The Experiment

Maybe a bellhousing pattern can be made to match the Volvo block and then with the same plate have holes drilled to match an sbc bellhousing? I'd guess that 1/4 plate would be sufficient.

 

Yeah, it welds fine.

 

It’s reeeeealy tight in there. Crazy tolerances. Guys have done similar to this before, just not for a granny 4spd.

I pulled the 5-spd transaxle out of storage today, I’ll tear it apart tomorrow to see what it looks like on the other side.

 

My wife is on her way to work and texted, “It’s slick!!” (The roads.)

I texted back, “If you wreck, I’m not fixing that car again.”

 

To anyone who is new here, welcome to the derelict’s corner of the forum.



I’m ready to attack it with a skilsaw.



....and that was the final coffin nail for my $20 pawnshop skilsaw I’ve abused for 15 years. The brushes are shot.

A little work with the flap disk...



So this will give me the two things I need: a flat surface to start with, and a center reference.

This bell from face to face measures 5.375” and a Chevy bell is 6.290”, so I can cut the back .915” off of a Chevy bell, align it so the bearing retainer is centered in this bell, and weld them together.

Oh yes, it will be ugly.

 

Hey, it's only stupid if it doesn't work.

 

sawzall: the recommended vehicle modification tool

 

Diabolical!

 

Sawzall didn't touch this aluminum, but the skilsaw melted through it like butter. You just have to make sure all skin is covered. Hot bits!

 

so funny

 

If you are in need of a 1999 BMW, let me know

 

I hope pop-rivets and duct tape are involved in building the bellhousing.

 

I might be able to fire this thing up tomorrow. I got most of the wiring hooked up. I still need to drag the gas tank in and see if I can find where that ties into this mile-long mess, and hook a battery up to enough of this spaghetti to run. It’s 30’ of wires when pulled tight from the engine to taillights.

 

going to hook up the headlights too

 

Hopefully it doesn’t need them to run

 

It's a Volvo so I wouldn't put it past those safety geniuses that it needs working headlights to be driven!

My only experience working on them was an S60 my mom used to have that had a seat controller that went bad and dropped/reclined the seat to the bottom while she was driving it. That was a crazy expensive little box under the seat!

 

Well, it took some work, but I finally got it running. Newer cars don't have one ground wire, they have 300. Trying to hook an engine/harness to a battery and make it run is not fun.

So, the results of the flex plate vs. flywheel test:

The initial run with the flex plate:



I didn't have all the sensors and vacuum switches hooked up, so it wanted to run lean with a high idle, and it would shut off after a few seconds.

After that, I swapped the flywheel on. At first I was happy. It started right up.



But then, as you see, the idle jumped up to about 4k and I shut it down. I tried it again, and it wouldn't start; it felt like the timing was all over the place. It would fire once, then it would crank a revolution hard like the timing was way advanced, and so on. Tried again, and it eventually fired, but this time the RPMs shot up fast to about 6+k before I could kill it. I swapped the flex plate back on and it ran fine.

I'm thinking this ECU is not figuring it out. So for now, I'm tabling this idea. The Experiment is on hold, if not dead. I think this mess is going out the door so it stops taking up floor space. And head space.

This spring, I'm planning on retiring my daily driver so I can use the license plates and insurance off of it for the 3a. It's a '95 Volvo 850, and this flywheel should work just fine with it, since the car it came from was the same engine and model. If not, I still have the harness and ECU from the car it came from, so I'm sure I can make it work. It is just a much simpler system, and more forgiving to a jeep swap.

One way or another, that oddball 3b is getting an oddball engine!

 

Man,
Ya know it could be a busted cam sensor or two.... Maybe from dragging it around your shop ?

 

Starting to look like organ rejection.

 

Predator?