No Goals 244

[volvowagoon]

Originally Posted by leecatd8209

In this case I would only worry about a line bore if I saw weird bearing wear, or was installing a different crank. As long as the clearances are in spec once it's back together it should be fine. This is by the book for most of of the much more expensive engines I've had to mess with in my day.

As for the balanced assembly that is gonna be a bit of a crap shoot, and I honestly didn't even consider it. I've read that the rods are made well enough in that regard, and I'm using factory Volvo pistons, so I'm not worried about them.

There's a laundry list of ways that this isn't the "right" way to do it overall, but it's good enough for who it's for. I anticipate many miles of fun in its future.

I gotcha. I don't know how tight the tolerances are on these. I'll be looking forward to how well it goes for you! I'm jealous of all the LS and and SBC guys slapping stuff together with no machine work and ending up with a reliable and powerful engine. Maybe red blocks are just as forgiving.

[leecatd8209]

After fixing some other problems, I'm realizing I have a new one. I've had two EZK failures since going to the waste spark board.

My solder joints are good, I sealed the boxes where the wires ran out, I smothered critical areas with dielectric grease. For the ground I'm piggybacking off the cylinder head to firewall ground, and I cleaned both ends, all of my wiring is soldered lineman's splices with heat shrink, I made an aluminum heatsink for the mitsubishi ignitor, I feel like I'm doing everything right.

Can anyone think of anywhere else to look, or common causes of EZK failure that I should be investigating. So far I've lost two late chipped turbo boxes, and a gold box. I have not tried any of my nonchippable NA boxes.

[esmth]

Originally Posted by leecatd8209

After fixing some other problems, I'm realizing I have a new one. I've had two EZK failures since going to the waste spark board.

My solder joints are good, I sealed the boxes where the wires ran out, I smothered critical areas with dielectric grease. For the ground I'm piggybacking off the cylinder head to firewall ground, and I cleaned both ends, all of my wiring is soldered lineman's splices with heat shrink, I made an aluminum heatsink for the mitsubishi ignitor, I feel like I'm doing everything right.

Can anyone think of anywhere else to look, or common causes of EZK failure that I should be investigating. So far I've lost two late chipped turbo boxes, and a gold box. I have not tried any of my nonchippable NA boxes.

Is there an occasional short somewhere possibly? the EZK internal 5v regulator is pretty stressed stock, it wouldn't take much to release the magic smoke. I have the wasted spark board in my car, but I use the Bosch power stage from a 6 cyl 960. Not sure if the wiring is different. I also have the power stage physically bolted/mounted to the body, acting as both headsink and gound. Maybe the one you have requires the same?

[leecatd8209]

Originally Posted by esmth

Is there an occasional short somewhere possibly? the EZK internal 5v regulator is pretty stressed stock, it wouldn't take much to release the magic smoke. I have the wasted spark board in my car, but I use the Bosch power stage from a 6 cyl 960. Not sure if the wiring is different. I also have the power stage physically bolted/mounted to the body, acting as both headsink and gound. Maybe the one you have requires the same?

BTW, if the ezk are already dead i'll buy em off you. I've been trying to reverse engineer it.

I'd never considered having the actual ignitor grounded. I'll have to give that a shot. Now I need some more EZKs.

[leecatd8209]

Finally after over a year I swapped the polarity on the blower motor and it spins the right way. It's a drastic improvement in airflow, and stationary vent temps. We'll see what the rest of the week brings as far as overall improvement.

[leecatd8209]

Finally got around to installing the new torque arms and panhard bar. All of these bushings were shot, so the improvement in "handling" and ride quality was quite drastic. It's also nice not to hear the rear end clunking around all the time.

That turbo motor build is still just sitting around in pieces. Progress is progress.

[leecatd8209]

I finally decided to stop being lazy and get some engine work done

Gave it a scrub


Tore the head down


Not red block


A red block!

[white855T]

Nice. I'm assuming you changed oil pick up tube o rings? Also if pcv hose is hard/brittle, I would recommend replacing it. I was changing the oil pick up o rings the other day and that pcv hose of course broke into many pieces. Use OEM only for o rings and pcv hose(if you need it).

[leecatd8209]

Originally Posted by white855T

Nice. I'm assuming you changed oil pick up tube o rings? Also if pcv hose is hard/brittle, I would recommend replacing it. I was changing the oil pick up o rings the other day and that pcv hose of course broke into many pieces. Use OEM only for o rings and pcv hose(if you need it).

The tube is still quite compliant, as for orings and seals I have all new everything.

[leecatd8209]

FB marketplace got me good with this clean 760 turbo. The kid I bought it from didn't have a clue what was wrong with it, just that the battery kept going dead. Turns out the alternator belt was loose and I've been cruising it around all morning.

It came with service history going all the way back into the early 90s, and seems to have been owned almost solely by people who just paid professionals to fix everything as soon as it was broken. The last few years haven't been that kind to it, but it's extremely solid overall, and just needs a few bits here and there, as opposed to the "everything is shot, replace it all" approach that the 240 needed.

One of the POs is a local Houston guy and sent me this link from when he was selling it: https://bringatrailer.com/2017/03/28...7IWcauAlbNrj7Y

I plan on this being my daily for commuting back and forth to work, but I don't want to turn it into a restoration or project car, I'll have the paint detailed to bring back the shine, and that's about it.

Needs:
The brakes are not great. They start grabbing almost at the floor.
The steering rack failed while it was on the trailer on the way home. No idea what's up with that
Some clunky suspension bits
Seats need redyed
Sunroof only tilts, no full open (is that normal?) - I fixed this
An exhaust leak that goes away when hot
I'll do an oil change and basic tune up just because
AC only works if you jump 12v straight to the compressor. Some witchcraft has been done here, I'm working on it.

Of all the options this car has, nearly all of which still work, it doesn't have cruise control. At all. WTF is up with that?



For $750 I'm very happy with the investment

[leecatd8209]

I've got a real thing for these 3 cylinder FTs. This makes number 3 now.



Cylinder 4 had low compression, stayed low with a wet test, and was doing some weird stuff with oil and coolant so I figured I'd throw a gasket in it and see what happened. I wasted that head gasket trying to reuse the head that was on the car to begin with, but a new one came in today, and I'm going to use the head I just redid for the future 240 motor. The good news is the bottom end in this car is pristine. Then she's ready for daily duty and sprucing up.

Without having an extra set of hands, or a starter trigger, I was unable to pinpoint where the pressure was escaping from, so the plan is just to attack all of my known options at once. I water tested the ports on cyl 4 AFTER wasting the head gasket and found the exhaust valve leaking some. Another thing I want to tackle is the dowel pin in the back is stuck in the block I want to take that out, and clean it up real nice before I put the next head on. The third option is maybe that old head was warped/cracked/compromised in some way. I am confident the new one will do the trick. Along with that other stuff. Hopefully.

Then it's back to 240 stuff.

Edit: Also, see that wire between the coolant pipe and the block at the rear of the engine? It's got a really hard, thick insulation on it, and seems to go to a sensor down on the transmission bellhousing. What is that? I can't find the other end of the wire.

[kampman]

It’s an RPM sensor for a Volvo dealer diagnostic tool (think it was called the mono tester?). The connector would have been up by the valve cover from the factory.

[leecatd8209]

Originally Posted by kampman

It’s an RPM sensor for a Volvo dealer diagnostic tool (think it was called the mono tester?). The connector would have been up by the valve cover from the factory.

Sucks it's broken, but at least I don't need it.

Thank you!

[Jerd]

Nice work man! thanks for sharing, I enjoyed catching up on your projects! I look forward to seeing what you do next.

[leecatd8209]

Got the head back on the 760. Compression on cylinder 4 came up to ~85psi from ~35psi. This is good news I guess (1-3 are all ~125psi). I'm crossing my fingers and thinking wishfully that a heat cycle or two will bring that number up. The bore is gorgeous, still has crosshatch, very minimal ring ridge, no pitting or anything. I don't know what the deal is, but it's going back together at this point. As long as it loses the dead miss at idle I'm happy. Maybe I'll drum up a junkyard bottom end for it some day...



AND I got the crank and new bearings in the freshly painted block. Clearances are spot on, I've gotta remember which safe place I put the piston pin clips so I can wrap up the bottom end while I figure out what I'm going to do about a head. I just paid off a huge chunk of debt, so maybe I'll snatch up that last set of big valves in the group buy and send one of my spares to an actual machine shop

[volvowagoon]

Nice!

[DET17]

You will find out if there is a piston ring / groove issue on that #4 cylinder. Did your replacement head have a valve job, or was it just "good used"? Being that low on compression compared to the rest would be concerning. By chance did you wipe those cylinder bores with engine oil while you had the head off? With "wet rings" those compression numbers should be pretty tight in an engine which has not been abused. If you are getting significant blow by your rings on #4 into the crankcase, you will have some significant positive pressure coming around the oil cap. You can either measure the pressure to determine piston/ring health, and/or use the old "glove test".

Once she's running and you get a heat cycle on the engine, check your compression #s again.

[leecatd8209]

Originally Posted by DET17

You will find out if there is a piston ring / groove issue on that #4 cylinder. Did your replacement head have a valve job, or was it just "good used"? Being that low on compression compared to the rest would be concerning. By chance did you wipe those cylinder bores with engine oil while you had the head off? With "wet rings" those compression numbers should be pretty tight in an engine which has not been abused. If you are getting significant blow by your rings on #4 into the crankcase, you will have some significant positive pressure coming around the oil cap. You can either measure the pressure to determine piston/ring health, and/or use the old "glove test".

Once she's running and you get a heat cycle on the engine, check your compression #s again.

I lapped the valves tight on this head, and checked it with my flatness gauge. I had done some wet tests, but was getting really weird results. There's definitely a bottom end issue, though. I poured cyls 1 and 4 full of oil while I had the head off, and overnight 4 drained into the crankcase, and 1 stayed full. I realize this isn't super indicative of much, but it does confirm what I'm seeing.

Like I said if I can get the dead miss to go away, I'll be fairly happy as long as oil consumption isn't super excessive. I just want to daily this thing back and forth to work, not looking to set the world on fire. When I get this "built" motor in the 240 I'll have the good engine out of it to potentially swap in.

[leecatd8209]

Got the 760 back together enough to confirm that it still runs. I was pretty excited to have all the timing and everything correct on the first try, I must be learning something.

Tomorrow hopefully I can get it buttoned up the rest of the way to take it for a test drive and pull some more numbers on cylinder 4.

I've been having weird visions of hotboi sh*t for the 760. Putting the hot 16v motor in it, slam it to the ground, and run some fat lip 19s with a little camber in the back. Color match the bumpers, and maybe some kind of livery. I don't know where this comes from. I don't drift, I don't even follow drifting or car trends, but I'm just getting that kind of vibe out of it. Seeing as I've never seen a project car through to anything even remotely close to the finish, you can rest easy knowing that I most likely won't ruin it.

[leecatd8209]

No dice on the 760. I got it all buttoned up this afternoon and took it for a smokey drive around the block. It had no power and the dipstick blew out as soon as I hit the gas hard. Compression on cylinder 4 hot is only 50psi, on cylinder 1 it broke the hose on my Amazon compression tester. I'm wondering if it broke a ring or something, when I first got it home and running it wasn't bad at all except for the obvious head gasket issues.

I was hoping to make it my daily without dumping a bunch of money into it. Once the weather warms up I need to get the +T swap done on the 240, then use the engine from it for the 760. I'll drill the block for an oil return and send it as is. I've already got a shameful amount of money dumped into the 240, and need to spend another ~$1500 (surely double that by the time I'm done) on do it right/while I'm in there type things.

This is the way...