Introduction and beginers questions

[woodenspoon]

Hey there.
First the intro, my name is James. I have a 1984 245 D24 manual 4 speed+OD. Its in great shape for its age. Only has 145K on it. Runs great, but only gets about 25mpg (mixed city & highway), and has a huge lack of power. Slower than a fully loaded 18 wheeler and won’t go above 55mph.
So Im thinking there must be something wrong with it. Or is it just becuase it's old, diesel, and NA?

Which leads to my beginners questions.
Where can I buy repair manuals for this car?
Does anyone know any good shops around Savannah GA?
Where can I find info on how to do the fallowing ...
-Adjusting Timing
-Adjusting Valves
-Adjusting the injection pump
-Testing injectors

Thanks much in advance.

[Nevadan]

Welcome aboard!

I just got my vehicle in February and have found a lot of good info here.

I got the Volvo "Green Books" off eBay. There's one specifically for the engine that sells for between $50 and $100. It's titled: Service Manual, fault tracing, repairs and maintenance, section 2 D24 turbo diesel. There's a lot of "green books listed but it needs to be that specific one. Some of the others cover timing adjustment, etc. but that one covers everything you've ask about.

There's a very good description of adjusting the timing in a recent thread here, post #16: http://www.d24t.com/showthread.php?t=930&page=2, but I would wait for the book so you can see how it all appears.

I WOULD definitely change the timing belt ASAP since two of us here just destroyed our heads because of broken timing belts. You will need some specialty tools as shown here: http://www.d24t.com/showthread.php?t=672. They are near impossible to purchase but you can make them per the pictures shown.

I'm not from the east so good luck on finding a mechanic.

[v8volvo]

There are a couple members here from GA that may be good contacts. Look up member "Wren" -- he has experience working on these and helped another guy down there get one going.

There was also another member who used to post here a few years back, just after the forum was first established, who worked at a Volvo dealer in South Carolina (IIRC?) and had a lot of knowledge and experience.... could be worth a try tracking him down though I haven't seen him post in quite a while.

Looks like you're on the right track with things to check, I agree it sounds like something is not right with your D24, sounds too slow. Everything is relative here of course, since in absolute terms a NA D24 is a very slow car -- but provided everything is in spec, it should be capable of drama-free routine driving without breaking much of a sweat. Not fast off the line but should be able to stay with traffic no problem assuming you're using the gears judiciously, and (at least on a flat road) it should go down the highway as fast as you want. Driving at high altitudes or climbing big hills it will put you in the slow lane but most of the time it should not feel like a complete dog. I don't know what kind of mountains you have in Georgia (unless you're talking about the Georgia that has a capital in Tbilisi, not Atlanta ) but if you're saying you can't get it above 55 on a flat highway at low elevation, there's something off with it.

How long have you had the car and what's the maintenance history on it? Has it always been this way since you've owned it, or did it used to be stronger than it is now? Did the fresh fuel filter improve it at all?

After fuel and air filters, timing and valve clearances are a couple of big ones when there is a power and mileage concern, I agree with your idea to check those. If you do some looking around you'll find detailed info on those topics posted on the forum. (We're working on getting a good FAQ put together in the future but for now the search function is the best way....) Any significant smoke at startup or under acceleration? What color and under what conditions? How does it start in the morning? Low engine output is usually pretty simple to sort out but requires paying attention to the clues provided in the way it runs; the more details you're able to post here, the more ideas you're likely to get about how to proceed.

If you get to the point of needing special tools, many of them are similar to common versions available for 4cyl diesel Volkswagens which can be substituted with minimal difficulty and are easier to find, or tools can be sometimes found on ebay, or bought/borrowed/rented from members here. There are some older greenbooks available for free download in PDF form on the k-jet.org site -- you might find a D24 manual there.

To continue discussion of what you are working on or trying to figure out, you may get the best response by starting a thread in the "Diesel Engine and Drivetrain" section.

Glad to have you aboard!

[Nevadan]

I just found these links to a D 20 and D 24 Volvo engine manual. They're the non-turbo manuals but the timing procedure is the same. The link is just above the first photo in his blog. They're very large files, but they are excellent copies.

http://www.upshiftblog.com/2012/02/i...ming-belt.html