Hi, All. Been a while dealing with other farm stuff, finally getting around to having time today.

I have a 1984 245 Turbo. Due to financial issues earlier this summer, while moving it back and forth a lot between parking areas on the farm, eventually it ran out of gas.

Got some gas into the tank, it won't start. Added a little gas treatment on advice from housemate, still won't start.

Symptoms: Turns over. Coughs intermittently as it turns over. RPMs get up to 3000, 3500 (i.e. 3, 3 1/2 on the gauge) while cranking, each "cough" nudges the needle a little higher, but eventually battery runs out of juice. Recharge (on correct setting with plug in charger) and try again, rinse, repeat.

I can smell fuel when under the hood, so I don't think it's the fuel pump(s). The fuses all check out good. Possibly the injectors, but I haven't found any kind of YT tutorial referencing a turbo in the 240 series showing me where to look (no, don't have a manual at this time.) Long as I don't have to get it up on a lift, I can likely do the work myself.

Part of why I want to get this going again is my farm truck is pretty bare bones without heat, and while I'm not a wuss, I'd like to have something a bit more comfortable back for running errands. Also eventually I expect Lev's gonna want his Brick back whenever he gets back into the area.

I did a search on this website to avoid duplication but I can't seem to find an earlier post with a similar problem. This brick's been awesome, I've driven it hundreds of miles over the course of a few days, and it hurts to see it just sitting there.

Help?

 

that car has K-Jetronics aka CIS (continuous) injection rather than electronic LH injection. indeed, CIS doesn't like getting dried out. CIS has a mechanical fuel distributor which has an air flap that modulates the fuel pressure according to air flow, and the injectors spray continuously. first thing I'd do would be to remove the injectors, bring them to a diesel injection shop (or an old european car repair shop that has a 'pop tester') and have their spray pattern tested. order new seals for the injectors before you do this. any injectors that are toast will likely have to be replaced, my advise is, if 2 are bad, replace all 4 so they are matched. I had to do this on a 6 cyl Mercedes 300E, indeed three had an awful spray pattern, so I ended up installing a fresh set of 6 injectors.

very few mechanics still in business know anything about Volvo CIS systems, since Volvo switched to electronic injection quite early

 

btw, 3000 rpm when cranking?? normally, you crank these cars, they turn over maybe 300 rpm til they fire, then they idle at most around 1500 rpm when cold, and drop to 700 rpm once warmed up. 3000 RPM is like 65 MPH in top gear.

 

Possibly I'm off a decimal place. Tomorrow (if I don't get sidetracked) I can go try again and double check.

 

Thank you so much! A lot of detail and I suspect you're right. We're a small farm town and there's a few older volvos driving around; I'll ask Randy next time I'm at Tedford's if he knows anything about my model/year; considering all the diesels of all kinds in town I wouldn't be surprised if he had the right equipment.

 

I can suggest some things to check - I would make sure there is a spark and good spark plugs in the car first (if I heard a fuel pump buzz) and if you suspect there is a fuel problem the best thing would be to have a fuel pressure gauge and fittings that were designed for a CIS car - - but that may be hard to find.

Does the fuel pump run? Bump the starter with the drivers door open, the dome light switch in the door jam pushed (so you don't hear the door open ding) and your ear pointed under the car - you should hear the pump softly go - buzzzz. - for about a second every time you bump the starter. If you don't hear a buzz - check the fuses. Then check the relay

Find the fuel pump relay under the driver's? side of the dash. Green cover if I remember correctly. Pry the cover off - two relay coils should be inside - if you close the contacts with your fingers - the pumps should come on. (and buzz) If they don't check power to the main pump. There is a connector under the back seat so you don't have to climb under the car and undo the fuel pump cage to check power.

Next we want the pumps to run all the time to check injector spray (with engine off for testing only) I would use a 3 way jumper (3 male spade terminals and two short pieces of wire is an easy way or 2 jumper wires) to connect the power wire to the feed for the 2 fuel pumps (with the relay disconnected) - to get them to run all the time (during testing only)

Take the large rubber boot off of the fuel distributor/air filter housing exposing the funnel with the round air measuring plate - the way it works is the more air going into the engine - the higher the plate is pushed, and the higher the plate the more fuel is injected. The exact amount of fuel is regulated by the control pressure regulator, the rectangular device with two fuel lines and an electrical connector mounted under the intake manifold near the distributor on a non- turbo, can't remember where on a turbo. Oxygen sensor cars also have a frequency valve that modifies the mixture - there's a relay controlling that valve that has problems sometimes.

Turn on the pumps - then pull the air metering plate up (maybe a pair of pliers on the nut in the middle - don't loosen it , the plate is supposed to be perfectly centered) - you should hear the injectors fire - a high pitched whine of fuel being sprayed. Just do that for a second or two - don't fill the cylinders with gas. If there is a noise, you have enough fuel pressure for the injectors to fire, and there's hope not many $$$ will be needed. If you don't hear a noise - the fuel pressure is too low, and again an appropriate fuel pressure gauge would be a good first step.

The injectors can pop up out of the black plastic holders with their hoses still connected. Careful, I've never broken one of those plastic fuel lines - but they might be just a little more brittle today than 20 years ago when i last saw one. If you are worried unbolt the injector then reconnect. Some cars (maybe the turbos) have metal lines where you have to carefully move them to be able to spray the injectors. With the injectors out laying on the valve cover still attached and with the fuel pumps running - pull the plate up and watch the spray pattern of the injectors. Many times a poor spray pattern was fixed by simply putting the maximum fuel through them (plate all the way up)

As other have mentioned the injector seals probably leak - you will need the 4 tiny orings on the outside of the plastic injector holder and the 4 fat ones on the injectors. A can of carb cleaner and a little wire bush cleans the holes in the head for the holders nicely. if you get that far - Congratulations

If you need suggestions of what kind and how to hook up a fuel pressure gauge - let me know

 

I've used a strong magnet to lift a K-Jet/CIS air flow plate on my VW while doing diagnostics. the KE-Jet mercedes 300E, the airflow is downwards, so its easy to push the plate down...

 

Thank you everyone! I just ordered a Chilton's - haven't had one since I passed along my last Brick back in the 1990's. Am looking forward to getting this done, and I will share comments and findings once I take care of this.

 

Chilton's won't do anything for you, sadly. Unless you get a Bentley's or a Volvo green book you are better off getting the info you need on the internet--there are a lot of other forums, like Turbobricks, Brickboard, etc. with a lot of knowledge about your car.

 

yeah, the Chilton books are pretty much worthless. 95% of them are boilerplate that applies to most any vehicle. The Bentley 240 book is decent, but I forget how much specific info it has about the early CIS turbos. The 'green books' from Volvo were the best for accurate info, but are long out of print. The green books consist of dozens of books for each model year.

the K-Jet/CIS fuel system for early models is covered in greenbook TP-30454-1
the early ignition systems are covered in TP-30432-4
the 1984 electric wiring diagrams are covered in TP-30678-1

there's also greenbooks on engine mechanicals, but unless you're going to do a full rebuild, you'd never crack these.