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1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Tom McGlynn on
Friday, 24 October 1997, at 7:31 p.m.
I have an 83 DL, B23F engine, Jetronic ignition with 194k miles. It had been
off the road for about a year, but started monthly. When I decided to start using it again it was only running on 3 cylinders ( 1-2 & 4 ).
I have spark to the cylinder.Removing the injector wire does nothing,( at idle . I'll get to that).Swapped injector wire with #2 - stayed with cylinder.
Replaced injector with a spare- no change. Swapped that spare with #2 injector just in case the spare was bad, still no change. At this point I'm thinking stuck valve. Compression test results: 175-185 lbs in each cylinder, steady.Yes I did the compression test with all plugs removed in event of blown head gasket.
All new plugs are burned uniformly. So I have fuel, spark and compression but
# 3 is not producing any power.So I start thinking vacuum leak in that cylinder.
Now here's where the really puzzling part starts. As it sits there idling and
shaking up a storm every so often it smooths out for a couple seconds, then goes
back to 3 cylinders. I put a vacuum guage on the intake manifold and it was
fluctuating around 15 lbs. I happened to catch it during one of it's smooth
cycles and the vacuum jumped t
o 20lbs ( which I've been told is normal). I changed the intake manifold gasket with zero success. However if I manually raise the idle to about 2k and remove the #3 injector wire, you can hear a difference in the idle. Not as pronounced as when I remove another cylinder injector wire, but detectable.
At various times I've swapped out the ECM, replaced the O2 sensor since I had
a new one ( Disconnecting it made no difference either), replaced the timing belt, and clamped or removed every vacuum hose from the manifold.Valve lash is
within tolerance. Plug wires are new.
I apologize if some of the preceding was rambling but I remembered more as I typed. I happened upon this forum, and after reading some of the posts and replies, it sounded as though there are some very knowledgable Volvo folks tuned
in. Any idea's would be gratefully welcomed, thanx. Tom McGlynn tpmcgly@us.ibm.com
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Topi on
Saturday, 25 October 1997, at 12:10 a.m.
Hi! I had a similar problem and it turned to be cracked distributor cap! Was shorting between two cylinders but the cap looked "as new". If you make a new timing mark 180 deg from stock one , which shows 1 and 4, you may be able to see if 3 is firing correctly. If not, it should be shorting to 1 or 4, which are next to it. This is the way I found out misfiring. Good luck and let us know how you solved it!
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Tom McGlynn on
Saturday, 25 October 1997, at 8:07 a.m.
Thanks Topi, I thought about a cap early on. I'm on my second new one now. I do have another question though since I'm troubleshooting with a not very detailed service manual. There is a large vacuum hose bewteen the AMM and the manifold that routes to a small cylinder with a "T" connector at one end and a wire asm coming out the other that looks just like an injector wire connector. On the other end of the "T" is a second vacuum hose that attaches to the manifold. Can anyone identify? Tom
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Jim Bradley on
Saturday, 25 October 1997, at 2:31 p.m.
I believe what you are describing is the automatic idle speed motor/valve assembly. The hose comes from ahead of the throttle plate and goes back to the intake behind the throttle plate. The valve regulates how much air bypasses the throttle plate at idle, with an electric motor, to maintain a constant idle speed. I doubt that this has anything to do with your current problem.
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Mark Klein on
Saturday, 25 October 1997, at 5:23 p.m.
You have compression and it sounds like you have fuel in a burnable form. You need spark and you need it at the correct time. If you have swapped caps with no change, you might try swapping plug wires back and forth. See if the dead cylinder will move. A wire could pass enough voltage to give a spark but not enough to run the cylinder properly. Try swapping plugs from one cylinder to another also.
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Tom McGlynn on
Friday, 31 October 1997, at 12:18 a.m.
Mark, thanks for the idea but I had tried that as well with no change. Doesn't anybody out there enjoy a good puzzle? I'm at the point now that I'm probably not seeing the forest for the trees. At least my motorcycle is still running, but it is starting to get a bit cold.
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Topi on
Friday, 31 October 1997, at 9:34 a.m.
Gas motor is very simple; You need a spark and fuel to fire. If you got a spark at correct time, you don't have fuel. 1. Try swapping # 3 injector AND wiring with #4. You did that with # 2 but #2 and 3 are wired together.( Injectors are firing in pairs; 1 & 4 and 2 & 3). 2. Have you checked for vacum leaks? Booster? If the hook-up is close to #3 and it leaks, that can mess up one cylinder at idle. Good Luck!
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder[ALL/1998] posted by Mark Klein on
Friday, 31 October 1997, at 7:02 p.m.
If you have compression, spark (and at the right time), and fuel/air mixture, then you just might have a big vacuum leak, like Topi said. Try taking a can of aerosol carb cleaner and spraying around the intake and its hoses. Check all around the throttle housing and all the big hoses too. See if you can narrow down where (if it even does) the leak is by the increase in idle speed and improved idle quality.
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder "EUREKA"[ALL/1998] posted by Tom McGlynn on
Sunday, 2 November 1997, at 8:17 p.m.
I finally managed to get the car to a friend's service station and made use
of his Sun engine analyzer. I started with the electronics and #3 did not show
as firing at all, which was unusual since with the plug out there was a nice
blue spark. I also noticed that the other plugs were very low in their KVA
output. I took a plug wire from stock, threw it in #3 and there went my miss!
It seems that the plug wire was shorting through the metal plug cover to the
head. It is still puzzling that when I had earlier swapped wires between 2 & 3
there was no change, but at that time I didn't care. One new wire set and I was
back in business. The car is running great and should be turning 200k in short
order.The part that is really annoying is that the plug wires had only about 20k miles on them.About 3 weeks ago I stopped by a local Volvo dealer to shoot the breeze with the mechanics and see if they had any idea's. At the time one of them asked about plug wires. I said they were relatively new, and no they were not Volvo replacement wires. He casually mentioned that some Volvo's, especially one of my vintage, didn't react well to aftermarket wires. At the time I thought he was shooting in the dark,but when you're right....
He was from Prestige Volvo in Hanover N.J., and if you happen to be reading this
my hat is off to you.
I'd also like to thank Mark, Topi, Jim and Jeff for your responses and
suggestions. Tom McGlynn
p.s. - Those aftermarket wires to avoid were marked BWX Hi Temp and were blue.
And yes, my new wires are from Volvo.
Re: 1983 DL 3 Cylinder "EUREKA"[ALL/1998] posted by Tom Graham on
Wednesday, 5 November 1997, at 11:52 p.m.
I had a similar problem with aftermarket plug wires in 1984 240DL wagon. When I bought the car earlier this year it had 143,000 miles on it. The Bosch plug wires looked old and dirty so I replaced them with a not so cheap set purchased at Advance Auto. After a month or so I developed some horrible misfiring. It took me another month to put back the old plug wires on a desparate whim. Fixed it right up. I will also go to the dealer for my next set of plug wires.
Cheers! Tom