Grassroots Motorsports

142 Reunited with its Engine Oct 11, 2004

We installed a baffled oil pan from Vintage Performance Developments to keep the oil close to the pick up during hard cornering. Using a stock pan, John welds in small plates to keep the oil from sloshing around.

Unfortunately, we broke the first “D” cam that we installed in the engine by neglecting to install a small steel spacer. It looked like it was a part of the original cam, so we didn’t notice when the new one went in. Luckily, stock grind cams are quite inexpensive, this D cam was under $100.

The stock flywheel weighs in at 22 pounds, while our lightened version is just 16. You can see how the contour is different on the back. On the flip side, the lightened flywheel has been machined on the shoulder, further reducing weight.

We used the original style Volvo laquer that we bought from Swedish Treasures. It’s redder than Ford Red, which is what many Volvo restorers use.

We took the time to clean and paint everything surrounding the engine so it’s nice and pretty.

142 Engine Runs! Oct 15, 2004

We installed the old SU carburetors last night, as well as a cast-iron dual downpipe exhaust manifold to finish off the engine installation. After a little bit of cranking to prime the SUs, the engine chugged to life, needing some fiddling with the idle, mixture and timing to settle down to a high idle of 1500rpm (to properly bed in the new cam and lifters).

We should be receiving the rebuilt carbs from Carl early next week. We’ll need to install those, bleed the brakes (again) and adjust the clutch. Then we can start breaking in our newly built B20E engine. After it’s broken in, we’ll be dyno testing it to see how a header would improve power as well as investigating Do-It-Yourself fuel injections systems. 

Rebuilt SUs Installed Oct 20, 2004

We installed the newly-rebuilt SUs last night. They set the engine compartment off with a little bit of flash and the car can now be tuned correctly as there are no more vacuum leaks around the throttle shafts.

142 Attends SSAVE.org Volvo Meet Oct 24, 2004

We attended the SSAVE.org Volvo meet at Sebring International Raceway this Saturday. Our newly built engine didn’t leak a drop of oil and managed nearly 28 mpg.

The weekend was not, however, complete without some trouble. On Friday, we ran a compression test and noticed that the numbers were a little inconsistent from cylinder to cylinder. Since the engine only had three hundred miles on it, we decided to drive the car to Sebring and back and see if the numbers improved. While they did improve somewhat, #4 was still down. We ran a wet compression test and found that the numbers improved on #4, but they also improved on all of the other cylinders, meaning the head was still suspect.

After a little deliberation, we pulled the head this morning and when we flipped it over and filled the combustion chambers with carb cleaner, we could see leaks around the exhaust valves on #4 and #3.

The head is back at the machine shop and should be turned around pretty quickly. 

Cruisin’ Nov 8, 2004

We’ve been having a lot of fun with the 142, both driving around and in the garage. Our latest trip took us to Jacksonville for a house warming party at Jerry Sira’s new place. Jerry has an exquisite 122s that’s the “sister” car to our old 122, 1967 light blue, black interior, Panasport wheels.

On the way home Saturday night, the AMP light started glowing dimly at revs, and brighter at idle. This is a sign that the brushes in the alternator are at the end of their lifespan. Sure enough, they measured shorter than the spec 8mm. Oddly enough, the AMP light then went out the next day. It’s possible that one of the brushes hung up. We’ll get that sorted out.

Meanwhile, a nagging high rpm miss was tracked down. It turns out that our SUs that we had rebuilt were built in 1968, complete with spring loaded needles. The spring loading was pushing the shoulder of the KN needle past the bottom of the piston, acting as an overly lean needle. We dug through our pile of old SUs (doesn’t everyone have one?) and got a pair of domes and pistons and KD needles from an earlier SU set. Problem solved. Although we think that now that we can rev to 6500, the extra revolutions probably pushed our above mentioned 35-year-old alternator to the breaking point.

We’re going to convert our spring loaded pistons to the fixed kind, so we can use our matched and much smoother set of pistons and domes. Joe Curto sells little thingamabobs to make this happen for $6. 

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