Volvo 140 Questions

I very much doubt that this blog has enough visibility that anyone reading it will know any more than I do about some of the obscure questions I have, but just in case you do, please impart your lore! (1st: will a 240 steering wheel hub (say, Momo or Nardi) fit the 140 steering column splines? (2nd: Where can I find belt-line chrome for the doors on a 142? (3rd: I am planning a Celica 5-speed conversion. Any advice, helpful hints? (4th: Where can I find those kick-ass clear front turn lenses I see on the 140 pics from Sweden?

Volvo pushrod performance dreams

I thought it might be nice to have pictures on this blog that are not of my own cars for once---so here are a few shots of some beautiful hot-rodded B20 motors, mostly from Sweden.







Those Swedes know how to make an old Volvo look good...and the last shot is perhaps the hottest 145 in existence. I saved the picture from a craigslist posting in the Bay Area. It sold immediately.

Surprisingly, some long and detailed carb tuning, involving a lot of guesswork and a real seat-of-the-pants touch, reduced Faye Valentine's life-threatening illness to a mild cough in the morning and some slight issues maintaining sufficient breath at some occasional inconvenient intersections ('puff-puff, Faye-Faye' -Ed). An added bonus to this this unexpected surge of new life is drastically less tailpipe smoke, partly from a much leaner fuel mixture, and partly from dumping half a bottle of 'Tune-up in a Can' into the engine oil *shudder*. I know that stuff is evil, and murder on an engine, but I guess she is more or less beyond feeling pain at this point. She will probably linger in the twilight of her years for some time, beautiful to the end, and at long last (hopefully months and months from now) she will pass away quietly in the night when no one is around. And in the meantime, I have roughly an 87% chance of making it to class and back for the rest of this semester. But it's okay, I'll chance it. Because it's Faye: 'hottest granny in the galaxy!'

Poor Faye Valentine. First, the conversion from a Bosch alternator (externally regulated, and therefore complicated) to a Chevy unit (internally regulated, three times the amp output and FREE from a friend) has proven to be more difficult than first imagined. However, after several attempts at wiring and getting everything mounted properly, the project is done and healthy. Now there are deeper problems. We must face the fact (she and I) that her piston rings are so badly worn that there is practically no compression left, meaning that the amount of oil she is burning would cause any self-respecting, environmentally-aware person to lose consciousness. Worse than that, the 'performance' SU carburettors are running too rich, and like all English-built automotive components, are a tuning nightmare; which presents the problem that when Faye has been running long enough to be warm, the combination of no compression and over-gaseous mixture means that no amount of coaxing will induce her to start again---until she has cooled down for at least an hour. This makes simple operations such as filling up with gas or stopping for a quick grocery-run a matter of extreme embarrassment and frustration. *Sigh* Well, I guess now I have an excuse for a high-performance engine rebuild...A costly, time-consuming project to slip in between classes, work and SoCal-style living costs. Hmmmm. Maybe I will just never shut the car off. That way, every time I stop somewhere and run inside I can come back past the burbling, sputtering, belching exhaust pipe and count how many bodies have been asphyxiated and fallen twitching to the sticky pavement...