What to look for in a used D24T

[Wren]

Wow, George, that's a nice-looking engine.

To be honest, I was looking at the side of the head and not so much the area where the stamping is in the photo.

There's no telling why my engine has the wrong pump....altough both timing covers were off of it when I found it. I wonder if someone was right in the middle of swapping out the pump and then gave up, got busy with other projects, died, had enough of his wife nagging about getting a new car or what. Who knows? I looked in the car for any info on who used to own it, but didn't come up with anything.

[v8volvo]

Thanks, yeah, that one was fairly clean when I got it and I have worked to keep it that way. It has lost some of the green paint on the block but is pretty nice otherwise. If I showed you the other end of the motor you would be able to see the shiny results of the $700 injection pump rebuild I recently put into it... that part is really a looker. DFIS in Portland, OR sends out some of the prettiest pumps around, IMO.

Who knows what happened with the IP mismatch on yours but you are probably right, if someone was dumb/desperate enough to castrate the output of his turbo motor by putting a non-load-compensated NA pump on it, he was also probably sufficiently mentally impaired to have bungled the job and perhaps was never able to get the motor running afterwards. I have seen D24T's go to the junkyard for lesser problems... Hoping it turns out to be a solid motor for you nevertheless. I'd wager that it will be.

[ngoma]

Here's how to decipher the IP code:

Example: NP-VE x/x F xxxx A R NP xx

NP These two letters stand for the manufacturer, in this case, Diesel Kiki
VE Distributor-type injexction pump
x number of cylinders
x plunger diameter in millimeters
F mechanical governor
xxxx governor-controlled RPM number
A design symbol
R direction of rotation (R for clockwise, L for counterclockwise)
NP xx production serial number

from:
http://mebonty.monobasin.net/vepump.html

Now that I look at your photo, I can't see how it applies. Unless there is another number code stamped into the other side of the IP. Anybody have a loose IP they can take a look at and verify?

[Wren]

I'm afraid that I can't comment on the pump codes, although I'm sure I'll have to do something to get the boost aneroid issue worked out.

I pulled the magnetic drain plug on the transmission and found some metal pieces on it. I'm wondering if the transmission may have been going south and that's why the PO got rid of it. I'm going to pull the upper cover off of the transmission and have a look.

I really bought the transmission just for the bellhousing for a T-5 swap. I don't care for the M46's one bit, but if I can drive the car for a short period with it, that will be fine.

[v8volvo]

Nah, it's probably OK. When I pulled the drain plug on my '83 760's M46, it looked similar. The trans operates with no issues. I think that stuff builds up from people trying to jam it into reverse while the car is still going forward. Bet all your gears work fine. That's what the magnet is for; it's doing its job.

I agree the M46 is not the most desirable setup, though. Are you going to go through the trouble of getting the wiring for the overdrive all set up, or just drive it for a while with no OD until or a simple jumper rigged up until you get around to putting in a T5?

I have a box full of disemboweled injection pumps and parts. I'll see if I can dig down to it later today and take some pictures.

[Wren]

Originally Posted by v8volvo

I agree the M46 is not the most desirable setup, though. Are you going to go through the trouble of getting the wiring for the overdrive all set up, or just drive it for a while with no OD until or a simple jumper rigged up until you get around to putting in a T5?

I'll wire it up as I have a harness from an M46 240 that was converted over to auto tranny. For driving around town, I don't expect to use it much. In my 242 with the 3.31 rear end, I seldom used it except on the highway.

[Wren]

Last night I put the engine on a stand and pulled the pan. I wanted to just have a look at the innards to see if there was anything obviously wrong, but this engine appears to have been rebuilt sometime not that many miles ago. While the outside of the engine is sort of dirty, the inside is super clean.

The plan now is to put it back on the table with the transmission attached, verify timing, torques for the pulleys, and hook up battery and fuel to see if I can get it to fire up.

Here are some photos:

[v8volvo]

Looks great in there! Pretty normal, though. I wouldn't necessarily say that means it has been rebuilt, since D24T's (as well as every other diesel engine) are usually very clean inside regardless. If you are used to gas engines that fill up with sludge and varnish inside as the miles pile up, diesels will amaze you with how clean they stay, especially when synthetic oil is used. When I've worked on gas engines from time to time, the stink that you get as soon as you pull the valve cover off is always a surprise to me... just one reason why, once you get used to working on diesels, it's hard to go back to the other side.

Looking forward to hearing how it runs. You may want to check amp draw for the glow system before attempting starting -- sometimes these cars get junked because a few bad glow plugs kept them from starting, so before you wear out your battery and starter trying, you might want to check that yours are all in order. Each glow plug draws roughly 12 amps (after an initial spike that will read higher), so with all 6 working, after a few seconds you should see around 72 amps. With only 5 plugs in order you'll see 60, 4 will be 48, etc. If you have a good battery charger with a fairly accurate meter on it, using that to power the glow plug bus is an easy way to test. If you have 5 or 6 plugs working you should be able to get it started pretty easily, but if you are down to 4 or 3 you may want to find the dead ones and replace them before making a starting attempt to save yourself some trouble.

I believe your 960 should also have a 3.31 rear end, so yes, your gearing will be pretty tall. Stock D24T/M46 cars came with 3.54:1 rear gears IIRC.

[Wren]

I'll check out the amp draw on the glow plugs.

Incidentally, I weighed my dressed engine with a T3 substituting in for my missing turbo and got a grand total of 520 lbs. The 960 engine weighs 450 lbs. dressed. I think the difference in engine weights will be made up by the much lighter M46 transmission compared to the AW30-40 that's in the 960. Those buggers are heavy, although I haven't weighed the trannys yet to get an exact measurement, but I will in the next few days.