Cam Belt Horror Stories

[griston64]

Originally Posted by BicycleBoy

88.9mm vs 96.0mm bore, so no, not without a new block.

Assume you could put B200FT pistons in a B200 ?

[Levonsrealm]

Originally Posted by Othen

Is this the same motor that got some water into the cylinders when you removed the head (in another thread)? If so I've slightly lost track of what you are trying to do here.

Did you get the stripped studs out? generally a stud extractor works and is pretty inexpensive, one like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265251662...3ABFBMhOiz3fFh

Why was it that you were changing the seals (I'm guessing you meant the front crank, auxiliary shaft and camshaft seals)? Were they leaking? There is nothing wrong with doing that work, but the whole job (including the cambelt) should have only taken a couple of hours. Why would you have taken the head off to do any of those jobs?

Hi, sorry for the belated reply. Been busy.
I ended up dismantling the engine and took the Cylinder head to a light engineering firm to get the studs removed. Decided to get the head skimmed and a pressure test also.

Just waiting on the cylinder head back from that.
Ordered some some new gaskets and head bolts and other bits from Classicswede. waiting on that too before I can get moving again!

[Levonsrealm]

Thanks for the link Othen.

I think I will purchase this for the future. But boy did I try a lot of tricks.

I tried the two nut method. Got two out that way.

Ordered some nos vice grips which really were a great purchase. They couldn't pull the remaining ones out.

Had a friend try weld some nuts on the end but we could not seem to get the penetration and repeatedly kept turning the nuts off the studs.

So, without losing any more stud, stripped it down and took it to the local light engineering firm.

I was dreading tearing the engine down as I had never done it before. I watched a few vids and read a few documents on it on how to do it and just forgot to pull the lower radiator hose during disassembly. c'est la vie.

is there a special mix for topping the radiator back up for reassembly or is it just deionised water?

Also, I did a little Biology at uni; I can make my own deionised water by leaving normal water open to the air for 24 hours in a bucket.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Levonsrealm

Hi, sorry for the belated reply. Been busy.
I ended up dismantling the engine and took the Cylinder head to a light engineering firm to get the studs removed. Decided to get the head skimmed and a pressure test also.

Just waiting on the cylinder head back from that.
Ordered some some new gaskets and head bolts and other bits from Classicswede. waiting on that too before I can get moving again!

Originally Posted by Levonsrealm

Thanks for the link Othen.

I think I will purchase this for the future. But boy did I try a lot of tricks.

I tried the two nut method. Got two out that way.

Ordered some nos vice grips which really were a great purchase. They couldn't pull the remaining ones out.

Had a friend try weld some nuts on the end but we could not seem to get the penetration and repeatedly kept turning the nuts off the studs.

So, without losing any more stud, stripped it down and took it to the local light engineering firm.

I was dreading tearing the engine down as I had never done it before. I watched a few vids and read a few documents on it on how to do it and just forgot to pull the lower radiator hose during disassembly. c'est la vie.

is there a special mix for topping the radiator back up for reassembly or is it just deionised water?

Also, I did a little Biology at uni; I can make my own deionised water by leaving normal water open to the air for 24 hours in a bucket.

Okay, none of that stuff will do any harm, but why did you suspect the cylinder head needed work? Had the HG failed?

When you embarked on this journey I thought you were just changing the cam belt (which should only take an hour or so), unless you found lots of other damage it will end up being an expensive cam belt change .

The book says the head bolts may be used up to 5 times (I'm not sure how Mr Volvo came up with that number - I suppose it must just be from empirical evidence).

The coolant should be a 50:50 mix of ethylene glycol and water. It isn't a bad idea to run the motor with just water in the system to start with - to make sure you don't have any leaks and everything is working properly after you have flushed it. Change to the EG mix as soon as you are happy it is all working properly so you don't forget until it is too late in the winter .

[Levonsrealm]

Originally Posted by Othen

Okay, none of that stuff will do any harm, but why did you suspect the cylinder head needed work? Had the HG failed?

When you embarked on this journey I thought you were just changing the cam belt (which should only take an hour or so), unless you found lots of other damage it will end up being an expensive cam belt change .

The book says the head bolts may be used up to 5 times (I'm not sure how Mr Volvo came up with that number - I suppose it must just be from empirical evidence).

The coolant should be a 50:50 mix of ethylene glycol and water. It isn't a bad idea to run the motor with just water in the system to start with - to make sure you don't have any leaks and everything is working properly after you have flushed it. Change to the EG mix as soon as you are happy it is all working properly so you don't forget until it is too late in the winter .

The HG had not failed. I removed the cylinder head so that I could have the studs removed by the engineering firm.
The Cylinder head did not need work. TBH I got talked into the head getting skimmed by my mechanic and by the light engineering firm who also talked me into a pressure test. Its a daily driven car (usually ).

In hindsight I should have been clearer that it was not just a 30 year old car I was restoring but a 30 year old daily driven car that just needed the studs removing with no faults with the head gasket and cylinder head.

Any advice on removing any remaining gasket to the block?
Emery cloth?

[Levonsrealm]

hindsight is a hell of a teacher!

[Levonsrealm]

Oh I also ordered new headbolts as my breaker bar did not quite sit perfect on one when I tried to break the tension and I slightly rounded the head so bought a set to be safe.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Levonsrealm

Thanks for the link Othen.

Also, I did a little Biology at uni; I can make my own deionised water by leaving normal water open to the air for 24 hours in a bucket.

… leaving tap water open to the air overnight gets rid of the chlorine (which is a good thing), but not the limestone (and any other dissolved salts), so it doesn’t quite make distilled water. Filtered rainwater would be better (as any aquarium owner will tell you).

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Levonsrealm

hindsight is a hell of a teacher!

Originally Posted by Levonsrealm

The HG had not failed. I removed the cylinder head so that I could have the studs removed by the engineering firm.
The Cylinder head did not need work. TBH I got talked into the head getting skimmed by my mechanic and by the light engineering firm who also talked me into a pressure test. Its a daily driven car (usually ).

In hindsight I should have been clearer that it was not just a 30 year old car I was restoring but a 30 year old daily driven car that just needed the studs removing with no faults with the head gasket and cylinder head.

Any advice on removing any remaining gasket to the block?
Emery cloth?

Well, this won't have been a bad lesson in fairly old motor car maintenance, but your daily driver will have been off the road for a while and a £20 cam belt change has become a £400 top end rebuild. I can't help wondering why the manifold studs needed removing in the first place... but that ship sailed long ago.

While you have the motor stripped down that far you may as well check and re-shim the valves, and replace the hushers.

Generally with old motor cars it is a good idea to leave things alone if they work okay (although I've been guilty of taking things apart to find out why they are running so well many times in the past - particularly on motorcycles; it is almost never a good idea).

What you have done so far was probably unnecessary, but it probably wasn't wasted effort. If your aim is to learn about fairly old Volvos it was time well spent (however if you were just trying to keep your daily driver on the road it was less so).

[Levonsrealm]

Originally Posted by Othen

Well, this won't have been a bad lesson in fairly old motor car maintenance, but your daily driver will have been off the road for a while and a £20 cam belt change has become a £400 top end rebuild. I can't help wondering why the manifold studs needed removing in the first place... but that ship sailed long ago.

While you have the motor stripped down that far you may as well check and re-shim the valves, and replace the hushers.

Generally with old motor cars it is a good idea to leave things alone if they work okay (although I've been guilty of taking things apart to find out why they are running so well many times in the past - particularly on motorcycles; it is almost never a good idea).

What you have done so far was probably unnecessary, but it probably wasn't wasted effort. If your aim is to learn about fairly old Volvos it was time well spent (however if you were just trying to keep your daily driver on the road it was less so).

Some excellent points you made.

I bought the car so I could learn about car mechanics. So far so good.

Through tearing the car down and rebuilding I have spent an awful lot of money up to now on things I did not need. But now I know how to replace a lot of a car. Whilst at the same time know how to identify problems too by hearing. Especially before they become catastrophic.
It is as you say, a lot of it will not have needed doing. Additionally, if it ain't broke don't fix it but my hubris has bested me on that little saying.

As for putting it back together, I am hoping all goes well. I shall keep you updated.

Anyone have a link to a good thread for checking valve clearances and replacing hushers.

My mechanic retired last November. I picked up a bag of scrap from them of which was some great parts in there, along with good quality spark plugs. Also a shim set!

One mans trash is another mans treasure.