Robos's '84 240

Robvovslideways

Hi Everybody

Got heaps of pics on my phone, but havent got the time to host and post them, so this is a bit of a placeholder

So me and my best mate picked up an old volvo for free... it was registered but had been sitting for 4 years as the motor threw a rod out the side of the block.. it even came with a new engine strapped to a pallet. they had a mechanic working on it but only got as far as removing the gearbox inspection plate, all the timing gear and harmonic balancer off the front of the engine and giving up when he couldnt turn it over to undo the torque converter.

so after me and my mate removed the motor and box together and split the two, bolted it all back together and put it back in we started to notice things.. like the harmonic balancer wouldnt fit back on the new engine.. and the covers were different.. and the wreckers wrote "b230 good" on the new engine.. why does the old engine say b23?

didnt take long to realise wed just replaced an 84 b23e with an 85+ b230e.. so a month or two ago i signed up to ozvolvo and put a shout out for the parts we were missing and like always, i was pleasantly suprised at how online communities of enthusiasts will do everything they can to help someone that shares their interest and is in need.. so for a very reasonable sum, we had the harmonic balancer, water pump pulley, timing covers and backing plates :) put all that back together and a bit of creativity with longer bolts, washers, removing the A/C belt and buying a longer belt for the p/s pump and we had a more or less complete looking enigne bay :)

*Pro-tip*
On the B23, the power steering belt runs to the ac and the ac belt runs to the harmonic balancer.. the outer lip of the outer pulley on the harmonic balancer is held on with 6 or so bolts and the washer in between set the gap of the pulley to set the tension on the belt.. not so on the b230 :(

now trying to actually get it running..... first thing you tend to notice with the noise the kjet makes is if its injecting fuel or not.. ours wasnt.. plate seems very stiff.. try lifting the plate up, wont budge... pair of pliers on the 10mm bolt to force it up.. HEY IT MOVED!... but now that little bit of movement is really lose.. and its not moving up more than i already forced it.. HEY ITS INJECTING FUEL!! **jump ahead several hours/days/weeks* forced the plate all the way up, the whole range of travel seems nice and free... it also seems to be injecting maximum fuel all the time.. lets just jumper the fuel up, ended up leaving it jumpered for 5 or 10 minutes will i was looking over things and suddenly i hear this metallic THUNK!.. fuel pressure forced the piston that was stuck up, back down.. after forcing it up and letting the fuel pressure push it back down over 9000 times, i was pretty happy with.. next chapter.

timing was way off.. i think the old mechanic swapped the dizzy from the old to the new engine... wouldnt run, just backfire through the carby, tried to set the timing and couldnt find the mark.. lead to number 3 ended up having to go to 1.. ok timing sweet.. still backfiring.. getting tired of this volvo.. took the timing belt off, seemed to be way out.. yay now i get to set the dizzy again :) ended up having to swap the leads around four or 5 times again.. gave up untill i realised i was 180degrees out.. starts.. runs.. for 2 seconds.. dies. everytime.

Fuel return line was blocked, had it pumped up to 90psi.. lifted the inspection cover in the boot, cut the nylon return line, ok so its not blocked under the car.. remove the sender.. OMFG!! so much rust.. in tank pump is DEAD, if it aint its damn unhappy.. return spout is full of rust.. coathanger sorts that out.. back together, sleeve the nylon line with a length of hose and 2 clamps

Boom, runs.. like shit. ok i got this.. LOL i set the timing to 10 degrees after.. what a silly thing.. the btdc mark says 2.. or maybe it says 12? its kind of hard to tell.. well if it says 12 ill set it to where i think about 14-16 is... runs heaps better

idle is pretty high most of the time, about 1500, in drive or revers the revs drop to about 800 - 900 and the engine shakes violently

thats pretty much where were at.. to be continued, ive got to be at work in 30 minutes

egads (she/her)

Lol, nice story and sounds like you are learning heaps while tinkering it into working!

Robvovslideways

took off the rear muffler.. probably a bit too much noise under full throttle

Robvovslideways

so i managed to find a supplier of kjet injector orings... they only come in packets of 12 though, so now i have 3 sets of injector o-rings..

up untill now, i was going to order a set from the UK for about $25.. if anyones interested in a set id be glad to sell one for $10

A_Volvo_Driver

The rear muffler on my old wagon fell off, and it was very loud.

Its good to see another 84 240 on here. There is a link to my build thread if you're interested.

Robvovslideways

Your 240 looks a lot cleaner than ours lol, im really not into the blue interior either... those wheels you have.. virgo's? the internet told me they were turbo wheels.. is that only in other markets? theres a red 240 around the corner from my work with those wheels on it that im buying for $200, never bothered to look closely at it but it having those wheels on it wouldnt improve its chances of being turbo would it?

haha yea the noise is tolerable just cruising but if you floor it it sounds like a 5 litre or something lol..

my main beef with the rear muffler was that it was banging around like mad when in gear.. from about halfway back the whole exhaust is rubbing on the floor :(

only thing i can think of is that the auto gearbox mount was snapped in half, but we had some spare engine mounts... so i ground the little nib of one end and used that instead... ive got no idea what the auto mount SHOULD look like so im left to assume the engine mount is a fair bit taller, making the exhaust hit :(

anyone got a spare auto mount or willing to crawl under their car and let me know the height of the proper mount?

Robvovslideways

got sick of the idle being so high.. had a go at shooting carby cleaner through the auxilary air valve to clean it out to no avail. realised the 7mm adjusts it, pretty sure its dud anyway so adjusted it fully closed. now when its cold the idle goes uuup and doooown and uuuup and dowwwn.. im thinking vacuum leak or fuel mixtures out? or that might just be what they do without a stuck closed AAV (as opposed to stuck open before i adjusted it?)

was looking into buying a kjet tester.. or making one, ones option is cheaper than the other but both are still more than id like to spend.. and i do like to get creative..

trolling through ebay for the best deals and i see....

seems legit to me.. the gauge might even be good.. through i would prefer a 100psi fuel gauge.. OH&S aside, can anyone see any flaws in my reasoning? its $16 free shipping.. another $15 for the gauge i want

BradC

The metering setup in the K-Jet fuel distributor is pretty fragile. Re-reading your initial post I'd be quite surprised if it survived un-scathed from your procedure to "free it up". The control pressure tends to apply some damping to stop the plate bouncing. You really need to be able to look at the pressures to see what is going on.

That gauge looks like an R12 refrigerant gauge. The connectors will be SAE flares and you could quite cheaply make up some 1/4" lines to do what you want to do. 1/4" flare nuts are cheap, cheap. I'm not sure how the seals in the tap will go with petrol, but for $16 you'd have to have a go.

K-jet is solid and reliable when it's working well. It's not hard to diagnose, but pressures are critical.

A_Volvo_Driver

Virgo wheels are very common, but Turbo 240's are pretty rare. It's my understanding that people convert them to turbos, rather than the 240 being like that from the factory.

My black Virgo's are the best Virgo's :)

Robvovslideways

haha just wait until i get my virgo's :)

i was doing some more thinking.. if the AAV needs to be replaced would it be worth fitting the constant idle system? looks like i can get a 2nd hand CIS ecu from america for about $80, and the CIS IAC valve seems like itd be more readily available to buy new than the AAV.. temp sender and a microswitch is easy

was CIS ever fitted to Aus spec vehicles? did other manufacturers ever use it or some equivalent or is it volvo only?

i fitted a v6 magna fuel pump as the intank pump was seized.. i cracked the shits with the float trying to fit the sender back in the tank.. smacked it in there and now i realise theres gunna be next to no way to ever get the pump and float back out of the hole in one piece lol :( the main pump already seemed a bit unhealthy but now its seems to have sprung a leak. havent been keen enough to crawl under and investigate yet

BradC;54137 wroteRe-reading your initial post I'd be quite surprised if it survived un-scathed from your procedure to "free it up".

i suppose it depends on your definition of unscathed but it runs and drives pretty well for a car that sat for 6 years.. the previous owner wanted it out of their driveway, the scrap man offered them $100 but they preferred i take it for free and fix it. anything other than my procedure to free it up would have been uneconomical, the car is worth $0 to me and ive already spent at least $1500 of my time on it.

by gripping the bolt that holds the plate to the arm and lifting it up, apart from any pitting and corrossion on the actual piston and bore (im hoping it was just varnish.. harmless friendly soft non-scratching varnish) i guess it might through roundabout means and methods throw the mixture adjustment out.. adjusting the WUR is a bigger priority for me, and ive already blown the monthly volvo budget on a refridgerant gauge.. but i do have a wbo2 controller from my old sigma so ill throw a sensor into the next budget and have a crack at setting up the mixture/plate height. actually i might have to put that off untill after i do something about the fuel pump.. pretty k-jet specific huh? anyone jerry rigged a bosch 040 or similar with good results?