Sad

[DWM]

Originally Posted by stephend

Is that the sort of philosophical language one learns from Blackwell's Companion?

Who knows? I haven't read it....!

[Baffler]

That's just brilliant, DWM, I'm delighted for you. Well done matey!


Can we have another video of it running with the now fixed exhaust?

[DWM]

Thanks - I'll put up a new video when the weather is tolerable. I've currently got a new (but minor) rattle from the middle of the exhaust - just behind the cat - that I'll have to deal with.

PS I could swear the car is now faster than it was... is that possible?!

[960kg]

I am also very pleased for you......you will get much better performance now as one gets used to an engine getting slower and you don`t really notice until it is obvious!

Any pictures of the faulty valve in the cylinder head?

[DWM]

Are these any good?











I really must get this object out of the kitchen... so much to do. It's supposed to be Christmas and there are bloodstains around all the door handles from my battles with the engine bay.

[Dog_Book]

LOL epic battle there, so glad its working well.

Hmm i wonder whats wrong with your old head lol, good job that didnt damage the bores or rods etc

[960kg]

Those pics. of the head are great...thanks for doing them.

Yes, i know i am a sad git but i put all to do with Volvo`s in folders so another burnt valve for my collection....this is a rarer one as it`s on No. 4 cylinder ha! ha!

[Anadinolin]

Look at all the carbon, looks all black and orrible.

Well done dwm - I suggest you put in higher octane fuel once in a while to burn off that muck, and also give it a rag. Sometimes the best love is hard love lol.


How did you find the job, is it as bad as you felt it was going to be, or are you now thinking "I dont know why I was so worried about doing this" kind of thing?

[DWM]

Originally Posted by 960kg

Those pics. of the head are great...thanks for doing them.

Yes, i know i am a sad git but i put all to do with Volvo`s in folders so another burnt valve for my collection....this is a rarer one as it`s on No. 4 cylinder ha! ha!

I'll tell Genevieve. She'll be glad to know that she is special.

Originally Posted by Anadinolin

How did you find the job, is it as bad as you felt it was going to be, or are you now thinking "I dont know why I was so worried about doing this" kind of thing?

I have mixed views. Obviously it's so rewarding in the final result that I don't regret it at all. And it has done wonders for my confidence. Various people posted early on that it would have the effect that little else would scare me afterwards, and that I'd know a whole lot more by the time I had finished. And that is clearly right.

Most of it was more straightforward than I had feared. Especially, in the end, the timing that is supposed to be the scariest aspect. The timing had me a bit rattled at first because I couldn't initially decide on the right plan. At the back of your mind you have all the people and all the written guidance saying that it is vital to use a camshaft locking tool. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that you must be right that the correct positions can be preserved just by careful use of the factory marks plus one's own paint marks. And so it turned out.

The things I liked least were the bits that were difficult from an access point of view. Notably

1. The exhaust that defeated me in the end, so that's one thing.

2. The auxiliary belt too I simply hated - far worse than the timing belt. I suspect that if I had had the right tool, in the form of a properly long and appropriately-angled 15mm spanner, it wouldn't have been nearly so bad - I could have pulled the tensioner pulley round from above. And if I had also had a helper for that bit, to lock the tensioner while I pulled, it might have been OK. As it was, I was reduced to ridiculous antics with jacks and axle stands to use the weight of the car to turn the beastly thing.

3. The engine mount with the air con pipes in the way, and the maddening bracket on the side of the engine.

The trouble is that the job is so drawn-out - or it was the way I went at it, going as slowly as I do and with so few hours to work (weekends only, and in the middle of winter when the days are short). This meant that by the end I was getting sick of it – just wanting to give my knuckles (and my lower back - all that bending over the engine...) a break, and to stop having to pull on filthy clothes and go out in the cold again... And you generate an alarming number of bits that you have removed: if I hadn't been very careful about bagging and labelling all the bolts and other bits, I would have been in real trouble; but then doing all that bagging and labelling is boring and slows you down further...

So I don't want to do it again – or not soon, anyway. But overall it was easier than I had expected. But also rather longer...

[DWM]