I have, in addition to "blue" both a 67 122 and a 68 144.
I don't drive the 144 because the motor died with a weird
clank clank clank noise that *wasn't* a blown timing gear.
I had been expecting it to die for a while, what with bad
dry compression and good wet compression and blowing oil
out the top of the motor from bad blowby.

Well, I finally hoisted the lump out of the car, after
sourcing a decent B18 from a 67 (I intend to sell this car
since it is either identical to or worse than my 164 in
every important way)

It turns out that the rear valve spring had simply
*broken*. It was broken in 2 places. The motor still
turns by hand, though there are some weird noises
that don't sound good, it does turn freely. I suspect
there is some other bad stuff going on inside.

The motor has never been opened up, and had only 140k
miles on it. Has anyone ever heard of a valve spring
simply breaking? Especially in 2 places? Nothing else
seemed out of the ordinary when I checked the plugs or
the oil or anything else.


Oh, and when did volvo go to the stronger head bolts?
chris

Chris,

I've tried to email you over the past week but everything's bouncing. Do you have another email address or anything?

- Justin

Hmmm....maybe thats the problem with the clanking in my 164...I never thought to check the valve springs after being sure it was push rods... But then I replaced what I thought was the offensive pushrod, and it still knocks a bit. I'll check next time I have the valve cover off... It also sounds like its got bad compression in one of the holes when I turn it over....

Probably not, but well worth a look anyhow...

-Matt

Do you know the trix to replacing a valve spring without removing
the head? If not, e-mail me and I'll fill you in on several different
ways.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Oklahoma

That was actually going to be the subject of my next posting...but I'll wait and see if that is my problem first... Although, it might be a good time to let everyone know the method anyhow. It would be good information for all to have...

I would assume that it would start with having the offending cylinder's piston at TDC to keep teh valve from falling in, and maybe a rope or something in the spark plug hole to keep things tight and prevent damage to the valve/piston...

But do tell!
It would be sort of nice if that were my problem...then I could send your pushrods back to complete your set again...

-Matt

I had two break in a head that had been on a junker that hadn't run for 15 years that we put on my kids car. My guess is that the two were the ones under compression the whole time and they were weakenend. However, never broke a spring in my 72 142 regular runner.-----Mark Richardson