360 not starting after laid up

[Tony (archive)]

My old 1987 360 has been laid up while I've been welding it for a considerable time, well mostly not welding it really but its been in storage with the occasional start and running fine with the help of a bit of fuel down the carb. Before hand the car was fully working, but rusty in the boot and sills. Now the time has come to move the car to my home and finish it.

Sometime in the last few years something has happen and there seem to be several faults, basically it won't fire. There is spark at the plugs and petrol or easy-start has no effect. CAM is turning, and oil pressure seems fine (semi synth but old >5yrs).

1. Electrical buzzing from one of the relays under the dash sometimes when the ignition is on and it continues when the starter is engaged. The lights dim a bit when the buzzing is going, was thinking the low voltage might make the spark weak, but it looks ok.

2. Wipers are really buggered some way and I've had to disconnect them at the switch, possibly the motor is not bolted in properly.

3. There seems to be little compression from the turn over note. I will test this at the weekend.

4. The disty is loose and maybe have been swopped out a few times. I have now worked out the wiring so will check this shortly.

I think (hope) the main problem is lack of compression caused by dry cylinders. I tried some WD40 into the plug holes but maybe that's not thick enough after 200K miles. I've never seen this before in a B200 Volvo engine, but have in a 1997 BMW. Will try some oil squirting.

The thing is a bit of mess but worth it to me, any suggestion would be of help.

 

[Tony (archive)]

My old 1987 360 has been laid up while I've been welding it for a considerable time, well mostly not welding it really but its been in storage with the occasional start and running fine with the help of a bit of fuel down the carb. Before hand the car was fully working, but rusty in the boot and sills. Now the time has come to move the car to my home and finish it.

Sometime in the last few years something has happen and there seem to be several faults, basically it won't fire. There is spark at the plugs and petrol or easy-start has no effect. CAM is turning, and oil pressure seems fine (semi synth but old >5yrs).

1. Electrical buzzing from one of the relays under the dash sometimes when the ignition is on and it continues when the starter is engaged. The lights dim a bit when the buzzing is going, was thinking the low voltage might make the spark weak, but it looks ok.

2. Wipers are really buggered some way and I've had to disconnect them at the switch, possibly the motor is not bolted in properly.

3. There seems to be little compression from the turn over note. I will test this at the weekend.

4. The disty is loose and maybe have been swopped out a few times. I have now worked out the wiring so will check this shortly.

I think (hope) the main problem is lack of compression caused by dry cylinders. I tried some WD40 into the plug holes but maybe that's not thick enough after 200K miles. I've never seen this before in a B200 Volvo engine, but have in a 1997 BMW. Will try some oil squirting.

The thing is a bit of mess but worth it to me, any suggestion would be of help.

Was none of the above, there was no compression reading on the cylinders. The timing gear on the crank had slipped against the belt.

Not sure what the original cause was, either dry cam or dirt (galvanic head corrosion powder), or just build up of rubber for many years of brief starts. When I first tried to start it there was a bit of a squeal, which I thought was the water pump.

Everything seems fine now, even the electrical gremlins have fixed themselves, although I havn't had it running properly on all cyls from the fuel supply so not 100% sure none of the valves are damaged, but turn over note seems right now.

Now to get some fuel in the tank and sort out the brakes which seem to have drained themselves.

 

[Tony (archive)]

Was none of the above, there was no compression reading on the cylinders. The timing gear on the crank had slipped against the belt.

Not sure what the original cause was, either dry cam or dirt (galvanic head corrosion powder), or just build up of rubber for many years of brief starts. When I first tried to start it there was a bit of a squeal, which I thought was the water pump.

Everything seems fine now, even the electrical gremlins have fixed themselves, although I havn't had it running properly on all cyls from the fuel supply so not 100% sure none of the valves are damaged, but turn over note seems right now.

Now to get some fuel in the tank and sort out the brakes which seem to have drained themselves.

Well there was still a few more problems to solve, but it finally started on the fuel supply and is running relatively sweetly even thought there is a bit of a gasket water/oil leak.

For the record here are some of the things I had to do.

Fuel supply - tank was dry and needed about £15 of fuel to wet the supply in the top of the tank. Blocking the cross link pipe might help with this in future.

Electrical buzzing was a bad earth caused by the earth strap bolt beside the battery, had been undone some time ago and just needed tightened. It was intermittent. The give away was when the horn was pressed with the ignition off the ignition lights came on and some other strange things.

One of the fuel lines running down the chassis has a slight leak and fuel is leaking while running, possible in the return feed.

Brakes seem to have died but are working at the end of the pedal travel on the fronts only.

Rear left was well seized and wheel spinning the right one did not move it. A combination of repeated shoving with feet up against the wall and repeated clutch engaging eventually got it feed up.

hope that helps anyone in similar circumstances.