My 1992 240 sedan...

240 · 2015-09-14T12:17:29+00:00

Another question - my car doesn't have an electric antenna, but I may have the opportunity to get one. Will the wiring already be in place in my car (meaning...

Vee_Que

Just like most drum braked vehicles.

240

So I've spent some time making the car look a bit better...
The bumper was bent so a while ago I replaced it with a used one, looks much better now.
Removed the ugly faded pinstripes, some came off easily but with some I had to use a rubber 'eraser wheel'. I also removed the faded and hard black trim to replace with the one IPD used to sell.
Gave the car a good wash, polish, wax and put the new trim on.
The tail lights were no good (one cracked, the other very faded) so I decided to put my spare pair on although they needed a bit of work. I had to paint the chrome stripe black, and they were starting to fade in places so I wet sanded them with 1500 grit paper and then polished them.
They came up pretty well - BUT - when installing them, two of the studs on one of the lights snapped (See pics).
Any ideas of how to proceed? All I can think of is to try and drill a hole in it and put a screw in but I'm not sure how well that'd go.

The old bumper:

Removing pinstripes (and old black trim removed):

Broken tail light studs:

The car as it is now:

tbro

Know someone with a lathe? get them to knurl some 6mm thread bolts, obviously on the blank shank and use a good plastic glue (wurth??) drill out the old and in with the new.

240

Well I still have the old tail light. So technically I could cut off one of the bolts/lugs from that, drill out the snapped one, and glue it in... (ie, what you're saying, but without the necessity to lathe new ones - as the existing ones are longer than they need to be.)

egads (she/her)

Striping looks great! Glad it is getting used.

familyman

Might be worth just getting another light. If it doesn't get a good seal, that's a common area for rust.

Philia_Bear

looking good

240

Power steering - does my car use Dexron or Type F?

240

Haven't done an update in a while, so here's a photo...

Couple of minor things in the pipeline - some new belts, thicker sway bars, new head unit, etc.
Windows have also been tinted since my last photo.

familyman

Mow your parents' lawn.

Klaptrap24

Looks really good

240

Directly under the intake manifold for cylinder #1, some oil has pooled up. I cleared it away and it's now back there again.
The only place I can think it could come from is the manifold gasket, as there is no oil at any point higher up... but there shouldn't even be oil in the intake at all, should there?

(Yes, I have replaced the flame trap, breather box, and cleaned all the relevant hoses, in the recent past.)

jamesinc

'choo talking about, of course there's oil higher up!

Leaking cam seal
Leaking valve cover gasket
Worn #1 valve stem seal
Oil from the PCV system leaking out via the inlet manifold gasket

My guess would be one of the last two.

240

Sorry, I meant I can't see any oil leaking from higher up.

Not 100% sure how the valve stem seal would result in oil on the outside of the head? What am I missing?

Valve cover gasket is possible, and cheap so I could just replace it anyway... but I would expect to see oil leaking in that area, if that was the case.

jamesinc;129838 wroteOil from the PCV system leaking out via the inlet manifold gasket

I assume you're suggesting a faulty manifold gasket, as opposed to bad PCV system?

jamesinc

I think given that you've serviced the PCV system recently, that it's more likely the gasket not sealing fully. It wouldn't be hard to check, you could just crack the inlet manifold off and take a good look at the gasket and at the runners to see if there's oil slick. Otherwise worn valve stem seals will definitely cause oil to go backwards through the intake. If they were really bad you'd find evidence of oil on your air filter.

Edit: by way of example, here's a 240 I had back in 2012 that needed new valve stem seals:

240

OK so I wouldn't run the risk of stuffing up a potentially good seal by cracking the manifold off?
Could be a combo of valve stem seals and the manifold I guess.
Are the stem seals difficult to replace?

jamesinc

Stem seals require you to disassemble the valve train. It's not actually that hard, but you need a couple of specialised tools and, if you want to do it without removing the head, you need an air compressor and fitting that allows it to pressurise the bore to hold the valve in place while you work.

240

Ok I'll start with the manifold gasket and see how I go.
(Luckily my air filter looks nothing like that!)

240

I haven't had a chance to check that manifold leak yet but I'm not too worried about it... more concerning is that for close to a year, there has been an increasing amount of oil under the car. It was in a workshop recently and with it on the hoist, it looks like it has to be the rear main seal that's leaking.

This annoys me, as I had that seal replaced (with a genuine Volvo one) in May 2016.

It definitely wasn't leaking in the few months after it was replaced - is it likely that a dodgy install job could cause it to leak down the track (as it has done)?
It's a long shot but is there anything I can do to make it leak slower (and not end up all over the driveway), short of actually replacing the seal?
(I thought of using thicker oil, I'm currently using 15W-40. Will thicker likely make much of a difference?)

Vee_Que

It's a bigger job to do the valve stem seals on a b230 head then other heads, head gaskets are cheap for elring so it's not a huge issue to just reco the head.

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