240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

What's the next job going to be then Alan? Changing the diff oil perhaps?

I changed the diff oil last year Dave. I ordered some of that Milliput that you recommended some tome ago, and have today filled the two little holes that a previous owner had left in the dash. I must say the black colour and texture were a pretty good match, I may just give it a touch up with some vinyl paint.

Thank you for the recommendation, Milliput is good stuff and appears to be very strong (I've left a ball of it hardening on the bench so I can test it later. I'll pop out and ger a photo once I've got Bob and Millicent their dinners.

:-)

PS. Unfortunately I forgot to take a before photo, but this is how the dash has come out:



- it just needs touching up with some vinyl paint now, but I think that is an okay job.

PPS. This is a photo from some time ago showing one of the holes - there was a similar one underneath the DAB adaptor mount. I think that is quite an improvement:

[Laird Scooby]

A good result there Alan although i wonder if you might have been better off with this stuff and black pigment for the soft dash panel :

https://www.mbfg.co.uk/pt-flex-20-rubber.html

If the Milliput works its way out due to the dash flexing, might be worth using that next time. They do harder rubbers than Shore 20, i used the 70 Shore stuff to make new front ARB drop-links for my Rover. Original would have been ~65 so slightly harder and hopefully a lot more durable! I made the rubber parts slightly larger as well to give more movement so hopefully should last more than 6 weeks!

[Stephen Edwin]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

A good result there Alan although i wonder if you might have been better off with this stuff and black pigment for the soft dash panel :

https://www.mbfg.co.uk/pt-flex-20-rubber.html

If the Milliput works its way out due to the dash flexing, might be worth using that next time. They do harder rubbers than Shore 20, i used the 70 Shore stuff to make new front ARB drop-links for my Rover. Original would have been ~65 so slightly harder and hopefully a lot more durable! I made the rubber parts slightly larger as well to give more movement so hopefully should last more than 6 weeks!

An interesting product Dave.



.

[Othen]

... and the really good new is:

The Royal Barge has today been registered as an HISTORIC VEHICLE (no apology for the capitalisation, this isn't a Daily Mail article, it is the way DVLA writes it). So, no more road tax!

The aim of Project Royal Barge has been achieved: a tax and MoT exempt historic vehicle at a reasonable cost. The RB has achieved all of that and more.





Chapeau! Royal Barge.

[Laird Scooby]

Happy Historic Birthday to the RB!

[Bob Meadows]

And on the 1st April ! No fool that car!
Regards Bob.

[loki_the_glt]

Did you send it a birthday card? Or buy it a birthday cake? Or, better still, take it for a celebratory pint of whatever fluid you felt appropriate?

[Othen]

Regular readers of this thread may recall me thinking about doing a bottom end refresh on the RB a while ago. To that end I've acquired a full set of standard sized rings (one of those eBay offers that was just too good to refuse at £50 delivered) - for the spares box, but it has prompted me into starting to think about how I might do this piece one day.

I should say first that there isn't an issue that needs fixing: the RB starts and runs very well, doesn't smoke or use oil excessively - this is more my bike background telling me that it is about time to do the rings. On a bike the rings would have almost certainly been changed by now: they generally run much faster and aren't as well cooled or lubricated as are car engines so they wear out quicker; on the plus side on most bike engines the barrels are removable from the block so getting at the pistons is much easier (and big ends are nearly always rollers, so don't need changing).

Having acquired the rings (standard size, I checked the pistons last year when I had the head off) it would make sense to change the big end shells at the same time, as well as obviously the sump and head gaskets. I already have a complete top end gasket set in the spares box (one should always have a complete top end gasket set to hand) so the only additional parts I'd need would be big end shells (about £40) and a sump gasket (which doesn't leak, bit could probably do with changing after 40 years in the same place).

Roger so far? There are two ways I could do this: engine out or engine in.

If I do this with the engine on the bench the sensible time would be when I do the AW71L conversion (I'll be collecting the auto box from Worcester in the next few weeks). The two jobs are not necessarily connected in that I think it would be best to pull the BW55 box off first before removing the motor anyway. If I thought there was anything much wrong with the B21a I'd do it this way and send the motor off to Knight Engineering in Northampton to have it reconditioned, then solve all the engineering problems for the AW71 fitment in the meantime. As the B21a seems fine and just needs a refresh I'm more tempted to do this one step at a time: make sure the motor is good for another 3 or 4 decades before converting to the 4 speeder.

Dropping the sump and doing this with the motor (and auto box) in the car looks to be very simple indeed, and is what I think I'll do this time round. I have an engine hoist, so removing the left side engine mount and dropping the sump pan looks trivial - after that it would seem there is easy access to the big ends. I wouldn't mind taking the head off again anyway (you may recall it was a reconditioned unit I bought at a too good to refuse price this time last year) to make sure everything is okay at the top end and re-check the valve clearances. With that off, pushing the pistons up through the block for checking and to swap the rings one at a time looks very easy indeed. It would be worth honing the bores in situ (one at a time) at the same time.

I'm not expecting to find anything wrong, but if I did I could easily revert to the engine out plan and have the engine off for full reconditioning if I thought it necessary.

So, this is me thinking aloud and sharing my thoughts with you chaps. My plan is to do a bottom end refresh (just standard rings and shells) - probably next spring when I'd change the RB's fluids anyway (the coolant will be due changing as well by then) - and to do this with the engine in the car by dropping the sump. This looks like nothing more than a long day's work to me (from my bike experience - I'd have changed the rings on dozens of bike engines over the years).

The outcome would be a B21a motor that I'd be confident was good for another 3 decades (realistically the life of any petrol engine vehicle I should think). Having refreshed both the top and bottom ends of the motor I'd then plan to have all the engineering issues with the AW71L box (shifter, electrics, prop shaft and cooling) solved and the unit serviced on the bench before fitting it (probably spring 2023). It would make sense to change the crank rear seal at the same time.

Comments on my plan would be welcomed. My view at the moment is that this scheme would fit in well with Project RB's ethos of continuous improvement, one step at a time.

That was a lot for a Sunday morn, now it is time for Bob's first walk of the day :-).

Alan

[john.wigley]

'Morning, Alan, that sounds like a very sensible long-term plan to me. My only addition, if it were me stripping an engine to that degree, would be to also take the opportunity to check and, if necessary, replace the mains at the same time as I did the big ends.

Regards, John

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

'Morning, Alan, that sounds like a very sensible long-term plan to me. My only addition, if it were me stripping an engine to that degree, would be to also take the opportunity to check and, if necessary, replace the mains at the same time as I did the big ends.

Regards, John

Many thanks John,

... but I'm not going to be able to strip the mains with the engine still in the car and the gearbox attached I don't think (unless I've jumped to a wrong conclusion about the construction of Volvo motors?). That then would imply only the first method: taking the engine out and doing the work on the bench (so I might as well change the crank seals as well) was possible - wouldn't it?

I'll have a look at the BofH this afternoon to make sure I've understood that correctly. My concern is that a one day refresh job then becomes a week long engine out task, and if I do that I might as well ship the engine off to Northampton to have it rebuilt. Then the RB project starts becoming a bit more than it is now.

This is exactly why I'm asking about this now - many thanks.

Alan