Plastic tube repair question

[scot850]

Yes. At $180 + Tax. This is not my money to spend. Likewise the rubber intercooler inlet hose was split. I found a good used one.

The plan is to see if the engine runs better once cleaned and serviced with minimal expenditure. Stuff can be bought and improved over time, but for now I am trying to minimize 'testing' money. Already at around $200, and that does not include my donated used coils, the used hoses and still have to remove and clean the MAF and the TB.

If the engine runs better after TLC, then at a later date some more money can possibly be spent on nicer parts.

The trans has a rough 1-2 change (a flush is needed but apparently been like that since it was installed as a used one. Done around 100,000km (60k miles) since then. After that is checked for fitness it needs tires, windshield, brakes all around, muffler and all 4 shocks. I don't think it is worth all that work, but realistically around here these cars are fetching silly money even with a long list of issues. At least this one is 'free' but I estimate it will need $3-4000 CDN. We may be able to get it done for less if I can find good used parts to use now and if the car performs well, maybe the new owner might want to put better parts when money is less tight.

Again, limited time today. Cleaned the horrible oily spark plug tubes. I hate cleaning them as they are hard to see down and these had sticky gooey baked oil in them.

Before picture of top of engine

After picture after cleaning

Spark plug tubes

Spark plug tubes after cleaning

I have also now gapped the new spark plugs ready for install. The next things are to clean the throttle body (TB), and then re-place the crusty CVVT and coil pack cable harness wires with ne heat resistant plastic tubing.

Neil.

[scot850]

I glued the old and 'new' tubes today with Permatex high temp automotive epoxy. I cleaned both parts where I was going to glue between the flex joints with rubbing alcohol. I was going to use acetone, but as the plastic is so thin I was concerned it might do more harm than good.

I roughened the area with sandpaper, cleaned it with the rubbing alcohol (IPA) and let it dry. Mixed the epoxy and used a tooth pick to apply it between the ribs of the joints. I will leave it now for a full 24 hours. I picked up a tube of the Permatex high temp (up to 650C) RTV and tomorrow I will clean the area again with the rubbing alcohol and then apply the RTV. I also bought a roll of the double thick extra sticky Gorilla black tape. I plan to use that so it straddles the joint, and then 2 more strips, one either side overlapping the first strip.

I'll post pictures of the progress tomorrow. I plan to use the 'new' one, but at least I will have the spare as a back up should I need it.

Neil

[scot850]

Was trying to swap the LHF wheel bearing on the R today. As usual fought all the way except the E-Torx bolts holding the hub onto the knuckle. That came out easy??

Anyway, I had a little time around working on the car as I wanted to clean some rust off the knuckle as I had access while the hub was out.

That gave me time to put the high temperature RTV onto the intercooler to throttle body plastic pipe joints for protection after gluing them yesterday. I cleaned the area with a paint degreaser and put the RTV into the channel between the ribs one the stretched joint on the 'new' pipe and both joints on the old one. Tomorrow when the RTV has cured I will use the extra thick/sticky Gorilla tape to finish the repair ready to re-install.

Before I can do that I decided to clean the throttle body. Using a lighted mirror on a stick, I could see that the TB was actually not too bad.
So I decided not to remove it ad with clothes soaked in throttle body cleaner and large cotton buds soaked in the cleaner I managed to clean the TB without removing it. Not perfect but better than most I have ever seen. Actually it is really clean.

Last thing was to remove the MAF and clean it with MAF cleaner and re-install.

One other thing I did yesterday was complete cleaning all the plastic pipes, covers and other stuff that had been removed. One thing I discovered was the metal reinforcing bands on both ends of the plastic hose from the turbo that runs over the top of the engine to the rubber hose into the intercooler were not where they should be. The purpose is to give the plastic hose shape and strength to tighten the worm clamps firmly. Without them the pipe would get crushed. In fact, the end at the turbo end had almost come fully out, and the other end was partially out. So the turbo end was not tightened onto the metal so had flattened and deformed the hose:

Turbo to intercooler plastic hose

You can see above that at the bottom of the picture the hose end is deformed and the metal band would not go back in. The other end was maybe 50% out and tapped back in with a hammer easily as it was not deformed. The end above would not go back in.

I warmed the end of the pipe with a heat gun, pushed the metal band partially in (if this happens to you, check the metal band has a slight chamfer on it), then turned it so the metal band was down on the anvil part of my bench vise and pushed it in. This worked perfectly and reformed the plastic end and as it cooled it tightened the band in place:

Metal band back in place

This type of issue is why repairing any old Volvo is never quick, and often not cheap when you find random stuff like this!!

I'm hoping this weekend one the R is hopefully back up and running this car can get re-assembled fairly quickly and I can see if it will restart and run any better!

Neil

[scot850]

After letting the high temp RTV set over night, I tried to wrap the joints with the extra sticky and double think Gorilla tape. Total waste of time. Should have bought the narrow stuff as it would not fold around the ribs as the are on a curve. Also even though the surface was cleaned with cleaner, the sticky stuff was disappointing in this case. In the end I just used multiple layers of electricians tape as it at least stuck, and it formed easily as it is stretchy. Not ideal, but for the purpose of trying to improve the running at minimal cost it is fine for now.

Neil.