240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

See above John, as I told LS, the RB will always be an auto (either a BW55 one or an AW71 one). I don't know what I was thinking of this morn.

I think a suitable donor car (with a B23e motor and AW71 box) would be a good thing to look for. As I said to LS, if one could be had for £500 like the one in the ad that would be a no-brainer.

:-)

Brought forward for my future reference.

[Othen]

Regular readers may recall the RB's refresh (honed bores and new rings) some weeks ago:

Originally Posted by 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.

:-)

... initially that seemed very promising. I tried the motor car out to a Trent Valley section meeting a few weeks ago, it was a very hot day but the RB got a bit bothered. By the time I got home (130 mile round trip) it was clearly burning too much oil. What a pity, a good attempt on my part, but no cigar.

The RB was still running, but I would not have been happy to leave it like that, and I would never sell a motor car with a fault, so what could I do? I could either scrap the RB (it is too good for that), I could give it to Luke so he could fit a 300HP turbocharged engine, slam it into the ground and have LED undercar lighting... or I thought of this from the very early days of the RB project:

Originally Posted by Othen

See above John, as I told LS, the RB will always be an auto (either a BW55 one or an AW71 one). I don't know what I was thinking of this morn.

I think a suitable donor car (with a B23e motor and AW71 box) would be a good thing to look for. As I said to LS, if one could be had for £500 like the one in the ad that would be a no-brainer.

:-)

... so I started looking for a nice B230 motor with a 4 speed auto box, and today have bought this one:



It starts and runs, doesn't smoke, has 127,000 miles, will be out of the car in a few weeks and was only £275 (with the gearbox)!

The next exciting chapter in the RB's life has begun :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Are you converting it to K-Jet as well Alan?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Are you converting it to K-Jet as well Alan?

Probably not Dave (at least not at this stage). My plan is to bung the injector holes, fit the RB's inlet manifold and run it as a carburettor engine - this is a maintenance fix (with some added benefits) rather than a performance enhancement. I may consider converting to FI later - one step at a time.

I really liked the seller - a marvellous character who will be fitting a Lexus V8 to the 240 saloon. The good news is he doesn't need anything under the bonnet, so I can have the motor, K-Jet system complete, auto box (either AW70 or 71), cooling lines, prop and even the radiator. I'll use some bits from the RB (manifolds, fuel pump, maybe water pump), give the B230 a going over out of the car (4 seals, head gasket, cam belt etc) and see if the AW auto box fits without any modifications - then put it in the RB vice the B21/BW55. If the AW auto box doesn't fit I may just re-fit the 3 speeder.

The motor started pretty easily and sounds fine. I'm mainly after extending the RB's life by about 20 years, but the advantages of a little more power and torque plus a fourth gear are obvious as well.

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Probably not Dave (at least not at this stage). My plan is to bung the injector holes, fit the RB's inlet manifold and run it as a carburettor engine - this is a maintenance fix (with some added benefits) rather than a performance enhancement. I may consider converting to FI later - one step at a time.

I really liked the seller - a marvellous character who will be fitting a Lexus V8 to the 240 saloon. The good news is he doesn't need anything under the bonnet, so I can have the motor, K-Jet system complete, auto box (either AW70 or 71), cooling lines, prop and even the radiator. I'll use some bits from the RB (manifolds, fuel pump, maybe water pump), give the B230 a going over out of the car (4 seals, head gasket, cam belt etc) and see if the AW auto box fits without any modifications - then put it in the RB vice the B21/BW55. If the AW auto box doesn't fit I may just re-fit the 3 speeder.

The motor started pretty easily and sounds fine. I'm mainly after extending the RB's life by about 20 years, but the advantages of a little more power and torque plus a fourth gear are obvious as well.

:-)

To be honest, it would probably be easier to add a high pressure fuel pump to feed the K-Jet than to convert it to carb operation - the K-Jet will give more power too.
If memory serves, the AW box is the same or smaller than the BW35/65 boxes so the only minor hiccough there might be the propshaft but if it's coming with the prop from another 240 and the K-Jet system complete (including HP fuel pump and in-tank pump) direct from a 240 then it makes life all the easier.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

To be honest, it would probably be easier to add a high pressure fuel pump to feed the K-Jet than to convert it to carb operation - the K-Jet will give more power too.
If memory serves, the AW box is the same or smaller than the BW35/65 boxes so the only minor hiccough there might be the propshaft but if it's coming with the prop from another 240 and the K-Jet system complete (including HP fuel pump and in-tank pump) direct from a 240 then it makes life all the easier.

I like the simplicity of a carburettor engine Dave. At first sight it looks like the inlet manifold will bolt straight on with no modifications, as will the mechanical fuel pump. What could be simpler than that? The distributor appears to be the same as the RB's one, so it should hook up straight into the wiring (such as it is) with no modifications. As far as I can see the only modification required to the motor will be fitting 4 of these little bungs to block up the injector ports:

https://danstengineering.co.uk/Unive...-14mm-Set-of-4

The AW transmission may well be a straight swap, at the moment the only thing that concerns me is whether the speedometer is driven from the gearbox or the back axle. The speedo drive from the BW55 might well fit if required. If it isn't an easy fit I'll replace the BW55 - it works fine.

6 months ago (when I bought GAM) the RB project was sort of at an end in that I hadn't intended to take it any further, now it is gaining momentum again.

:-)

Alan

[Othen]

The outline project plan for the B230:

Aim. I'm really clear about the aim: it is to extend the RB's life by at least another decade. I'm not trying to make the motor car something it isn't with a big performance upgrade (hence not bothering with the FI). If it all works well there may be incremental changes (FI or TC) later, we'll see.

Budget. I'm aiming to do this for about £500. The engine, gearbox and ancillaries were £275. I have a bottom end gasket and seal set already and a top end set ordered at only £26. The FI bungs are £16 and a set of head bolts is £27. That is probably it for parts - add about £70 for fluids makes about £400. Once the project is done I should have a K-jet system complete, an alternator, spare radiator, prop shaft and miscellaneous parts left over to sell. The K-Jet system would seem to be quite valuable as they are fairly rare (maybe recoup £100 or so against the project costs).

Fuel System: I want a really simple system, like the one on the RB. The inlet manifold looks like it will fit with no modification, if that is so I'll just swap it over with the existing Pierburg carburettor and controls complete. I'll have to fit the FI bungs, but otherwise the 530 head should be fine and may well have a better camshaft, I'll have a look when I change the gasket and seal. If the inlet manifold doesn't fit I'll use the 398 head from the RB (recently reconditioned item), but that means I'll also have to swap over the cam belt cover to get some timing marks (that doesn't look difficult though). The RB's fuel pump (mechanical) should be a straight fit. The Pierburg carburettor may need a bigger jet - but there may well be sufficient adjustment to account for 10% more airflow from the 2.3 motor.

Exhaust: as now, probably with the RB's manifold (because I'd painted it).

Ancillaries: mostly from the RB, but there will be a mix and match whilst both power trains are on the ground. I'll generally go with things I know work well.

Gearbox: I suspect the transmission will be a AW70 (1988 car). Once it is on the ground next to the BW55 unit I'll get the tape measure out and see if it is likely to fit the RB. Unknowns at the moment are whether it had the OD solenoid (if it does I may well bypass it - I'd be happy with a 4 speeder and then I could use the RB's shifter), whether it has the speedo drive (if not the extension from the RB may well fit), whether the cooling lines will fit (it looks like they may well, but I'll have a spare set I could modify ready if required) and whether either of the props will fit (I'm pretty sure at least one of them will, but if not I'll have a spare that can be modified). If any of these risks look like holding up the main project I'll just re-fit the BW55 (works well) and maybe re-visit the 4 speeder option at a later date.

Timescale: the seller should have the unit out of the car in about 2 weeks. After that I should think I'd have to allow myself a week to prepare it and work out which bits I'm going to use from the RB, then another week to install and fettle (the fettling may take some time). If all goes well perhaps I'll get this done by the end of August (but more realistically it might be the end of September).

Any comments of ideas would be appreciated (but no Luke: I am not going to turbocharge it!).

:-)

[john.wigley]

That does seem a sensible approach, if your ultimate goal is to improve and subtly upgrade the R.B.'s performance, Alan. It is also clear that it's recent outing to the TVS meeting has reawakened your enthusiasm for the car!

However, after reading your notes above carefully through several times, I can only see one passing but direct reference to the issue that has prompted this train of thought - where you say that the R.B. was 'clearly burning too much oil'.

May I ask how much was 'too much' in your view? I would reasonably expect any engine that had recently been worked on to the extent of the R.B.'s to consume at least a little oil - perhaps upwards of half a pint or 300 ml - on a journey of that length, especially on a hot day. As the engine beds in and carbon builds up again, I'm sure that it will almost certainly improve.

If this is the only reason that you are contemplating this course of action, I feel that you may be being a little hard on both the R.B. and yourself. I would be inclined to persevere with the present set up a little longer to see if it settles down and improves with use. Remember that you are dealing with an older engine that has been disturbed and reassembled, not a new, modern unit that was designed and built by a computer!

My approach, in the absence of any other major failings, would be to stick with it a while longer. After all, that would not negate your excellent, well thought out plans for the R.B., but give you more time to both finesse and ultimately undertake the project that you are now considering.

That would be my take, but, as always, it is your motor car and your decision. Whichever course you take - if it gives you pleasure and brings you satisfaction - is the right one for you,

Regards, John.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

That does seem a sensible approach, if your ultimate goal is to improve and subtly upgrade the R.B.'s performance, Alan. It is also clear that it's recent outing to the TVS meeting has reawakened your enthusiasm for the car!

However, after reading your notes above carefully through several times, I can only see one passing but direct reference to the issue that has prompted this train of thought - where you say that the R.B. was 'clearly burning too much oil'.

May I ask how much was 'too much' in your view? I would reasonably expect any engine that had recently been worked on to the extent of the R.B.'s to consume at least a little oil - perhaps upwards of half a pint or 300 ml - on a journey of that length, especially on a hot day. As the engine beds in and carbon builds up again, I'm sure that it will almost certainly improve.

If this is the only reason that you are contemplating this course of action, I feel that you may be being a little hard on both the R.B. and yourself. I would be inclined to persevere with the present set up a little longer to see if it settles down and improves with use. Remember that you are dealing with an older engine that has been disturbed and reassembled, not a new, modern unit that was designed and built by a computer!

My approach, in the absence of any other major failings, would be to stick with it a while longer. After all, that would not negate your excellent, well thought out plans for the R.B., but give you more time to both finesse and ultimately undertake the project that you are now considering.

That would be my take, but, as always, it is your motor car and your decision. Whichever course you take - if it gives you pleasure and brings you satisfaction - is the right one for you,

Regards, John.

Many thanks John,

The RB needed topping up (about half a pint I should think) by the time I got home. It was a very hot day - when I got to the hill at Rockingham (quite steep) it was clearly smoking. Maybe you are right, and I will run a compression test this week to confirm, but my feeling is the B21's bores are a bit tired. Maybe the carbon glazing I removed was providing the majority of the sealing effort.

I did get a quote for a re-bore (of the bare block - so quite an effort to strip the engine) and supply new pistons, rings and big end bearings, which was £820 (plus VAT) - so a grand plus my rebuilding costs to put it back together.

You may be right in that the oil consumption may calm down; I'll see how the compression test goes. The B230 idea was a bit of a long term idea anyway, so that is the plan at the mo.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

I agree with what John said about when you deglazed the bores that you may have removed something that was providing the sealing. It used to be new cars would burn oil for the first few thousand miles while the pistons bedded into their bores and i have known cars foul their plugs with oil due to this.

The K-Jet system is as simple as a carb, if not more simple. Far more reliable then the "Pierbug" carb and will give better power and economy too.

Bypassing the OD solenoid so OD works as a 4th gear (without the option to deselct it) is the easiest way, if the engine, box and prop came from a 240 then they will fit your 240 and i would be inclined to raise the rear of the car and remove the engine and box as a pair unless anyone else can give good reasons why they need to come out/be installed as separate units.

I'm fairly sure (but not 100%) the 240 still relied on a mechanical speedo drive in 1988 but it may be an early one of the later models, i think it was that year they started changing. If you do have to change the extension housing i think (but double check) the Borg-Warner and Aisin-Warner extension housings are interchangeable so as long s the ouput shaft has the pinion for the speedo drive you'll be sorted.
Take the opportunity to change the seal and bush on the extension housing if you do remove it, note there is an oil hole in the bush and this needs lining up in the housing - it's not uncommon for them to spin in service!