FreeEMSFred
New member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2009
- Location
- Kiwiland
Thread title is a humorous nod to Kenny who I'll be trying to emulate to some extent with my 740 sedan in another thread at a later date, but without the block filler and under 700whp (apparently).
On with the thread. This is the car, as I got her:
I bought this some months ago for a pocket-change $700nz with a blown head gasket. Body looked straight enough. It has a few issues, but it's mostly rust free, and no big deal breakers. My very first manual Volvo. ~300kg lighter than my 740 sedan and with perfect 50/50 weight distribution thanks to the M47-based trans being in the rear! Sweet.
The night I went to pick it up it would:
1) blow white clouds out the back on the overrun and/or at idle (anywhere with vacuum)
2) instantly shoot up in temperature during WOT acceleration (such as motorway onramps)
3) Cruise at anywhere between 50kph and 110kph just fine.
Because:
Therefore step one was to get the milkshake out of the crank case. So I dumped the coolant, then flushed the oil out. Refilled, new filter, ran up to temperature a few times, flushed and dumped that oil too. Refilled with a bare min of about 2l of oil and NO coolant. Could drive it about 2km and 2 minutes before it hit operating temperature and began overheating. Enough to put it on a nearby street, or bring it home from there. Between the flushes and the coolant-less heat cycles, the water in the oil was all but gone. Any remaining milkiness was from the combustion by products finding their way into the crank case from the head gasket issue.
Fast forward a few months and I decide to do the head gasket for which I'd already obtained a B200E head set/top end gasket kit.That was this morning.
This evening the block deck is clean, the head deck is clean, and I have a few photos of testing fitting certain B234F parts into the engine bay...
Looks GREAT in there But does it fit?
Yes! But only just! The belt and cam gear will be very close to the bonnet interior, but should be OK.
Other pain points:
1) A new slimmer or offset brake master cylinder reservoir will be needed to give clearance to the upper part of the head and cam cover.
2) Installing the exhaust manifold will require removing the brake master cylinder, or at least unbolting it and pushing it out of the way a bit.
3) The factory heat shielding on the master cylinder should probably be upgraded to include some sort of heavy duty insulation.
4) Stiffer mounts and/or a top-end brace to the engine bay tin will be needed to prevent the engine hitting the master cylinder under load transitions.
Recipe for scintillating low 15 second quarter mile passes:
1) Two cams instead of one.
2) 2.3 litres instead of 2.0 litres.
3) More duration and overlap in the cams.
4) More compression ratio, possibly by way of forged pistons.
5) More throttle plates. (4) (ITBs...) (probably blacktop 4age ones as I have 4 sets and more are only 150-200nzd away at any time)
6) Last, but far from least: FreeEMS engine control
An LSD wouldn't go astray, either. But they're custom and not cheap so it can wait for lucky last. I already have some 15" rims for semi-slicks in waiting.
Don't expect much progress on the 15 second dream anytime soon. Tomorrow the SOHC head will go back on with a fresh gasket and it'll be a usable car for the first time.
So I'll probably just use it for a while. I was inspired to put up this thread by the glorious look of the DOHC head in the engine bay, and the fact that it fits!
Over and out, for now.
Fred.
On with the thread. This is the car, as I got her:
I bought this some months ago for a pocket-change $700nz with a blown head gasket. Body looked straight enough. It has a few issues, but it's mostly rust free, and no big deal breakers. My very first manual Volvo. ~300kg lighter than my 740 sedan and with perfect 50/50 weight distribution thanks to the M47-based trans being in the rear! Sweet.
The night I went to pick it up it would:
1) blow white clouds out the back on the overrun and/or at idle (anywhere with vacuum)
2) instantly shoot up in temperature during WOT acceleration (such as motorway onramps)
3) Cruise at anywhere between 50kph and 110kph just fine.
Because:
- Vacuum would suck glycol into the chamber and spit it out the exhaust.
- Cylinder pressure would push searing hot combustion gas into the cooing system and onto the sensor displacing any coolant from the area.
- So there was a sweet spot of gas pedal for any given RPM that resulted in a net balance in pressure and a fairly normal (if quite slow) car.
Therefore step one was to get the milkshake out of the crank case. So I dumped the coolant, then flushed the oil out. Refilled, new filter, ran up to temperature a few times, flushed and dumped that oil too. Refilled with a bare min of about 2l of oil and NO coolant. Could drive it about 2km and 2 minutes before it hit operating temperature and began overheating. Enough to put it on a nearby street, or bring it home from there. Between the flushes and the coolant-less heat cycles, the water in the oil was all but gone. Any remaining milkiness was from the combustion by products finding their way into the crank case from the head gasket issue.
Fast forward a few months and I decide to do the head gasket for which I'd already obtained a B200E head set/top end gasket kit.That was this morning.
This evening the block deck is clean, the head deck is clean, and I have a few photos of testing fitting certain B234F parts into the engine bay...
Looks GREAT in there But does it fit?
Yes! But only just! The belt and cam gear will be very close to the bonnet interior, but should be OK.
Other pain points:
1) A new slimmer or offset brake master cylinder reservoir will be needed to give clearance to the upper part of the head and cam cover.
2) Installing the exhaust manifold will require removing the brake master cylinder, or at least unbolting it and pushing it out of the way a bit.
3) The factory heat shielding on the master cylinder should probably be upgraded to include some sort of heavy duty insulation.
4) Stiffer mounts and/or a top-end brace to the engine bay tin will be needed to prevent the engine hitting the master cylinder under load transitions.
Recipe for scintillating low 15 second quarter mile passes:
1) Two cams instead of one.
2) 2.3 litres instead of 2.0 litres.
3) More duration and overlap in the cams.
4) More compression ratio, possibly by way of forged pistons.
5) More throttle plates. (4) (ITBs...) (probably blacktop 4age ones as I have 4 sets and more are only 150-200nzd away at any time)
6) Last, but far from least: FreeEMS engine control
An LSD wouldn't go astray, either. But they're custom and not cheap so it can wait for lucky last. I already have some 15" rims for semi-slicks in waiting.
Don't expect much progress on the 15 second dream anytime soon. Tomorrow the SOHC head will go back on with a fresh gasket and it'll be a usable car for the first time.
So I'll probably just use it for a while. I was inspired to put up this thread by the glorious look of the DOHC head in the engine bay, and the fact that it fits!
Over and out, for now.
Fred.