Greetings from (suprisingly warm) Finland!

I already posted on the Family-topic introducing my Volvo 340, but decided to post also a new topic in a bit more detailed mannor.

Last friday finally got my hands on a 1988 Volvo 340 with B172K. I have been looking all fall long for a RWD (or AWD) car to be my secondary car, as my primary car VW will undergo a total teardown in the winter. We have exceptionally long winters with lots of snow, so RWD or AWD was my only option...

I've previously driven a Volvo V40, but sold it at the end of summer '13. I work as an IT systems specialist in a major multisite retail car dealership in Lappeenranta, southeastern Finland. Our salesmen get in total about 400 bummers per year which go straight to used car shops and never enter our lists. That's where I spotted my Volvo (and actually the soon-to-be teared down VW), and for such a low price for it I'm not gonna even say it out loud. It has 100k km on the clock and besides a few spots of rust it's like a new car. It has something called Redline-option on it, and has decals on the sides and red lines on the seats. Every little detail of it's services is in the maintenance book, and it comes from it's first owner.

So friday after work I went to Mikkeli, where my 340 was sitting neatly in our dealership's parking lot. I have to admit, I've never driven a car with manual choke, but after a few dozen swears and a tear of pain I managed to get the car running (it hadn't been started for a week). I drove to the nearest petrol station to put some petrol in to make it home to Lappeenranta (100km or 60mi drive).

After filling the car with petrol and myself with Red bull, I went to start it up. Starter was turning the engine but nothing happened. I pushed the car aside and started investigating. Everything seemed normal, and I tried again, no dice. For some forces beyond human understanding I pulled the choke all the way back, floored it and turned the key. Nothing, but now the plugs were all wet with petrol I waited for an hour for them to dry out and went for coffee inside. Went back to the car and turned the key. Wohoo! It made a sound promising of starting up. Then at the next turn of a key all too familiar sound: battery was dead.

You may notice that at this point I was at the mental state of filling the whole damn thing with TNT. I was 100km from home, on a friday night (which, in Finland, basically means that none of my friends, family or relatives are in no condition to drive).

I decided the only way was to try a hill start (without a hill in sight...). I pulled the car all the way to the other end of the petrol station, started pushing like hell and hopped inside when the car was travelling about 15km/h. Just when I landed on the seat and started to put a gear in, I noticed that the key was not in the ignition. Of course, I left it in my pocket. It must have looked funny as hell, me in a Volvo quietly strolling across the petrol station trying to find the key in my pockets at the same time. That moment when I got my hands on the key, the car stopped.

When this happened, I hopped on the bonnet and lit up a cig. I'm done, I thought, I'll find the nearest lake and push the car in there. A Micra-driver spotted me when he was filling his car up and shouted:"Did you run out of gas? I can give you a push." I answered with a taste of blood in my mouth that I've run out of nerves and electricity. Luckily, he had jump cables with him and after all the pain and the misery, I got the car running. Here's a picture I took when I just pushed the car aside from the petrol pump:
After that, everything's been (almost) great. Saturday night I took the car out for a spin in the town, but when it warmed up, it was really struggling to idle properly and shut down in almost every intersection. I stopped by our workshop and got me a set of tools. I slightly adjusted the idle adjustment screw and managed to get the car to idle. Although it was idling at almost 1500rpm. Of course I picked up a girl (who else, if not a Volvo driver, gets the chicks ) to enjoy the ride with me. After the 5th shutdown in a major intersection the look on her face was priceless. Looked like she would rather crawl on her knees back home than to sit any more in the passenger seat. Luckily she was a tad drunk and I got her to stay in

With a well slept night, I opened the hood up again to adjust the idle screw. Now I managed to get it idle at 900rpm, but it started to wave from 900rpm to 1200rpm. When on partial or full load, it runs like an angel and never misses a beat, only idling is problematic now. I guess tonight I'm gonna try to adjust the idle mixture screw, if the idle mixture is messed up. I'm already prepared to work on it the whole thursday evening, when our workshop is open for our staff to work on our cars.

I took this picture after I managed to get the car to idle on saturday. Volvo is anxoiously waiting for the snow to fall in a parking lot us in Lappeenranta favor one of the best lots to slide a car during the winter. Of course in the summertime there's the pokemon guys with turbos the size of my head, but I'll leave them in their own value...

I don't think the shop owners care too much for it, but for my defence I'm only there by night and still have not crashed through their window. I still think here's an accident waiting to happen, since this Volvo is my first RWD car. Thank god it's so underpowered, though. At least I will not be going through the window at 100km/h wrong end out.
All the best, thanks for an awesome forum and very good service manuals!!

Tero Korhonen

Good looking car mate. and yes getting the back out is much fun. in the wet my old girl held her own against my mates silvia, but that was many moon's ago now. anyway have fun! any planned mods?

Logan360 wrote:Good looking car mate. and yes getting the back out is much fun. in the wet my old girl held her own against my mates silvia, but that was many moon's ago now. anyway have fun! any planned mods?

Thanks!

At this moment I haven't planned for mods yet. I think I'll modify and fit an extra exhaust I got lying around. Still, I'm not gonna ruin the car. If I still have the car at the end of this winter, maybe I'll go on and get some lowering blocks and springs for the summer. Just trying to keep it as neat as possible, my VW will be the All Show no Go-car

sochapter wrote:

Logan360 wrote:Good looking car mate. and yes getting the back out is much fun. in the wet my old girl held her own against my mates silvia, but that was many moon's ago now. anyway have fun! any planned mods?

Thanks!

At this moment I haven't planned for mods yet. I think I'll modify and fit an extra exhaust I got lying around. Still, I'm not gonna ruin the car. If I still have the car at the end of this winter, maybe I'll go on and get some lowering blocks and springs for the summer. Just trying to keep it as neat as possible, my VW will be the All Show no Go-car

Sounds like the vw could be complimented with a 'all go, no show' (better imo) volvo.

Agreed

Sounds like a plan, guys!

Will have to dig in to that. Has anybody here lets say, turbocharged one of these B172K's? I know a guy who could probably make me new exhaust and inlet manifolds. Then there's the powertain, I don't think the original one will hold much more than it's already taking...).

I could even get it re-registered with the charger here, if the power grows more than +25% of the original power (in the dyno test, just would have to drop the boost down before the test... ) and I upgraded the brakes.

Hmm... this could really be a project for the summer, as I'm now stuck with the Golf's mods and Volvo is currently my only driveable car.

Yea I'm looking into a turbo on my B200E. be the only turbo 360 where I'm from. just looking to run maybe 4 or 5 pound just for that extra kick here and there. gotten used to my 850's so now my 360 need's boostings.

sochapter wrote:turbocharged one of these B172K's?

Probably, but there is an easier way. As you are left hand drive over there, you can drop in a B18FT from a 400series turbo without the fouling issues we have in right hand drive land. Conversely, the common F7x swap would be more of a pain for you!

Have a look at 340cbr's thread, he was LHD too http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... php?t=2370

Chris_C wrote:

sochapter wrote:turbocharged one of these B172K's?

Probably, but there is an easier way. As you are left hand drive over there, you can drop in a B18FT from a 400series turbo without the fouling issues we have in right hand drive land. Conversely, the common F7x swap would be more of a pain for you!

Have a look at 340cbr's thread, he was LHD too http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... php?t=2370

Thanks again Chris!

It would make thing so much simpler & more reliable. I already found one B18FT with auxiliaries, just 400€. I think it would be best if I found a B18FT clutch and flywheel too, as according to the topic you mentioned, the 340 clutch cannot hold more than 120bhp when new.

So maybe, at spring '14 this topic will be an engine swap topic I'm not gonna order that B18FT just yet, but in the late winter (maybe march) the hunt will be on If I cannot re-register it to the street, I will have one use for it as an amateur rally car.

All the best,

Tero

Few bits of food for thought. I run a 480T pressure plate in my F7R 300, with a 340 1.7 friction plate. It doesn't slip!

Secondly, you need the 480T flywheel if you want to run 480T ECU's (well, you don't, if you want the un sexyness of a separate trigger wheel). It's the only 400 series that doesn't run a 22-2-22-2 trigger pattern, as it runs LH it uses a 60-2.

Chris_C wrote:Few bits of food for thought. I run a 480T pressure plate in my F7R 300, with a 340 1.7 friction plate. It doesn't slip!

Secondly, you need the 480T flywheel if you want to run 480T ECU's (well, you don't, if you want the un sexyness of a separate trigger wheel). It's the only 400 series that doesn't run a 22-2-22-2 trigger pattern, as it runs LH it uses a 60-2.

OK, thanks a million! This is really gonna help me out. Back to the drawing board

The 340 1.7 is a bit weak on carb and ignition issues, they can be gotten to run right but you need to know the issues and make any necessary repairs. Plus water pump isn't that reliable either.

If you are stalling on the application of power (eg pulling off at a junction) you need special kung fu to fix the weak spark issue. If you just have tick over issues there is much written about it.

360 is bomb proof.

Ride_on wrote:Plus water pump isn't that reliable either.
....
360 is bomb proof.

You know we are never going to agree here Ride-on, but I've had more 360 (red block) water pumps fail on me than 1.7 (Renault F block) ones, let alone before you get into miles per waterpump or how cheap and available each is (try finding a late 360 water pump overnight when you need to get to work in the morning) and how easy to change.

Fake has required 1 water pump in 85,000 miles. I've only done ~15,000 miles in 360's, but have had to do 2. It's also the worlds simplest fit to the 340.

Yes, the 1.7 install in a 340 to be running right needs to be owned by someone prepared to do a bit of maintenance. There is no magic. There is nothing complicated. There are published OEM available fixes for *all* of the common problems, if you were getting weak spark I can only suggest you didn't follow the green book service schedule for plugs, dizzy cap and arm and leads, or were buying cheap crap to do the service with.

I must agree that the waterpump of a 1.7 is quite good.
I have driven well over 500000 km in several 480's (the 400 series shares the waterpump with the 1.7 340) and never needed a waterpump (knock on wood).
All waterpumps tend to start behaving badly after a long period of inactivity BTW.

Ride_on wrote:360 is bomb proof.

Gave me a smile anyway with reference to your location.