Volvo versus Dolomite

[soe8m]

As some of you might know i like to go to Italy on my summer holdays and go there by towing a caravan behind a Dolomite. This caravan i bought for the purpose 14 years ago did turn 40 this year and makes a nice combi with a Dolomite. But not this year.

As the kids grow and my Dolomites don't i decided to go with my 1969 Volvo 145. I drive this for about 10 years because for a classic stationwagon I would not know what to choose else. Last year this Volvo had some new metal on some places and a good maintenance because it was becoming my "new" company car also. It was all these years mainly used for house renovation and moving Dolomite parts and only adding oil and keeping air in the tires.

Don't be afraid i'm going to sell any Dolomites and buy more volvo's but it is so much superior. It was the most relaxing trip ever. No need for upgrading cooling, brakes or whatever. A totally standard 1969 car that does brake in the mountains and the needle of the temp gauge not even near the red line. Even the heater could stay off instead of the children in swimsuits on the backseat asking why the heater is on at 35 degrees outside temp.

The car had it's moment before Munich when the camshaft gear did strip it's teeth. Sturdy valves and a bit flex in the pushrods was all i needed. At a parking place i did check the valve play and nothing was wrong after the valve/piston contact. I did find an enthousiastic classic Volvo parts supplier Autoteile Albert about an hour from where we were stranded and with one day delay we arrived in Italy.
For about 10 minutes we discussed to call the travel insurance for a replacement modern but glad we didn't. Driving in the rental a new Audi A3 to pick up the parts did convince us even more. Driving a classic in Italy is half the holiday fun.

When the kids go their own holidays i might consider using a Dolomite again or if we go without a caravan but for now the Volvo wins far ahead.

We had a good meet with some Dolomite related friends. There are about 100 Dolomites in Italy and most of them do " also " have a Dolomite. This year i visited a classic Renault collector who had in every available space a car, even a low mile original 5 Turbo in a metal shed. Since 1985 he did own his Dolomite Sprint (also).

Jeroen

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[bodgerben]

Brilliant write up and a lovely Volvo

It's great to see you use your classics!

[Flyfisherman]

Jeron

Ohhhhhhhhh whose is the yellow R8 Gordina - last time I saw one was at Cholmondley 2013

https://goo.gl/photos/LmAMSNzwXqhHbEk27

Paul

[matt of the vivas]

Old Volvos are amazing.

[soe8m]

This year the volvo decided to have an other issue in Italy.

[SprintMWU773V]

But being a Volvo it probably continued to run for a bit?

[soe8m]

Yes. About 200 km to the camping on three cilindri.

Next week some new valves arrive to drive it home. Those are one of the easiest and robust engines I have ever seen. I drive about 40.000 a year with this one and it seems it doesn't like holidays.

Jeroen.

[NickMorgan]

What a shame. I am sure you would rather not be repairing cars on your holiday.

[Carledo]

I reckon Vovo's went soft with the 140!

My old 1964 122S Estate (LHD French export model) always got me home! Once made it 30 miles towing a loaded trailer, mostly uphill, with NO lining on one side of the clutch and only about a third of very worn lining on the other side! Another time I ran for nearly 1000 miles with the big nut that holds the cam gear to the cam completely off it's threads! it was rather noisy and performance was a tad down but still did 90 all down to London towing an 18ft 4 wheel trailer and pulled a Herald convertible home the day before I pulled the engine to fix it. At that point the engine had covered 265,000 km, 129,000 of them in my ownership. I thrashed it everywhere, gave it only minimal maintainence and used it as a mobile workshop for 10 years. Still, when I tore down the motor, both crank and bores were within tolerance. I still bored and ground it, plus a new fast road cam and steel gears (original B18D cams being NLA) and a new oil pump. The whole lot cost me nearly a grand, on a car i'd paid £100 for and worked hard every day of it's life with me! I should never have sold that car!

I'll never be able to afford another like it, I just hope the Dolomega proves as reliable and unbreakable as that poor old Volvo was!

Steve

[soe8m]

Not particularly soft as I think it were the same engines. Mine is running on lpg and has an conventional conversion what does put some more wear on the exhaust valves. I started maintaining it only two years ago because it became the company car. Before that only local driving and towing.

In my life I've seen a few volvo engine's and never ever a crankshaft needed a regrind. Just new bearings. I did replace the bearings of mine two years ago before I really started driving it. It had worn bearings when I bought it at the time and I used the thick stuff for the noise.

Below some pic's of the bearings. As you can see the play was about the same of having std bearings around an undersized crankshaft. But no fail. Just fitting new bearings.

[soe8m]

There are more worse conditions to repair your car.










All cleaned and prepped this afternoon. Now waiting for some exhaust valves and gaskets to arrive.

[GTS290N]

I hope you didn't make a mess!

[soe8m]

Brought it home today. Thanks to fahrzeugteile albert again and the family who lend me their workshop. It was a good experience for both parties. The son's of the family were in to two stroke motorcycles and were happy to see how a four stroke volvo engine did work.

As only two strokes there it was a bit improvising how to compress the valve springs.

Some tell you it's a lost day of a holiday but I did enjoy.