Brent
05-28-2011, 09:24 PM
You no doubt have heard of the Oregon rain, and perhaps that is why Volvos are popular here. The melody of rain, just like a drone of a diesel engine, hums outside just about anytime you take notice, except in the summer when the sun appears. People drive much slower here, and take note of the scenery, which suits a Volvo driver just fine.
My first Volvo was a 1969 gasser 244 that I owned in Seattle in the early 90's. This new one (to me) is a 1984 with the D24 NA and manual transmission with overdrive. When I bought it a month ago it wouldn't start when cold, so I had the glow plugs tested - 5 out of 6 showed no heat from an infrared gun pointed on the top of the plug. Replaced all 6 and it started fine.
Next problem was excessive oil consumption, and some smoke afterwarmup. I have been soaking in the great information on the website and made my own air/oil separator today because it seems I have some blowby. I will test it out tomorrow. I think it starts smoking when the engine warms up because all the oil spattered on the inside of the intake warms up and starts going into the combustion cycle. I really hope the separator will work. I modeled it after the Alfa Laval Pure Vent design that I saw on the internet, and basically tried to replicate the innards of the thing. The blowby goes in the bottom of a 3 inch diameter pipe and up through a tube that has holes cut in it and rings of what look like Chinese hats made of cut up aluminum ringing it. I think some of the oil from the mist will get caught up on the underside of those rings and drip down to the bottom where I have put a valve to drain the oil out. The drain is threaded on the bottom so I may add a tube to get the oil back in the pan, but I'm not going to worry about that right now because it seems you need a check valve if the return goes back to a level above the oil in the pan due to pressure. After the engine is shut off, the check valve could allow the oil to drain back. Too much to worry about today. I'm just glad to have something to catch some of that oil mist.
There is a Volvo's only shop in SE Portland, and when I drove it there a week ago the mechanic (Kevin) said he had seen the car there a few years ago. Sure enough they had all the service records dating back to 2004. He also said that a prior mechanic there had rebuilt the engine because he always painted them sky blue. The engine runs well with no misses. Kevin adjusted the valves, put new motor mounts in, and tightened up some bolts including the vacuum pump which seemed to be leaking oil all over. Now it doesn't leak it seems. There was a little leak that looked like the front seal, but now it doesn't appear to be leaking so maybe it was the oil pan, and he tightened some bolts down there.
I plan on installing a block heater (which I've purchased already) in one of the holes on the right side of the engine, but I have a question - does it matter which of the plugs you remove? One of them looks a little different than the rest. I also fixed my shifter knob (that kept coming off and not allowing me to go into 5th) by drilling a hole through the shifter and the shaft and putting a screw in to retain it.
Anyway, I look forward to this forum, and look forward to learning from everyone here.
Brent
My first Volvo was a 1969 gasser 244 that I owned in Seattle in the early 90's. This new one (to me) is a 1984 with the D24 NA and manual transmission with overdrive. When I bought it a month ago it wouldn't start when cold, so I had the glow plugs tested - 5 out of 6 showed no heat from an infrared gun pointed on the top of the plug. Replaced all 6 and it started fine.
Next problem was excessive oil consumption, and some smoke afterwarmup. I have been soaking in the great information on the website and made my own air/oil separator today because it seems I have some blowby. I will test it out tomorrow. I think it starts smoking when the engine warms up because all the oil spattered on the inside of the intake warms up and starts going into the combustion cycle. I really hope the separator will work. I modeled it after the Alfa Laval Pure Vent design that I saw on the internet, and basically tried to replicate the innards of the thing. The blowby goes in the bottom of a 3 inch diameter pipe and up through a tube that has holes cut in it and rings of what look like Chinese hats made of cut up aluminum ringing it. I think some of the oil from the mist will get caught up on the underside of those rings and drip down to the bottom where I have put a valve to drain the oil out. The drain is threaded on the bottom so I may add a tube to get the oil back in the pan, but I'm not going to worry about that right now because it seems you need a check valve if the return goes back to a level above the oil in the pan due to pressure. After the engine is shut off, the check valve could allow the oil to drain back. Too much to worry about today. I'm just glad to have something to catch some of that oil mist.
There is a Volvo's only shop in SE Portland, and when I drove it there a week ago the mechanic (Kevin) said he had seen the car there a few years ago. Sure enough they had all the service records dating back to 2004. He also said that a prior mechanic there had rebuilt the engine because he always painted them sky blue. The engine runs well with no misses. Kevin adjusted the valves, put new motor mounts in, and tightened up some bolts including the vacuum pump which seemed to be leaking oil all over. Now it doesn't leak it seems. There was a little leak that looked like the front seal, but now it doesn't appear to be leaking so maybe it was the oil pan, and he tightened some bolts down there.
I plan on installing a block heater (which I've purchased already) in one of the holes on the right side of the engine, but I have a question - does it matter which of the plugs you remove? One of them looks a little different than the rest. I also fixed my shifter knob (that kept coming off and not allowing me to go into 5th) by drilling a hole through the shifter and the shaft and putting a screw in to retain it.
Anyway, I look forward to this forum, and look forward to learning from everyone here.
Brent