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Matt's '88 780

Matt Dupuis

Active member
Joined
Feb 18, 2004
Location
Calgary, Ab
I've had this car for almost 4 years and I'm finally getting around to fixing it up a bit, so it's probably time to start posting some pictures.

The "for sale" photos. This came into The Aspirator's hands through some website work, I believe, and his plans to restore and flip fell through, so I ended up with it for not a bunch of money, provided I drove 600 miles to pick it up.

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It came home in September 2007. I fixed up the major flaws, did a bit of cosmetic work, and did a little basic suspension work. All the wiring sins got taken care of (mostly by ditching the melted fusebox), the headliner got repaired as did the tears in the seats & the driver's door card. A slightly more-than-basic stereo was installed. Previa rear springs and some modded Bilstein HDs propped up the rear, and some poly bushings, IPD lowering springs, & Billy HDs went into the front. Through various forms it collected Wilwoods & Tethys, but they're gone now. I haven't taken many photos of it in the meantime, and I can't say I've put too many miles on it over the past few summers.

Anyone who knows me knows that a car has to be more than just a collection of parts for me - I need to see the finished product and it has to make sense, and for some reason this car has never grabbed me. I would be tempted to strip it right down and make it silly, but that just doesn't suit the character. I would put my built B23 into it, but I wasn't crazy about that idea for whatever reason. So many thoughts ran through my head, so many ideas, but nothing stuck to the wall. The idea came to me that I should probably fix it up in a fashion where I could sell it in a heartbeat if I was offered and if I felt the need for a change. Besides, I've got a 123GT I should be working on...
 
One of the major issues I was having was at least one blown head gasket. I seemed to have low compression and higher leakdown in a couple of cylinders too, so I thought that I'd pull the heads and replace them with a pair from an Eagle Premier I snagged out of the junkyard. The following are cross-posts from http://www.calgaryvolvoclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2317

After some time in the cabinet, you can see some details better. Here's an attempt at showing just how bad these exhaust ports are in stock form:
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Ahh, money shots:
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A nicer one of the chamber, showing some shape:
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And evidence of some core shift:
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I may have to concentrate more on the exhaust port roof than on the port floor, 'cause I don't think I can get the short side radius to play nice. It's way too short to get any kind of radius from: although it seems like there's more material to work with than an 8v SOHC head gives you, the entry into the port is extremely poor, and just appears to be a hole in a box. Worse yet, the transition from the throat to the port makes an instant 120 degree turn - it's further into the port than the roof is! There is a pretty good cone into the bowl from the seat surface, though not as bad as an OHV head, but it might be enough to give me some remote shot at making the turn. The exhaust port exit is quite a ways towards the center of the cylinder, so it's even more restrictive than it would otherwise be.

Possibly I may need some circumferential "slits" to help bend the flow... Maybe fins? Something radical will be needed, that's for sure. I sure wish there were some putty I could trust to fill in the floor! I might actually try something to this effect, since there's no turbo or anything else downstream for the putty to get hung up in, should it get ejected.

The intake port is lined up pretty good with the valve, and there appears to be absolutely no bias for swirl. It'll flow like the dickens, but won't ever be that efficient. This is why the "F" heads have such crazy work done to them, I guess. You'll see what I mean when I get this engine apart.
 
More cross-posting:

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Remember what it used to look like? I haven't finished them yet, but they're roughed in and smoothed over, and over the next little while I'll touch them up as needed. I don't know how much "polishing" I'll be doing, as I think it matters very little.

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Like I said, not much to do to the intake, just a bit of cleaning. I didn't spend much time on these with a flap wheel. I will do more later but like the exhausts, I won't concern myself too much.

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And some pix of the valves before I touch them up. Stock 45mm intakes, 38.5mm exhausts. Compare that to stock 44/35 for the B21/B23/B230 heads. I'll put a chamfer between the face and the margin on the exhausts, and will put a 30 degree chamfer where the lip is on the back of the intakes.

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(I never did end up touching these valves...)
 
Engine disassembly & inspection:

Block pictures first. Once the oil pan is removed, we see a generous oil pickup screen (about 6" diameter) without anything stuck to it. A pretty interesting baffle is wedged between the screen and the cradle.
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The main bearing caps are sandwiched between the cradle and the block. The whole works is held together with 8 beefy M14 studs, and the cradle is bolted to the block around the perimeter with 12 M8 and 2 M6 bolts. It's rigid.
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The driver's side bank of ... well, they're not exactly cylinders anymore.
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The driver's side of the block. Notice the head bolt holes are through holes, but exit outside of the block. Same goes for the top row, which exit in the valley. These last two shots are after 2 1/2 cans of engine cleaner spray and 15 bucks at the car wash.
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The cradle, topside rear. At the right rear you can see a little dam, which protects the right side head oil return drain from splashing towards the crankshaft, which is coming up on that side. I guess the left side oil drain isn't as much of a problem since the crank is spinning downwards at that point?
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Oil pan's eye view of the cradle. Lots of webbing, lots and LOTS of machining in this piece. The whole engine, actually: #2 & #3 main caps are cross-bolted, and all four caps fit pretty solidly in the cap register. The main caps have to be the right height to meet the cradle, which also relies on the block skirt to be the right depth, the cradle gets sandwiched at the oil pump pickup tube so IT has to line up, the oil pan, block, and heads all have to be in the right position so that the faces line up for the timing chain cover, which has to be the right length to match the cylinder heads and block so that the whole mess is flush at the valve cover gasket. A bit of a jigsaw puzzle, really...
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Some sediment collected around #6 (front right) cylinder. None of the others had any. This is where the more accessible coolant block drain is located - I wonder if that has anything to do with it? All three PRV-6 engines I've been inside have had sediment on the bottom of the cylinders.
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200,000 mile main bearings. Hell yeah, I'm re-using these!
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Thanks to the huge oil pump and the stability of the cross-bolted mains & the beefy cradle.
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Here's the crank. Makes the B21/B23 standing next to it look rather spindly. Like the B21/B23, the B280 crankshaft is forged.
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All the bearings are narrower on the B280, but they're also all larger in diameter. Rods are 2 3/8" diameter, 1/4" bigger than the already big B21/B23 Mains are bigger yet. Obvious are the split crankpins, which is how you get even firing out of a 90 degree V6.
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Big ol' counterweights, necessary to make the Vee engine internally balanced.
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Piston skirt from #6. So far I've only had a look at #5 and #6, and they are all pretty much scratch-free.
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Ohh... Rod bearings. This is the side of the rod that is back to back with the other rod, so it's the side that's uncovered by the cheek of the crankshaft at TDC. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. All three rods on the passenger side have the same wear in the same place, driver's side all look better. One would think "bent rod" but I'm not so sure. I'll be ordering new rod bearings, I think.
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Rods next to a B23. Both rods are forged, the V6 is much wider than the B23 rod. You can see how much narrower the big end and small end of the B280 is compared to the B23. The pin of the B280 is actually bigger than the B23: 25mm compared to 24mm.
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The V6 rod doesn't quite have as beefy a shape as the B23 rod around the big end (or the small end) but the small end is much smaller and lighter than the overweight B23 rod. Sure is nice to see "normal" inside snap rings, though - so much easier to assemble and disassemble than the wires on the B23 (not to mention the Spiroloks I used on my V8)
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A massive difference in the design of the piston too - the B23 piston is tall like a tractor piston, and the B280 is more modern and shorter. The top ring land is still generously thick, but the B280 uses 3-piece oil scraper rings instead of the Mahle-style 1 piece ring. There are NO holes through the skirt for the oil ring, though! All the oil has to drain through a couple notches through the bottom ring land right above the pin. Big fat rings too - no, they are not in spec for new parts, but the top ring is only about .006" above the maximum gap allowed for new parts, and the other two are still in spec, so I'll be keeping them (especially since they're so difficult to find, as the piston/ring/cylinder are normally all sold as a matched set)
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This had me puzzled for a few minutes: notice the notch in the rod bearing that lines up with a groove in the rod, and a little clearance around the rod bolt? It's surely going to leak oil, isn't it? Oh, wait - that's pointing upwards, towards the opposite cylinder! Piston squirters!
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#6 cylinder - you can't feel even the slightest ridge. If you squint, you can just make out where the rings leave their marks at TDC, though.
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You can more clearly see the ring parking marks after a quick hone, though you can not feel anything. 200,000 miles. :shock:
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A bit of corrosion at the lower sealing surface of #6, where all the sediment was. I don't know if this will be a problem or not, but I'll apply a thin skim of silicone between the cylinder and the shim just to be safe. I'll also be lapping the cylinders to the block for added sealing.
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A busted sealing shim, not sure if it happened as I was pulling the cylinder or if it was broken beforehand. This gets sandwiched between the block and the cylinder, and sets the cylinder protrusion to squarsh the head gasket fire ring. As per John Lane's instructions, I'll be selecting shims that give a little extra squarsh. Might need to stack them. This one is about .006" and is razor sharp and serrated with corrosion along the outside. One sliced deeply under my middle fingernail as I was trying to pick it off the cylinder. Ouch!
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Disassembled the B280F heads to check 'em out. This is the "Swirl" intake port
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Compared to the EP and B280E intake port
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Close up:
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Interesting: check out the position of the spark plug. It's deeper inside the combustion chamber in the B280 (shown here)
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Compared to the EP head. I don't know what the B280E head looks like.
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Then I cleaned up the rocker assemblies. Before:
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After. I blasted the stanchions but only cleaned up the shaft and rockers with scotchbrite and brakleen.
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Nice shaft! Again, 200,000 miles.
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This little oiling hole is the cause of the B27/B28 failures... or one of them. Extended oil change intervals would create sludge which would clog these little jets, and these little jets were the only lubrication of the camshafts. In the B280, OCIs were reduced, oils were improved, these jets were enlarged (I believe) and there was a dam added to keep the camshaft sitting in a puddle of lube, much like in the B21/B23/B230.
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Here's one I prepared earlier:
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No pictures, but some tech stuff:

Not much in the way of pictures today, but I did a little measuring of camshafts after cleaning up the heads one more time.

B27 engines had two different profiles, left to right, to try and even out the pulses from the odd-fire engines. I think the B28 may have had the same oddity. The B280 was given an even-fire crankshaft, which allowed for a single plenum intake and the same camshaft profiles left & right. I wanted to check them both to make sure, and yes, they're the same.

The rear of the passenger side shows a bit of wear, but it's probably no more than .005" off the total lift, so I'd hardly consider it "flat". I'd love to get some more aggressive cams, but the only guy who sells them won't return my emails because I made the mistake of telling him that LH2.2 will in fact be just as suitable with bigger cams as it is with the factory stuff, when he tried to tell me that I would need a complete remap.

The cams are pretty meek, alright - even the B230 "M" cam is wilder!!! The M cam (pretty much the tamest redblock cam) I measured to be 244/268 degrees seat-to-seat, 194/212 at .050", and .374/.413" lift. The B280 cams are 284/266 seat to seat, 200/208 at .050", and .346/.375" lift. The only thing about the B280 cams that's "better" performance-wise is the 108 degree LSA compared to the 112 of the M cam.

A note about the seat-to-seat numbers of the B280 cam: the factory recommends .004-.006" valve lash on the intake and .010-.012" on the exhaust. The seat-to-seat measurements I took were with the wider limit of both, but in measuring the opening and closing ramps, I found that the intake cam stays at the .0005"/degree rate until well past .016" lift, which is pretty evident when you look at the massive 82 degree difference between seat measurements and .050" lift. By making the intake lash .012" like the exhaust, I lose 4 degrees of .050" duration but I lose almost 30 degrees of duration where the valve is only barely cracked (below .010" lift). New numbers are 254/266 seat to seat and 196/208 at .050", and I will gain lots of compression and lose a bunch of overlap without sacrificing much of anything else.

A couple of other interesting notes about the cams: Left and right have the same lobes, but they're not in the same position! This caused me a few moments of head scratching, but I hadn't noticed or hadn't thought about it before then that the two cams would have to be different. From the back to the front of the left bank, they go E-I-E-I-E-I, but from the back to the front of the right bank they go I-E-I-E-I-E. Install the cams backwards and the intakes open when the exhausts are supposed to, and vice-versa. Rearrange the oil pump and water pump, and the engine would run backwards.

Also, the difference in lift is done in the base circle, which is opposite to the way it is in redblock cams, where the base circle is one of the constants in the universe. Makes sense, I suppose, since there are no cam bearing caps in the B280 engine, and the lobe has to fit through the bearing holes, so it can only be so high. Good news for anyone who wants to do a regrind, I guess... I found this out because when I was measuring them and I installed the wrong cam in my test head, the valve clearances I'd set were totally out of whack.

Lastly, I'd read somewhere that the B280F had it's cams advanced 4 degrees, which is verified in what I measured and what I calculated from the factory manual and their installation test procedures. It would require that I cut about .095" from the heads to get this out, so I might do something else to change this. Of course everyone knows that 4 degrees of advance will fatten up the bottom end of the powerband while sacrificing some from the top end, and with the improved breathing this engine should have over stock, it can take advantage of a bit more top end power. We'll see if I do anything about this.

So not much new, but I'm pretty stoked about my find WRT duration figures. Reducing the seat-to-seat duration of the intakes will close the valve about 14 degrees earlier and will give me that much more dynamic compression. Granted this will only really improve the bottom end power but it could give a boost of efficiency too, which would be nice.

Happy new year, y'all!
 
Reassembly stuff:

Been a long couple of weeks, haven't gotten much done on the car but have been busy otherwise. I've done snippets of work, much isn't worth showing but spent some time cleaning, scrubbing, and cleaning again. I wasn't worried about getting all the stains out, but focused on getting most of the crud off things.

This weekend I finally got some assembly done:

I had some cylinder shims made up. These were cut for me by Laser Equations, as I couldn't get any from Volvo and even then I couldn't get them thick enough. The cylinders are supposed to be shimmed .006-.008" out of the block, and Volvo sells (sold) shims in the range of .003-.006". My cylinders were all .002-.003" down in the block, and nobody talks about stacking shims so I assumed it was not to be done,and I had these cut out of .011" shim stock. I mic'd them and arranged them by average thickness, applied the thinnest to the one cylinder .002" down and the thickest to the cylinder on the deep side of .003" down. Two were spares. They ended up being cheaper than buying a dozen from Volvo that I was going to stack, were they available.
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To seal them:
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Clean head bolts and washers, plus some leftover thread lube from the evil V8-244 project.
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Order of assembly, step #1: install crankshaft. As the studs are long enough to go through the main caps and the cradle, and as the studs aren't threaded far enough to bolt the caps directly to the block, one is instructed to use 4 spacers to bolt down #1 and #4 main caps, while using the cross-bolts to hold #2 &#3 caps.
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Step #2: prepare cylinders. I deviated quite a bit in the assembly procedures here. The factory says to install the cylinders, using cylinder hold-downs to keep them in place, then to install the pistons/rings in a conventional manner. I pre-assembled the pistons/rings into the cylinders and set them aside, marking the location of the major thrust axis (and therefore the ring gaps, another deviation of mine). I then laid a bead of sealant, installed a shim, added a second bead of sealant, and smeared assembly lube on the bearings.
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A close up to show the source of a heart attack to come later.
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One side done. Hurry before the sealant hardens!
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Head on and torqued to the first stage, to squish out the sealant and seat the cylinders in the block. Another reason for my deviation to the assembly steps was because I wasn't sure what sealants (if any) were on the factory shims, but I knew I would be using the Toyota goop so I would want to seat the cylinders into the block evenly and with authority, and using the head was the best way I could think to do this.
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Repeat steps for second bank:
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Oil and torque rod bolts to spec, and bust out more expensive chemical gasket:
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Smear the delightfully pink Volvo goop all over everything (block rails and rod caps). Don't forget the oil pump O-ring (I didn't):
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Don't forget the rear main housing (I did, at first) and assemble. Use more sealant on the "outside" 4 main bolt washers and torque to spec, and bolt up the perimeter bolts, locking the cradle to the block.
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It is at this point that I realized something important: I hadn't been overly careful seating the thrust bearing and making sure the rear thrust surfaces were flush. I'm not pulling anything apart now - I will live with it. It's not a racing engine, and it's only got a torque converter pushing forward on the crank. It'll be fine.

Now for my heart attack: After it was all buttoned up and I flipped the block over, to install the oil galley threaded plugs & give things the once-over, I had a bit of a scare. Directly above the rear two (#1 and #4) cylinders there are large holes into the water jacket, and through one of these holes I saw what appeared to be a hairline crack. Even with a flashlight and my calibrated eye I was convinced it was a crack. While I was gooping up the shims the connecting rod shifted and once I half-dropped a cylinder assembly, bouncing it off the steel table. A couple other times the rod dinked off the cylinder while shifting things around. Could I have cracked the cylinder while doing this? Was the crack there and I missed it while blasting/cleaning/examining, and it only shows up when the head is torqued on? Was this why compression was leaking into the cooling system? Will I be installing the redblock after all?

Then I reached in with a pick and scraped the little stringer of sealant goop off. :lol:
 
Bleh, what a weekend. Basically found a pile of parts incompatibility.

Volvo block, Volvo timing cover, Eagle heads. Small oil leak.
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From another angle. The European version of this engine (in French applications) uses balancers on the passenger cam to make the engine even more ridiculously smooth. Volvo and Eagle don't use this, but Volvo kept the bulge for the balancers in the B280. Eagle did not. Good thing the B27/B28/B280 gasket kit comes with the B27/B28 balancer-free timing cover gaskets.
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Good thing I have an Eagle timing cover!
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Pretty wrinkle-finish painted cam cover:
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Awwww... Good thing the B27/B28/B280 gasket kit comes with B27/B28 balancer-free cam cover gaskets.
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Then when the timing cover gets bolted down, something breaks! Good thing I don't need it in this application! I don't think it'll leak - I cut away all the "extra" gasket and it is backed all 'round by metal.
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The offender: a chunk of the timing cover that was relieved in the Volvo app, but not in the Eagle app. Never noticed this until it was too late.
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Notice a difference? Eagle timing cover:
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Volvo timing cover (notice the lack of ribbing around the front crank seal):
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Damage done to Volvo crank pulley when installed on Eagle front cover (going to have to grind away at the ribbing. Eagle uses a serpentine belt system and Volvo uses V-belts, apparently the V-belts take up more room):
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Additionally, the timing chain & sprocket set is for anything but a B280, which has a front-mount distributor. This distributor is driven off the front of the cam, the sprocket of which has a pin to drive the extension. The new sprockets I have do not, so I had to use the old ones. Also, for some reason the new timing chains are too tight to do up, so I had to use the old ones. Furthermore, the B27/B28/B280 gasket kit does not come with a seal for the front distributor, so I have to order a new one.

Basically got my ass kicked this weekend... but I'm learning lots and hopefully the 2 or 3 people who google their way here can learn from my experience.
 
More parts incompatibility issues this weekend.

After grinding down the front cover and splashing more paint on it, I got the front pulley installed.
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But then when I bolted the alternator on I discovered that the front cover and the alternator belts interfered. Again, the Eagle has a serpentine belt and I bet on the wrong horse, and went with the Volvo's V-belts.
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A quick grind, more paint, and here we go.
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But... the damn passenger side cam cover bites me again when I installed the dipstick. The Volvo one has a boss to bolt the dipstick tube to.
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But with a little help from an A-Dapter kit, we had that engine running just like a song.
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Ever wonder what $250 worth of knock sensors looks like?
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And one of the more complicated water pumps in the industry. Cold water inlet, heater return, and cold water discharge on the bottom, with two hot water inlets and hot water discharge up top.
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Here it is installed. Another logically unconventional (or is that unconventionally logical) things about this engine is that the cold water enters the back of the block (via the black cast Y-pipe) and flows forward to exit out the front of the heads. This eliminates short-circuiting and the temperature differential problems that plague conventional front-entry / front-exit systems. The water for the heater comes out of the passenger side head (another problem I had, in that the Eagle heads didn't have a nipple for this so I had to drill/tap one) and returns into the black 3/4" pipe that also returns the hot water from the oil cooler. You can probably figure out the rest.
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And the oil cooler. It was buried under filth so I never knew it was so pretty!
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Photo update time:

Engine ready for installation
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It's good to be home!
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My header flanges, and the start of a collector
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Box o' tubes
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Step 1: the template. The circle on the left is for the primary end, the circle on the left is for the collector extension end. The right arc is equivalent to 1/3 of the 2" extension, the left arc is what's needed for the 1 3/8" tube. The collector tubes are 1 1/2". I cut these 6 out of aluminized before I realized they would be a PITA to deal with later.
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Step 2: pick a scratch and use it to line up on the middle line. Mark the pipe at the two outer lines. Flip and repeat.
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Step 3: draw a line and cut.
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After the cut
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Step 4: mash it on a heavy wall pipe that's close to the ID of the 2" collector. Fortunately I had such a beast.
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Sitting on the collector extension
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For real this time, with friends.
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On 3 tubes mocked up.
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Long time no update. I've been absolutely disgusted by the thought of going into the garage lately, so anything that's happened in there has been coincidental and minor. Today was the first day in a while that I've felt alright in there.

The last thing I got done on the headers: a starter tube, to plot out where everything was to go and to give reference to how much clearance I had around things. Driver's and passenger's side are both done similarly.
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The plan. I plotted it all out on CAD, and the angles & straights are all planned out & tabulated. By design, all tubes are +/- 0.05", and the clearance SHOULD be adequate.
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First steps, driver's side #1 and #2 tubes.
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#2 in and tacked up. I had to adjust it a little bit on the bench later.
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On the bench later.
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After a few test fits, all the welds are pretty much done and ground as smooth as I'm thinking I want to do. At this point the tubes are +/- 0.25", due to bend radius tolerances and cutting errors, but I'm very happy with that.
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Collector entrance.
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Fitted:
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Collector tacked on:
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Final shots, for now.
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I'm really rusty with my welding, and my concentration/patience is lacking a little bit too. However, this one's done and I'm quite happy with it. All I have to do is to remove the steering shaft and get the car up high enough (due to the extra-long collector extension) and the header SLIPS RIGHT IN. I had to dent one tube a little to miss the transmission dipstick - I'm not too happy with that but I'm also not too bent out of shape either. The passenger side is next, and there's LOTS more room to work with so I anticipate no troubles. I will be adding braces to the transmission mount to provide some support and to keep the tubes flexible, but for now it's done.

Haven't decided yet if I'm ceramic coating them or just painting them with header paint. I don't know how many repairs I'm going to have to do in the future, and paint would be the way to go if I have to do any more welding.
 
So loud!

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GYI3_Y6JCrw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(Open headers, major distortion from cell phone videocam microphone. It sounds awful!)
 
wow! awesome project and killer photos. thanks for taking all those

i never really looked at those PRV motors before... they actually look pretty cool

all that work and automatic trans... :-/
 
An M46 swap could be in the cards for next winter. I needed to get it on the road for this summer, and I'm nowhere near as productive in the garage that I used to be before the kid. I've got the bell, flywheel, and most everything else, but I need to mod the flywheel for crank triggers & mod the bell for the CPS mount. Not deal breakers, but they weren't going to get done before this summer.

Besides, the automatic works very well behind the V6, and it suits the car well.
 
definitely saving this thread so i can do something similar (albeit simpler) to my 780 someday.
btw, yours is the twin to mine.
dark blue exterior with the blue/black interior. only mines trashed :lol:
 
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