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George,
Thanks for your reply. I am in Belgium.
"400 Euros sounds like a lot to fix though."
That is the price I found on the web for an exchange kit at Scandcar. It might be cheaper to send in the old ones for reconditioning, although the previous one I had done (for a B20A engine) cost around 200 euros for a professional restoration. And I don't have the place to store the car while waiting for the carburettors to come back from the specialist. (The parking lot at work would be a possibility, although I don't think they'd be happy if they found out...)
Come to think of it, I should simply have checked for torn diaphragms first...
I might check with the Volvo club if they have good SU HIF6's in their warehouse. Are there any B30-specific things I should look for in them? Needles? Do they bolt directly to the Stromberg manifolds and connect to the throttle bars and choke cables? If not, that alternative becomes less attractive because my tinker-spacetime-quota are already being consumed nearly 100% by my Amazon. They would have to be bolt-on replacements.
"...so a good replacement cam will be easier to get"
Well, I'm not up for engine work on any car I buy now. I'm restoring the Amazon, and want a car for transportation as buses and railroads get less practical when friends move to hard-to-reach-by-public-transport places. Otherwise I'm a big fan of public transport though.
The guy claims the engine was rebuilt about 5000kms ago so I guess any cam problems would not yet be detectable? With a flat cam lobe, does it run well when accelerating? It seemed to run fine when accelerating, it was the idle that was bad.
"Unless you are planning to use LPG I would take that system off."
I am planning to use it, if I can have it upgraded to current regulations for not too much dineros. LPG = 0.38 euro/liter, gas = 1.20 euro/liter, with a 10% increase in fuel consumption for LPG. Even with 208 euros more road tax, it takes only about 3000km (2000mi) to reach break even. With a projected use of 10.000km (7500mi) a year, this is not insignificant. LPG pollutes less too, or so they say.
The engine looks good, and was (supposedly) restored about 5000kms (3000miles) ago. I have yet to see the receipts, but no receipts = no deal.
" One rear brake seemed to drag;..."
" My guess is that 90% or more of the 140s and 164s have this problem."
So you mean driving home with a dragging brake before fixing it would not really be too adventurous? I was thinking about possible detrimental effects of the heat that generates. (I'm talking about 100 miles.)
The brakes do seem to be good. He accelerated quite confidently in his garage and slammed the brakes shortly before taking out the door :-)
"It is certainly NOT a sign of a first-class job!"
No, I already thought so. Well, if I end up buying it, I might just take a rag soaked in brake fluid to them... I knew this property of brake fluid was going to come in handy at some point :-)
Mileage on the odometer: 170000km (120000mi). Body restored and repainted, engine restored (the manual gearbox was not). They are probably worth a lot more over here, there aren't many of them. However, I think the price is too high (5500 euros is more or less $6000). It is probably not much work to make it road worthy, but it will cost a lot to have it done. That may make him come to his senses. There don't seem to be many people interested in it either, he had only one person come look at it before me, and the ad had been out about 2 months before I called.
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