14-DZ-VZ

Volvo 164, dutch registration 14-DZ-VZ
Former registration California 202MHL

31-12-1999: I've just bought myself a new toy, a dark green 1974 Volvo 164. Powered by a B30F engine, even the BW35 automatic tranny should be bearable. Right now I'm fixing it up to be ready for state inspection (overhaul brakes, new tires, look everything over). Once it's passed inspection, rustproofing will be one of my first priorities, as it's in excellent condition right now. After that, I'll make my way around the car fixing everything that needs to be fixed. Some day, it'll even get a new coat of paint. This, however, has fairly low priority, as the car lives outside and frequently needs to be driven past scrubs, bushes and other things that aren't good for my peace of mind when I've just spent lots of money on a paintjob.

20-01-2000: The car passed inspection first time, the inspectors even commented on how good it was. Two slight problems might have meant a retest, but a promise to fix them ASAP meant a clean bill of health. Thanks guys.

Februari: Because I sold my 144 the 164 is now pushed into daily service. A heartily meant "ouch" at a burn of 1 litre of gas per 6 km. You do the math. But a true joy to drive.

March: LPG. Surprisingly, still a 6km/l burn, but LPG costing only 40% of what gas costs, a lot more bearable. Definately needs a tune-up though.

Late March: Damn, the transmission seems to be on the way out. When cold, it slips and doesn't upshift, so the first few miles are very noisy, high revs, and bad for the engine. Changing the ATF and cleaning the screen didn't help. After pricing a rebuilt (about $1200 including tax), and the fairly high RPM at cruise having been a slight annoyance, I decided to go for conversion to manual. From my favorite parts guy I got all the parts I needed for conversion to M400 (4-speed). A guy in the Netherlands, Huke Basart (mail me if you want his phone number) converts bellhousings to match almost any transmission to almost any engine. He offered me a good deal on a used M46 (200/700 series 4speed + OD), so that's the route I'm going to take. Why, you might ask, don't you put in the proper M410 4sp+OD ? I would, if I could find one at reasonable money. Unfortunately, they're either unavailable, or very expensive (and basically used, untested, and without warranty). 3000 rpm at 85 mph should make a nice difference, and the 10-15% fuel savings I'm expecting don't hurt either at a fuel price of $4.20/gal. Of course I first dug through the parts book to see what I needed, and found that Volvo themselves aren't quite sure. The engine type doesn't match the chassis number, and the crankshaft bolt doesn't match the engine type. Oh well, since it means I do in fact have a 6-bolt flywheel, I'm actually quite happy. 8-bolt flywheels are also very hard to find.

NoteAfter starting the conversion, that happyness didn't last long. See here for details and the story of swapping transmissions.

Things to do:

• Replace that $#^%&* transmission
• Tuneup. Runs pretty rough when cold and at idle, although warm and at revs it's nice.
• Rustproofing. It's as rust-free as they get, and I'ld like to keep it that way
• Finish mounting the towbar and associated wiring

Early May: Transmission gone worse, and took the waterpump seals with it. Got a tow back from the ANWB roadside assistence guy, a loaner car from them for a few days, and after that a loaner car from the company I work for. You can find our corporate website at www.hta.nl. Thanks to my boss, Henk, for helping me out with that.

Early July: Read the transmission swap story. It's taking a heck of a lot longer than expected and is costing a lot more. Still, I'll hopefully have the car back in another couple of weeks (I'm having the work done, I have neither the time nor the facilities for frequent lifting of M46 transmissions. Those babies are HEAVY. And after good weather in may, the weather's been quite patchy over the past month, so I'm glad I'm not continually working on my back on the driveway under a soaking wet car. Even if it costs a bundle. The company doesn't seem to mind about me keeping the car longer than originally expected. On the other hand, considering the mileage allowance they had to pay me otherwise, they're probably getting a good deal as well. And even though it's too small to be really useful in my kind of work (systems administration, of the hands-on kind), that VW Polo isn't quite as bad as I expected it to be. Actually the handling is a lot better than that of an old Volvo, and consequently tire wear seems to be a fair bit higher as well. Only drawback is the crap tires that tend to lose contact with the road when the weather turns wet.