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

[juular]

So I started by buying this 1kw Clarke chap here.

No joy with this at all. In fact it wouldn't shift a barely tightened wheel nut never mind a crank nut so I suspect it was faulty. The reviews on it are pretty good but you see the odd one that says it is very weak. I think they may have a few bad batches of these.

It was sent back and replaced with a cheapo silverline 400w one, next day on Amazon prime.

 

Took off the crank nut like it was hand tight. It's about half the weight and size of the Clarke one so I'm keeping it.

[juular]

Time to get stuck into this.

Lower engine mount replaced.

Crank pulley removed. I know the belt can be replaced with it on, but I prefer not to twist the new belt too much as I've seen this cause them to walk sideways on the pulleys when running.

It was a bit of a fight so I doused it in ATF / acetone mix. I keep a jar of this handy and squeeze it into bolt holes and threads with a paintbrush. Left overnight and it wiggled out no problem.

Pulled the spark plugs so I wasn't fighting compression.

Crank was turned until it matched the helpfully* placed indicator that you can't see without a phone camera.

Compared with the camshafts. 

Fine. Crack on. Tensioner and belt off.

The belt looks fairly good condition so I think it has been replaced after 2009. However the tensioner was a little bit rattly so it's good I'm replacing everything.

Exciting box of newness.

Took the aux belt tensioner off to make my day easier. It's pretty knackered and sounds like crap.

Thankfully there's a bolt on the pulley so it can be replaced by itself when I get around to it.

Cambelt idler off. Sounds nasty too.

 

Time to dump the coolant. The rad drain screw feels really brittle and won't come out. This could be a world of pain.

So I just pulled the hose.

There's another drain at the back of the engine that's a pain in the arse.

Water pump oot.

Only a MILLION bolts later. My ratchet died mid ratcheting, which made this a Shit Job.

 

Spent an hour gasket scraping. I think this was the factory pump. The shaft is a bit loose and the remaining gasket was properly baked on.

Mondays work chat: What did you do at the weekend? Fucking GASKET SCRAPING.

Brake cleaner and a mobile phone screen replacement tool eventually did the job.

Shinies.

 

Make sure still lined up.

In the middle of fighting with the new belt I bumped the exhaust cam but I think we're good.

Turned over by hand a few times without incident before the rain came on for the day. Tomorrow I'll be getting it all back together and tracked up and hopefully happy times. Remind me to put coolant back in...

[big_al_granvia]

cracking work mate, did say a decent ugga would have that pulley bolt off no probs.. have fun

[dome]

Excellent work! 

Don't forget to put coolant back in...

[stuboy]

3 hours ago, juular said:

Remind me to put coolant back in.

what did u want us to remind u of ??

[juular]

Bit nicer colour than before. Ran it up to temp with the heaters on full to bleed the system. Seemed ok.

Oil leak FIXDED

I do love the smell of used parts on a Sunday.

Wheel alignment, the shite way.

With Mrs Juular helping by providing ballast / holding the steering wheel centred it only took 30mins.

Took it a short spin and OMG the coolant light came on. Checked the reservoir and it was empty. As the temp needle was right in the middle I assumed it was just an airlock and needed a wee burp. Took it home, filled it to max again and went for a wee run.

Sorted.

- Alignment right on the money with a centered steering wheel. Go me.

- Clonks and bangs and general shit handling around the streets is all gone.

- Engine mount vibration all gone.

- Driver's side squeaks like mad from the suspension. Not sure what the culprit is. It's very annoying.

To put my mind at ease about oil leaks I also did a blowby test using a glove over the oil filler to test the PCV system. Good sucking was achieved so that's a significant job scored off the list.

I haven't decided whether to delete the oil cooling system or not. There is good info out there that the oil coolers on these cars are pretty ineffective and there's not much to lose from binning it. Except it will save me a few hundred quid in hoses and potentially a radiator for the outlay of a £15 blanking plate.

[big_al_granvia]

nice graft mate

[dome]

Excellent stuff! 

[juular]

I'm pretty sure all of the remaining noises are coming from the top mounts and struts, plus there is an occasional ping from the towers when doing tight parking turns.

I don't really want to be replacing that lot in the winter with my fingertips going blue, so I'll take advantage of our Indian summer and give the old boat some extra lovin' this weekend.

[volvoman]

Ahhhh.....my old T5 GT coupe, well bought. It still looks like a bloody nice car too.

I loved this car the 2+ years that i owned it. The coupe could really shift if you wanted it to, or if you just wanted to drive it sensible, it would practically drive its self.

Looking at this thread, its pretty clear that you know your way around "a box of spanners", great work/effort so far, keep at it, an this beauty will repay your hard work, an probably end up being one of your best buys.

Everyone should own at least one Volvo in their lives (ive owned at least 50) once you own a Volvo, theres no turning back...great cars......................as long as its a pre 2000! 

[juular]

14 hours ago, volvoman said:

Everyone should own at least one Volvo in their lives (ive owned at least 50) once you own a Volvo, theres no turning back...great cars......................as long as its a pre 2000! 

Thinking you might be correct. Quite enjoying this old anvil. Took it to work today and ended up feeling a bit miffed my commute was only half an hour. The sound system is pretty phenomenal for an OEM unit and I'm cursing myself for throwing piles of CDs out.

Now that the suspension has had a bit of TLC it feels less bargey and more keen and coupe like and I've gained a bit more confidence throwing it about. I know it's not a Japanese Go-Kart but it can hold it together perfectly well indeed once you get used to it. The interior still actually feels kind of new. 

My old man had a bird's cack white coloured 340 back in the day and it was awful. It was as slow as a week in jail. It had a hole in the floor and if you pushed too hard with your foot the carpet would catch the wheel. It kept randomly switching off. It was cool and I kind of miss it. I know that wasn't entirely a true Volvo (DAF?) but I think it planted a Volvo itch that I've only now scratched.

Kind of want another Volvo to go with this one now. Cat's out of the bag. Shit.

[juular]

Today's chodfondling.

Shinies.

If you can only buy one tool, get an impact wrench. I don't know how I lived without it.

10 mins from dragging my tools out of the shed I had the car up, both wheels off and this out of the car. 

No need to counterhold things like droplinks and pinch bolts, just blat them with the gun.

Top mount is pretty shagged and the bearing is rattling away.

I get to use my favourite* safest* tool ever.

Then the cross shaped retaining nut comes off. I just slowly tapped it round with a small hammer.

Foosty. Think I can safely say this is one of the car's squeaky points.

Power washed the spring because I'm kinda funny like that.

The old shock felt pretty limp so hopefully the new ones will change the feel of the car a lot.

More shinies.

Spring seats were replaced with new ones. The cross nut goes back on easily with a 12mm open end spanner to lever it round.

Tops back on.

Did both sides, which were equally knackered.

A couple of other jobs to do.

Aux belt tensioner pulley replaced.

I didn't replace the belt as the new one didn't match the old, 6pk1743 Vs 6pk1750.

I'm not sure which one is actually correct for this car so I put the old one back on for the moment. It could be that the new one is correct for this engine and the old shorter belt has humped the tensioner?

The garden shit pile grows.

The old dear is now noticeably quieter. There's no knocks, bangs, squeaks or anything else now. It also drives like a brand new car and feels properly planted.

Tracking is miles out again though 😵

Did hear the occasional thump from the engine bay which was a bit weird. How did I not notice the missing battery clamp?

Will sort that another day when the can be arsed level increases.

[juular]

The can't be arsed was so strong when I checked the battery that I never noticed the plastic clamp staring me in the face which had just worked it's way loose. Pushed that back on and another random noise is eliminated.

I've redone the tracking but can't quite get it the way I want it. I set the toe straight ahead as a baseline. It drives dead straight with the wheel held straight, which means I've got it close enough. However when you let go of the wheel it wants to pull left which it didn't do before.

I think I've messed up the camber when replacing the shocks so I'll have to take it apart and do some wiggling.

Local alignment place has applied covid inflation and put their prices up from £40 to £70 for a 4 wheel setup. They can whistle.

[gm]

I’m not sure what they charge but I’ve always heard good things about Dreadnought garage in Callander with regards to alignment - might be worth a call ? 

[Lacquer Peel]

My S70 makes a horrible ping/boing sometimes pulling away at low speeds which I thought might be the strut bearing or mount.

Did you get a good deal on the parts?

[juular]

2 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

My S70 makes a horrible ping/boing sometimes pulling away at low speeds which I thought might be the strut bearing or mount.

Did you get a good deal on the parts?

It does sound topmountey. You can sometimes pinpoint it if you can get someone to steer while you hold the spring, you can feel the spring jump as it pings.

Shocks, spring seats and top mounts were about £180 altogether for both sides.

I'm about £350 into this car which isn't too bad for the timing belt full kit, aux belt and pulleys, coolant swap, engine mounts, ARB bushes, track rods, shocks and top mounts.

I got quoted £450 for a garage doing the timing belt alone.

 

[big_al_granvia]

3 hours ago, gm said:

I’m not sure what they charge but I’ve always heard good things about Dreadnought garage in Callander with regards to alignment - might be worth a call ? 

luti is good but a wee bit out the way, have you tried raceworkx in livingston,  master tech is george orr who built the bruce taxis evos back in the day, also run laser tools btcc programme, well it is owned by bob moffat

[juular]

6 hours ago, gm said:

I’m not sure what they charge but I’ve always heard good things about Dreadnought garage in Callander with regards to alignment - might be worth a call ? 

I could possibly fit this into a drive round the back roads which is always nice this time of year.

I'm going to have a go at realigning the top mounts and see how I get on. If no joy I'll start phoning for some prices.

[Lacquer Peel]

Does it need four wheel alignment? I think the rear wheel alignment is fixed. 

[gm]

14 minutes ago, juular said:

I could possibly fit this into a drive round the back roads which is always nice this time of year.

I'm going to have a go at realigning the top mounts and see how I get on. If no joy I'll start phoning for some prices.

There are some rather tasty roads round that part of the world, and there's a bakery in Callander that does amazing pies - Haggis & Steak and Black Pudding & Steak were my choices last time I was up there  

[juular]

16 hours ago, gm said:

Black Pudding & Steak

SOLD! 😁

[juular]

17 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

Does it need four wheel alignment? I think the rear wheel alignment is fixed. 

Probably not. If the camber is sorted I think that will do the trick. 

I don't know if 4 wheel alignment is purely a marketing thing or not, I thought they had to line up the fronts versus the rears even if they are not adjustable. Or maybe I'm thinking about it too much. Most fast fit chains just set the toe in my experience, I read 4 wheel alignment to mean they had the whole car taken into account.

[juular]

Ownership of the fast Ovlov of several shiters has been fairly uneventful, in a good way.

Two and a bit months of driving it have not killed off the enjoyment factor. I really like this car and will probably keep it a while. Doing the suspension refresh has been well worth it as it drives so well, much better than I was led to expect. It's no track car but it can hold it together just fine. The coupe shell is probably just that bit stiffer than the convertible that everyone says is a lard arse. It's enough.

Main downside is the brakes which don't quite keep up with the rest of the car and need a good stamp on many occasions. I may upgrade to police spec pads and see if that helps.

The soundtrack is a highlight. Mostly a contented warble but occasionally it surprises me with a lovely snarl when I go to overtake and I forget how damn nice it sounds. That's when I'm not deafening myself with the sound system.

No real FTPs yet. It threw one major strop after I started it, moved it off my drive and then switched off. Next morning it wouldn't start and smoked out the street once it coughed into life. Apparently this is common on the T5 engine and you need to avoid starting and not driving it, lest it floods itself.

Fondlage wise I finally did the aux belt using the longer one supplied by PFS. It's fine.

Snapped the arch liner in the process. Oh well. That's what cable ties are for.

It was spraying coolant from a split breather on top of the engine which I just snipped and reattached.

Realigned the struts back to original positions to try and fix my camber problem. It seems to have helped. You can see the dirty outline of where they originally were.

Before

After

Found and fixed another rattle that was driving me batshit, a vibrating power steering pipe.

And finally in more interesting news I have some more incoming chod that requires some sparkler action. This is the only picture you're getting for the moment.

[outlaw118]

16 minutes ago, juular said:

Main downside is the brakes which don't quite keep up with the rest of the car

The first job I did on Moose One (V40 t4) was to uprate the brakes. Bought in Nottingham, the journey home was beset by the worry that I wouldn't be able to stop the bastard.

Got grooved and drilled discs off t'bay, for not much - less than Volvo ones anyway. Got some harder pads, and Bob's your auntie.

Or something.

Mintex like what I got: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-C70-2-5-T5-06-Front-Brake-Discs-Pads-Coated-Black-Dimpled-Grooved-Piranha/352854113721?fits=Model%3AC70&hash=item5227be7db9:g:k5cAAOSwMmBVrgLL

[juular]

9 minutes ago, outlaw118 said:

The first job I did on Moose One (V40 t4) was to uprate the brakes. Bought in Nottingham, the journey home was beset by the worry that I wouldn't be able to stop the bastard.

Got grooved and drilled discs off t'bay, for not much - less than Volvo ones anyway. Got some harder pads, and Bob's your auntie.

Or something.

Mintex like what I got: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-C70-2-5-T5-06-Front-Brake-Discs-Pads-Coated-Black-Dimpled-Grooved-Piranha/352854113721?fits=Model%3AC70&hash=item5227be7db9:g:k5cAAOSwMmBVrgLL

Thanks. I've used mintex on my vans and been happy with them so these are worth a look.

It's not so much general driving, which is fine. If you decide to do twisty B roads at a pace the car can clearly handle then the odd hazard invokes some serious bottom clenching. So I find myself just wafting rather than pushing on a bit.

It doesn't help that the pedal action is nothing.. nothing.. meh.. STOP! 90% of the effect is in the last 5% of travel which involves quite a hard press. Driving the car spiritedly results in a pretty sore right leg.

[scdan4]

I suspect that the master cylinder may be on the way out from that description!

 

[juular]

1 hour ago, scdan4 said:

I suspect that the master cylinder may be on the way out from that description!

 

Very possible. I did wonder if all Volvos of that era were similar as I've been told by V70 owners that the standard brakes were a bit shite and the pedal feel was vague. However I've also noticed the pedal creep a little in traffic which may point to a leaking seal.

[Volksy]

19 hours ago, juular said:

It threw one major strop after I started it, moved it off my drive and then switched off. Next morning it wouldn't start and smoked out the street once it coughed into life. Apparently this is common on the T5 engine and you need to avoid starting and not driving it, lest it floods itself.

 

I had this issue with both my 850 2.0 20v and my S70 2.5t 

It will eventually fire, but acts as if it has no Compression - I thought I'd popped the cambelt the first time it happened. 

 

 

 

[stuboy]

nice looking motor

[juular]

1 hour ago, Volksy said:

I had this issue with both my 850 2.0 20v and my S70 2.5t 

It will eventually fire, but acts as if it has no Compression - I thought I'd popped the cambelt the first time it happened. 

That's it exactly. When it wouldn't start, then ran lumpy, my first reaction was to take the timing cover off only to see a perfect setup staring back. Fuel pump buzzing, spark plugs sparking, air filter clear, so I just turned it over until it eventually spluttered into life. 

It has been perfect since then. Shrug.