240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

That's not half bad, Alan. I may have mentioned earlier in this thread that our similar spec '81 244 DL (2.1, carb, auto) only averaged low to mid-twenties in period.

Only when we took it home to Sweden did it better 30. We would brim the tank in Harwich before boarding the ferry to Gothenburg (petrol being cheaper in the UK than in Sweden), then drive 300 miles at 56 MPH (500 K's at 90 K/h) across Sweden before refuelling in Uppsala. That was the only time we saw that sort of figure. Our '88 745 (2.3, FI, 4sp auto) returned 32 - 33 0n the same trip.

Moral of the tale? If you want the R.B. to return those figures then take it back to Sweden. It's obviously pining for it's home-land, and the country is worth a visit, too!

Stop stressing about it's fuel consumption and enjoy your very fine motor-car!

Regards, John.

Hi John,

Thank you for that, I was thinking of taking the RB on a road trip somewhere, but I’d have to wait for a week when Dan (my son, 15 and far too cool to be seen in a 40 year old Volvo) is away on some school trip. I think Sweden might be a bit far for myself and Bob (the dog) - North Wales sounds really nice though. Dan’s school is starting again next week, so perhaps Bob and I will pop away for a few days soon and we can try the RB out on a longer trip. It is a nice, comfy car now, so that would be fun.

Far from stressing out about fuel consumption, I’m revelling in buying Morrison’s very cheapest gas at less than a pound per litre. It was nice this eve filling up the RB for £23 after a week of running round town (I haven’t used either of the other cars this week, but I did take my SV650S out for a couple of spins).

Stay safe,

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

That's not bad if you take out 1 gallon for 40 minutes idling while the emissions were adjusted. Works out at 29.5mpg that way!

I'm guessing you have the thermostatic air intake on the carb that has a feed from an exhaust hot spot and a cold air feed from near the grille? Might be worth disconnecting the hot air trunking (usually convoluted aluminium trunking) from the valve but leave it near and try that for the economy. Might even make it a bit livelier too.

You know Dave, you must be right, but I had not thought about it.

There is certainly a warm air inlet from the exhaust that I noticed when I dropped the exhaust manifold to change the cylinder head, and there is a cold inlet which goes to the airbox. I think they both look like a smaller version of that aluminium trunking the Americans use for air conditioning and heating in their houses.

There must (I suppose) be some sort of valve that selects which one to use, but I had not thought about that bit. I’ll have a look tomorrow - I had not noticed a thermostatic valve previously (but then I had not looked for one ).

Alan

[CosmicBike]

Originally Posted by Othen

You know Dave, you must be right, but I had not thought about it.

There is certainly a warm air inlet from the exhaust that I noticed when I dropped the exhaust manifold to change the cylinder hear, and there is a cold inlet which goes to the airbox. I think they both look like a smaller version of that aluminium trunking the Americans use for air conditioning and heating in their houses.

There must (I suppose) be some sort of valve that selects which one to use, but I had not thought about that bit. I’ll have a look tomorrow - I had not noticed a thermostatic valve previously (but then I had not looked for one ).

Alan

If it's the same as mine, then within the air filter box there is a spring loaded circular flap which moves from hot to cold intake positions. At the top there is a diddy little thermostatic plunger. Mine was bust, so I removed the mechanism, blocked the hot inlet and threw the corrugated hose from the exhaust in the bin. No doubt she will take a tiny amount longer to warm up come Winter.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by CosmicBike

If it's the same as mine, then within the air filter box there is a spring loaded circular flap which moves from hot to cold intake positions. At the top there is a diddy little thermostatic plunger. Mine was bust, so I removed the mechanism, blocked the hot inlet and threw the corrugated hose from the exhaust in the bin. No doubt she will take a tiny amount longer to warm up come Winter.

Wunderschön! That will save me a bit of searching around tomorrow. I’m intrigued to find out whether the RB’s system has been working or not.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You know Dave, you must be right, but I had not thought about it.


There must (I suppose) be some sort of valve that selects which one to use, but I had not thought about that bit. I’ll have a look tomorrow - I had not noticed a thermostatic valve previously (but then I had not looked for one ).

Alan

It's usually on the inlet of the air filter Alan, has a habit of failing in the hot position so it doesn't shift over to cold once it's warmed up.
Without any warm air at all (see how i described disconnecting it) there will be driveability problems in the winter but too much warm air and it can even flood itself and fuel economy suffers.

Originally Posted by Othen

Wunderschön! That will save me a bit of searching around tomorrow. I’m intrigued to find out whether the RB’s system has been working or not.

Almost certainly not. They fail with age more than anything, also get gummed up with dust, dirt and oil mist. Over winter, it won't make much difference and will prevent the carb icing up, in summer it can cause problems as outlined above.

The other person who says he's thrown various parts away is likely to have problems come the winter.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

That's not bad if you take out 1 gallon for 40 minutes idling while the emissions were adjusted. Works out at 29.5mpg that way!

You know Dave, if I thought the RB was doing 29.5 MPG I'd be delighted!

The car obviously used some extra gas whilst the emissions tester had it - the issue I mentioned earlier was that he had never worked on a car with a manual choke - he thought it was automatic and would turn itself off. I left the car nicely warmed up for him after a 10 mile scenic route, he then pulled the choke out to drive the car into the workshop, and left it idling (fast and lumpy) that way. 5 minutes later he came and found me to tell me the engine kept cutting out and would not tick-over. Pushing the choke in (see, the light goes off) and short Italian tune up got it ticking over nicely, but by then everything was a bit full of gas... you know the rest.

Stay safe.

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by CosmicBike

If it's the same as mine, then within the air filter box there is a spring loaded circular flap which moves from hot to cold intake positions. At the top there is a diddy little thermostatic plunger. Mine was bust, so I removed the mechanism, blocked the hot inlet and threw the corrugated hose from the exhaust in the bin. No doubt she will take a tiny amount longer to warm up come Winter.

I had not expected to have anything mechanical to report about with the Royal Barge project for a while - but the 'constant temperature air device' - as the BofH calls it - is worthy of a mention.

Following your description I found it in the airbox under the filter this morn, had a look at it and thought: there is no way that will work, it was in the hot position with the cold inlet completely closed of course...

I looked it up in the BofH, which advised removing it to test it in hot water, and instead gave the thermostat a quick blast with my hot air gun (shrink sheath type) and (in about 10 seconds) the flap opened like magic to reveal the cold air inlet:



...there is more, I let it cool down (a few minutes) and the flap slowly closed to open the hot air pipe:



I was amazed to see the system working absolutely perfectly on my 40 year old motor car. What a clever device - just two moving parts - simple but effective.

I feel childishly happy at discovering another part of the RB (that I didn't even know existed until yesterday eve) working so well :-)

Stay safe,

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You know Dave, if I thought the RB was doing 29.5 MPG I'd be delighted!

The car obviously used some extra gas whilst the emissions tester had it - the issue I mentioned earlier was that he had never worked on a car with a manual choke - he thought it was automatic and would turn itself off. I left the car nicely warmed up for him after a 10 mile scenic route, he then pulled the choke out to drive the car into the workshop, and left it idling (fast and lumpy) that way. 5 minutes later he came and found me to tell me the engine kept cutting out and would not tick-over. Pushing the choke in (see, the light goes off) and short Italian tune up got it ticking over nicely, but by then everything was a bit full of gas... you know the rest.

Stay safe.

Alan

"They don't learn them kids nuffin' these days! *sniff*".

Joking aside, that would explain the high HC figure nicely - there would be unburned fuel vapour hanging around in the crankcase mixed with oil vapour, perfect to increase the HC levels while doing nothing else.

Originally Posted by Othen

I had not expected to have anything mechanical to report about with the Royal Barge project for a while - but the 'constant temperature air device' - as the BofH calls it - is worthy of a mention.

Following your description I found it in the airbox under the filter this morn, had a look at it and thought: there is no way that will work, it was in the hot position with the cold inlet completely closed of course...

I looked it up in the BofH, which advised removing it to test it in hot water, and instead gave the thermostat a quick blast with my hot air gun (shrink sheath type) and (in about 10 seconds) the flap opened like magic to reveal the cold air inlet:



...there is more, I let it cool down (a few minutes) and the flap slowly closed to open the hot air pipe:



I was amazed to see the system working absolutely perfectly on my 40 year old motor car. What a clever device - just two moving parts - simple but effective.

I feel childishly happy at discovering another part of the RB (that I didn't even know existed until yesterday eve) working so well :-)

Stay safe,

Alan

I'm amazed it still works as it should Alan! They usualy go weak with age and just don't move from hot, i know mine has failed and my beast is a comparitive youngster at only 32 years old! Nice to know it does work though!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

"They don't learn them kids nuffin' these days! *sniff*".

Joking aside, that would explain the high HC figure nicely - there would be unburned fuel vapour hanging around in the crankcase mixed with oil vapour, perfect to increase the HC levels while doing nothing else.


I'm amazed it still works as it should Alan! They usualy go weak with age and just don't move from hot, i know mine has failed and my beast is a comparitive youngster at only 32 years old! Nice to know it does work though!

I was just as surprised to see the thermostat winding the cold air port open as soon as I applied a little heat this morn Dave - I had fully expected it to be seized. While it was apart I gave the emissions control system (3 pipes and a flame trap) a blow through with an air line - very clean.

[Othen]

Eagle eyed readers may recall me moaning about the poor quality of wire insulation Volvo had used on the Royal Barge. Around the car it was okay, but in the engine bay (due to the heat I suppose) the insulation was falling off all over the place. My plan was to make up a new loom to replace the Volvo one from the 8 way multi-plug on the bulkhead forward. I'd ordered some 7 core 0.5mm^2 flex, 10mm nylon braided sheath and I had all the other stuff I thought I'd need in my sparky's box of bits.

I'd planned to do this little job one fine day in a few weeks or months time when I got round to it - but as it has a habit of doing - the Royal Barge forced my hand this afternoon.

On the way back from Morrisons with Bob's chicken and liver the oil pressure light came on - and stayed on. I was pretty sure the spurious ground electrical problem had raised its head again, and a quick check with a multimeter confirmed the (new) switch was working fine and I had healthy oil pressure. It had to be a false earth in the oil pressure switch wire, so I had to choose between:

1. Living with it, I knew the oil pressure was fine and could just tape over the light (I'm not serious about this one).
2. Do a temporary fix and run a wire from the multi connector to the switch.
3. Get the wire and sleeve that arrived a week or so out of the garage and make up a new loom.

Regular readers of this column will have guessed already that Course of Action 3 was the only possibility - it was a nice afternoon, so I put the RB up on some ramps and got on with it.

It turned out there were only 6 wires that did anything in the multi-connector, the ignition +ve and tachometer having already taken different paths some time in the past. The old loom came off on one piece (good, so I could make notes about where everything went, and label things), but was a mess:



... there were bare conductors showing in many places, it is a wonder it worked at all, and didn't start a fire!

I wanted to keep the original multi-connector, it worked fine and I like originality when it isn't too expensive. I used these solder/heat shrink joints to make good connections to the old wire ends - here I've used some 1mm^2 flex for the two conductors to the starter motor:



I like these self-soldering joints, they are quick and easy.

The multi-plug end didn't take long. I made the loom up into 3 bundles of 2 conductors each (starter motor, left side of the engine and right side of the engine) with this smart braided nylon sheath, sealed at the ends with large heat shrink:



The terminals were all crimped and sealed in a jiffy, the final thing is a lot smarter (and I hope more durable) than the original):



Plugging it back on took just a mo. The RB started up straight away and everything works the way it should. It was getting near to dinner time, but there is only a little tidying up to do in the morn, so I've left it up on the ramps tonight.

Another little job done. I suppose it cost about a tenner (a fiver each for the 7 core flex and the nylon sheath, I had the other stuff lying round in the garage) and I hope will now last the rest of the Royal Barge's (and my) life :-).

Stay safe,

Alan