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Hi Ron;
I have just started it, but just for a few minutes and with the fireextinguisher next to me, because of severe fuel leaks from the carbs at a few places. have as I may have said earlier concluded that I'll have to change all the gaskets and seals in the carburettors, and I am now waiting for my parts to arrive.
In fact, the most remarquable thing when the engine first fired in the bottom of the garage was a thich cloud of blue smoke because of oil in the cylinders. This was due to another mishap when filling the engine up with oil; in the hurry to get things ready I had forgotten to tighten the nuts for the valve cover, and oil poured down along the sides and into the plug holes... After that the engine ran quietly, but will need a lot of adjustments before running smoothly.
Yes; it is a very exciting experience each time a new engine is started for the first time. In a way it's the reward after hours and days of hard work.
The radiator jalousie is just a great invention that disappeared during the sixties. Maybe because it was (and still is) easy to forget it in the upper position, and this can be quite dangerous and even fatal for your engines temperature. My instruction leaflet states that engine breakdown due to a forgotten jalousie is not covered by the warranty, guess that though still valid it's not applicable after more than 40 years. I never use this car in the winter due to salty roads, but when I twenty years ago had a PV 544 as my daily driver it was very useful during the winter to boost the heater.
This motor has a funny history, as I found an ad for it in one swedish magazine (classic motor) in January this year. It showed up to be an elderly swedish man who had practised rally with old Volvo's for decades who had this motor rebuilt for what was going to be his last project, a -57 444. Another guy, very skilled on Volvo engines who died last year did the motor rebuild job for him about 6-7 years ago, but since that the project had stalled for some reason. He also wanted to sell me the car, but it was dismantled into pieces and I have no space nor time for such a project. The car looked good however, and he had a lot of brand new spares for it. Anyhow, upon completing the deal on the motor I was shown a lot of photos from his rallyevents during the years, and a lot of nice shots of PV's on the track.
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