Ok, small update.

Assembled everything back.
Put the idle speed adjustment bolt back in - it was missing from the beginning, so i didn't even know i was missing a part.
Set idle. It's totally fine now, idle responds to both controlling screws and i was able to set idle just right.
Fit new idle shut off solenoid. It works right and shuts the engine down when you disconnect the spade connector.

Wired the melted wiring back. Thanks to this post viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12361 i understood that melting wires at the LHD driver's wing means alternator grounding out the wrong way because of bad engine earth strap. So fixed this as well.

Fit new accelerator cable that was kindly supplied by local volvo owner.
Tapped new threads in the carb top so the air filter is at its place. M8x1.25 worked fine.
Even found a replacement spring that returns the throttle pedal back into position - a piece that i lost during the fire under the bonnet.

So after a test drive some new problems rendered:
Car does not accelerate well at medium revs, it sputters and coughs.
It lacks power. Like when you have to rev it out to start moving from full stop.
Or at medium revs in 4th it sometimes feels like the engine cut out, although the pedal is still floored.
Or when decelerating in gear it backfires to the exhaust.

My only clue is to run full check on the renix unit, otherwise no ideas. plugs, leads, distributor are all new.
The other option is a lean mixture or lack of fuel (it helps somewhat to pump the throttle when engine dies), but i personally feel it's not likely. The fuel jets has seized anyway and i gave them as good clean as i could.
Suggestions?

EDIT: Forgot to tell that at high revs it goes ok, so i was to blame fuel level in the carb, but that would affect higher revs?

Hi, Guys.

I finally made the engine to run right.
New crank shaft sensor. Previous had a barely visible crack. In fact it was so invisible, that just when i cleaned, installed it back and smashed sensor with flywheel i checked the picture that i took while disassembling and understood that the sensor was crashed and probably glued back previously. Also it was 10 Ohms over the spec.
initial position:
reference picture for a smashed sensor:
For some reason previous owner installed it as in the pics, inside (to the block) the mounting position rather then outside.
Also cleaned contacts on renix, fixed carb vacuum leak (i didn't bolt it down properly the first time) and new spark plugs helped a lot. So no more sputtering at 2k-3k.

So now i have a car that is running right, so i tried some sideways action.
My set up is Front springs cut one coil, rear lowered 2-3 inches, landie shocks, bald rear tires.
And this is were i need an advice from someone more experienced.
I keep spinning out.
obviously it's my lack of experience, but is there anything i can do to my car to help it become more controllable?
stiffer front springs? (front is way too wallow, i think)
Weld diff? (i'm afraid car won't have enough power to spin both wheels)
gripper tires?
Where is that silver bullet?
I plan to go sideways this winter, so any advice is appreciated.

Glad you've sorted the motor - no idea about drifting, except in the snow when I can't help it
^¿^

Don't go full throttle, especially on grass or snow. Just some quick steering and throttle to get the car sideways and then blip the throttle. And a lot of practice, first start on grass, then a wet/slippery empty parkinglot (without potholes or bumps).

thanks, guys. much appreciated.

Hi Andrew.
What happened to you rear door handles?
Cheers Mark.

previous owner was a very young guy and he shaved them to add more hip to that old car.

maybe in my turn i should add "thor's hammer" to the headlights?? =) =)

damn, lost idles again. most probably carb base air leak, but why every two weeks?
on the positive side i've got a new knowledge that i can share with you - if you lost the piece that connects two parts of oil pan ventilation tubes - don't bend the tube that comes from the engine side downward.
Otherwise you'll stop ventilation, pressure will build up, oil start leak from under the head cover gasket and when you open the oil plug to check what's going on you'll get an oil explosion. don't ask=)
and i made 100kms from country house to Moscow, roaring on each stop as a true racecar due to idle works only with good amount of choke added.

Evilness abounds.

Hi guys.

A little progress on the car. It was stored for two months since i took it back to Moscow.
However, i managed to change the valve cover gasket. it still leaks, but now it's at least in "acceptable" range=)
Second oil leak is on the manifolds side, so all the block is covered with oil, not sure why.

Fixed the crankcase ventilation, so it's now in one piece and doesn't let fumes to the cabin. now i can see things more clearly, not being high=)
And the windscreen washer motor fit perfectly from headlights washer motor of a 940 or something like this.

a fellow guy shared the handbrake cable fixings, so i'm now close to have a proper handbrake. everything is installed, i only can't join front cable to the rears, as the tension is too high to let me fit the nut to the coupling. Probably leave it to a mechanic with a proper lifting device.

The rear wheels stuck so bad, that i couldn't take them off with tapping, not with spinning the wheel in the air then hitting brakes, not even with tying a rope around the wheel and pulling with another car. Undoing the nuts and then having a small drive solved this.

also i've measured voltage when cranking and it was about 6 volts. I couldn't do any better other than removing the starter and it had corrosion on all the contacts, shredded bushing and crunchy bendix. So one trip to the fellow enthusiast and i now have another starter, ready for inspection. It's from 1.7 but have design different to mine. My have three thin bolts holding that cap around the gear to the starter's body and the new one is more like unibody design.

other than that i've got new wiper stalk. My wipers don't come to a rest, no matter what position of the stalk is chosen, so i'll try replacing the stalk first.
And the last new acquisition is the instrument panel. Mine wasn't working at all. It had clocks instead of tacho and a few dials. New one has tacho, some econ gauge. Now looking for a speedo cable to make it work.

Questions:
(1) Do all of the later 340's instrument panels are interchangeable?
(2) So when i fit another panel with tacho the car would already have a wire to feed it?
(3) Also on Econ gauge, do i just need a vacuum source fed, to make it work? (the join on the instrument panel have a brass terminal but no sign of a hole to read vacuum through the join)

On a positive side, i'm preparing some rally lights. I think i'll put a steel plate inside the bumper where it joins the bumper's mounts and screw the lights in it. Should look something like this:


Good thing it was not much snow yet, so i have no rush preparing the car. It was one burst of snow in the end of october:

And then just low temperatures without snow, so the season has not started yet and i have time to prepare=)


The last question:
(4) My car is '87 5 door hatchback. I sourced a donor car which is 1991 4 door saloon. My intention is to swap sills. Are they the same on 5 door hatch and 4 door saloon?
(5) Do i need to drill tack welds or i can cut the whole sill with angle grinder and then seam weld to my car?
(6) How do i know what line should i cut or it does not matter unless i cut two same lines on both cars?

Thanks for reading my silly posts and hope you are doing well.

I think swapping sills is ambitious, I removed some 'good' sill for patching, but it turned to be difficult to get them off without damage. In the end I took the whole sill off for a full new klokerholm replacement. I still had to cut it at the rear join, otherwise you have to take the rear quarter off.

You will probably find the inside needs work, there are 3 layers.

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=8733

If you try to cut it will be hard to get it straight and back in the right place, on the other hand it is hard to find all the spot welds and remove without damage. Depends how fussy you are and how good the 'good' sills are.

4 and 5 door sills are the same, the 4 doors are only different after the rear spring shackle and the obvious bits above the waistline.

Ride_on, thanks for great info.

Ok, guys, it's time for an update.
So breakup didn't go well and i didn't touch the car for half a year.
Then i decided to continue with it and with help from my friends took the engine out.



upon disassemble valve guides were worn and pistons had excessive movement in the cylinder bores. Also bores had several big scoring marks.


to not run into the expense of new cylinder linings i bought a spare 1.7 engine from volvo 4xx
I run out of motivation and took both engines to machine shop.
When that engine was disassembled there was some metal shavings in the oil pan, bearings had severe scoring marks.
Rod big-end bearings itself were from GM.


The crankshaft from the new engine was beyond repair and i was fortunate enough to get my 340's crank milled. Main bearing polished to STD size, big-end rod bearing to first oversize. Then i bought all the bearings, including thrust bearings. At the same time the exhaust manifold was welded - one tube had a huge crack in it. On the positive note, engine from 4xx had oil squirters and on my way i observed some formula-renault car with same 1.7 engine=) That was cool.


The question that's left unanswered was wrapped exhaust manifold flange. It's hard to get the proper fixture fabricated to mill the flange. I'll leave it as is for now and see how it goes. Found a guy in Ukraine who fabricates polyurethane engine mounts and auxiliary bushings for 340 and got a set from him.

Keep up the great work.