Building 2 350/650hp 16v B230F redblock Volvo engines

[Fred]

Did a bit of a garage clean up and managed to wheel this out onto a non-carpet area so I could weld and remove the bungs. Did 2 out of 4. Found one more since last posting...

Oil gallery plug came out easily with 15mm socket and power bar on it, effortless almost. But wouldn't shift with the allen key. I wonder if it was the heat? I might try this on the other two.

Turbo coolant supply bung was REALLY tight, and took significant effort to move even with a decent 1/2" power bar on it! NEVER was it going to come out with the allen key... never. Jamas. No.

Tweets and pics:

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[Fred]

Comments thread added: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2771

[Fred]

Oil supply tube research:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9862025216
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Pics inlined:

[Fred]

Started poking around looking at what I still need to buy to make this thing come together the
other night. Need to pour some more time into that and get an order together, then place it.

Mean while, I bought some flap wheels for the innards, and a nylon finger wheel for the front/rear
housings, but it was too soft. I used some roloc scourer disks from a friend instead to get this:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0513563648
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Also bought some proper harsh oven cleaner to de-carbonise the innards when I finally get
it out of the garage for a thorough water blasting and spray down with some CRC/WD40.

[Fred]

Bungs:

3/8 BSP water jacket bung: 20.5mm overall, 20 of thread, 12 hanging out, 8mm engaged
1/4 BSP oil gallery bung: 19.5mm overall, 19 of thread, 12 hanging out, 7mm engaged

water pump/alternator end, small oil gallery bung will be very close to 240 style alternator mount

opposite end hangs out behind flywheel/flex plate, but should be miles clear with 37mm from journal to face of end of crank inc stock spacer

oil feed gallery is recessed and will be difficult to weld, but hanging out with a hex on the end is a big plus for this one. May be worth oversizing it, though Josh says a resounding no.

Also got the old girl out in the sunshine, gave it a good degrease, water blasted away the remaining loose oil/dirt on the outside, and any oil/oiliness on the inside, then applied a bunch of old school nasty caustic oven cleaner to it on every surface and let it sit for half an hour, then gave it a rub here and there with my gloved fingers, and another water blast. Came out good! Sprayed it down inside and out with CRC/WD40 to prevent post cleaning rust occuring, and it sort of did anyway, but cleaned off really easily. Then gave it a drill/3M roloc pad clean up on the block deck edges, and front cover mating surface. All oily and ready for lovin again.

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Stuff I'd like to or need to do:

1) Remove two bungs from rear end of block
2) Clean a little more carbon off in places (rear end of block innards, under 240 dizzy location, webs)
3) Clean out galleries more
4) Drill/tap block for oil feed and drain
5) Acid soak the water jackets
6) Round file ream out and scrape off the rust layer in the jackets
7) Paint stripper to remove last of the red
8) Mock ups of auxiliary gear for car
9) Clean aux shaft with oven cleaner
10) Clean crank with oven cleaner

Machine work:

1) Bores honed the right way
2) Perhaps bore feed passage to 13mm? Likely not.
3) Crank polish, ONLY if it won't take it undersize

more? not sure. Too late at night...

Old list(s): viewtopic.php?p=43395#p43395

[Fred]

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8703481857








Grabbed a couple more 1/4BSPT bungs from a different supplier today. May weld/remove
the other two later. Had a crack at heated normal removal, no dice. Not keen to do machine
work and not have the gallery fully open for flushing out. Too easy for stuff to remain.

Talked to a dipper man about some ute business, and while I was there asked him about
how they strip blocks, and the answer was dilute sulphuric acid. Not OK for this block with
its bearings in place, so I will DIY it with molasses or citric or oxalic in a partially submerged
fashion. Might even wax or grease the deck and bores, too so it can't touch them at all. Too
much junk in there amongst the jackets to accept not doing it. Unkeen to run an acid in a
freshly built engine as coolant, too.

Gave a few bits a wire brushing and other bits a nylon wheeling and will at some point have
another crack at cleaning it, however not right now as my neighbour is a GIANT ARSEHOLE
and there's a water restriction on. Lists as above still stand, for now.

[Fred]

The men of the internet tell me that these bungs are wrong and should
be NPT. Oops. 30 dollar mistake unless I can roll it back at which point
it's a 12 dollar mistake because I marked the other two by testing them.

Removed the final two bungs from the block today and am looking
forward to stripping the rest of the material from the block ASAP.
Will be nice to have it in ready-to-go condition.

In other news, I'm really excited that this product is finally available:








Love the inset hard washers, metric S/S fasteners, and vernier positioning gauge! :-D

[Fred]

More work on this today, cleaning machined surfaces with the relatively gentle
nylon grit wheel. It does leave tiny scratches, but you can't feel them, and
doesn't remove noticeable material unless you abuse a sharp edge for a long
time. Good for cleaning off rust from non-critical surfaces. On with the tweets:

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Oven cleaner and paint stripper and water blaster and re-oiling next.

I think. Need to check list.

[Fred]

Progress on this was very limited this weekend due to funny business going on to assist the old 244 into a new life of luxury cruising on the mean streets of Auckland.

But there was a little:

1) I investigated soda blasting devices and materials and prices - looking to
procure soon, 25kg of the soda and a little Ampro 0.5l gravity feed gun like
below. And a bag of "blasting soda with surfactants" from these guys: https://www.armex.com/products/maintenance








2) Bought more oven cleaner to attack the carbon on the crank and aux shaft and
a few spots left on the block on the inside of the skits etc. It looks like this: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4299511808








Aside from that, I looked at it a bit and dreamed of great things :-p

[Fred]

I haven't done much more on this project recently, but what I did do this weekend is acquire yet another B234F engine (my third).

I figure the only place that info really belongs is here: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2422665216








Hoping to do some serious work in this direction before the end of the year :-)