LOLvo Update: Lessons Learned Edition

"roflcopter" (roflroflroflcopter) 04/06/2014 at 20:20 • Filed to: LOLvo

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After the recent turn of events with this project I'd like to do a thorough write up about it and what I've learned. I tend to ramble so forgive the verbosity. Hopefully someone will learn from it and avoid a few of the things I suffered through. Anyways... Here it is!

Just shy of a year ago I purchased arguably the worst thing I could find on Craigslist at the time, it was a 1985 Volvo 244 GL. It wasn't running, had no real diagnosis for why, 4 flat tires, some troubling rust, and hadn't moved 'in a few months', according to the PO. After giving the car a bit of a once over and poking around in the engine bay for a morning, I decided I could get that thing back on the street without breaking the bank too badly. $400 later I was towing the car to the parking lot of my friends apartment that happened to be close by and started ordering parts.

To begin with, I was just going to get the car running then decide what to do with it, but as I got further into it I decided that enough effort was needs to warrant me keeping the beast, and that if I were to keep it I was going to do EVERYTHING and make it as reliable as I could. Now, a year and another ~$900 later, the car is sitting in my garage with a completely new fuel system(including tank and lines), new ignition system, all new oil/coolant/PS/transmission seals, a new tail shaft bushing, driveshaft bushings and bearings replaced, motor mounts, transmission mounts, differential seals, working sunroof, and as of earlier this week... An enirely rebuilt engine bay wiring harness and battery cables. This car was a brake job and some new tires away from being DONE.

All that changed when the fire nati... I mean I made a huge mistake.

Once the wiring harness was back in the car and all of the engine bay was put back together(including the intake manifold I had unbolted but left hanging in the engine bay, this will matter later), I started the car and immediately heard one of the worst noises I'd ever heard come from a car. After quickly shutting it off and looking around to see if anything was unbolted or something had been forgotten I came to the conclusion that nothing was obviously wrong and recruited a helper to listen in the engine bay while I cranked it to help me pinpoint the noise. This time the noise was even worse and the only way I can describe is would be that it sounded like a thrown rod trying to make it's way out of the block, only worse. I optimistically decided that it might be a valve train issue(this isn't an interference engine so it shouldn't be the end of the world) and pulled the valve cover, rotated the engine through a cycle to make sure all the valves were returning properly, which they were. During this I discovered the first hint of what the issue actually was... it would bind when cylinders 2 and 3 were at TDC.

Fast forward to the next day and my hopeful(read: desperate) optimism that it was just dried out bearings from not running for 3 months or so and you'll find me cranking the car one last time. It ran for about 20 seconds and then died out, and wouldn't fire again. The ignition control units in these cars look for two things before a)turning the fuel pump on and b)actually firing the ignition coil and those two things would be the distributor rotating, and the engine drawing vacuum. Upon rotating the engine with a wrench I discovered no more lumpiness of compression and less of a bind at 2 and 3 TDC like before. Pulling the plugs to cylinders 1 and 2 and putting a thumb over the hole while rotating the engine gave exactly zero compression...

At this point, the engine is toast and I know it is going to have to get pulled(no room to do bottom end work in the car). The next day I decide to go ahead and pull the head since there's really only 3 ways for complete compression loss and 2 of them will be apparent once that's off. I'll let the pictures do the talking for what I found.

And now the car sits in my garage, head on the ground next to it, in need of at least a new head and piston and a good cylinder honing.

22.9 miles driven since it first rolled in my ownership.

235k miles and going strong, until one moment of laziness/tiredness/hubris caused this fair beast's life to come to a premature end.

As you can see, something was chewed to pieces in cylinder 2, and once the head was off I originally thought that a ring had decided to give up the ghost and had caused the damage, but upon further investigation there is no serious scoring on the cylinder walls, the upper ringland of piston 2 is still in tact, and it would appear that is was something else that did the damage. After picking the embedded pieces out of the head with a screw driver, the size/shape/thickness of the recognizable pieces made it clear that the object that did all this was in fact a washer off of the intake manifold bolts. The ones on the bottom are almost impossible to reach and liked to stick to the manifold anyways and I'd lost a few already so I didn't think twice when another was missing when reinstalling it after getting the wiring harness in. I guess it fell into the intake port while I was jostling things around. My ignorance. My laziness. My mistake.

Now that all of this has transpired I really don't know what the plans for the car are. Up until this point I had done a good job of making sure that I didn't spend any more on the car than it was worth, it should have been worth a solid $1300+ running with all of that replaced, right? But now, I'm looking at either dropping another few hundred and a good solid week of spare time to get it rebuilt, which would make it impossible to break even if I sold, or selling it as-is at a decently large loss and hoping someone else has the money and time to do it. Or I could find a forged rotating assembly out of a turbo Redblock and the 16v head off of a newer motor and try to turn it into something fun. Only time will tell what is in store for this car(along with funds and free time). Suggestions graciously welcomed.

To sum it all up, I've learned that it is completely possible to pick up a completely pile of crap and get it into respectable shape, that sometimes it's worth taking that risk, and that you have to be willing to eat your loss if it comes to that. I've also learned that no matter how crappy the car, easy the project, you should never let yourself get lazy. All it takes is one moment or one slip and all your work can go out the window. ALWAYS MAKE SURE ALL YOUR PARTS ARE ACCOUNTED FOR.

Thanks for reading, here's a few more pictures I have laying around of the car. *single tear*

EL_ULY > roflcopter 04/06/2014 at 20:29

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Awesome post, our regional rep will enjoy it, he likes this sort of thing :] Volvo for life*

Volvo is not using this phase anymore since 2012 :'(

Lol

desertdog5051 > roflcopter 04/06/2014 at 20:35

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So sad. You tried so hard. Salute to you for the gallant effort.

ThatGuyConnery > roflcopter 04/06/2014 at 20:40

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turbo it, Volvo drift car.

roflcopter > EL_ULY 04/06/2014 at 20:57

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Thank you! It's a kinda sad story, but at least I learned my lesson on a 'beater'. I'm still really torn on what to do with it... there's a lot of options and none seem to jump out as the best.

roflcopter > desertdog5051 04/06/2014 at 20:58

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Thank you. It's story might not be over... I *might* have some parts to frankenstein it back together, but I need to get the engine out and take some measurements to determine if it can be done. If anyone has a spare Volvo 16v head laying around, I promise to put it to good use!

roflcopter > ThatGuyConnery 04/06/2014 at 20:59

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Now the real question... do I spend the money to properly turbo it? Or do I file down all the burrs on the piston and head, throw it back together as-is, and slap the turbo my friend offered me out of his WRX?

It should at least make it through an event or two like that, right?

EL_ULY > roflcopter 04/06/2014 at 21:45

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You figure it our buddy :]

I'm here for any help if you have questions or need some part tear down images :]

roflcopter > EL_ULY 04/06/2014 at 23:29

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So.... At this point my friends are talking me into rebuilding it and I'm trying to decide if I want to go cheap and do a ~$300 build that is just a good shape used B230F head and some used pistons, or if I want to boost it. Or go all out and do a 16v conversion and boost it and spend ~$1100

roflcopter > roflcopter 04/06/2014 at 23:31

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I also happen to have a Garrett T25 ball bearing turbo sitting around... any experience with going either of those routes?

EL_ULY > roflcopter 04/06/2014 at 23:46

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i've just done a bunch of head gaskets job on some that have over heated. Me and onther tech did a identical swap on a 83 but ive not done swaps with a different engine. I can't think of any problems. As for adding boost, well.... a customer here at the dealer has not aked for that lol. I'm sure you can find a turbo model and fab up the T25 to it easily

roflcopter > EL_ULY 04/06/2014 at 23:57

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Upon further discussion, I'm thinking of possibly reusing the pistons that are in it... if I'm boosting then I'd want a lower compression ratio anyways and I could just mill them down past the damage and make them flat top.

ThatGuyConnery > roflcopter 04/07/2014 at 04:10

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WRX turbo, and slap it together as is. Don't spend to much money now. If you are worried the engine is blown, do all you can to save it for cheap, then properly blow that shit up.

liquid_popcorn > roflcopter 04/07/2014 at 08:32

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+T it! I have an 83 244DL (AW70, boo!), running but not quick. I've done some basic repairs/maintenance and a new exhaust, and the next step is suspension/wheels, RX7 brake swap, then turbo. Unless I sell it first...really want to build another XJ, haha.

Volvos are the shit! Keep it alive.

roflcopter > ThatGuyConnery 04/07/2014 at 08:45

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hmmmm. I'm really curious how it would hold up with just cleaning up the damage that's there. Perhaps I should try it. Worst case it doesn't work.

roflcopter > liquid_popcorn 04/07/2014 at 09:40

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Mine's a AW as well! I'm not sure how much power they are good for, it seems to be difficult finding consistent info. Basically I either do a super cheap turbo setup and just 'fix' the head and piston, which would be dirt cheap, or get some used b230f pistons and a stock head and throw them in there and turbo it, or go full out with it and do a 16v conversion, some b230ft pistons, and do a properly quick build.

liquid_popcorn > roflcopter 04/07/2014 at 14:15

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I've heard that if you swap the AW71 w/ accumulator that it's much better - the AW70 is kind of shitty.

Let me know what you do! It's always cool seeing another Lolvo owner build.

Also, turbobricks is the best for cheap parts, haha.

roflcopter > liquid_popcorn 04/07/2014 at 14:56

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Y'know... I don't know which AW I have... I'll have to check that out. At this point I'm trying to decide if I should run b230 pistons and do a +t build or if I should get ft pistons and basically turn it into a turbo motor.

liquid_popcorn > roflcopter 04/07/2014 at 15:20

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Yeah, that's about where I am too. Busy with suspension stuff at the moment, but that's my next dilemma, haha.

Quick and easy way is to plug your VIN into ipdusa.com to add it to your garage; it'll autopopulate most of the information.

ThatGuyConnery > roflcopter 04/07/2014 at 15:35

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Just make sure you clean it up nice, and always check your nuts and bolts.