hi,

currently my 240 will not start. the engine turns over, and at times it does seem to catch on a few cylinders, but will not idle and dies.

i have changed the spark plug wires, and the distributor cap. i have cleaned and gapped the plugs. i do have spark.

after a start attempt, the plugs do seem wet with fuel.

compression is consistent on all cylinders, and gets only very slightly better when tested with a bit of oil dropped in each cylinder.

the car definitely shows signs of burning a bit of oil, and definitely shows signs of a weeping head gasket. i am into fixing these things myself, but i'd like the starting issue (if unrelated) to be fixed first to reduce any head scratching later.

i am going to change the air filter today.

i am a pretty decent motorcycle fixer, but distributors, fuel injectors and any kinds of sensors mystify me a bit. i have a good volvo mechanic, but right now i have the time to figure this out for myself, and would like to save myself the cost of a tow.

i am hoping somebody can outline the next steps in diagnosing this issue.

thanks so much.

 

Move the crank until the crankshaft pulley TDC mark lines up with the mark on timing belt cover. Then pull the distributer cap and make sure the rotor is pointing at the #1 spark plug wire. If it isn't, you may have slipped a tooth on the timing belt or the belt is broken.

I had the same symptoms on my car a few years ago. I found that the timing belt alignment on the half shaft was off a few teeth. This also resulted in carbon streaks in the distributer cap from all the arcing that was going on in there.

 

what year Volvo?
manual or automatic?

 

a '90 240. it's an automatic.

 

pull the vacuum hose off the back of the fuel pressure regulator shortly after cranking it a few times, is it wet with gas? if so, your fuel pressure regulator has failed and is flooding the engine with too much gas.

 

Even though the plugs seemed wet with fuel, I would still check fuel delivery. It may be very weak, or intermittent. Disconnect the line where it enters the fuel rail, place a container near the line to catch fuel, then briefly try starting the car. If no fuel or very little fuel comes out, you can start tracing back fuel delivery issues, starting with fuel pump relay, bad pre-pump, bad fuel pump, clogged fuel filter, corrosion on the 25 amp fuse on the drivers side of engine bay near the coil.

 

i checked the timing belt as suggested and it seemed to be correct.

the regulator hose on the vacuum hose end was dry and didn't have an appreciable fuel smell.

i tried to disconnect the fuel line to the rail. i'm guessing this hose doesn't simply pull off, but needs to be unbolted from the metal line going into the fuel rail. it's pretty corroded, so i am letting some penetrant do it's thing before i have another go at it. i don't want to break the metal line.

speaking of breaking things, when i was reinstalling the distrubutor cap, i broke the front metal retaining clip. is there a simple way to repair this, or a way to jury rig it so the cap stays on?

thanks for your help so far.