Could over filling the engine with oil force oil past a perfectly good rear main? Or does a ruined rear main only leak when the oil level is too high? Or could fresh oil (same type) cause some seal swell and solve a leak with time? Could the flush stuff I used cause seal shrinkage that recedes with usage once the flush is gone? Many questions, few answers, but I couldn't catch it leaking today! Bang on the high mark on the dip stick, too.

In other news, I filled her up with ~20 litres of several month old 91 RON tonight, completing a three phase fill up for which I'm still looking for the data! Here's a reference to it that I foolishly did not cross reference: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5907127297

Found it: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6367345664

So on the next fill it's done whatever it's done over what the fill takes plus 64.5l of topups.

I now know the answers to all things oil leak related in this vehicle. The light and truth and somewhat of a smoke screen were presented to me, much like an epiphany. With the tang of something hard hitting the car, the slight smell of oil smoke, and then a hazy rear view, I realised that something was up. When I finally stopped to take a look about 2km up the road smoke started to gently filter out the cracks around the engine bay. So I pulled the release, hopped out, and this is what I found:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 1904520192
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7980803072
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4204824577
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7170719746












IE, the oil leaks were crankcase pressure pushing oil past perfectly good seals and now pushing the plug out of the back of the head (was previously dry and in place when I checked). IE, I now need to put the disk back in, and lock the disk in, and schedule to remove and cleanse the breather box/oil air separator/flame trap. Fantastic. Just what I needed at the moment. Bleh.

Still, aside from that, and running a red light by accident causing a narrow miss that would have screwed up the left or front of the car pretty badly, it was a nice little drive in the sunshine. :-p

Gave the area a good clean with a paper towel, washed the disk and removed some loose material around the outer edge, measured up, pushed the disk back in, it was snug, made a retainer from scrap alloy angle, 20x20x3 @ 148 long, drilled two holes at 135 centres, lowered it in, put a couple of m6 flange bolts in there, cranked them up with an old 10mm SK ring and open ender, and took it for another more enjoyable drive! :-)

IPD version, 17usd, my version, free. Specs above, enjoy. Reference: https://www.ipdusa.com/products/5561/10 ... l-retainer

Pics etc:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9669782528
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4678757377
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0137028608
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8102342656












All fixed! Lost an hour to it, or a little more. Not the end of the world, was pretty easy to sort out, really.

So, while I was out there phone in hand, I took these for reference as they're hard to find online:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7506484224 #Volvo240 #Volvo 240 factory strut tower brace, right hand drive, left hand side of my wagon.
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8626661376 #Volvo240 #Volvo 240 factory strut tower brace, right hand drive, right hand side of my wagon.
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9552260096 #Volvo240 #Volvo 240 factory strut tower brace, right hand drive, right hand side of my wagon, again.
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4568065025 #Volvo240 #Volvo 240 factory strut tower brace firewall end mount, right hand drive, right hand side of my wagon.

I need to pull the flame trap and/or oil separator box out and give them a how's your father in the undercarriage. Flame trap kits:

Genuine: https://www.ipdusa.com/products/6161/11 ... e-trap-kit
Similar: https://www.ipdusa.com/products/5317/10 ... e-trap-kit

I already have an oil separator box from my squirter block all cleaned up that I could install. Could do with a few more passes, but...

Ducked outside earlier after some other chores and it only took me 15 minutes to extract and break (twice) the flame trap. TOTALLY blocked:









So now it's in the kitchen soaking in oven cleaner and the car is on the grass stuck. Why? Because MAF! I hate MAF.

Might have to drop by a Volvo workshop tomorrow and nab a part for it, if they have them in stock. Hooray.

Oven cleaner
Scrubbing
Blowing
Hot water
More blowing
More scrubbing
More hot water
More oven cleaner
More scrubbing
More hot water
Being poked with tweezers
More blowing
Being reamed with a tissue
Being sliced with a razor

One reusable flame trap. Not recommended, but it'll be OK, sort of:

Well, she's been all good since all that got done. Happily breaking all the speed limits as desired, with no leaks and no smoke and no nothing. Win.

2 weeks till 6 monthly WOF time. A few niggles to tidy up before then, hopefully. With a fresh WOF on this inside the next 2 weeks, the only thing I'll have to do is put 12 months rego on the four legal cars (inc this) before the third of January, or so. So I have 800 to save for that, and 800 to save for a monitor. Excluding any other stuff that goes on/goes down.

Still love driving this car, and the blue one, but especially this one. It's something special. XXOO

Fresh WOF on the car! Brake light warning lamp no longer lighting... and used to remove some scrap metal from the property and gain some cash :-D

What's next for this old girl? Not sure. Nothing urgent needs doing over summer. It still has a leak that I need to find, and it still drains the battery, so those are probably still top of the list.

Tweets of the bonnet-off saga:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2302513152
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6060105728
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3037365249
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0198365184
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4084298752
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2319362048
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5341021184
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5228482560
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3825889280
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9174550534
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9489303552
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7503425536
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2220312577
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5269098496

And inlined:

































I'd have cried for days if I'd backed over my own 240 bonnet :-/ Foolish man.

Electrical diagnosis done:

60+mA running out through the "interior stuff" circuit. (WTF!)
6mA running out through the fuel pump control circuit. (Wat?)

Fuse for interior stuff is out on the floor for now. Should help the battery survive...

3 weeks of 60mA is 30AH which is half of a good battery, or all of mine, I suspect.

Car has given zero trouble starting since then. Max period between uses hasn't been huge, but... :-)

Outside the cafe we had breakfast in this morning: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0098171904









Now has fresh coolant, too! viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2693&p=43263#p43263

Great car. Love it.