240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Othen

Yes indeed Steve! Finding the right owner is far more important than the money. I don't want to give the motor car away though, in my experience if something (anything) is free then it commands no respect - and the RB is far too good for that :-)

The arguments for keeping it are overwhelming,your a bloke so logic has no relevance.
Can you see where I’m going with this?

Also she is lovely , the perfect thing to regret getting rid of!!!

[john.wigley]

Good morning, Alan.

I have been following the discussion regarding the possibility of your selling the RB. I can see both sides of the argument and am not therefore about to offer advice one way or the other.

Having had the pleasure of meeting you (and GAM) at 'Patchings' last Sunday, when we touched upon the matter, I know you to be a realistic practical chap who is also - quite rightly - taking Dan's needs and preferences into consideration when arriving at your decision. That has to be yours and his alone, regardless of what any of us think.

Having said that, if you are serious about selling the RB, why not take it to the 'National' at Stratford next month? Displayed with a well-designed 'For Sale' notice, I am certain it would attract considerable interest within a captive, sympathetic audience. People there will know and appreciate cars like yours much more than the average eBay punter and their value. They are therefore much more likely to make a sensible, realistic offer if they are seriously interested in purchasing it.

I know that you are deliberating whether to attend, might this be a reason to do so?

Regards, John.

Edit: Just realised that the 'National' is next week, not next month as originally stated - doesn't time fly when you're having fun! J.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

Good morning, Alan.

I have been following the discussion regarding the possibility of your selling the RB. I can see both sides of the argument and am not therefore about to offer advice one way or the other.

Having had the pleasure of meeting you (and GAM) at 'Patchings' last Sunday, when we touched upon the matter, I know you to be a realistic practical chap who is also - quite rightly - taking Dan's needs and preferences into consideration when arriving at your decision. That has to be yours and his alone, regardless of what any of us think.

Having said that, if you are serious about selling the RB, why not take it to the 'National' at Stratford next month? Displayed with a well-designed 'For Sale' notice, I am certain it would attract considerable interest within a captive, sympathetic audience. People there will know and appreciate cars like yours much more than the average eBay punter and their value. They are therefore much more likely to make a sensible, realistic offer if they are seriously interested in purchasing it.

I know that you are deliberating whether to attend, might this be a reason to do so?

Regards, John.

Edit: Just realised that the 'National' is next week, not next month as originally stated - doesn't time fly when you're having fun! J.

Many thanks John,

I'm still thinking about the BKV...

We were chatting about Morgan stopping production of the 3 wheeler - the one with the V twin air-cooled S&S motorcycle engine at the Patchings last week. There was a review on its replacement in today's newspaper:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/fea...elivers-drive/

... it has a 3 cylinder Ford Fiesta motor - and is highly rated.

:-)

[Othen]

I had an issue with a couple of the rear wheel nuts not wanting to go back on after I'd fettled the rear brakes the other day. I took another look at it today and could see a couple of the wheel studs were in quite bad order. Regular readers might recall the RB has 25mm wheel spacers at the back:



... it was time to investigate. I could see the threads of a couple of the studs were gummed up with metal residue - I wondered whether someone had fitted the wrong nuts (perhaps M12?) some time in the past?

Anyway, the simplest solution was to pull them off and have a look. I could see that the spacers were the correct 108mm PCD and had the right 63mm centre bore and spigot for hub-centric wheels. I could also see that the PO had fitted these additional 5mm spacers - I think to avoid having to grind down the original studs, which would otherwise be too long. That meant that the spacers were no longer hub-centric where they fitted on to the original hubs at the back (although the front spigots into the Volvo Virgo wheels were fine):



Although the spacers had worked well for the last 3 years (and probably much longer), they didn't give any particular advantages, so rather than repair the stud threads and then still have non hub-centric spacers the most sensible things was to return the arrangement to standard by removing them completely.

The RB now has a standard track at the rear and looks none the worse for it:



I took it out for a test drive and there is no discernible difference, so I'll retire the wheel spacers to the spares shed and enjoy the RB a tad closer to the way it left Gothenburg.

:-)

PS. I've just been having a look at the damaged threads on the spacers. The 1/2" UNF nuts I have spare run up and down the other threads easily, but there is one damaged thread on each spacer. I think I may have a solution as to how they came to be damaged: the locking wheel nuts that were fitted to the RB when I bought it (and I got rid of very soon afterwards because I had problems re-fitting them) may have been a different size. My guess is they might be M12 and that the PO may have fitted them incorrectly. I still have the old locking nuts in store somewhere, later on (after the rugby) I'll find them and a M12 bolt to test my theory.

If I'm right then I've just about got away with this one.

[Othen]

I'd been trying to use the RB more since having it MoT tested recently, and had noticed that the motor had become rather lumpy since January (when I bought Great Aunt Maud and hence used the RB far less). I spent a while diagnosing what might be wrong on Friday morn last, and a compression test revealed it was getting a bit tired. I had the day free - a quick estimate revealed that I had enough spares (rings and gaskets) and tools to hone the bores and swap out the piston rings - so that is what I did after lunch.

Getting the sump off looked easy enough if I was to lift the left side of the engine up a few inches, take off the engine mount and move the PAS pump out of the way:



This was surprisingly easy, I pulled off the exhaust manifold to make sure I didn't damage anything, the inlet side as well (all in one piece, and just bungeed it out of the way).

Getting the sump off is a bit of a crappy job with all those hard to get to screws above the cross member. Once everything is unscrewed, the PAS pump bungeed to the front bulkhead and the engine mount completely removed there was just room to rotate the sump through about 100 degrees to the left and wiggle it past the oil pump.

Once the sump was off I refitted the top bolts on the engine mount and wedged a piece of wood underneath it so I could lower the motor:



... I used an off cut of some decking, as one does.

Getting the head off was pretty simple, remember it had been off a few years ago when I fitted a reconditioned head I'd bought remarkably cheaply. With the head off it was a pretty simple matter to push the pistons up through the bores so they could see the light of day for the first time in 42 years:



... I found the best tool to push the pistons up through the bores was a pair of 'Hard Rock Café - Washington DC' drumsticks we must have bought years ago :-). There endeth the first day - about 5 hours work to get the pistons out.

The pistons looked in pretty good order, no obvious wear (although I didn't have any instruments handy to take measurements). I didn't have any big end bearings to hand, but there was no obvious sign of adverse wear so I numbered everything and kept the assemblies together so I could re-fit them exactly the same way.

All the bores were glazed and had a fair amount of carbon above the top ring levels. They tool a fair amount of effort with the honing tool in a drill but came up well in the end:



... I was quite pleased with the result. Honing old motors is always a balance between getting a good finish and taking off too much material. I think I got it just about right though.

It took my about half a day on Saturday to get the bores to a state I was happy with, the rings fitted and everything cleaned. There was a pause whilst I waited for that nice Mr Bezos to send a chap with a ring compressor (I thought I had one, but probably loaned it to someone some years ago). It was too late for reassembly by the time the ring clamp arrived on Sunday.

Reassembly probably took a little longer than taking apart - I didn't want to make a mistake and end up having to do it all again. Probably about 8 hours on Monday. I had taken the opportunity to tidy up some stuff whilst it was off the motor car, such as the cam cover (now a nice matt VHT black) and the exhaust manifold (the same):



much better than the garish bright blue the PO had used... and also the sump got a coat of shiny Hamerite red, and looks very smart indeed (as if anyone will see it):



I was getting a bit late on Monday eve before I felt confident enough to try the motor. After a bit of turning over with the HT disconnected it had oil pressure and the carburettor had been primed. It started easily, but was running very poorly due to an exhaust leak at that awkward joint where the bottom of the manifold meets the Siamesed pipes. It was late enough and I wanted to watch 'Today at the Test' (well done England), so I left fixing that until this morn.

Which brings us to this morn: the exhaust leak is fixed (I had not used any assembly paste for the metal gasket, but I have now and it is fine). I checked the head bolt torques, ignition timing (spot on, which confirms I got the cam belt right), cleaned the plugs (from the assembly oil) and finished the final reassembly. So, how does it go...


... I'm pleased to say all is good. I've run it up to temperature, checked everything again and taken the RB for a test run (about 6 miles). No smoking, no oil leaks, better torque at low speeds, smoother running and quieter. The RB is a very nice car again. Once I'd come back from the test run I had to turn the tick-over speed down a bit - as one might expect from a motor no longer leaking compression with the same ignition and carburettor settings.

This has been a little challenge - I suppose about 18 hours work spread over 4 days - but the outcome seems to have been well worth it.

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

I wondered where you'd been hiding over the past few days Alan! A worth while job from your account, just need to carefully run those bores in for a few hundred miles now before you give it the beans.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I wondered where you'd been hiding over the past few days Alan! A worth while job from your account, just need to carefully run those bores in for a few hundred miles now before you give it the beans.

Many thanks Dave,

I didn't want to crow about this until I knew if had worked out well (if it hadn't I'd probably have had to give it to Luke for one of his turbocharging projects). You are right: the RB needs some old fashioned running-in. I'll try to get some miles on the bores and then change the oil.

I'm pleased with this - the whole job probably cost only £50 worth of materials I already had (plus £6 for a ring clamp I thought I already had but couldn't find).

:-)

[Steve 940]

Alan,

My hat is duly doffed to you sir, glad all went well, and hope you continue to enjoy the improvements on the RB

Dont think I'd be brave enough to consider undertaking such work yet, perhaps a few more years of learning needed😀

Cheers
Steve

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Alan,

My hat is duly doffed to you sir, glad all went well, and hope you continue to enjoy the improvements on the RB

Dont think I'd be brave enough to consider undertaking such work yet, perhaps a few more years of learning needed😀

Cheers
Steve

Thank you Steve, but this is nowhere near as difficult as it might appear. I changed piston rings on motorbikes many times, particularly on 2 strokes (they eat them regularly). The principles are exactly the same, the bits are just a bit bigger and heavier on a motor car.

Have a go at a few jobs as they come up, you will probably surprise yourself with what you can achieve (and save a fortune in garage labour).

Alan

[360beast]

Hey give it time yet that engine might die and then I can turbo it

I jest of course, brilliant work there Alan and a true testiment to your abilities and dedication to the RB! I bet the mpg will go up a bit too so you have no reason to sell it off now