Amazon: 1965 Volvo Amazon (121)

[Jackman]

Well i thought id bring you upto date with this project. As many of you may remember i was asked to try and get it done for my friends wedding so i had been doing little bits to the car as and when i could.

Over a month ago i wanted to take the engine out to have better access in the engine bay so decided to take the head off. The engine had run well but i wanted to get a head refurb priced up so it was taken off to get work started on it.

I shall bring up this quote from when i first got it running well.

Originally Posted by 222s

Once the cooling system is working again, imho it's worth doing compression checks on each cylinder and also plumbing in a gauge* to check the oil pressure when the engine is hot, in order to get a better idea of its condition. These engines seem to be more than capable of running smoothly & quietly even when rather tired.

Well i took the head off and instantly knew it wasn't as healthy as it sounded, each had a slight hint of surface rust.

Number 1, fine


Number 2, deep score


Number 3, scored


Number 4, deep score


This is a very bad picture of the cam, however that has a nice wear mark in it.



The head, full of carbon but looked ok.


The block. Full of rusty sludge in all the water ways, its about 1cm deep in places.


After seeing all that i turned the lights off, shut the garage then told my friend it was not going to be done in time. A engine rebuild had not been thought about, a head refub was but nothing as intensive as this requires.

Many times i thought about just scrapping the car but i just left it as it was.

Skip forward to the 24th of March, a few things changed.
I got offered a great job starting next week, massive motivational boost to myself.
I have been speaking to a friend about turbo engines for his car and it has given me motivation to not let a set back get to me. So the time I will have at weekends will be spent on making a engine work area at the back of the garage for me... the project is starting again!

As for the plans. Still similar, finish the welding work once the engine is out and get the bodywork done. Engine, thats undecided yet. As i need to rebuild it do i keep the original engine or do i build a turbo lump and run injection with a 5 speed box (This wont be a all out power build, if i did it, dont see any need for it). All this will appear in the future once ive thought about all the options.

So until the next update when my garage has been organised to give me a workbench, happy motoring.

Jackman