Lazercar
Member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2023
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
Hello Everyone! My name is Adam. I just recently turned 18 years old and will be pursuing a degree in mech engineering at a local college this coming fall. I just wanted to introduce you guys to 1 of 3 in my fleet of current Volvo project cars. This will probably be a pretty long post as most of the restoration is complete.
Introduction ------------------------------
This is my 1984 Volvo 244 turbo intercooler (in its current condition as of 2024).
I had for some reason fallen in love with Volvos. I liked the Swedish nature and design of the cars. I had been looking for a couple years on craigslist and marketplace for the perfect car. I wanted a Volvo that was cheap enough to fit in my budget and was equipped with a standard transmission. I was not intending to purchase a project car at all. I wanted a complete car with few issues; however, I ended up purchasing the polar opposite. I purchased this car back in October of 2022 (16 years old at the time) for the low price of $950. This was my first project car. I had no prior mechanical experience, so it was going to be a large task getting this car back on the road. The car had been sitting for I presume 15 years or so and the odometer read 280k miles. The car checked the two boxes I was looking for: cheap, and a standard transmission. As a bonus, it was also turbocharged which had me excited.
Some photos of the car when I first got it
The Bosch Kjet system ------------------------
The car presented me with a couple challenges that needed to be faced to get it running and driving. The first and most obvious was the Bosch kjet system which had been sitting open to the environment for many years after someone stole the fuel lines off of it. I started by ordering a bunch of parts for the fuel system including new fuel pumps, fuel filter, eventually a new fuel tank, and was able to find a set of fuel lines from Voluparts down in Georgia for a reasonable price. While I was getting all those parts, I decided to rebuild the fuel distributor. I purchased a rebuild kit from salvox.com and got to work. The center pin that was tolerance fit in the distributor was glued shut. I eventually had to bust out the hammer to get it unstuck (not recommended by many). Fortunately, nothing bad came from it. Now it seems like a lot of people didn't recommend disassembling it because supposedly there are adjustable items inside the distributor that need to be calibrated. However, the 6 cylinder distributor found on turbo Volvos has no adjustments inside the distributor as it is all fixed, so it was very easy to rebuild. For reassembly I dabbed up the metal sheet with some fuel proof sealant that was blue, don't remember the stuff, worked well though. While the distributor was disassembled, I creatively put all the parts into a tub of mineral spirits and then attached a fan with a weight on one blade to vibrate the solution over a couple days in order to thoroughly clean all the gunk out of it.
The stuck center pin and the hammer in question
Fuel sender and tank ---------------------
The sender and tank were very badly rusted, almost unusable. I didn't have a lot of money, so I did my best to salvage what I had on the cheap. I installed an MTC fuel lift pump which I regretted later as I was unaware of MTCs quality issues. For the sending unit itself, I wanted to test out a new process to cleaning up rust, so I attempted to try electrolysis to remove the rust, and to my suprise, it worked great. Unfortunately, I ended up breaking the pcb board used to read fuel levels. I made an attempt at soldering it, but after installing it into the car, I figured out it didn't work. Eventually I swapped in a sender I got from a junkyard car. For the fuel tank, I also used electrolysis to clean up the rust, and then filled it with small stone and just shook it up to clean out all the debris, it worked alright. I later had to get a new fuel tank after a small accident in which the tank was punctured by the tailpipe.
Fuel tank inside
Electrolysis setup and result on sender
Fuel injectors -----------------------
Now I could have easily bought new fuel injectors, and that probably would have been smarter, but I decided to go the hard route of testing the current injectors I had. So, I decided to build a fuel injector tester out of a bottle jack I had lying around and a pressure gauge. Surprisingly it worked pretty well and was relatively cheap to build. Not only did it tell me which injectors were cooked and which ones were decent, it helped clean out injectors if I wanted to put in a cleaner solution. I ended up installing my 4 best injectors. I later replaced them with new ones when attempting to diagnose a misfire.
First start ----------------------
late January of 2023 I installed all the new fuel items into the car and ran some tests. Jumped the fuel pumps to run and lifted the air plate to ensure fuel would come out of the injectors and lines and also to ensure there was not any pressing fuel leaks (I had a fire extinguisher on hand just in case). I also tested to see how evenly the injectors would supply fuel by putting them into graduated cylinders and lifting the air meter plate while running the pumps. Results were optimal and within in spec, so that was a win. Decided to give it its first start, and it took a few tries, but started up. The main issue I was running into is that it would not idle. I don't quite remember what I played around with, it may have been the throttle plate screw or the co adjustment, but I eventually got it idling quite decent.
Introduction ------------------------------
This is my 1984 Volvo 244 turbo intercooler (in its current condition as of 2024).
I had for some reason fallen in love with Volvos. I liked the Swedish nature and design of the cars. I had been looking for a couple years on craigslist and marketplace for the perfect car. I wanted a Volvo that was cheap enough to fit in my budget and was equipped with a standard transmission. I was not intending to purchase a project car at all. I wanted a complete car with few issues; however, I ended up purchasing the polar opposite. I purchased this car back in October of 2022 (16 years old at the time) for the low price of $950. This was my first project car. I had no prior mechanical experience, so it was going to be a large task getting this car back on the road. The car had been sitting for I presume 15 years or so and the odometer read 280k miles. The car checked the two boxes I was looking for: cheap, and a standard transmission. As a bonus, it was also turbocharged which had me excited.
Some photos of the car when I first got it
The Bosch Kjet system ------------------------
The car presented me with a couple challenges that needed to be faced to get it running and driving. The first and most obvious was the Bosch kjet system which had been sitting open to the environment for many years after someone stole the fuel lines off of it. I started by ordering a bunch of parts for the fuel system including new fuel pumps, fuel filter, eventually a new fuel tank, and was able to find a set of fuel lines from Voluparts down in Georgia for a reasonable price. While I was getting all those parts, I decided to rebuild the fuel distributor. I purchased a rebuild kit from salvox.com and got to work. The center pin that was tolerance fit in the distributor was glued shut. I eventually had to bust out the hammer to get it unstuck (not recommended by many). Fortunately, nothing bad came from it. Now it seems like a lot of people didn't recommend disassembling it because supposedly there are adjustable items inside the distributor that need to be calibrated. However, the 6 cylinder distributor found on turbo Volvos has no adjustments inside the distributor as it is all fixed, so it was very easy to rebuild. For reassembly I dabbed up the metal sheet with some fuel proof sealant that was blue, don't remember the stuff, worked well though. While the distributor was disassembled, I creatively put all the parts into a tub of mineral spirits and then attached a fan with a weight on one blade to vibrate the solution over a couple days in order to thoroughly clean all the gunk out of it.
The stuck center pin and the hammer in question
Fuel sender and tank ---------------------
The sender and tank were very badly rusted, almost unusable. I didn't have a lot of money, so I did my best to salvage what I had on the cheap. I installed an MTC fuel lift pump which I regretted later as I was unaware of MTCs quality issues. For the sending unit itself, I wanted to test out a new process to cleaning up rust, so I attempted to try electrolysis to remove the rust, and to my suprise, it worked great. Unfortunately, I ended up breaking the pcb board used to read fuel levels. I made an attempt at soldering it, but after installing it into the car, I figured out it didn't work. Eventually I swapped in a sender I got from a junkyard car. For the fuel tank, I also used electrolysis to clean up the rust, and then filled it with small stone and just shook it up to clean out all the debris, it worked alright. I later had to get a new fuel tank after a small accident in which the tank was punctured by the tailpipe.
Fuel tank inside
Electrolysis setup and result on sender
Fuel injectors -----------------------
Now I could have easily bought new fuel injectors, and that probably would have been smarter, but I decided to go the hard route of testing the current injectors I had. So, I decided to build a fuel injector tester out of a bottle jack I had lying around and a pressure gauge. Surprisingly it worked pretty well and was relatively cheap to build. Not only did it tell me which injectors were cooked and which ones were decent, it helped clean out injectors if I wanted to put in a cleaner solution. I ended up installing my 4 best injectors. I later replaced them with new ones when attempting to diagnose a misfire.
First start ----------------------
late January of 2023 I installed all the new fuel items into the car and ran some tests. Jumped the fuel pumps to run and lifted the air plate to ensure fuel would come out of the injectors and lines and also to ensure there was not any pressing fuel leaks (I had a fire extinguisher on hand just in case). I also tested to see how evenly the injectors would supply fuel by putting them into graduated cylinders and lifting the air meter plate while running the pumps. Results were optimal and within in spec, so that was a win. Decided to give it its first start, and it took a few tries, but started up. The main issue I was running into is that it would not idle. I don't quite remember what I played around with, it may have been the throttle plate screw or the co adjustment, but I eventually got it idling quite decent.
