it. On to the stalwart C70 which I forgot needed an MOT until the last moment. This car has been giving such little trouble I had to check what the previous MOT said. The steering rack play comes up every year, and it changes from steering rack to inner tie rods to one of the track rod ends depending on where I take it for MOT. The car has the tightest steering of any car I own so I think there's nothing actually wrong there. Maybe the rack adjuster needs tightened a bit, but for now I'll ignore it. The sills were easy enough to sort. In fact I'm a bit annoyed they even made an advisory as there's nothing wrong with them. Simply, a tyre fitter has managed to fold over both seams of the sill. But then this is the same place that failed a spotless 240 for DANGEROUS CORROSION because a rubber grommet was missing. Fixing that is just a case of straightening the seams with mole grips. Done. Last thing to sort was the small matter of the tailpipe having fallen off. Since there's no backbox on these it wasn't a big deal but I thought it was worth fixing. I fixed this by HAMMERING A BIGGER EXHAUST OVER IT. No, really, I found a bit of spare pipe that was marginally bigger than the exhaust and fit perfectly without evening having to cut it. And I just hammered it on. Let's see how that goes. Ah. Note how the steering rack play has switched to a track rod end this time, right as expected. They've done their time I suppose. Pair of new springs £35 and half an hour of work. I'm annoyed about the suspension arm advisories as I replaced them this time last year. 5 year warranty apparently. I'll test that! Anyway, good to get another year out of this beast, because I absolutely love it. No sign of anything major on the horizon either. Brilliant car. Sunny Jim, Coprolalia, Back_For_More and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juular Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 Right. The 240. I checked and it's still there. Damn. Mulling over what could possibly be wrong with it, I have absolutely eliminated ignition, unmetered air, and fuelling, and have eliminated the other 3 cylinders. The only thing left is compression on #3. Compression on #3 when tested with a gauge shows it being a maximum of 5% and a minimum of 0% down over the others depending on the phase of the moon. I suspect a standard compression test isn't telling the whole story, but I don't have the kit to do a leakdown or dynamic compression test. Basically, it's got to be the compression ring, right? It's either stuck or broken. The car was originally stood for over 10 years which does tie in with this theory. My first attempt at trying to sort this without dismantling the engine is to throw some special sauce down the spark plug hole and leave it for a week. In this case, a 50:50 mix of Acetone and ATF. Place your bets now!! Coprolalia, mk2_craig, mercedade and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talbot Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 It'll either make it a bit better (gummed/siezed ring) or worse (broken ring) There's so little left that this can be!! juular 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juular Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 Whatever bet you placed, I reckon you're wrong. Cranked the starter with the plug out to blow the fluid out of the cylinder, then drained the remnants from the oil pan. Refilled the oil and started it. #3 is now giving good compression which is a massive improvement. So I was right in that it had a stuck ring. ..but! #4 is now not firing at all. WTF? 4 gave a solid 175psi compression on the last test. It's getting fuel and spark. Answers on a postcard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EyesWeldedShut Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 1 minute ago, juular said: Answers on a postcard. Cracked the insulator on the spark plug and it's tracking to earth when it's in the head but looking good when it's out and earthed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juular Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 2 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said: Cracked the insulator on the spark plug and it's tracking to earth when it's in the head but looking good when it's out and earthed? Very reasonable shout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juular Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 Wait a second... No, really, @MrsJuular noticed that the Volvo branded spark plugs (which weren't cheap) looked like they were held together with glue. I was doing a (yet another) spark test with them all lying out on top of the engine block, except this time it was starting to get dark outside. This time I noticed how thin and crappy the spark looked, which prompted a closer look. Ironically I bought these spark plugs last year to try and sort the running issues that were likely caused by the burned #3 valve which I have now fixed. I hadn't thought those "genuine Volvo" plugs would contribute their own issues. So I chucked on an old set of NGK plugs I had lying in the boot, and... Running perfectly! MOT time now. dome, CaptainBoom, Saabnut and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthecapriman Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Just caught up with this! Glad you’ve (hopefully!) got it cracked. Those fake plugs are more common than you’d believe. I heard about these knock off plugs being about but thought nothing of it. Until I bought a set of allegedly Bosch plugs for my Capri. Of course they were absolute crap and worked if they felt like it. Showed them to someone I know who works in a garage and he immediately said they were cheap Chinese fakes. Apparently he’s had problems with them too. mk2_craig and juular 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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