The Morbidmobile Blog

[TomSaintJames]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

D'oh!

You'll probably find even on the Venga the sidelights (aka "parking lights") can be left on for parking purposes. Might be worth fitting a lights on warning buzzer to the hearse to avoid a repeat performance though.

That's not a bad idea at all Dave, will investigate.

Interestingly I had to battle with a plastic cage for the positive terminal on the venga, to get a jump lead on it. Unnecessarily fiddly. Why might a terminal be enclosed? They were both nicely greased up.

[Stephen Edwin]

A low current discharge over a long period seriously drains a car battery. If sidelights left on at work reduce the car to a click, there is something else. Perhaps simply short journeys so the battery charge was low to begin. Or something more draining was left switched on. As we all know the vehicle has an interesting electrics history so nothing should be discounted.

And there is the possibility of a battery issue or alternator issue or both. How much do you know about the maintenence history of the car?

*****

I recommend rubber battery terminal covers. Mine are by Durite. Not in any way fiddly. And they could save an horrible electrical accident/fire/A&Eburns accident with spanner or metal watch strap et al

.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

That's not a bad idea at all Dave, will investigate.

Interestingly I had to battle with a plastic cage for the positive terminal on the venga, to get a jump lead on it. Unnecessarily fiddly. Why might a terminal be enclosed? They were both nicely greased up.

Easy enough to do Tom, give me a shout if you need/want some ideas. If you're lucky the drivers door pillar switch is a two terminal jobby with only one terminal connected which will make life easier. If it's only a single terminal, it's still fairly easy.

As for the reason for the cover over the +ve terminal, i haven't seen under the bonnet of the Venga but the first clue is it's a diseasel. That means it's going to have a fairly big battery. Given the way everything is shoehorned into a "modern", that leaves very little margin for error. A spanner or screwdriver could easily be misplaced by the mechanic during servicing and land between earth and the +ve terminal with disastrous results.
First, the blinding flash. Second the intense heat as the tool melts. Third, the explosion as the battery explodes under extreme discharge condition.

Also an owner wearing a metal watch strap while trying to check the oil, screenwash, coolant or similar might easily bridge that gap as well - that hurts! With the current "compensation claim society", Hyundai-Kia would probably be sued for thousands of $$$$ or £££££ by the victim and win. By fitting a snug plastic battery terminal cover, not only have they neatened the engine bay up but prevented such a disaster.

[TomSaintJames]

Goodness, it's been a month of no Volvo action what-so-ever! The Hearse has seen very little use also, we used it as a campler during a wedding at the start of the month - the worst camping experience. It got very hot and very light very early, like 5:30am early! Steve and I were also very drunk, so striking a match in there would probably not been such a good idea on account of the alcohol fumes our bodies were desperately trying to eject

I've had very little time to do much other than work, eat and try and finish this qualification that my training officer wants done by this Friday! This is possible, but i've been doing little else for a while now.

Also this has been taking up what time I haven;t been doing anything esle, an automatic MK1 Citroen BX16 TRS 'SE' (presumably a dealer specific special edition) with air conditioning - the latter being the reason I imported it from France, so I can transfer the a/c system (hen's teeth and rocking horse poo don t even come into it, a MK1 with a/c! Never thought i'd be so lucky) to my BX GT, which is a special car to me, and is about as rare.

The TRS has been sat for at least 10 years and is really quite shonky, not to mention filthy. BUT it started, it rose (only 1 small hydraulic fluid leak too!) and even drives, so I can't break it in good faith - i'll have to sell it whole (minus a/c system etc) which means a great deal more work for me... These pictures are after a really really good clean, it was delivered covered half in algae, and half in mud/dust. Coming from south-ish France it at least appeasrs to not be rusty on top (in all the common areas)- i've not been under it yet but it bodes well. However the pictures do flatter it.





Before anyone says, I fully know the amount of work involved in transferring the a/c. I've been hunting parts individually for 2 years and found only a handful here and there (mostly in France), so finding a whole donor car is awesome.

Back to the Hearse, still less-than-ideal running, stalling after start-up, irritating driveline bearings and comparitively appalling fuel consumption have meant it has sat at home for the most part with little use, which is a shame.

Steve and I discussed the question today, in light of money needed to do work on the house, garden and general life (holidays, eating out, clothes etc that we go without). Do we sell it? Answer: probably not. I would hate to sell it and think we'd really regret it and not only because of the time/money/effort that has gone into it. It's just a cool car

BUT we think the engine has to change, and with it the exhaust (still blowing) and drivetrain (still whining) which leads me back to the question of with what? As previously discussed the simplest, easiest with best gain would be a 280E - but there aren't any! (apart from that lovely one at 2.5k on ebay just now...)

So next question - 3.0 straight 6 from a 960, how difficult would this be? I'm sure the electrics would be the biggest challenge. But I know almost nothing of this engine, so don't know if it'd bolt in easily enough. Bear in mind that engine swaps and electrics are probably well over my ability/confidence just now, if i had enough time and a decent place to do it (workshop, lift etc please Santa Claus) that I may have a go - but not how things are at the moment.

Thanks folks, look forward to your replies.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peugeot-V...4AAOSwBQ1dK1iS

BUT we think the engine has to change, and with it the exhaust (still blowing) and drivetrain (still whining) which leads me back to the question of with what? As previously discussed the simplest, easiest with best gain would be a 280E - but there aren't any! (apart from that lovely one at 2.5k on ebay just now...)

So next question - 3.0 straight 6 from a 960, how difficult would this be? I'm sure the electrics would be the biggest challenge. But I know almost nothing of this engine, so don't know if it'd bolt in easily enough. Bear in mind that engine swaps and electrics are probably well over my ability/confidence just now, if i had enough time and a decent place to do it (workshop, lift etc please Santa Claus) that I may have a go - but not how things are at the moment.

Thanks folks, look forward to your replies.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peugeot-V...s/283548282011

Gearbox isn't much use but the engine should fit, based on the B280E.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-V6-2...x/401828869074

Another even more alien alterntive although Ford owned Volvo for a while .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RANGE-ROV...m/192670786225

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rover-SD1...r/133123660074

A couple of other alternatives as well.

Are the LHD and RHD heater/aircon boxes inside the cabin the same? If not, you'll struggle to swap those bits from the froggy TRS.

You could try and find a 2.3 short block for the hearse and do a bit of tuning on it to liven things up a bit but the best way would be a bigger engine with more power and torque to get it rolling easier.

Out of all the above, the Rover V8 would be the easiest to get fitted and running and would sound awesome too.
There is a B28 engine on ebay but the point is, it's the early version without the improvements that made the B280E so different and better.

[360beast]

What about a D24TIC? Imagine that with an exhaust coming out of the bonnet on the hearse!

B230FK with the stock camshaft should be good as it has plenty of low down torque, add a boost controller and jobs a good un.

[TomSaintJames]

Originally Posted by 360beast

What about a D24TIC? Imagine that with an exhaust coming out of the bonnet on the hearse!

B230FK with the stock camshaft should be good as it has plenty of low down torque, add a boost controller and jobs a good un.

I did think about going diesel, but with the extra hassle of changing the fuel tank, lines etc aswell, and the way things are going in europe against diesels (especially in cities) we decided petrol and LPG was probably wiser.

B230FK is the low pressure engine? I kind of thought the lag would be an issue, but i have read the LPT drives like an n/a car, do you think a manual boost contoller would affect this? A good thought, and a darn sight easier to find than a B280E!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

I did think about going diesel, but with the extra hassle of changing the fuel tank, lines etc aswell, and the way things are going in europe against diesels (especially in cities) we decided petrol and LPG was probably wiser.

B230FK is the low pressure engine? I kind of thought the lag would be an issue, but i have read the LPT drives like an n/a car, do you think a manual boost contoller would affect this? A good thought, and a darn sight easier to find than a B280E!

Definitely a wise move avoiding diseasel Tom, regardless of all the problems you've already stated, there are the health risks as well.

The B230FK is the LPT and the FT is the HPT - only real difference is the wastegate actuator, one is 4psi and the other is 8psi if memory serves.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-940...4/293155661478

Trouble with a lot of scrapyards is they don't sell them with the turbos. You'll also need a different front pipe for it and preferably the ECU as well and anything else that goes with the turbo unit.
Without checking, i'm fairly sure the LPT is 135bhp so a couple more bhp than the B230E and i can't remember off the top of my head if yours is K-Jet or LE-Jetronic. If yours is LE-Jet then (or LH but think yours is just a smidge too old for LH) you'll already have a lot of the loom in place, can't guarantee the pin-outs for the ECUs will be the same but you'll need the ECU for the B230FK. There was a very early version of the 740 Turbo that used K-Jet on the B23ET engine, 185bhp and very rare to find. It was an early turbo though so came with lag.

The other potential problem going down the turbo route is that the one that comes with whatever engine you get may be knackered, you can buy cores for about £100 and swap them into your housings giving a virtually new turbo unit though.

Just so you know, putting a more modern engine in won't mean you need a cat, the car was originally used before cats were mandatory and that still stands. Conversely if you were to put a 1988 engine into a 1998 car, that wouldn't need a cat either as long as you proved to the tester the engine was made before cats were mandatory.
No cats to worry about, yay!

[360beast]

Yeah B230FK is the LPT 135hp version, plenty of torque though. I have a boost controller on mine set to 8psi and it definitely feels like a turbo car now where as before you couldn't tell it was a turbo car!

The turbo starts kicking in about 2k rpm so there isn't that much lag with the little 13C turbo.

I'm removing mine soon hopefully and fitting a Garrett T3 off a 760 turbo I broke about 9 years ago, if memory serves correctly that didn't spool up until over 2.5k rpm.

I forgot to say I do like a Citroen BX, my brother had a BX GTI a few years ago which was lovely.

[classicswede]

If you have never done a engine swap before you will be amazed at how many small details are involved and its a long shot from dropping it in and making the engine mounts fit and connecting the prop.

B200/B230 turbo swap is about as easy as you can get. The small turbo they have fitted means zero turbo lag. It does limit the power as does the cam.

IIRC you have the K jet engine in there now so you will need a wiring loom. If wiring is not your thing I do have drop in wiring looms that only need a handfull of connections.

If your engine is good then adding a turbo to that is a option. It is not a path I normally suggest as you need a lot of parts off the turbo engine but it is a option worth thinking about

LPG - if you are K jet you will need a full change of LPG front end system as you will be a simple mixer at the moment and the turbo needs injection


Another thought. How about building a 2.5 long strong NA engine. Lots of grunt, no turbo, keep your LPG and solves 99% of the problems of doing a engine conversion. (does not solve teh cost aspect)