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Originally Posted by Juiced06GTO
Quick update for those who are following along. Sloooow progress tonight! All my parts showed up, so only thing holding me back now is not having the time and feeling the effects of lack of sleep!
Everything is all cleaned up and ready to go back together for the most part. One weird thing I found is, I figured since I had everything apart I'd go ahead and replace the thermostat. So i split the tstat housing from the intake manifold and.....its empty  There is no tstat in the housing?? The factory red Volvo paint was still completely intact and it doesn't look like anyone has ever been in there from what I can tell unless they sprayed it after so not sure what is going on there. I am going to replace the housing and the thermostat anyhow and we'll see how she runs. Maybe it disintegrated and is lodged somewhere in the block??
Anyhow, I have a buddy coming to help me tomorrow to get the head and intake installed (cast iron is heavy and its awkward climbing into the engine bay holding them!) and hopefully get the motor back together completely. I am hoping to test fire her on Weds using the muffs to make sure there are no issues then he head for Moultonboro on Sat morning.
Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement and advice along the way! Hope to see you guys out on the lake in a few days!! |
I recommend that you make 4 temporary studs out of threaded rod or bolts. 2 the size of the head bolts (7/16-14, I think) and 2 the size of the exhaust manifold bolts (3/8-16, I think). It makes alignment much easier and reduces the risk of gasket damage. I have used stainless steel for the exhaust manifold bolts with no issues in the past. I don't think they require much torque, unlike the head bolts.
The missing thermostat is very odd. That's not good for engine longevity and is usually a band-aid fix for some other problem in the cooling system. There's no way the thermostat disintegrated. There were two designs of the thermostat housing if memory serves, the two piece has the thermostat in between the two pieces, the one piece sits on top of the thermostat. Maybe you have a two piece?