'Sven' the big, bad, yellow 245

perko · 2014-04-22T07:09:30+00:00

I want that Blue Volvo for life bag....

Slowbrick

Did the plastic cap leak? When you say decent amount of pressure do you mean it pushes the cap into your hand quite forcibly? Did you shim the cam? If so how tight/loose did you make it? I ask this because when I built the B23ET i shimmed the cam to the tightest spec, then after about 1500kms it began ticking and clacking like a broken sewing machine. Checked the clearances and all but 2 buckets were way out of spec and way too loose. Shimmed them up and it went back to being quiet again. It too ticked from cold until warm and ticked when on load.

perko

Pushes up the cap somewhat and will hold a plastic bag/rubber glove around the filler cap completely inflated easily.
The cap that's on there currently was put on when the original one leaked and was holding a good seal for a while.

Haven't touched the cam, have been meaning to check clearances but was putting it off cause I hate bucket and shim adjusters. Now you mention it it does sound like a valvetrain type noise though.

Slowbrick

I would check those clearances. The longer you put it off the longer you leave yourself open to something like a burnt valve. Get yourself some feeler gauges and just check. If nothing needs changing you just waste 20 minutes and a rocker gasket. If something needs changing you waste an hour and a few shims.

Bennigee

How olds your fuel? Bad fuel could cause pinging, which can sound similar to piston slap and when your motor is under load it's the most vulnerable time for it to ping/knock.

egads (she/her)

Recent heavy rain means you could have got some watery fuel

Bennigee

Have you done all the base checks man? Have you set the ignition timing correctly etc...if there's low compression, do a leak down test, easiest way to find the problem

perko

Fuel is old but not ancient. Ignition timing etc. has been checked and car runs well and doesn't feel sick at all to drive.

Main issue for me is not the noise but rather the crankcase pressure which is blowing oil out of everywhere and making the car undriveable if I don't want to cause a james bond level oil slick. I find it unlikely that poor ignition timing or bad fuel is going to cause excessive blow by.

Will try to get proper compression numbers in the next couple of days, I don't own a compressor/leakdown tester at the moment so will have to find a mate to borrow one off to get that done

jamesinc

@perko I have a tester if you need to borrow it

robv

YOU HAVEN'T ACCIDENTALLY CONNECTED THE BREATHER POST TURBO HAVE YOU?

perko

robv;80075 wroteYOU HAVEN'T ACCIDENTALLY CONNECTED THE BREATHER POST TURBO HAVE YOU?

Nope, plumbed in to the stock spot pre turbo

perko

Compression test:
#1 135
#2 150
#3 160
#4 150

wet test on #1 and it jumped up to 150 odd, judging by this the rings on #1 have gone

perko

Daily update:
Looking like I'm going to need an engine rebuild at this stage, I don't have the time to be doing that level of work at the moment so will be sending it out to get done.
Depending on cost/time/parts availability it will involve a beefed up bottom end and possibly a 531 head with or without some work done if I can find one.
Cam wise I have a t in it and the k (I assume) from my old b23 so will put one of those in for the time being

Because life is how it is, rego is also due. Took it down for a pink slip and was knocked back on the c pillar rust and non working high beam on one side and parkers on the other (should remember to check lights properly before I take it in).
Lights were just a wiring issue (didn't connect the earth) and I welded in a new patch on the c pillar.

This is it with the bog pulled out

Cut away rusty section

Weld in a patch then grind it back.
I also had to weld a little handle on the patch to hold it in place while welding

Finally bog, sand and paint. Waiting for the primer to dry before I splash a bit of yellow on it

Not the most perfect repair but took me a couple of hours and only a few dollars rather than the weeks wait and several hundred at the panelbeater plus I'm learning stuff as I go

jamesinc

I'm impressed you did that without removing the C-pillar glass, but also did you know the C pillar glass is actually pretty easy to remove? :-P

perko

Honestly didn't even think about removing the glass, wasn't a difficult job with it in place so no big deal really.
Next time I do one of these repairs I'll try it with the glass out

perko

After much organising and many foiled attempts due to work/life/pets etc. I now have another motor sorted.
Rebuilding the one that was in there was likely going to be a complete shitshow given how many k's were on it, I simply don't have the time at the moment to be doing rebuilds and am yet to find a shop who I trust to get it right first time.
This way I can rebuild the block I have into something hectic at my leisure without the pressure of it being my daily drive, plus it's a bit of an upgrade on the skinny rod/530 combo in there at the moment.

'91 bottom end with a 531 head and late manifold. Undecided if i'll run the t3 that's on the car at the moment or the td04 on the new motor, any opinions either way?

Got pretty much everything I don't need off it this arvo, just need to swap intermediate shafts (again, I'm getting good at this) and pop it in the car. The aim is to have the old one out during the week and the new one going in next weekend.

perko

bigal

What's the go with rust in that spot. Exactly the same spot on my 145. Going to remove the glass to check and repair anything else lurking in the window sills.

perko

The sealing strip on the front edge of that window does a poor job at keeping the water out and it then gets trapped at the bottom corner with nowhere to go. The proper solution is probably to get some silicone in there to stop water getting in then some sort of a drain at the bottom corner.

In other news, in a moment of stupidity and tiredness late last night I managed to flip the motor off the trolley it was sitting on while fitting the dizzy. I now have ~4L of very black oil on my workshop floor, as a testament to the strength of the redblock the only parts broken are a cracked rocker cover and intake mani which I have spares of. I also know now that I can deadlift a complete motor, albeit with some difficulty.

Vee_Que

Machine the 90+ manifold for the t3 turbo. and port the 90+ too. I didn't realise that motor was a 91 block as it came from an 87 car.

perko

It's in and running at last. Took a little bit of troubleshooting to fix a few little niggles and get the timing set right but reasonably happy at this point. Ended up running the early mani/t3 combo for now as the outlet of the td04 is a different orientation and my downpipe doesn't fit on it.
Pulls hard and doses like a motherfucker, I'll get a video in the next couple of days. Max boost I've seen so far is 11psi but I haven't been game yet for a full throttle run.
The new to do list:

- Rear main seal is leaking, should've changed it when the motor was out but hindsight is always 20/20. I have one that was in the previous motor for < 2 hours so will pop that out of the housing carefully and stick it in
- Steering feels shit, notchy if you turn hard when on the power. Rack is a recent reco so pointing my finger at the pump, either my hella dodgy mount is not good enough or the pump is failing. Will probably try to find an electric pump and bypass the whole issue (and run the 940 alternator on passenger side to clear space on the exhaust side)
- Occasional miss coming onto boost, pretty sure it's the plug leads which are autobarn shite so will change them and see if there's a difference.
- IAC hose was madly cracked letting in heaps of air, did a temp fix but it appears that the valve itself is also dead, if I unplug it the idle doesn't change at all. Will get the proper hose before I condemn it since my new pipework was very bush mechanic
- Need to buy/make adapters to fit my 1/4" npt gauge senders for water temp and oil pressure (and maybe oil temp if I work out where to put it). Probably easier to buy a tap and make my own than to find someone who sells the adapters.
- Work out a wideband sender solution. The gauge unit I have has an input for a wideband signal but lh2.2 uses narrowband. Thinking at this point to go for a wideband controller with narrowband output, any opinions on a good one to use?
- Port 90+ mani and stick a decent turbo on it. I know it was mentioned just above to machine the manifold to run the early t3 but the key difference between what I have is that the early mani uses bolts from the back and the late one uses studs. Even if I drilled out the thread there wouldn't be enough room to get a nut on and clear the housing. Issue #2 is that the outlet is different so my current downpipe won't fit. This will be a problem for another time.

Bonus round:
Pictures of the motor that I originally swapped into the car. Note that it ran and drove like this and wouldn't have come out if it wasn't leaking so much oil.

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