welding project Juular's Scandi Noir. Volvo C70, 240 &122. Amazon tinkering.

14,333 · August 2, 2021

Still waiting on parts..

Welding bottle fell over onto the regulator, as is the rule.

Since I have no welder and no way to continue with the C70 I decided to start on the 240s timing belt.

What a nice change it is working on an old RWD car.

Pulling the fan shroud, radiator and airbox is a 5 minute job. Literally just a few screws.

Evidently the car has been serviced before being laid up 10 years ago.

This is the very first broken bolt on this car, courtesy of the alternator tensioner. It's no big deal though

Well, it's definitely a belt.

As you can see access is tight.. could probably only swing a medium sized elephant.

The belt is immaculate, I'm guessing this was also done with the service. It is a dilemma now because this looks so fresh, but age or miles.. whatever soonest right?

Just for my own reference I'm posting the marks lined up at tdc, but I suppose it might help others.

25,166 · August 2, 2021

Great aren’t they, these old Redblocks!? Almost as easy to work on as a Pinto!

Bad luck on the smashed gas regulator though😡 typically!

14,333 · August 7, 2021

Bearings arrived.. finally.

Pistons in.

Rods torqued up, oil pan back on.

Now time to recapitate it.

14,333 · August 8, 2021

Head is on.

Had to modify the inlet manifold gasket.

Tappets cleaned and oiled.

Cams oiled up.

Set to tdc.

Now I have a problem. Autodoc sent me a tube of sealant for the cam cover but it's essentially rtv silicone. The correct stuff is anaerobic sealant that you roll on.

I'm not sure whether to go ahead and use it, or try to find the right stuff. The chances of finding that on a Sunday will be a nice round number.

14,333 · August 8, 2021

As even the Volvo dealer hadn't a clue about the right sealant and Amazon couldn't deliver the equivalent until September, I made an educated guess.

Loctite 5922 is a flange sealant and seems better for this than silicone. To me the thought of silicone on something that has almost zero tolerance (the cam cover is the upper journal for the camshaft) just seems wrong.

This went on nice with a roller.

Oiled the journals.

At this point you're supposed to use special Volvo tool 373837583628395837 to draw the cover and camshafts onto the head.

Instead I followed the robertdiy approved method of slowly tightening down the cover bolts in multiple passes, working outwards from the centre.

Checking the cam timing at each pass.

Seems to work well, and when finished the tiniest little bit of sealant was visible which is just about right.

It's looking enginey.

Thunderstorm just started so not sure if I'll get to finish this today.

4,179 · August 8, 2021

What a power of work thats gone into. I'm amazed at how quickly you're able to piece it back together.

Looking forward to seeing it being fired up again!

14,333 · August 9, 2021

10 hours ago, Gerrymcd said:

What a power of work thats gone into. I'm amazed at how quickly you're able to piece it back together.

Looking forward to seeing it being fired up again!

Given that this is the first time I've seen inside an engine I fully expect to have fucked this up somehow. I'm treating it as a project / learning experience and if it starts it's a bonus 😁

They're not bad engines to work on at all. If you take away the PCV and the evap system there's nothing particularly 'modern' about them. Bar the shitty location of the main water pipe flange and the turbo connections everything is really accessible for a FWD car.

Today's tinkering.. Looking at the oil pan I've screwed up the sealant as it's spilled out too far for my liking. I'm going to pull it off and redo it before going further.

16,406 · August 9, 2021

Respect, you're not shy at getting stuck in to these things!

14,333 · August 12, 2021

29,204 · August 12, 2021

Oh no! What a disastrous disappointment!

10,310 · August 12, 2021

Good work.

August 12, 2021

Never any doubt

25,166 · August 12, 2021

👍

Top work!

4,179 · August 12, 2021

🥳

3,145 · August 12, 2021

splendid

14,333 · August 12, 2021

Mrs Juular provided backup. Shakedown cruise to Bo'ness compleat.

No issues so far, oil has finally reached the tappets and it's now as smooth as silk. Very pleased with it.

Huge shout out to @Lacquer Peel for his help.

Off to have a celebration bevvy.

26,540 · August 12, 2021

Excellent work!

Although, I think it sounds like it is running on 5 occasionally..

14,333 · August 13, 2021

She managed a 120 mile blast to Glasgow and back without any hiccup, so I'm going to tentatively declare this fixed!

Total CATASTROPHE though as the cheap Chinese vacuum hose has melted onto the top of the engine, so I no longer has omgboostgaugem9.

14,333 · August 14, 2021

Drippity drip.

At least the subframe won't rust.

I thought it was the oil pan so I nipped up the bolts another bit. But it wasn't.

I'm missing a cam cover bolt. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal since there are about 45 others to keep the cover on, but it turns out these also keep the oil in. Who knew? Without the bolt oil just pisses out the hole.

They are a weird 7mm size that only Halfords sell locally. When I say sell, they list them on their website as being in stock, but when you turn up they have no idea where they are.

So it's only semi fixed. Will try Stirling Halfords tomorrow to see if they have any.

26,129 · August 14, 2021

Was good fun meeting you today, even though we were unsuccessful in hunting down an M7 bolt!

That C70 makes a lovely noise.

14,333 · August 16, 2021

Elusive bolt sourced.

There's still a lot of oil down the back of the engine and some is hitting the cat and creating bad smells. I'm not sure if it's still leaking or whether it's just the remnants of the leak. I'll give it a good scrub and check again.

Cracked on with the 240s timing belt. The old tensioner sounded like a washing machine full of screws.

New one compressed using the special* tool.

New belt and tensioner on.

The crank pulley was properly manky.

Wire wheel.

Blue shit.

Silver shit.

The car was supplied with some NOS drive belts, so I chucked those on.. why not.

I'll say it again, this car is so easy to work on it's actually really enjoyable.

While the rad was out I gave the front crossbar a blast with the wire wheel and then some H80.

All of this took such little time that I carried on and did the injector seals.

A bit of context. The car runs fine - it dragged itself off the back of a trailer and into my garden against properly siezed brakes. However the idle is extremely lumpy and the PO mentioned it had previous issues idling and starting.

I thought it may have just been old fuel, but the injectors are really manky and the seals are gubbed. I am going to hazard a guess that this isn't helping.

A good clean and new seals put on all 4.

Again, I went out to just poke a few things and ended up doing loads as it took no time at all, so I went ahead and put everything in the engine bay back together and refilled it with coolant. Since the front end is basically finished with I put the lights, grille and wing back on too.

That's a wee bit of a mojo boost actually.

New welding regulator has arrived so I will carry on with the weldathon on the back at the next opportunity.

14,333 · August 16, 2021

On 8/14/2021 at 7:39 PM, Supernaut said:

Was good fun meeting you today, even though we were unsuccessful in hunting down an M7 bolt!

That C70 makes a lovely noise.

Stirling Halfords had one even though their website said they didn't 😄

14,333 · August 17, 2021

C70 is still leaking somewhere, only when actually being driven.

Whatever it is, it's getting onto the driveshaft which is then flinging it all over the back of the engine making it difficult to source.

I'm probably going to have the pull the pan off and reseal it, don't think there's anything else it can be.

1,728 · August 17, 2021

Is it possible that 5922 sealer which you substituted isn't working? You ideally want an anaerobic sealant like Loctite 518 for that cam cover.

14,333 · August 17, 2021

Yes, it crossed my mind that it could be that, but I'm fairly certain the sealant works, as the cam cover is now bone dry after replacing that bolt.

The front, sides and half of the rear of the sump are also bone dry. I'm starting to wonder if it's actually leaking further up.

I'll clean it up again and check the turbo oil feed, and the rear cam seals.

There is also this T shaped bracket which I never bolted back on as it seemed kind of pointless and access is difficult.

It's been suggested to me that the lower bolts actually might seal oil in much like the cam cover ones do. Don't know how plausible that is. If that was the case surely it would be literally pouring out.