Nina's 1981 244 GL - "Billie"

jamesinc

Freeze plugs are all done, as are the water pump seals as the one into the head was weeping.

jamesinc

Driver's side done, passenger side is a day or so away. Far from perfect but if I hadn't overexposed the photos you wouldn't know. Importantly it's rust free. I could have spent more time contouring it but honestly people I cannot be fucked, this car is rusty all up the wazoo and I want my driveway back lol

I also sprayed sill wax inside the sills ?

Unfortunately I was wrong about the exhaust side freeze plugs, the rearmost one has almost worked itself loose completely. This is a major nuisance as once I remove the exhaust and turbo and manifold I'm still not sure I'll have enough access to bang the new plugs in, so I may have to hoist the motor.

Fuckin spare me

jamesinc

Alright so I made a little drift to help me get the rearmost freeze plug on the exhaust side. The others aren't leaking. I still want to replace them but I'll do it later in the year when I'm less busy with other things.

I ran the car up to temp for 10 minutes to look for leaks and everything seems to be sealed finally. Sheesh!

Philia_Bear

Effing silicone bronze brazing already!

jamesinc

Philia_Bear
Effing silicone bronze brazing already!

You really need to have a good think about what a profoundly bad suggestion that is. It will probably warp the block and maybe just crack the block and to do it safely you'd have to strip the whole block down out of the car, and to solve what problem? The problem isn't that freeze plugs can't be sealed, it's that THESE freeze plugs were installed incorrectly, and even if you braze them in, they don't last forever, the rust and corrode from the inside out eventually, and your braze may just end up cracking and creating a leak which is then nigh on impossible to fix without repeating the ordeal you had to go through the first time.

The most time-consuming part of the repair I did was straining all the coolant draining out of the block through a coffee filter so I could re-use it.

Philia_Bear

jamesinc
https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/191802#Comment_191802
You really need to have a good think about what a profoundly bad suggestion that is. It will probably warp the block and maybe just crack the block and to do it safely you'd have to strip the whole block down out of the car, and to solve what problem? The problem isn't that freeze plugs can't be sealed, it's that THESE freeze plugs were installed incorrectly, and even if you braze them in, they don't last forever, the rust and corrode from the inside out eventually, and your braze may just end up cracking and creating a leak which is then nigh on impossible to fix without repeating the ordeal you had to go through the first time.
The most time-consuming part of the repair I did was straining all the coolant draining out of the block through a coffee filter so I could re-use it.

I've done plenty of mig brazing of random pot metals to iron now... playing with crappy American cast iron exhaust manifolds

It does not get hot enough to warp or disturb the grain in the cast iron

Ex850R

If we dont get freexing weather ( which i assume these are for frozen/expanding coolant then why cant we tap with a big tap and plug them up forever?

jamesinc

Because you'll spend a few hundred bucks just to get a 45mm tap, and then another couple hundred for some 45mm threaded plugs (I assume).

There's a saying in engineering, it goes "don't be clever".

jamesinc

Billie came back today pissing coolant. In a moment of weakness I thought I may have messed something up, but it turns out the new coolant bottle has split along its seam already. I think that's the last time I ever go aftermarket for coolant bottles, it's not the first time I've had one crap out almost immediately!

I put epoxy in the crack and then tightly wrapped the bottle with a fabric mesh tape so that the epoxy seeped into the mesh and gained a bit of structure and after warming everything up and then hooning around for 15 minutes I'm not seeing any leaks so hopefully that will tie things over while I get a replacement.

Philia_Bear

jamesinc
Billie came back today pissing coolant. In a moment of weakness I thought I may have messed something up, but it turns out the new coolant bottle has split along its seam already. I think that's the last time I ever go aftermarket for coolant bottles, it's not the first time I've had one crap out almost immediately!
I put epoxy in the crack and then tightly wrapped the bottle with a fabric mesh tape so that the epoxy seeped into the mesh and gained a bit of structure and after warming everything up and then hooning around for 15 minutes I'm not seeing any leaks so hopefully that will tie things over while I get a replacement.

Round type or more square type?

ramrod

I've got an OK used one you can have for free if you like

jamesinc

Round

Philia_Bear

jamesinc
Round

Interesting

I've killed plenty of the square ish ones but never a round one

AshDVS

Interesting that you say this.

I just replaced my perfectly functionally ok but disgusting looking coolant reservoir on the V70. Typically this is one of those 'genuine only' parts for me but, I regularly try out aftermarket alternatives (particularly where I've had prior bad experiences) to see if quality has improved.

In the case of my coolant reservoir, it has not and I'll get a new genuine one shortly and replace it again.

jamesinc

@Philia_Bear I don't think I killed anything, I think the part was defective

past_the_moon

header tanks should fail eventually 0 that is their purpose - to be the weak link and let the pressure out - to help prevent the engine from blowing a gasket or something else - an old truck mechanic taught me that wehn i was gonna put a shiny fancy alloy header tank on one of my vehicles.

jamesinc

past_the_moon
header tanks should fail eventually 0 that is their purpose - to be the weak link and let the pressure out - to help prevent the engine from blowing a gasket or something else - an old truck mechanic taught me that wehn i was gonna put a shiny fancy alloy header tank on one of my vehicles.

The cap on top of the tank performs that role, it has a pressure relief valve. That's why we talk about black caps (75kPa valve) and green caps (150 kPa valve).

The aftermarket tank was obviously inferior when compared to a genuine tank, the genuine unit has about twice the thickness in the wall of the tank, and the molded halves are joined together much better.

jamesinc

Other driver at fault.

What do you reckon should I repair it? Looks like will need new doors and a new quarter and new sill outer (lol after I spent all that time repairing the sills ?).

The rest of the car seems straight, @powder_hound said no change to steering/handling. She drove it home.

So I'm assuming Shannon's will pay out the policy which is $5k or so which is plenty fat enough budget to fund new sill and doors and a respray.

The reinforcing bars in the doors really earned their keep today, looks like they took nearly the whole impact.

I won't know for sure until it's been assessed and I can take a closer look, if the a-pillar has been deformed I'll probably just tell her to buy another 240 and we can slap the turbo drive train into it. Maybe that's the better idea either way, anyone got an 89+ white 244 for sale?

carnut222

BUGGER! :(

Roinik

Seen that before, hanging on a dealership wall back in the day.

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