Greetings,
I just found this site, necessity being the mother that it is, and I'm happy to meet you all. For what it's worth, I live on a mountaintop in northern Vermont, run a Walton's style sawmill, make some maple syrup, blacksmith a bit and subsistance farm. I like it, but it's a very low cash economy. I've been driving since 1966 and have never spent more than $500. on a car, usually much less, and I've been the last owner of a lot of vehicles. Until recently my favorite car had been a 1962 Rambler with a Continental flathead that slipped away on me in 1980, and I'm sure it's still running around somewhere. About 5 years ago a friend lent me her 87 240 with 325,000 miles on it when I was between cars and my first thought was 'Baby, where have you been all my life'. That winter she blew the transmission, I gave her $200 bucks and spent 2 days on my back. I've been driving it ever since.
As fate would have it, this same woman called me a week ago and asks me if I would go with her to Burlington, Vermont to look at an '80 240 GlE wagon that she found on Craigslist. Some college kid had brought it from California, it had been parked unregistered for 3 years behind his apartment, he was heading back home in a couple of days with his girlfriend and her new Toyota and he couldn't get it to run. I wouldn't normally recommend buying a car that I couldn't listen to, but this thing was spectacular. 107k and except for some fading paint on the hood and roof it was virtually showroom condition. Not a scratch inside or out, every piece of molding, carpet, plastic, leather perfect. I crawled inside and out and couldn't find any sign of use. He'd put a new battery in it, tires and exhaust like new. The kid had paid $1500. for it and put on 3500 miles on his trip, and had the previous owners service records from new, but he did say the engine was noisy and had been since he'd bought it. The fuel pumps not coming on, but it's sunday evening and were 80 miles from home, so we hum and haw, she offers him a little more than nothing and he signs it over.
A few days and a fuel pump later were on the road, but she definitely is noisy, tappets clacking to beat the band. There's also a low throaty sound like a muffler leak, but I can't find any. It drives fine, shifts good and isn't too noisy at highway speed and we take it back to my barn where I told her I'd adjust the valves for her. I take off the valve covers and the camshafts are worn like nothing I've ever seen. My friend becomes menopausal, saying that this is way more than she wants to deal with, and so being the genlteman that I am, I offer to take the car for what she has in it. I felt somewhat responsible both to her and the car. Like a stray dog, the car deserved better. This seems to settle the woman down, which is good, but now I've got $430.00 dollars invested in a car I don't need. It's too good a vehicle to be running around here in the salt, so what I'd like to do is get the motor running good, sell it and maybe get the kids some new shoes for Christmas.
I set the valve lash, but it's still noisy. The idle's a little rough, probably a consequence of the cams being as they are. I don't know this engine, a v6 PRV, or what it should sound like, but from somewhere on this site or another I learned that they apparantly suffered from soft cams.( How long have we been building canshafts?) The question I have for anybody who may have experience with this problem is what's the best way to replace them. The Chilton manual sais to remove the heads, which is not appealing. A mechanic somewhere wrote that they would punch holes in the firewall and draw them into the passenger compartment, also not appealing. What about taking out the radiator, timing cover and gears and pulling them out the front?
I wish this car had a 4. I have access to a good one and have thought about changing over. Has anybody done that ? I can handle the mechanics, but I'm afraid the electrical and electronics might turn into a nightmare. What say you?