The Morbidmobile Blog

[TomSaintJames]

Originally Posted by griston64

Urban drainage just means general housing rather than city centre.

Yea, the chap said that any new solid surfaces have to have a drainage system in place to prevent run-off from running off onto the roads and pavements. We will need a small soak-away tank under the new drive and a grille/drain channel between the drive and road for the water to run into. It added another £280 onto the price, which in perspective isn't that bad although i'd as soon as not pay the extra!

[tofufi]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

I'd forgotten about the dashboard incompatibility, drat!

Just out of interest, what is incompatible with the dashboards?

I'm running LH2.4 in my 340 using the original dash with all original gauges

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by tofufi

Just out of interest, what is incompatible with the dashboards?

I'm running LH2.4 in my 340 using the original dash with all original gauges

The shape, Tom is fitting (fitted?) a 95 back axle with the 48 tooth reluctor ring for the speedo. If memory serves the 340/360 had a mechanical drive speedo from the transaxle so wouldn't effect the EFi but as Toms car is a 1988 car, it has a speedo expecting a 12-tooth reluctor ring. He's also fitting a turbo (2.5 turbo - will be pretty quick!) and the LH2.4 needs the right speed signal which i believe is derived from the cluster. Non-turbos don't use this so other LH2.4 cars wouldn't need it.

At least i'm guessing that's the reasoning behind it all.

[tofufi]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

The shape, Tom is fitting (fitted?) a 95 back axle with the 48 tooth reluctor ring for the speedo. If memory serves the 340/360 had a mechanical drive speedo from the transaxle so wouldn't effect the EFi but as Toms car is a 1988 car, it has a speedo expecting a 12-tooth reluctor ring. He's also fitting a turbo (2.5 turbo - will be pretty quick!) and the LH2.4 needs the right speed signal which i believe is derived from the cluster. Non-turbos don't use this so other LH2.4 cars wouldn't need it.

At least i'm guessing that's the reasoning behind it all.

Makes sense

For what it is worth, LH2.4 doesn't seem fussy about the speed signal - mine gets 2 on/off pulses per wheel revolution on the 340

As a result, would just dividing the pulses by 4 (somehow?) achieve the correct speedo result?

[TomSaintJames]

It's a nuisance ot have to chage the dash, but in for a penny etc! It may be a good opportunity to fit a/c stuff too, I have a compressor off of Luke so why the hell not? I've read without the correct speedo pick up the idle can behave randomly and bizzarely.

Now the brakes are sorted and i've realised that if I want the Hearse MOT'd and drivable for early October I need to get a wriggle on, i finally found and dropped off the 531 head at a localish machining shop on Monday, they shop don't weld but they do handily have a tame welding specialist about half a mile away.

The job list stands at this so far! I think we are at about £250 cost for the below possibly with VAT on top, can;t remember what they said now:
-Pressure test -pass
-Vacuum test - fail. The valves aren't seating.
-Remove valves, clean and inspect - valve seats pitted and two exhaust valves need replacing (I will put the new valves in and lap etcd)
-Cutting valve seats
-New core plugs
-Refacing the block and exhaust manifold faces (4 thou out on the block face)

Then of course the welding, the quote was roughly £200 so we shall see...

Feels like progress!

[Laird Scooby]

Definitely progress there Tom! Should be a good engine once it's all done. Quite surprised you've gone the turbo route though, is it LPT or HPT? Are you using a thicker head gasket to drop the compression ratio?

Think you'll be burning some midnioght oil to get it all done for October, you'll develop vampire DNA with too many all-nighters though!

[TeamG]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Yea, the chap said that any new solid surfaces have to have a drainage system in place to prevent run-off from running off onto the roads and pavements. We will need a small soak-away tank under the new drive and a grille/drain channel between the drive and road for the water to run into. It added another £280 onto the price, which in perspective isn't that bad although i'd as soon as not pay the extra!

ACO drains running to a soakaway is only one option, but these do need maintenance as the ACO needs jetting periodically and soakaway do silt up eventually.

I had a similar dilemma with my drive. The council insisted on a SUDS solution and no drainage onto the highway as a planning constraint, but ACOs won’t work as a single soakaway will drain too slowly (I conducted a 1m3 infiltration test that proved it). I ended up going for porous Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) and observed it during the most recent downpour (Welsh rain during amber weather warning), not a drop went onto the footway beyond.

[TomSaintJames]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Definitely progress there Tom! Should be a good engine once it's all done. Quite surprised you've gone the turbo route though, is it LPT or HPT? Are you using a thicker head gasket to drop the compression ratio?

Think you'll be burning some midnioght oil to get it all done for October, you'll develop vampire DNA with too many all-nighters though!

Apart from why the hell not, I think even the 2.5 n/a would struggle with all the weight a camper has to bear, i'm thinking joinery/water tanks/lpg tanks/utensils and all that. SO whilst we are changine the engine, it makes sense (according to my man maths ) to just go the turbo route now, rather than deciding a couple of years later!

All the LH2.4 and turbo stuff has come off of a HPT car, which IIRC is 8psi when new? One of us fellow Volvo nuts has supplied a chip for the ignition and fuel ECU's to help with the 'high' compression and boost. I've asked the shop to take the minumum off of the block face as possible, I understand when we convert to LPG there will be less of an issue with pre-ignition as it's a higher octane fuel.

I think I have asked before, but what is the opinion on HG to help lower compression? My memory tells me it doesn't help all that much as it reduces squish - but I can't remember what squish is apart from something to do with pre-ignition/pinking/knock risk (they are all the same right?).

[Laird Scooby]

Good call on the turbo in that case, i'd forgotten the half a forest of cabinets etc you'll have in the back.

Volvo supply an extra thick headgasket for turbo cars that have had their heads skimmed. Given you're having the block decked and the head skimmed and the AQ-151C was quite high compression to start with, it would probably be a good idea.

Not sure if they supply one for the AQ-151 if that has had a head skim but worth asking at your local Volvo dealer.

Yes, thicker headgaskets will reduce squish but you've already got a turbulent cylinder charge courtesy of the turbo so the difference it's likely to make will be minimal. You may have to set the boost lower because of the bigger capacity and compression ratio, you won't know until you have it on a rolling road though.

[TomSaintJames]

Whilst the 531 head is at the shop i've been tinkering with the block, I wasn't quite sure where to start so got the wire discs out and thought i'd take the falky pain t and rust off - quite some challenge due to sheer amount of it on there! I was a bit concerned due to the state of it, it turns out rightly so...



This is as far as I got before I found a hole, the area taken back to metal so far is not the worst looking crusty bit either, so this block is no good. The worst crusty bit and the hole below:







Today i'm popping up to see Luke about some more parts (now including a block...) so took the sump off to see what bearing layout this crank uses. Can anyone tell me fromt he photo's? To my untrained eye the centre bearing here looks the biggest which I know is the less desirable of the layouts.





It took me over an hour to get the sump off, I had to use the twist grip sockets for all of the 10, 11 and 12mm bolts, two of which I had to take off with the angle grinder! Good job I don't need the sump. The oil looked clean though.