Brave Sir Robin

the objective with this project is to wind up with something that bravely turns tail and flees.

CHAPTER ONE: THE MIRACLE OF BIRTH (the Third World)
it all started out with a rescue of this 780, the owner was about to send it off to the crusher fairy (flying around under the guise of "California Vehicle Retirement Program"). here is what it looked like under the hood when i first brought it home.


having been just slapped together with a junkyard head it ran like ass, but it didn't take me long to get it dialed in, even with no marks.


i took it to my local butcher and had them put a new set of tire$ $hock$ and $uspension bushing$. after that i got to enjoy maybe a thousand miles of fun driving when the shoddy workmanship became apparent with an exhaust leak, and the discovery of it having been reassembled complete with two snapped studs and another hole completely stripped.

Coupe' o Doom wrote:

the objective with this project is to wind up with something that bravely turns tail and flees.

:rofl:
Passionately patient to learn about 780s...
Some brilliant sonofabitch just tried to sell me fender washers to replace PS copper gaskets. I'm sure the guy who swapped the 1st head and he went to the same school.

Great to see the project thread.

I guess you stepped away from the Kona?

s_r_c wrote:

Coupe' o Doom wrote:

the objective with this project is to wind up with something that bravely turns tail and flees.

Passionately patient to learn about 780s...
Some brilliant sonofabitch just tried to sell me fender washers to replace PS copper gaskets. I'm sure the guy who swapped the 1st head and he went to the same school.

they have a whole bin of those crush washers at the helicopter shop in every size you can imagine, metric even. postage for those costs a lot less than fuel.

Redwoodchair wrote:

Great to see the project thread.

I guess you stepped away from the Kona?

indeed, it was necessary for the survival of the human race.

CHAPTER TWO: FIGHTING EACH OTHER


the usual. the little ticking sound when the car is cold. and the set of exhaust gaskets purchased, figuring a quick afternoon visit with the wrenches since it was just apart... wronnnng! so after shuffling it about on the street avoiding the streetsweeper while i got one of my other cars running to clear a spot for it in the driveway. in this city, cars in the driveway can't have parts visibly missing from them or be up on stands or anything, they have to look like they run or they come after it with tickets, so i had to keep this low key. so i was figuring a quick head swap.

as i got further into the disassembly, i found some other things that needed attention along the way so it was really a good thing i took it the rest of the way apart.


'the uncooler'


the level and scope of filth on this car were amazing. i discovered a leak at one of the trans cooler unions, it appears they'd been feeding it for quite some time! let me preface this with: i used a couple cans of engine brite and just a regular garden hose on it before disassembly having no idea i was in for any of this...

CHAPTER THREE: GROWTH AND LEARNING
so a head was sourced from one of the people on TeeBeezy. some strange imperfections were observed on the mating surface, and it turns out after a little checking the guy had been running 12's with it so i decided to get it resurfaced and rebuilt by my "local machine shop". when they finally finished it two weeks later, i picked it up and immediately questioned them to the presence of paint and the odd nature of these so called machining marks:




the closeup reveals a large gouge they put in it, likely due to mishandling the completed head and trying to hide it like a cat burying shit. those "machining" marks look like a belt sander was used, no mill leaves marks like that. i also believe that the head i got back is not the same head that left my house, this one arrived with sensors installed (i had removed the sensors before taking it in). i don't even think they did the valve work themselves either, i suspect they sent it out. further inspection reveals a different thickness dimension at all 4 corners, carbon and grit still present (no tank/wash) and a complete lack of assembly lube.

lessons learned:
make a unique identifiable mark on your property before sending out to a vendor.
machine shops don't paint things unless they are trying to hide something.
expensive head gasket kits are expensive.

so some months lapsed while i filed the toothless BAR complaint against the shop and saved up some more money for my project and sourced another cylinder head.

CHAPTER FOUR: LIVE ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
so as those months passed it gave me a great deal of time to start gathering and fitting some other items that would be needed. lots of dealer parts, especially hoses. i ordered some items from Crouton that if orders were followed would have been suitable... more about that one later. the folks at SwedishEngineering have the goods, and much of it ships from the local Volvo warehouse without the markup malfunction of my local squealerships. Other items were bought from preferred TeeBeezers first as available. new hardware was used whenever and wherever practical, but in many instances the old hardware is of higher quality and in place.

NPR intercooler is a very nice fit for these cars. though not as easy as 'plopping' one in a 240, only minor modifications are required to use it. note the clearance cuts made in the surrounding pieces, on the passenger side and the top.


'the uncooler' was removed and cleaned out, the bracket cut, and bolted back together in this fashion. note that the deflector has been moved to the forward edge of the cooler and bent further to catch more air. below, it only sits on one of the two posts so that it may swing to the position shown- still it doesn't move about nor vibrate.

THE MIDDLE OF THE FILM!

during the lapse in action i decided to mock up some of shiny things that i had been stocking up on.

coming soon, to a dragstrip near you!

my initial NAW wideband o2 build worked but only lasted for 45 minutes before giving up teh ghost. after much hassling Alan sent me another one but i have not decided to rebuild it yet.

i had planned to stuff it inside the cluster, this should give you some idea where:


but when you use the provided connectors from his install kit it will not fit there. so i sourced a small case for the rebuild.


teh knight riderrrrr!


"under the hood"

the module will take the place of the extra wire, and the heavyG wires + heatsink will be sufficient to draw any excess heat out of the case. if i move forward with that, it will get a separate writeup. but i likely will use something from AEM. the AEM sensor and harness are a perfect fit for this project by the way. note the use of (now considered obsolete) wire wrap prototyping technique i have a number of extra parts so contact me about that if you are involved with NAW_OEM build and would like a LED strip with the right colors or even with a tri-state LED. if there is enough interest i might put together a quantity build but with the recent price drop on commercially available wbo2, the only reason to do this is if you want to build it into the cluster or something.

WE'RE HERE FOR YOUR LIVER

one of my buddies from teebeezy cut me a decent deal on some fresh meat, a motor that he'd pulled from his 780.


he stored it outside apparently, the bottom might need just a little work before going back into service...


but it yielded this:


so with that i trotted off into the sunset (beach, on my way to Costa Mesa) and to another REPUTABLE machine shop. this is what they are supposed to look like when you get them back:


note the presence of assembly lube, and the valve clearances have all been set up to exactly .016 to ensure consistent valve timing on all 4 cylinders. it is only one extra step while setting them to dial it in like that. hushers then installed, cam reinstalled.


let us now compare the quality of the two jobs shall we?

take note of the clean threads and minor polishing of the combustion chamber, like someone actually cleaned it.

THE AUTUMN YEARS placeholder poast for moar content

CHAPTER ONE: THE MIRACLE OF (re)BIRTH

the block surface and the piston tops were gently cleaned up


valve cover cleaned out


intake manifold. it was crying out for some attention as well.
ported, polished inside


and out:


before/after comparison: (with another unported manifold)

Gently cleaned my shiny metal ass.
Some serious time went in to that.
Light touch/million passes I'll believe.

s_r_c wrote:

Gently cleaned my shiny metal ass.
Some serious time went in to that.
Light touch/million passes I'll believe.

a couple months soaking in BreakFree CLP does wonders for loosening carbon + scotch brite. yes, lots and lots of time, many many passes with light pressure. i bring close-up.

to everyone installing studs: avoid problems down the road, use this:

plop


turbo removed for new return gasket/block seal and block cleanup. below is after kerosene/gong brush/quick rinse. oil filter arm has a new o-ring at block, billet AN-04 oil feed installed to replace kinked factory hardline. you can see anti-seize paste on the studs.


wow, this assembly job is going too smoothly. so something must not be quite right here.


oh, i see nao, i think it has something to do with this:


i had ordered the correct p/n from *clown troupe name omitted* but they chose as usual to send me whatever they want instead of what i ordered, and all without telling me. then when i called them they started making excuses and giving me a hard time about it being 4 months ago... yeah, whatever, fuck you. i had the right parts here the following day so that was all a bunch of bullshit. so after ripping them a new one over the telephone i started clowning them online...


they cost me a couple hours to gently remove these with the manifold in place and install the new ones. shown 7/8 of the way completed, for comparison:

those carpetfibur covers really pop!


line up the marks, silver metallic sharpie FTMFW! note also the slip-snitch at the bottom of the harmonic balancer, it's just a mark crossing the two halves.


witness mark for the cam, visible on the front cover and verified through to the mark on the back cover. everything lines up perfect.*




VICTORY IS MINE

this shit runs!


*except the spark! great big OMGWTFBBQ going out to the distirbutor/thet thar howl sensur inside

that witness mark confirms the same reading taken at the crank, by the way. and can't slip relative to the harmonic balancer. i don't know why more people do not do this.

NOW PLAYING...

...with more wires!


the fan controller


a battery terminal


the starter cable


while waiting for a visit from distributor claus

This is great! Lots to soak up here.
Yeah, I ordered from FCP once.
ONCE.

That cap better work or the Ku will traverse the astral plain and wreck havoc.

Piston slap much?

Those MVP cam gears... How do you contact those guys?
It is the only design I like.

s_r_c wrote:

This is great! Lots to soak up here.
Yeah, I ordered from FCP once.
ONCE.

That cap better work or the Ku will traverse the astral plain and wreck havoc.

Piston slap much?

i don't know why i expect them to not pull something on me. it is almost a given that something will be wrong with the order.

cap??? huh? i am confuzzled about that statement. i did however remove and then reinstall the distributor and cap just in case i did something wrong. i have not fired it back up yet after that and slipping the cam back forward a tooth from my experiment.

piston slap is not bad for 201k miles. barely audible when warm.

not sure but i think MVP is toast and i bought this off BoxDrivurTwo over at that other place when it popped up in FS.

Ah-so.
I mean to point the finger at the hall sensor.
My wagon sounds like a diesel until the oil is warm. Very embarrassing.

I hereby decree.

From now on it shall be said, when someone has gone to such extreme and extraordinary effort in engineering, aesthetics, quality and attention to detail as you have on this project:

"He has gone totally Coupe'".

Excellent job, excellent write-up, inspiration.

Thank you for taking the time.

this is just a lot of wrong being made right a little bit at a time.

if you thought i had the sickness, this is just a fever. Ken is a walking epidemic.

and to all here, thanks for the help, the inspiration and putting up with my raspy hide. you all helped make this possible whether you realize it or not.