Cracked Exhaust Manifold [again]

For the second time in 5 years I have another cracked exhaust manifold.  The first time the front runner broke clean off, this time it is a crack running down the center of the middle double runner towards the head pipe flange.  Car is getting louder every time I drive it so I have taken it off the road for now.

Parts are ordered and on the way from Don T @ p1800.com, they should be here today.  I will try to get some pictures and update on progress of the R&R of the intake/exhaust manifold gasket as well as the replacement of the cast iron itself.

Update****

Well bad news all around, it seems the cause of the broken manifold is a lean condition which makes everything run very hot.  The cause of the lean running is a cam that has started to wear out.  The cam lobes are eroding away, mileage on the car is 218,000 or so.  I have it from a very good source I will be pulling the engine and rebuilding to fix.  Anything I do now will be money wasted and could lead to worse problems.

The method for determining is a bit detailed but I will put together the steps and post here soon for anyone else who may be in the same position

Not a good day for the Volvo today.

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Cracked Exhaust Manifold [again]

For the second time in 5 years I have another cracked exhaust manifold.  The first time the front runner broke clean off, this time it is a crack running down the center of the middle double runner towards the head pipe flange.  Car is getting louder every time I drive it so I have taken it off the road for now.

Parts are ordered and on the way from Don T @ p1800.com, they should be here today.  I will try to get some pictures and update on progress of the R&R of the intake/exhaust manifold gasket as well as the replacement of the cast iron itself.

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New Front Springs and Shocks

Finally getting around to posting a picture of the last big job I did on the 1800. New springs and shocks for the front of the car to end the hobby horsing I was getting over bumps at speed. It's all gone now, front is tight and no more bounce. The rear springs and shocks which are way easier to do were done last year along with the limiting straps. The hard part about the fronts is that they are under pressure and to get them out you have to let the lower A arm swing down out of the way. this worked fine, but putting the new springs back in was not so easy as taking the old out.

The upper and lower ball joints all appeared to be in good health so I dodge that bullet for the time being. I think the PO had them changed out in the last 10 years so they were still in good shape as the mileage was and still is very low on this car.

Specs are as follows: Stock height springs, and KYB Gas-a-just shocks

Here is a picture of the passenger side, you can also see the new end links from the last project, I had to take those out again as they were connected to the lower A arm as well.

State Inspection--- Passed

I took the 1800 in for NH state inspection on Monday, I decided to find a new station after going to the local dealer last year and getting failed for stupid things like windshield washers not working. So this year I went to Lou's Custom Exhaust because I wanted to talk to someone about the SS exhaust system I installed last year after the Inspection failed due to it. First off I pulled up, parked the car and went inside to talk to someone and ask where they wanted it. A guy comes out and gets in the car and backs up to line up with a bay. As he is cranking the wheel to straighten out the car dies and he looks at me with a "whats with your car" look. he cranks for a bit but nothing, so I have him unlatch the hood and I take a look as he cranks. Everything looks fine then I notice the ground wire for the ignition has been disconnected due to getting tangled up in the steering coupling and getting yanked free. I reconnect and slide the tie wrap that has loosened and slipped down the battery cable back away from the coupling so it can't get caught again. It starts right up and we are back in business. The inspection passes in about 5 minutes, they don't even take the tires off, this is my kind of inspection.

I then ask the exhaust mechanic to look at the drooping SS exhaust I put on. He mentions that if the head pipe is 1 or 2 degrees off it will be 6+" off by the time it gets back to the tail pipe. It's not that bad but he says for $70 he will cut and re-weld the pipe tucking everything back up tight. I have him do the work and the difference is about 2" of clearance at the first muffler where I was hitting before over speed bumps or high driveway entries. $30 for the inspection, which is $10 less than the dealer, remember this car has no emissions to deal with. So for $100 I am out of there in less than an hour all fixed up. I will be going back next year as well, after that in 2011 I will only have to go every 2 years as the car will then be 40 years old and a true antique.

Anti-Sway Bar End Link Replacement

Anti-Sway bar end links

I had been looking at the cracked and rotted condition of the anti-sway bar end link grommets on the 1800 thinking they needed to be replaced and it looked like an easy job. As luck would have it someone on the Swedish Bricks mailing list was giving a set of urethane grommets away that IPD shipped him by mistake. So I put the front end on the jack stands and started working to remove the long bolts that hold everything together. With the use of some PB Blaster the top nuts came off with little trouble but thats as far as I got. The bolt is sleeved through a spacer that keeps the two ends at the correct distance away from each other. This sleeve was rusted solid to the bolt inside and was not moving. So out came the saws-all and I cut the bolt where the grommets were in hopes of finding replacement bolts [~8 1/2" long] and somehow reusing the tube spacers. This was not to be, even after taking the OA torch to the parts afterward the tube and bolt were fused together.

So now I have to replace both parts, luckily for me someone else on the 1800 list had gone through this pain. The answer was replace everything with a set from Advance Auto Parts, located a couple miles from my house. Here is the link to the company that makes the parts that are sold at AA part # is 9.8121R.

Energy Suspension Parts

All you need to do is get the correct size for your car and they bolt right up.

the finished product installed:

Fix the oil leak and cleanup

Fix the oil leak and cleanup

A large oil leak from the front of the car had caused me to tear into the front main felt seal of the engine. To do this you have to remove the grill, radiator and hoses, as well as a few other things that get in your way. I also pulled the alternator which needed new wiring and some heat shield over the wire to protect it from the exhaust manifold temperatures. Went to the local Volvo dealer to get the seal, of course they did not have it and had to order. One good thing is that when the seal came in they sent two, he told me he did not want to stock the thing so I could keep them both. It's always nice to have a spare, plus I think it is the same seal in the rear.

The leak was easy to find and fix, the front felt seal was pretty much gone, when I went looking it came out in pieces. Lots of cleanup and repainting of parts like the fan, lower radiator hose pipe, and radiator will make a big difference in appearance.

Here is what we have prior to the radiator being reinstalled.

From the front:



and from below:

Battery Box problems and fixes

I decided to do some cleanup in and around the battery box of the 1800 last week. The PO had someone [he never did any work himself] do work that included putting 2 cut sections of asphalt roofing shingles on the bottom and back of the battery box. On top of that were 2 1/4" pieces of plywood painted black with a FLAPS battery tray that had been cut and hacked to accommodate the windshield washer reservoir and pump.

It was a mess so I started removing everything, this is when I discovered the reason for it. 2 holes about the size of half dollars in the middle of the area under the battery into the passenger compartment. First off I had to scrape the asphalt shingles off and remove all the goo that they left behind. Then I got the wire cup brush mounted in a drill and had at the areas that showed any rust, the rest of the box was solid, all the angles and seams were tight and rust free. The next step was to paint everything with a rust preventative paint, to stop further rusting.

After that dried I applied a layer of FatMat sound/heat insulation to the bottom and back surface in a single piece to seal the entire area from the engine compartment. This stuff sticks like crazy to anything it touches and then all you need to do is apply roller pressure to bond it to the surfaces. After that I added a custom bent 304 stainless steel sheet to the back and bottom to give the battery somewhere to sit that would never rust again. Everything was secured with aluminum rivets with SS washers under the rivet heads.





I also purchased a battery mat product from IPD that was about $5 and cut that to fit. The original battery hold down system will be used rather than the over the top setup with J hooks that the after market FLAPS tray used. More clearance above as well so no more rubbing of the cutoff switch knob on the inside of the hood. The old buildup of shingle, plywood, and battery tray added at least 1/2" to the battery height.



I like the look and it will be much better than the crap that was in their before. It is amazing what some people will do to butcher their cars.

finished product minus the original equipment hold down which is being painted.