The Morbidmobile Blog

[kiloran]

We have hedgehogs in our, er, hedge. Last summer we slept out in the garden a few times and got to see them scrabbling around. They don't half make a racket. Garden is completely slug and snail free as a result (our chickens help with that too).

I actually liked our Allagro, it was a metallic green 1500 with the LE racing stripes and two-tone beige interior. Was ultimately replaced with the 340GLE but I drove it a bit when I first passed my test.

Oh, those wheels on the SAAB! Takes me right back. This thread could end up being seriously wallet-lightening!

[TomSaintJames]

Lovely photo Dave, my husband is involved indeirectly with Dorset Wildlife Trust and has quite a bit to say about hedgehogs amongst other vulnerable critters - one irritation of his is the trend for hard fence lines everywhere - i'm sure you know but hedgehogs have huge territories and rely on being abole to move about between gardens, so a nice tidy new, but hog-impassable, fence can really interrupt their feeding opportunities.

They sure do make a racket! We have pet hedgehogs of the African Pygmy kind. Years ago when we had no garden and wanted pets they were ideal, a little like house-rabbits. They are much smaller than english hogs but very similar otherwise, and we've trained ours to be quite tame! They can age to 10 years in domestication and I think our last remaining hog is over 5 now, I can't find any photo's but she is albino and a baby we kept out of a littler from our 2nd hog.

The wheels are awesome right? The best wheels for these Saabs I think.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Lovely photo Dave, my husband is involved indeirectly with Dorset Wildlife Trust and has quite a bit to say about hedgehogs amongst other vulnerable critters - one irritation of his is the trend for hard fence lines everywhere - i'm sure you know but hedgehogs have huge territories and rely on being abole to move about between gardens, so a nice tidy new, but hog-impassable, fence can really interrupt their feeding opportunities.

They sure do make a racket! We have pet hedgehogs of the African Pygmy kind. Years ago when we had no garden and wanted pets they were ideal, a little like house-rabbits. They are much smaller than english hogs but very similar otherwise, and we've trained ours to be quite tame! They can age to 10 years in domestication and I think our last remaining hog is over 5 now, I can't find any photo's but she is albino and a baby we kept out of a littler from our 2nd hog.

The wheels are awesome right? the best wheels for these Saabs I think.

My other neighbour keeps covering the hedgehog hole uner the fence between me and her, told her a couple of times and the first time she just nodded and smiled when i said it's a hedgehog hole. Second time asked what i meant so i explained.

Fortunately my first neighbours new fence has ways round it and the hedgehogs aren't daft, they soon worked it out.

One or two of my regular hedgehogs are tame to the point they will often wait on the drain cover and let me put the plate down in front of them if i'm late putting it out, the baby isn't quite there yet but has let me put the plate down before running off and coming back again to eat. They're all quite happy with the dog being out there and rarely get spooked by her, even when she sniffs them. They know she chases the cats off that steal their food so view her as a big furry protector i think.

[TomSaintJames]

It sounds like you're in a nice spot there Dave with your little hoggy friends, they can be quite friendly! Our house hogs pay noa ttention to our dogs either, excpet when the hogs want the dogs food whilst the dogs are eating! We have a lot of badgers around here and I've never seen a hedgehog, even though I expected to see them when we moved. Whilst I know it's a very contentious subject and I don't want to start a debate/argument about it, also i'm not entirely sure how I feel about the subject myself, one thing the badger cull has going for it is the positive impact it may have on their prey species, notably bumblees and hedgehogs, obviously there are many other factors involved in their decline but there we go.

Wildlife aside, i'd like to be sure I know my stuff and that i've got all I need for a parts order from FRF Volvo in Swansea, Luke tells me they give us lot a discount which is very welcome as it'll be a fair sized order! So I have a few questions:

A/C - i've not seen or dealt with A/C for these cars, is there a seperate belt or do I need an alternative aux belt? The part number Luke very kindly supplied for the alternator belt is 973487. The internet suggests that I need a belt solely for the A/C compressor which looks to mount just below the alternator. Confusingly some 240's look like the alternator belt runs off of the a/c compressor which has a double ribbed pulley and the comprtessor is fed from the crank pulley?!

Cambelts and tooth shapes - the block I have is post 93 with rounded teeth on the cambelt. However the cam i'm using as come from an early engine that would have had a square tooth belt. The V cam sprocket from the penta is very rusty so I think I am going to opt to change the cam sprocket to a round tooth type and keep the current round tooth aux and crank pulleys. I know they all need to come off anyway for all the seals to be replaced so it doesn't make much difference I suppose.

Crank pulley/harmonic balancer - is it wise to find a new/reconditioned one of these? These are a wear item I well know, the harmonic balancer failed in a Jag XJ6 I once had and shredded the shared water pump and alternator belt every month or two - not ideal when you're on the motorway to suddenly have no water pump! Especially in a 3,2 straight 6. I took to carrying a few spares and the correct spanners in the boot as new pulleys for it were very expensive! The belts were less than £10 IIRC. Do all crank pulleys have 3 ribs? One each for the water pump + power steering pump (shared), alternator and a/c compressor.

Manifold studs - the penta engine has a massive water cooled exhaust manifold and so very long exhaust manifold bolts, the head I have is also missing 2 inlet studs. I imagine that I can just put a compete set of exhaust studs in (the penta bolts came out easy enough) and replace the 2 missing inlet studs?

Thanks folks.

[Laird Scooby]

The badger cull is a contentious subject right enough Tom, i quite often see badgers round here as well. My hound wants to try and play with them when she sees them but knowing they can be vicious when cornered, i prefer to keep her away.

To be honest (without getting into a debate on it either) i see many badgers by the side of the road in 2D form so don't see the need and expense of an organised cull or they will be in decline as well.

Living more or less next door to a nature reserve (as well as a USAF base) i tend to see a lot of unusual wildlife, probably the most unusual was a family of peacocks walking along the road being "herded" back towards where they needed to be by (at the time) the local RSPCA lady who was sadly laid off due to the Kung Flu but i still see regularly as she still walks her dog up there.

I'd go with what Luke has advised for the belts, there seems to be many different arrangements of how they do things with Volvos. Sometimes alternators have duplex belts then a separate belt for the PAS and AC, i have to confess i can't even think of how many grooves my crank pulley has, i know there are 2 for the alternator/water pump, one for the PAS and a 4th for the AC so errrrrrrrr, that would be 4 grooves then!

Timing belts - you can't mix and match - if your engine has rounded teeth, use all rounded teeth pulleys and belt.

Harmonic damper - not quite so critical on the redblock, tend to rotate on themselves moving the timing marks on the pulley out of line. If your current pulley is ok, leave it as it is but perhaps put a mark on the fixed part so you know exactly where TDC is in case the part in front of the rubber damper moves.

Again Luke can advise on the manifold studs but yes, what you're suggesting is basically correct. I know Luke did the manifold studs on his engine recently so he's probably got it fresh in his mind.

[360beast]

The alternator belt part number I have you is for the engine fitted with air con as I k ew you would be fitting air con at some point. I belive the bracket is still on that block I sold you and it is an alternator/air con bracket.

The harmonic balancer was fine on that engine, everything lined up as it should, tbh I have only heard of the harmonic balancers going out of alignment but I've never seen it, the rubber on 50 shades 204k mile engine was just starting to perish so I've no doubt they will last a lot longer than 200k. The block you have is on 160k I belive.

Yep get a round tooth cam pulley and you will be sorted for the a round tooth cambelt.

You will need to order 8 studs for the exhaust manifold then as they will be a lot shorter than the ones currently fitted of they're very long. I belive the exhaust manifold and inlet manifold studs are the same but can't be 100% as I've never looked in to it as I've never snapped or needed to remove inlet manifold studs, so you may need 10 of the part number I gave you.

I haven't got a part number for the a/c belt to hand but FRF will know which one to order or I'm sure someone on here will see this post and know it.

Hopefully that clears a few things up

[TomSaintJames]

Dave, Luke - that's marvellous. I can get on the phone to FRF with confidence that I at least know a little bit of what i'm about!

It's good to know the harmonic balancer on these lasts well, as I mentioned before the one on the Jag I had (which was just over 100,000 miles IIRC) had a visible wobble to it when you looked at it idling, you could feel the wobble through the drivers seat base too when sat idling at traffic lights!

[TomSaintJames]

Morning Volvo folks, it has been some itme since I was last on here, life is as always busier than is ideal! We have been making some good progress with the huse re-wiring, alhough we've had to pull out one of the circuits to start again... So instead of having 3.5/6 circuits done we're back down to 2.5/6 - ho hum, at least it'll be done properly.

The biggest recent time gobbler have been my two 80's Citroen BX's. The OH's Aunite's barn where they were stored is being sold, so they needed to be moved - without knowing when the sale was to go through I decided to move the cars before our holiday to France a few weeks ago. Obviously before they could be moved, they needed re-assembling! Both cars had their front ends, cooling systems and sumps removed, because they're hydraulic suspension cars of course there are hundreds of pipes, brackets and supports in the way of everything, so the above was no small task...
The reason for the work is to swap the A/C system from the French car to my GT - A/C was a VERY expensive factory extra in 1985 and there are no known MK1 BXs with it, there are a handful of MK2 with A/C but my car particularly needs it as it does get very warm in there, I plan to tint the windows and wrap the exhaust to help with this aswell.

They are both back together, running, lifting and driving now though - a real improvement on the French BX as it never ran very well at all (it had been off the road for >10 years), it still needs the carb looking at, probably with a rebuild kit, but at least it can be moved under its own steam. The BX's are at their new abode, another of Steve's Auntie's! My GT will reside in the garage, and the French TRS on the drive under a cover.

Before


After


Anyway, back to Volvo content! I have been making very slow progress with the 531 head, the valves are all ground in and I have started reassembling the exhaust valvetrain. Now please don't tell me i've over-ground the valves...! I only used fine paste as the seats were cut inthe shop, but when the dull ground area was slim like all the images online, there still felt like resistance and a high pitched grinding noise when cleaned and spun, now they are slick and almost silent when spun clean.





I read that it is very easy to damage the stem seals when inserting the valve through due to the sharp collett rings, I'm worried I may have done just that on one of them, so I've ordered some more stem seals and have made a little plastic sleeve for them to slide over on the valve. It would be very dissapointing to have the engine back together and running, to find out the seals are damaged and it's burning oil!

I have also been reading about what cam would suit me best, it seems to be a bit of a can of worms topic! Keeping in mind what I am looking for, a torquey and non-laggy wafter that will likely mostly be doing town trips and long motorway trips, not A/B road blasts, I have read and understood the following of the major contenders:

T Cam - Standard turbo cam, good low/mid range, ruins out of gumph 5k rpm so not much top end, 'stump puller'
A Cam - Slightly hotter than T cam, loses a bit of low end torque but slightly better top end
V Cam - One of the hottest volvo cams, loses quite a bit of low end, much better top end, idle might suffer
IPD Turbo Cam - Much improved top end, ?without losing much low end? Requires timing adjustemtn to get full benefits.

So paired with a 531 head, late squirter block, AW71L transmission and HPT 13c turbo I'm leaning toward the T cam for my needs, but I am concerned that when I do want to floor it i'll be disappointed, i'd appreciate any thoughts forumites have.

[Laird Scooby]

I'd go for the V cam myself Tom, at the top end where the turbo is beginning to drop off, the cam will cover those losses. Also down the bottom end, you should be able to get a decent idle and the stall speed of the autobox will cover up any minor losses in low end torque before the turbo spools up.

[360beast]

The T cam would suit you fine Tom as it is great for low down torque.

The A cam does pull very well to a tad over 6k rpm, it was great in my 360 as it meant I could use the whole rev range to play around.

V cam I have no personal experience with.

IPD turbo cam suffers very little low down loss but a massive gain from 4k rpm onwards, absolutely love it in my 940. On drifts and lifts they found that if you are running LH2.4 that actually the original timing position works best so no need to get an adjustable cam gear until you go for some major mods and more importantly an aftermarket engine management.

You've got the gold EZK and matching ECU, did you get those chips from Martin for them? If so then it will be much improved over a standard car anyway. At the end of the day you still have the slushbox so you want low down torque to overcome the drag of the torque converter ASAP.

Great work on the BX's Tom, that was no small feat you pulled off there and I don't envy you doing the A/C swap!