Volvo 345 GL from Portugal(1.7 engine swap and further mods)

[jpv]

Almost a year has passed and much has happened!

The 345GL has once again returned to the road in triumph and broke 2 weeks later...

Nothing wrong with the new 1.4 engine we fitted, the propshaft bushes gave up. This was last October...

During the next month we searched for a new propshaft and we found a shop that had a parts diesel 340 and would spare the propshaft for our car. The car was outside in the gravel park and it was raining very hard and it was night time... We grabbed the tools and set out to get our propshaft!
When it finally got out, we were drenched....


A week later we schedule to assemble the propshaft. During that week I found a 1.7 liter engine in a junk yard... We had to buy it!


We arranged a price for the engine plus some parts:

complete 1.7 engine and bellhousing and front crossmember
Volvo 240 4 pot calipers
Various Smiths gauges
external Rev counter

Some days later we headed to the junk yard to dissassemble the engine from the junk car. We were counting on them using a fork lift to raise the body and remove the engine and front suspension form below the car. We undid every bolt so that the engine and crossmembers stayed on the floor as the body was lifted and we called the fork lift to raise the body.







Turns out that the fork lift operator was an imbecil and started to get everything out of the way to get to our car. With the rush he headed towards the Volvo and lifted the hole car engine included and as both parts separated in the air the engine and cradle fell from 3 meters!! and then the body fell on the engine!!!!! What a complete idiot!!

The engine was working fine and this stupid accident broke the distributor and camshaft tip. We could not believe what we had saw! No one in their right mind behaves like this!!

We called the manager and he offered us a new camshaft and distributor from a Renault 21 1.7 that we had somewere else in the junkyard and made a cheaper price on the parts. oh well lose some win some...

We brought the engine home and started cleaning and painting parts. Fitted the new camshaft and surprise! its more peakier and has more duration than the Volvo one! Great!

We removed the old engine from the car, grabbed some sandpaper and some spray cans and painted the engine bay.





Last weekend we installed the 1.7 engine in the Volvo. It runs but it still needs some work to be ok...



















We have to sort out some problems now:

The water pipes are giving me some headaches in the heating department. The engine has a bypass when the heating is closed. Is this necessary? Because it's an awfull lot of pipes I can make do without!

When we dismantled the engine from the junk car, I forgot that the accelarator cable was going to be needed in our car and I cutted it... I have to sort this out too...

Hope you've liked the update!

[volvodspec]

what kind of cooling system are you gonna be using?

a 343 radiator has almost the same fluid capacity as a 340-1.7 radiator but, the 1.7 radiator is much wider and will catch more wind.

you can use a universal electric fan with a very high blowing-capacity but that needs to get an electric thermo-switch signal that normally comes from the thermo-switch located in a new type radiator. you can fit the 1.7 radiator with this switch but then you'll need to use a different place for the expansion barrel and cut a bit off the frontplate to make the full size of the radiator effective. other options are use of a mk2 340 radiator + electric fan (fan in front of radiator and radiator equipped with thermoswitch) or use the std 343 radiator and operate the electric fan manually.

for the accelerator cable; easyest is to get a new one, adapting it from the 343 can be done but don't know if it will be long enough..

[tommysb]

Great work

[jpv]

I forgot to mention a few other upgrades we are going to install...

We've found another 340 on anther junkyard with some interesting acessories:

orginal VOLVO rubber mats
Volvo console with extra original VDO-Volvo gauges - Oil presure and Volt meter



It isn't intalled in the car yet but it will shortly...

[jpv]

what kind of cooling system are you gonna be using?

I was going to use the original 345 1.4 radiator and expansion bottle.

I figured that the 340 1.4 and 1.7 share the same radiator so I guess it wouldn't be a problem with it's efficiency. The jury is still out on this one... What do you think?

you can use a universal electric fan with a very high blowing-capacity but that needs to get an electric thermo-switch signal that normally comes from the thermo-switch located in a new type radiator.

I've already done that. I fitted a Thermo-switch in the 345 radiator and a electric fan from an MGF. With the 1,4 engine it worked ok although the fan is designed to pull air instead of pushing. I switched the positive with negative pole to reverse the system.

This setup needs improvement as the fan is working a lot of time...

[Chris_C]

I love the silver engine bay you have in the blue car. Not that I don't think the rest is great, but I really really really like your engine bay!

[Jos360]

I don't know where you are in Portugal, but i do know that there is a junk yard in Águeda that has a 1.7 with aircon, maybe it's worth checking?

[jpv]

Hey guys! Thanks for the replies!

I love the silver engine bay you have in the blue car. Not that I don't think the rest is great, but I really really really like your engine bay!

I got the idea from an Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Veloce from an American member of the AlfaBB forum. You can check it's web site: http://www.gwandrw.com/Garys_Alfa_GTV.htm

I don't know where you are in Portugal, but i do know that there is a junk yard in Águeda that has a 1.7 with aircon, maybe it's worth checking?

No thanks. I know of another one over here and at the moment we don't want to make more conversions until this one is reliable... Obrigado!

Today we finished the cooling system and topped it up with water for trials. The system is still temporary as we disconected the heating system. Here is picture of the re-piping of the heating pipework.



I've taken out the throttle cable and it's going to be easy to make a new one. Just have to go to the local bycicle shop to find an apropriate substitute.

I have a new problem... During this year we've made some experiments regarding springs and dampers and we were using later models struts. Due to the car being imobilized because of the engine swap I never took the trouble to hook the speedo cable in. Today I was bolting the suspension up and the speedo cable doesn't fit the small square piece that fits in the spindle nut cover.

Here are some pictures so you can understand what piece I am talking about:









The question is: is there any diference between speedo cables of the early 345 and the later 340 Volvos?

[nomead]

The question is: is there any diference between speedo cables of the early 345 and the later 340 Volvos?

Yes there is.

This information comes from a third party, not Volvo (a local "noname" parts dealer and their online catalog) :

1976 -> 8.81 Smiths length 135 cm, 2.5mm square ends
9.81 -> 8.84 Smiths length 140 cm, 3.0mm square bottom end
9.84 -> 1991 VDO length 134 cm, 2.5mm square ends

These are for LHD so they should be relevant for Portugal as well.

[jpv]

The question is: is there any diference between speedo cables of the early 345 and the later 340 Volvos?

Yes there is.

This information comes from a third party, not Volvo (a local "noname" parts dealer and their online catalog) :

1976 -> 8.81 Smiths length 135 cm, 2.5mm square ends
9.81 -> 8.84 Smiths length 140 cm, 3.0mm square bottom end
9.84 -> 1991 VDO length 134 cm, 2.5mm square ends

These are for LHD so they should be relevant for Portugal as well.

Thanks! I'm going to take a part the old struts to see if I can find that piece. The car is a MY 1981 and has Smiths gauges so I guess it has a 3mm square bottom end.

[volvodspec]

all 343-345 have a specific dash with all the same speedo cable, if you look up the original srut and take that piece from it, it will instantly fit.

other than that, that list above isn't correct i'm afraid, i have a '86 with originally smith gauges(old stock) and smith cable, the '89 has originally vdo gauges and vdo cable i can swap the caps on both cars easaly, and it fits tight on both cars.

however, there is another type of this unit, it's a bigger piece with a clip to hold it in place. you can look up the various ways of that in the volvo parts catalogue but i don't know where the different systems were applyed, only on mk2 and mk3 though.

[jpv]

I've looked up on the old strut and found the piece. All fits together now.

Tonight we fabricated a new throttle cable but the result isn't as good as I expected. It's going to need improvement...



The anti-roll bar went back in and, after some brake bleeding, the wheels were fitted.





Tomorrow we'll hook the batery in and go for a test drive. The car doesn't have an exhaust so it's noisy to go testing during the night.

After the engine is tuned and all mechnical is ok I'm going to turn to the interior. Going to hook up thoses VDO gauges and a Rev Counter.





Hope tomorrow all goes smoothly...

[jpv]

Today I went to my local scrapyard and found a Volvo 440 Injection and looked up its exhaust manifold.

It was a steel tubular arrangement instead of the usual cast iron piece. Is this the one user "classicswede" is talking about? It looks like it would need some work to fit in the 345 without interference. Any of you has had some experience in this upgrade?

Thanks!

[jpv]

Tonight we took the 345 for a ride!

The engine works great with a steady idle althoug a bit rough because we don't have an exhaust pan, only a straight tube after the manifold.

It was late and we couldn't go full throttle to test the engine because of the noise. The engine is too loud.

The noise was a problem, but the brakes were worse. It doesn't stop. We bled the brakes but the pedal goes all the way to the bottom and only at the end of travel it works (barely). Is there any known problem with the Volvo 300 brakes? Or are they crap from factory?
The total lack of stoping ability is very worrying...

Anyway, we also fettled with the new gauges and fitted them. The Voltmeter is installed and working and the Oil pressure gauge is connected (I just need to adapt the sender unit to the threaded hole in the engine block). We also fitted the rev counter but time ran and it still needs to be wired up...

I forgot to take the camera so the photos were taken with a cell phone and boy are they crappy!





Thanks for all the help!

[jpv]

Today I went to the scrap yard and got a Exhaust and half inlet manifold from a 440 1.8.

I intend to fit them to the 345.



I compared them to the standard 340 1.7 manifold and arrived to the conclusion that the 440 manifold won't fit in the 1.7 if I retain the 1.7 inlet manifold. Any of you had tried this? is my conclusion correct?

The half inlet manifold I got is to modify to install bike carburettors. But I'll get to that later. For now I just want to get the car back in the road...