Jason's "built" D24T engine build
 

Well, here is the begining of my "built" engine for my Volvo. My engine is just about worn the hell out, it has tons of blow by and is having a pretty hard time starting when hot. I can see the writing on the wall for it, I know by this fall it won't be starting in the cold weather...

This engine came out of Alex's '85 and had 173k miles on it. The car seemed to be pretty well maintained, and was all stock when we got it. It appears to have never overheated, and the head had never been off it as far as I can tell. It has never been machined for sure. Pretty virgin starting point which is nice. Upon getting it apart, the rings are totally gone, many were broke, and some were worn down to almost nothing (see pics). The bottom end is like new though! It doesn't even need rod bearings, but its getting new ones anyway... I'll be dropping the block off in a few days at a local machine shop to have it hot tanked and dipped (they have a acid tank for cast iron blocks that makes them come out looking new).

Plans for the engine include:
basic rebuild with new bearings, rings, rebuilt head with new valves, guides, min fly cut, etc...

rebuilt rods, shot peened, and balanced

balanced pistons

balanced crank (going to take it and have it checked/balanced if need be on a sunnen crank balancing machine at a local shop)

port and polish job on the head (by me, nothing major, just clean up/smooth out on the intake ports, very minor work on the exhaust ports)

NA cam

ARP head studs and rod bolts

I'll be painting the whole thing CAT yellow.. I know I know, its a green block, but I haven't found a green that really looks like the original color, and I kinda like the industrial look that the cat yellow has. Don't worry, I'll still be telling everyone its a vw diesel, but at least people when they look at it will probably automaticly think its a diesel, and NOT a gasser.

Heres some pics:
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2514.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2513.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2512.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2511.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2510.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2515.jpg

This engine will also be getting my hotrod injection pump that I'll be building, but not untill after its running with my current pump and broken in. I've got a couple spares and am planning on building one with a Cummins 12mm head, and a 2.8mm lift cam plate. Also planning on doing a HE351 turbo of a common rail Cummins with the bigger pump. I'm hoping to make 250 to the wheels...

Jason

Wow, those rings are pretty worn for 173k miles. What do you think caused them to break?

I think the cat yellow will look sharp. You could carry the color theme and paint the new diff. cat yellow also.

Interesting Build. Good Luck!

Thanks... Hopefull it puts down some power. I got the head apart all the way last night... Quite a bit of room for improvement in the ports. Hopefully the port and polish job will help extract some more power out of it.

Jason

Jason, you are doing some kickass stuff. Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see how it turns out for you, the port and polish.

Thanks!

Wish I had a flow bench at work to see before and after... There is a guy on vwdiesel.net that had his head done, (for a 1.6 build) and it was flowed. They got a pretty sizeable increase in flow out of it. I'm not quite that worried about it to pay to have it flowed though. I've done plenty of head work, I know there will be an improvement.

Jason

Port and Polish work done!
 

Here's a couple pics of the head. Just finnished the port and polish job tonight. Didn't get real crazy with it, just smoothed out the casting lines in the ports, and mostly cleaned up the material under the valve seats. All the ports had a sharp edge from the seat pocket being cut. The exhausts were worse than the intakes interestingly. I removed the ridge around those areas and blended from the seat into the port. Kinda hard to see in the pics, the camera flash really doesn't get down into the port very well. As you can see in the last pic, the head is all cleaned up, and now ready for the new guides to be installed. Its getting all new guides, and a 3 angle valve job next! As Alex likes to say, its my thousand dollar racing head...lol

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2520.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2519.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2522.jpg
The exhaust port in the one pic looks all out of shape... its how the light is hitting it, I was trying to get close to the intake port as you can see down it the best with the camera flash. I took at least 10 pics and they all sucked.

Head update: I installed all 12 guides and reamed them. The head is now getting the 3 angle valve job and should be done by the end of the week.

I just ordered piston rings today, and hope to assemble the short block this weekend if the rings show up. I still need to order a water pump, a couple misc gaskets and the head studs.

The project may take a little break as I don't really have the $$ for the studs. I just got married and we paid for the wedding. Kinda put a drain on the finances!

Jason

Congrats on the wedding!

Assume you are going oversize on the pistons... What kind of rings are you going to use? Just the standard Mahle stuff, or whatever comes on the pistons? Or have you considered using Total Seal rings? I looked into them at one point and decided against it due to expense but it might be worth considering for an engine that is going to put down a lot of power.

Also I would be sure to use a proper quality water pump, not a GMB, so that you are moving enough coolant to keep it cool. RockAuto sells Bosch pumps that are actually excellent quality. We ordered one and it turned out even nicer than the OEM-quality Graf I got from Tom. Nice smooth impeller casting, better than the Graf, and the Graf was good too. I would use a Bosch next time.

You might also considering sending your rods to Tom and having him set you up with a matched set of rods and pistons. There is a fair amount of variation in length and weight for rod+piston assemblies which can cause differences in compression between cylinders, difficulty selecting a headgasket thickness, etc. Tom has a massive collection and can make you a set of 6 that are matched for closest possible length and weight. If you are going to the trouble of building a nice motor I would do this to give it that extra little bit of smoothness and flexibility.

Thanks... She puts up with the diesel, so I kept her around!

I'm planning on using the Bosch actually, after reading all of Tom's findings. Not really much price difference either from the GMB. As for rings, I ordered a set of Deves rings, which even have a 2 piece 2nd compression ring. Jim, the owner of Archway spoke pretty highly of them, and used to run them in his race engines back in his off road racing days. Lets hope the quality is still the same. The block is standard and staying that way. It has almost no wear. The rings were totally shot, but the rest of it is nice. As for rods, I found there to be almost no variance in piston height. Kinda a nice suprise from what I have heard Tom finding sometimes. The pistons were all within a few thousands of each other.

Jason

Here is a teaser pic of what it will look like. I really like the yellow. I think once its all done it will have a real industrial look.

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2523.jpg

I just got a woody!

Keep up the good work.

Lol thats the idea here isn't it? Cheap fun.

Jason

I work with big cat engines on crushers on work and i really like the engine colour. To hear on a cat engine every day at work with 10" pipe straight from turbo is the reason why i have d24t:D
Nice work with the engine.

My head has had a previousy line bore job. Damn thing has cam bearings. Im gonna have to use my NA head.

Thats interesting.... Haven't seen a water cooled head with cam bearings.

Jason

I have always imagined that color would be a good choice for a D24T. Looks great.

Thanks, I think its really going to "pop" in the engine compartment. Especially when I go back to the track with the hood stack. Though with the new engine, I'll be installing a NICE chrome 5" stack on it. Jim, the owner of the shop is going to buy it for me..lol He thinks its great I'm going over there and beating up on the ricers with a smoke stacked volvo!

Jason

Nice work Jason!

Very interesting thread. I'm gathering info about the D24/D24T cus I want too tune the crap out of these engines, especially after seeing a D24T benched to 260hk and 310lb/ft on the wheels!

Was thinking on the Nissans RD28T but the choice of aftermarket parts to this car is poor.

Had a 740 Turbo Intercooler with some nice upgrades so i know the 740 well ;)

d24 vs D24T cam?
 

Jason (or anybody else):

I thought I saw mention of the D24 having more valve lift than the D24T cam. Is that correct? What is the difference?

Its supposed to make more power... I'm going to get one and take some real measurements on it. I think the difference was in duration though, but all I have really heard has mostly been generic stuff like "the NA cam is better". I haven't found any concrete info or actual specs anywhere.

Jason

cams and heads
 

The reason I ask is because I have 2 spare d24 engines for my NA D24. One is supposed to be good, well maintained with less than 90k when it was pulled, the other is a 'gentle puffer' with 160K but supposedly starts and runs and supposedly was never overheated. My thought was that if the NA cam indeed had more lift and more power, I have the ability to make that happen. I'd guess that ARP studs might be a good idea, as longer intake duration would increase the effective compression and raise EGT, even absent any messing with the waste gate settings.

On another note, I have heard that these heads cannot be milled if they are warped, as the camshaft bearing surface is thus warped as well. You spoke of a milled head- please tell me exactly what you had done to it?

If your talking about running arp studs in a NA engine that would be a waste of money... They don't make near enough power to blow the gasket. Even if you were going to swap the NA cam into a turbo diesel, the difference in power isn't night and day from what I understand, its more like "every little bit helps" kinda deal. Studs aren't needed untill you are trying to push some big boost.

The service literature says the head cant be milled (same thing is said for the 4 and 5 cyl heads to in the VW manuals). Thats all BS, these heads have been being milled for years with good results. Not like you can just go down to the dealer and pick up another head. Granted, if its warped to hell milling it wont help. If its off a little, you can take a few thousands off it to have a fresh surface and minimize the warpage at the gasket surface. If the cam shaft area was warped so badly to where it would be a problem for the cam, the whole head would probably look like a banana anyway and would be junk.

Jason

About the head warping stuffs.
I just did a head gasket replacement on a customers car. The head was original thickness and to bring the sealing surface back to flat twenty thousands had to be cut. Also the valves could be wiggled ALOT. 6 ~ 8 mm So new valve guides and seals plus a bit of valve grind. 300$ later new head!

100k on the motor. Some reason or another 10 years ago the motor lost the timing belt and a redneck replaced the head, didn't torque the head bolts correctly, left the heater return pipe hose clamp looose. No cooling fan shroud! And the oil feed banjo bolt was alll messed up.

Came though pretty good. It can turn both tires easily.

NEW PICS AND PROGRESS!

Well, after being at a local tractor pull and seeing some Cat diesels up close, it was apparent that my color yellow really wasn't right, it was too bright. I made a trip down to the local Cat dealer and picked up a couple cans of genuine Cat paint, and a 1R-0750 2 micron Cat fuel filter which will be getting installed on the new engine as well (hey it has to match!). Anyway, here are a couple pics, they really dont do it justice... It really has that industrial look to it. The paint has a nice gloss to it and really layed out nice, not thin and watery like that other yellow I used. I decided to paint the head as well, since all the Cat diesels I have seen are all yellow. I do plan on having some stuff black and silver for a little more detailed look rather than just drowned in yellow. Granted some of you may think this is a waste of time (Alex keeps giving me shit about it) but for as much work as this is, it might as well look good!

As for progress, the head is just sitting on, not bolted yet. I did install the oil pump, rear main seal, oil pickup and oil pan. I'm waiting on buying head studs, and getting a head gasket. The one I bought off ebay from Europe was HUGE dissapointment. Turned out not to even be a steel one, and to top it off, the dumb ass mail lady bent it in half to stuff it in my mail box!!! I still would have used it even if it was fiber since it was a 2 notch which is what I needed. What a waste, straight to the trash. Oh well, here are the pics:

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2552.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2554.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/102_2553.jpg


Jason

They were not stock. It appears to have been line bored and cam bearings installed to get back to the original dimensions

Looking great. I like the new color. Not sure I would have painted the head, I like to see the shiny aluminum... but it looks sharp.

Flat black for the valve cover I assume? Or if you are going to continue with the Cat theme gloss black may be better...

Thanks, I think gloss black. I was on the fence about the head too, before I had it nice clean aluminum. All the cat diesel I saw all had the head painted the same color as the block though. I really wanted to get it kinda close to the industrial cat look. I'm not going to drown the whole thing in yellow like they do, but the head was just too much aluminum for the look I'm going for.

George, did you get my pm?

Jason

awesome Jason!!!!

You bring two favorites of me togheter on a really nice and professional way.Love to see such nice photo's.
I keep watching you build!

Thanks... Its going to get interesting once it goes in and gets the "built" 12mm head pump I'm planning.

Jason

About head milling. I remember that Volvo Greenbooks says that you can mill them a little bit, and the Brickboard FAQ says that you can go a little bit more than the Greenbook says.

Well, finnally an update for you guys! I just bought a core D24 head (for prechambers I need, a shim carrier, and the NA cam), and I just sent the money to a guy for the rest of the ARP head studs. All I have left to get is the water pump, head gasket, and belts. I should be bolting the head down within the next couple weeks. I've got to finnish up a bathroom remodel I'm in the middle of and we have our wedding reception next week with family comming from out of town. Not to mention pulling the trans out of my F350 to get rebuilt. Once all that crap is done, I can get back to work on the engine!

Jason

Studs are here, as well as the head studs. I'm going to order the head gasket shortly. The trans rebuild for my truck is like $1400... Kinda taking the wind out of my engine budget for the volvo. Gotta get it together though, the engine thats in the car is getting pretty damn tired. Besides the trans is getting noisy too, I think the imput or mainshaft bearing is going. Its just non stop with this thing! Once its together though.... Its gonna be bad ass!

Jason

Well, it finnaly gave up.. I think the head gasket blew. Its blowing coolant from the resivior, and its eating coolant non stop. I was thinking it could be my cap went bad, but upon trying another cap off Alex's car, it just super pressurized the system, the hoses were hard as a rock (kinda suprised the cap didn't bleed off before that??) Cant really complain, it has close to 200k miles on it, and the last 15 thousand or so have been REAL hard thanks to me. 25lbs of boost on stock head bolts! I cant believe it lasted this long. This is just kicking my but to get in gear on the new engine!

Tonight, I beat out the prechambers from my core and and started installing them. I also installed the valve seals. I should get the head totally assembled by tomorrow. I also ordered up a steel head gasket, since our supplier was out of the fiber ones. Vovlo gets 114 bucks for one these days, the guy said it was special order but didn't say it was any problem to get. Once the gasket shows, I can get the head bolted on and start assembling more pieces onto the engine. My goal is to get it to where the motor mounts are on and timing belt installed so all I have to do is swap the injection pump and alternator off the other engine when it comes out. Trans is comming out too to be gone through. I'm also going to get the clutch plate rebuilt, as its slipping the clutch in 3rd and 4th when you shift hard under full boost (even with the worn out engine!). It hasn't been the same since I had to get it on the trailer in 4th gear when the M46 went and that was the only gear I had. I think the clutch spring got superheated and lost some strength. Kinda long winded update, but thats whats been going on. Didn't want everyone to think I forgot about the project! Pictures to come...

Jason

Sounds like a blown HG to me. Usually on D24s and VW diesels the headgasket seems to blow between an oil passage and a coolant passage, but I think that's when they blow because they were overheated. In your case it was probably the boost that popped it, so it makes sense it would pressurize the cooling system with combustion gases instead. Either way, I'm impressed it took that motor as long as it did to finally lay down, considering the kind of use that it was being subjected to... :cool: Hey, at least now you've got a good core motor for when you wear the next one out. ;)

Would be worth trying a cap just to see what it does. A new 150kpa cap is a good move, it's what the car was designed for and won't overpressurize. Maybe that's all that is wrong, or would at least help it limp along for a little while longer. Wouldn't want to let it get an airlock in the cooling system and then overheat and warp the head though. I'd be watching the temp gauge close while driving if there's any question of an HG issue.

I think I remember you saying you didn't put in a new pilot bearing that fit the input shaft on the T5 tighter when you swapped transmissions? Wonder if the trans bearings would have held up better if there had been more support on the input shaft. On the new motor it might be worth finding a bearing that is the right size and high quality, and see if that helps it out.

Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out...

So 150 is the correct pressure... The system is probably getting more pressure than it should, but like I said I would have thought the cap would bleed off some pressure. Its only supposed to be what 14lbs or something. The hoses felt like they had about 60psi in them... They were hard! I'm just parking it before I do any damage. I've got a friends truck to drive while I get mine back together. The trans should be done today and I'll be installing it Monday.

As for the imput shaft bearing, I thought it may be going bad because of a vibration I was feeling, untill I figured out the shifter was comming loose. Once it had enough slop to feel and I noticed, I tightened it up and no more vibration. I was that all along. Trans is getting gone through either way, I need to fix 5th gear and it pops out of 2nd every once and a great while if you shift into it but decelerate.

Jason

Are you going to use a p7100 injection pump off of a cummins too? I didn't know if that was what you meant when you said a "hotrod" IP. I have a he351ve laying around that I'd like to put on my 760 one day, after I replace the head gasket. I just have to find a steel gasket before I do anything.

Do the bolt holes in the cummins head line up with the threads on the d24t block?

No I'm talking about the VE pump found on the 1st gen cummins 12 valve engines. I'll be using the pump head (12mm vs. our stock 10mm) and the came plate which runs the head. Our cam plate is 2.2 or 2.3mm of lift. That head can push enough fuel for over 300hp. I'm not sure what you mean by the cummins head lining up with the d24 block, if your talking the cylinder head, no its huge and totally different since its a direct injected engine. The turbo will bolt up to our manifold though since they are a T-3 flange.

Jason

Ok, time for an update with pics. I got the head totally assembled with new valve seals. I got the spring compressor from work to check the lb rating on the springs and compaired it with the green book. Didn't want to take any chances with a weak spring since the engine is going to get up in the rpms often. I just got a selection of valve shims today so I'll start adjusting the valves. Cam is bolted in, and I also did some measuring on the NA cam, and I will compair it to the turbo cam when the other engine comes out. Also flat filed the head and block surface, and installed all the head studs... Its starting to look like something!
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/100_2627.jpg

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/100_2630.jpg

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/100_2635.jpg

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...o/100_2633.jpg

For any inquiring minds, the NA cam measures .330" lift at the cam. Once I get the belt on, I'll measure the duration at .050" as well.

Jason