Finally, she has made it out of the garage. New cylinder head, timing belt, water pump, oil pump, gaskets, hoses belts, ball joints, tie rods (inner and outer), sway bar links and probably stuff I forgot about lol

But first let's remember those we lost along the way:

Wounded in Action:

B230 Cylinder head - blew out #1 spark plug, the reason for the work in the first place. She has a fix a thread in and may find retirement life elsewhere.

Large slotted screw driver

B230 Engine block - broken head bolt had to be drilled out and rethreaded, he has recovered.

Killed in Action

B23 cam shaft

Oil pump

Oil pressure switch

Intake gasket

Exhaust gasket

Oil pan gasket X 3

Oil separator

Thermostat

Water pump

Timing belt and sidekick tensioner

Ball joints

Tie rods

sway bar links

control arm bushings

Missing in Action

12 mm 3/8" socket

13 mm 3/8" socket

10 mm 1/4" socket

Those we welcomed into the family

B23 cylinder head

She is a product of the Bentley Manual and these boards, you should all be proud!!!!

Here she is head on, showing cleavage:



Here is her profile (you can see her big brother, and next project, the 1985 Benz 300SD Turbo Diesel):



And her A$$ with upgraded classy "Classic" plates:



She's good to go but either has an exhaust leak, fixed the one at the cat flange but the issues is this: cat has fixed flange, down pipe has a loose flange, how to connect those two? I used a donut gasket and some sealant seems to be ok but she's still loud. I actually think I might have grabbed a resonator pipe instead of a regular straight pipe, trying to find the receipt.

Anyway, she's finally back on the road!!!

 

Digging both the Volvo and the Mercedes. I own a 1992 Volvo 240 Wagon, and a 1985 Mercedes 300TD. Love em both dearly. The Mercedes is rather quirky though.

 

those W123 benzes were seriously overengineered. ditto the W124's that followed (we have a 1991 300E 2.6 aka 260E, the smaller engine gas version of the W124, as a sedan).

 

Ran her today on the highway, cruised at 70 and handled well. Needs an alignment after the front suspension work. And I think I accidentally put a resonator pipe on that I got in a hurry instead of a straight pipe, so I sound like the Fast and the Furious right now (chicks dig it).

Now the only issue I have, the oil light flickered for awhile and then came back on, PANIC!!

Popped the hood, my rewire job on the oil pressure switch basically melted.

Pierce, I know you're an electrical guy, any tips on rewiring it to handle the heat?

Might have a leak from the crank shaft seal but waiting to see for sure.

 

I did quite nicely with a simple tape measure alignment (toe-in only) on our 240, thats really the only thing that should need adjusting.

basically, I got the wheels as close to dead straight as I could (rolling 20' forward and back in my driveway), then tape measured wheel to wheel from a center tread groove at the back side of the tire and the front side. the front should be about 1/8 to 1/4" closer for the right amount of toein. since the car gets in the way, you can only measure closer to the ground than at 3 and 9 o clock, so half those measurements to compensate for the difference (1/16th to 1/8th inch)

 

re: oil pressure sensor, use automotive grade wiring with high temperature insulation. ditto use quality crimps that can handle the heat. use a good crimping tool on any crimp connectors.

 

Yeah I definitely didn't use high temp LOL.

I just found the actual insulator that disintegrated on me on the volvo webstore site, it's $1.13, think I'll invest lol.

 

you might want to get the crimp-on pins too, that go in the connector, at least I would. trying to reuse old ones is almost always an exercise in frustration. the catch-22 is figuring out WHICH ones you need.

 

I always solder. It leaves nothing to question.

 

quality crimping is how it was done in the factory. lasts 20+ years. you do need proper crimpers, the cheap junk ones don't do anyone any favors.