50 shades of grey - '87 GLT

[thododd]

Not much happened lately, ive changed the cambelt and finished servicing the engine. A replacement for the last piece of the old exhaust is due this week so hopefully i can finally stop it blowing. Then ill grab some gearbox and dif oil so i can tick them off the list (any suggestions on oil?)

.... and i found a pair of wheels!! picked them up this morning and starting playing with colours




Any thoughts/suggestions? Im liking the white, but i might trying an anthracite grey and offer them all up to see which i prefer

Other than that ive been thinking about shedding weight. I noticed the old bootlid off my vario weighed in at near enough 20kgs (an the glt has a rear wiper and spoiler to add to that) so after an attack with a hammer and grinder its ~7kgs. With a lexan window and the glt spoiler it ought to go back on around 13kg. Thats a 10kg saving to add to the 30+ ive removed getting rid of the spare wheel some soundening stuff it all adds up

On that note, are there any 'off the shelf' alloy crankshaft pulleys? ... that thing weighs a damn tonne!

[SteveP]

I reckon anthracite Should look pretty good. Out of interest how does your GLT run? I've put a good 500 miles on mine this weekend and have been less than impressed with the performance

[thododd]

Runs like shit tbh, little lumpy on idle, ex blowing like mad, but it revs reasonably well for a 30yo lump. Only returns 30mpg at best .... but i got 110+mph out of her and shes never failed to start ive done 250 miles a week in it since the start of this thread and she only let me down once (dodgy alt belts)

Its definitely not a fast car, im guessing itll do 0-60 in around 10 secs, if not a smidge inside. Theres seems to be some grunt above 3krpm, i bet a decent cam profile and a light flywheel would improve things. Ill be looking for a turbo for her and some new management somewhere down the line, once im happy with the rest of the car.

[SteveP]

Sounds fairly similar, then! I've had a few GLT"s but after getting back into mine and doing some long distance stuff I couldn't figure out if it was any worse than the others, probably not but something needs to be done!

I think turbo and better management is definitely the way forward. I'm certain it'll return better MPG for it too. Mine gets 29-30mpg on a long run, mostly motorway and I don't think it'd get any better

[Nimminz]

I'd go with anthricite 100% although the gold and the white both look class

I always felt my GLT felt rather heavy engine wise and quite like a diesel. It's always been quite hard work keeping it running right replacing ignition parts at very regular intervals.

I'd never go back to a n/a one now though lol

I did find a 340 1.4 diff a 3.82:1 ratio was quite an upgrade for round the doors and country roads but reduced top end speed.

[thododd]

Not a lot has been happening lately. I was mainly pottering around waiting for stuff to turn up
The exhaust downpipe snapped so was replaced and i found many holes around the box section mount near the steering rack, the welds had been peeling away from the pipe ... so that explains the majority of the terrible noises its been making.
So while it was in bits i cleaned the manifold and give it a coat of vht silver


and as you may see (from the dodgy phone pics) the inner wing, which looked like someone had spilt a load of magnolia emulsion on, has had a quick lick of paint to tidy it up. The enormous washer bottle got removed and the header relocated.

I did start rewiring the n/s inner wing loom so it didnt need to be bundled up and zip tied out of the way.
Disaster struck at this point as ive fallen ill with a back problem, so ive been on my face on the sofa for the better part of 3 weeks.... im on the mend now and should be back at work next week (fingers crossed)

... but in the meantime, some stuff has arrived
so to add extra frustration ive got this little pile of stuff to stare at during my recovery

my OH kindly took the wishbones and bushes to a garage this morning, so they should be pressed in and any minute now im expecting a phone call

the wheels are finally all one colour too, but just quickly blasted with hammerite smooth silver. Just looking for a pair of 195/50/15s to wrap them in

[thododd]

well after losing most of the last few months to medical and family issues, things would appear to be back to normal and extra hours are being gathered at work to try get this wreck back on track

the front end has finally been refreshed with the above parts id collected/refurbished and generally the car has been solid in its daily use

yesterday i decided it needed a little treatment to make me feel like im progressing. so the front wings came off to see what the state of the inner arches was like

i was pleasantly surprised





i knew the car had received some work during the 7/8 years it had been off the road before my ownership, but judging by the work i had found for the MOT prep i wasnt holding out much hope ... anyone who has seen the drivers door will know what i mean

but itd appear the guy saved his best stuff for underneath, so the n/s looks great, i was delighted and promptly covered it in some fresh underseal




then i went round the other side
undid all the wing fasteners and the bugger wouldnt come off?!? it had no fixings on the underside and the guy had tacked the wing on with weld where the bolt tabs had corroded, then slapped on various bits of fibreglass and heaps of filler
but after i removed the stubborn wing and adding a little more damage to it, i found the inner arch to have more repairs and was in pretty good nick ... only 1 section needs repair. so after i see mark to pick up a dif, thats the plan for this afternoon




the dodgy bit

which, after a tickle with the wire wheel became

[360beast]

Those are the inner arches I'm having aren't they

Go on put the photos of your engine bay up, reminds me of the BMW we saw at RR

[thododd]

you wish ill be keeping a close eye on you on sunday when youve got a grinder in your hands

okay, you can have an update......

i recently removed the foglights for a refurb, i was dreading it as the fixings had completely rotted and a screwdriver just rounded them out instantly, so having cut them free i was presented with ....


theyre great, the reflective coating on one of them is a bit shit and the plastic around the bolt holes has melted where the bolts were removed with force but otherwise spot on

then someone advertised some fog grille/blanks so i had to have them to see how they looked (and @ £7 they were a fraction of the price of the s1 rallye grilles for my AX ) so to add to the vario bumper grilles the front end of the glt looks like this


(yes, my valance isnt pretty, but its better than the half tonne of filler (... and epoxy resin?!?) that the PO had filled it with)


so attention moved from there into the engine bay. the d/s inner wing had been cleared already but id left the worst for later
theres sooooo much wiring down the p/s wing though, the same lighting loom as the drivers side plus a bit more for the fogs, then all the renix stuff, battery live and starter stuff and the end of the engine loom with the main relay on it. it was just a mess


so i just ripped it all out to get at the battery tray with the grinder and throw a lick of paint at it


then rerouted it all to leave me with this




thatll do for now, i ran out of 305 rattle can paint so theres some smooth hammerite chucked on in places to cover it up. ill be going over the engine bay again when the 200e comes out to fit the new engine ... ill be discussing it in detail when building commences but if someone knows of a good, reasonably priced supplier of b230 crank/rod bearings and piston rings please let me know

[MCHUDD]

Hi mate.
Great work. I see you have removed the plastic couling in front of the cooling fan to
fit a 1.4 rad in.
I ran my old GLT with a 1.4 rad for over 5 years without any problems.
Cheers Mark.

[360beast]

just to confirm is it this Sunday 28th or first Sunday of October?

Did you fit a 1.4 rad? I can't tell the difference.

[thododd]

just to confirm is it this Sunday 28th or first Sunday of October?

Did you fit a 1.4 rad? I can't tell the difference.

yes, this sunday coming. im off shopping for cutting disks saturday, if needs be you can come again in october though

im not aware of fitting a 1.4 rad. thats the one that was there when i bought it, i shouldve used the varios rad, but i sold it for much needed pennies.

i have ditched the cowling though, weight saving yo! with all the 'orrible tar-y sound deadening stuff, my spare wheel and all the stuff thats now missing from the engine bay ive got to be 60+kgs down on the standard car by now, thats like nearly a whole person ...... and this particular example has recently had at least 10 tubs of filler removed from its face ... when the grinder hit it, it was like an explosion in a flour mill

[thododd]

seen as the forum is very quiet, have a pictureless update. see if it can motivate some discussion and encourage more sharing

so, the GLT .... the old girl is still in regular use; 6am starts, running in the dark with lights and heaters on full whack 20 miles up and down the m'way, plenty of sliding round wet roundabouts, traffic and even some crap *free* fuel and she seems pretty happy and ive been pretty comfortable. i cant ask for much more than that

i have done a little work;
foglights refitted, theyre now fully functional. nice and bright with 100w bulbs
heater cable refitted behind the dash. what a ballache, but at least ive had fully functioning heaters just in time for the bleak mornings we've had recently well worth the swearing
temporarily fitted a gloss black cam cover ... with the embossed lettering (badly, hand) painted gold
made some grommets to cover the holes in the bumpers were the wiper arms once were. they dont quite sit right but it looks fine from 20 paces and thatll do fine for a free fix
earth strap from the block to inner wing is now hidden, a couple of rusty jubilees have been replaced, chopped a bit more out the valance to stop the spread of rust til i can get it fixed for good...

and thats about up to date.

[thododd]

morning all, still here, still looking like a right shed!




but shes soldiering on

engine work has progress, the cleaned block (230ET) has paint and the oil pump, oil filter arm, end castings etc are all clean and ready to go back together with some 13mm rods and the original ET pistons

and the 530 head i got with an FT engine is cleaning up nicely





i plan to have the rebuilt long block ready around xmas/new year
i do have all the hardware required for the turbo conversion. a 90+ exhaust manifold, albeit fractured behind the turbo flange, a matching garret turbo, theres no play in the shaft and the turbine and compressor vanes look tidy, quite coke up though ..... oh, and all the downpipe studs have snapped and the piddly m8 bolts holding the turbine housing to the bearing cartridge have all barr one snapped flush with the casting. so yeah, its beefed but theres stuff to work with.

i am now thinking ill drop the rebuilt long block in at the first opportunity and run it on the LE system with the inlet/exhaust that are in the car. itll just be a slightly low CR 230E (probably around 9.1:1 so not silly low) but fresh
itll also get the heavy lifting out the way and allow me to continue using the car

i have been playing with other ideas for the GLT, theyll become clear this evening after ive had a play today, ill get some pics. but first ive got to investigate why my recon'd alternator is packing in and why the temp light came on yesterday.... and why the saxo's engine management light is on.

[Ride_on]

I also considered running the car with the turbo block unturbo'd but chickened out after thinking about all the mods needed. You need to blank off the oil feed and return, use the 360 heater water pipe, use the 360 oil filter stud and original engine mounts. The 360 oil stud was stubbord and needs skill to remove.

You would also need a more appropriate ignition map, the low compression engine will not work well with the higher advance.

I've welded 2 940 exhaust manifolds now and the one under test is holding up fine. Just use low current mig with pre and post oven to 200c. Grind out the crack as much as possible and use a nice overlap technique to get a good flow to the original material.

I'm also going for the gloss black can cover looks good but I had difficulty with paints and getting a good finish. Crap halfords stuff had grit in it, then car plan stuff wrinkled. The first go with a halfords spray can was good except for some garage contamination, then I moved to pots thinned and put in a gun. Just ended up making it worse lol. I was just going to rub the embossed Volvo logo down to bare aluminium, but not sure if it needs clear lacquer.