Learn me Volvo 122s

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

You selling any running 122s?

markwemple said:

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

You selling any running 122s?

Since I do not currently own any running 122s... 

Oh thank god. You're so close and a running 122 would be very tempting!

Ian F said:

Very cool.  NOHOME has gone over most of the comments I'd say.  As he hinted, these are some of the best classic cars for daily driver duty. They are really nice driving cars in stock form.

Does the car have Overdrive?  That would be a M41 transmission. The 122 had it as an option, but it's also common for them to have the M40 4 spd without overdrive.  If it has O/D, the M41 would have a D-type O/D (vs. the J-Type the later cars like NOHOME's and my 1800ES came with).  FWIW, all but the very earliest 1800's came with the O/D as standard. 

The engine should be 1.8L B18 with dual SU carbs.  Engine swaps are common as well as boring out to B20 specs, if the block can take it. While Volvo used great iron for these engines, the castings were sometimes a bit off from the bore-centers.  

Although 1800 parts are a bit more common/popular, there are quite a few classic Volvo parts vendors.  The mechanical bits are pretty much the same, but I would call first.  If there's one caveat about owning an old Volvo, it's you'll need to step back in time once in awhile and actually deal with the vendors by phone.  You can usually use websites to search for stuff and get an idea about pricing, but with a lot of these guys, direct contact will get you the best results.  To give you an idea of what I mean, the Yahoo 1800list group is still arguably the best source for 1800 (and by default, also 122) info.

I use irollmotors.com for most stuff, but there are many others. CVI auto in Sweden is what used to be Volvo's "classic parts" division, split off when Ford sold Volvo. 

Car does have a B18 engine with dual Weber carbs. Confirmed it had disc brakes up front. Got pics of the VIN plate so I'm going to try and decode what color the original paint and interior should be. I don't know if it has over drive or not. Would the transmission have a numerical stamp somewhere to indicate what it is? 

Anyone have info on the grill. Most I see have the cross bars and mine doesn't. Why would that be?

Cleaned all the moss off the car tonight after work. Looks much better. The chrome on most of the car actually still shines!

Checked the codes for interior colors and exterior paint. Car came in pearl white (79) with red leatherette for seats and door panels(148-225).

Dual Webbers? That's unusual. More power than SUs and easier to keep in tune, but more fuel use. 

Looks like a good find!

Dual webers would be a lot of carb for that engine.

The od is hard to miss if you stick your head under the car. It is the big lumpazoid thing scabbed on to the back of the gearbox

dankspeed said:

Anyone have info on the grill. Most I see have the cross bars and mine doesn't. Why would that be?

Likely replaced by previous owner. The single horizontal bar grill is hard to find these days. 

I must be wrong then about the carb. This is only the second car I've owned with a carburetor and the first was when I was 16. Can someone educate me please? Does have Weber stamped on it. 

That’s an aftermarket intake with a single Weber downdraft carb. Most likely a 32/36. Pretty easy to tune and rebuild if needed. 

The grille looks to me like one of the early steel ones with the single bar across the middle, that has had the single bar removed.  I've mostly had later Amazons that have the punched aluminum grille:

hobiecr is correct on the carb and manifold.  

Weber DGV 32/36 carb. Pretty much the utility carb for the classic car movement. Also known as the "Pinto Carb".

The only comment I can make from experience is that the abrupt 90 degree turn right under the throttle blades is not a good thing. The large mass of cold aluminum and the disruptive change in flow direction causes fuel separation. This this runs like E36 M3 until you get it warmed up. If it does not, then it is too rich for warmed-up running.

The 32/36 DGV came into vouge as a replacement for worn out SU carbs. Back in the 80's there was only one person in NA who could fix and tune an SU carb. Unless you knew that person, or were that person,your car ran like E36 M3. The Weber actually let you drive the car. At least that is how I came to have one hanging off the side of the MGB in 1983; Brookings SD was short of SU tuning specialist to get my bricked MGB GT running, but MOSS could mail me an affordable Weber DGV that ran from the second it was bolted on.

Since the advent of the internet, the SU has made a resurgence as the carb of choice for Classic cars that were factory equipped with such. The SU fuel deliver system tends to be better since the car was designed for it, you can tune it according to the manual, and information and suppliers are easily located. My GT hs gone from SU to Weber DGV to Weber DCOE and now back to HS4 SU carbs.

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

Great info. Thanks Pete!

dankspeed said:

 

I must be wrong then about the carb. This is only the second car I've owned with a carburetor and the first was when I was 16. Can someone educate me please? Does have Weber stamped on it. 

 This is a two barrel carb, or could possibly be called a "dual throat", might have been the misunderstanding.

It has a manual choke , so making sure that it functions well (and knowing how to use it) will help with the issues NOHOME mentioned. 

Any updates on this?

Maybe he changed his username to Dankswede lol

Sorry guys no updates as of late. It's just been sitting in my garage waiting for me to get my ranger done and running. 

I bought this knowing it would be a long term project though. As soon as I ha e an update I will definitely post. 

Dan

I was planning on buying one which is why I was curious how this one was going. Unfortunately I came home today with an empty trailer. 

IPD sold a Weber Kit that looked allot like that...

The SU's were wonderful.  The much later Stromburgs were not.

If the engine sounds terrible once running it could just be the fiber timing gear of the 2 timing gears.

The exhaust manifold cooks the control arms bushings on that side.

The specific output of the B18 engines if they were the higer performance version (bumpier cam- more compression-2 cabs) was very good.  The have abroad usable poweband.

The suspension bushings and engine mounts are very big squishy things.  I went through lots of engine mounts over the years.  The drive train moves around ALOTT- by design.

The body panels are made from real steel at a much thicker gauge than anything I've owned since.

Super easy to work on obviously.

Eventually I came to think of them as being 3 season cars as even with a fully functional heater defroster blower system they would not Un Fog in winter.

A couple times I had cars that over heated when the radiator water pump and everything to do with cooling was to spec.  The second time around a Volvo repair guy in Santa Cruz (there used to be a bumper sticker I would see in Nor Cal that said "old Volvos never die, they just move to Santa Cruz") told me to remove and disassemble the head and have it hot tanked and flush the block as well as I could.  With all that rust gone it cooled fine.

That said they can run a little hot with a fixed (sometimes just 2 ) bladed fan flapping in the breeze a looooong way from the uncoweled radiator.  If I owned one now I would convert to a coweled electric fan setup.

Even way back then the Volvo seats are amazing.  It was different era-  so they are more like a reading chair, but really really comfortable.

Loved the direct stick shift strait into the transmission setup.  Feels great.

They have the turning radius of a horse.

The U joints are small and many and wear out pretty fast. 

I guess the suspension geometry is good because they handle really well even though they lean way over.  All the fun stuff characteristics of a decent handling car are there. 

I personally loved the leyland electric overdrive shod transmission over the 4 speed.  It is a close ratio box and the rear end is 4.xx so it spins pretty hard at modern freeway speeds.  The overdrive 5th was a way long way taller.  Burbles instead of hollering at 75.   I put 2 of those into 4 speed 142s and it was very worth it.   I lived in what was then a wide open California and did allot of road trips so it really helped.  IIRC the rear end is a dana 44.

They have this smell that is some oddly comforting mix of grease gasoline leather horse hair steel and french fries.

I'm tearing up!!

If anyone is parting a Volvo 122 , we need a pair of headlight buckets and chrome rings , 

Euro bulb ones would be a nice PLUS

Thanks

I actually have one of those Weber conversions sitting in a box of parts that came with my 1800.  Also, I think that the overdrive was made by Laycock-de-Normanville - just about any car with OD had one.  Alpines, Jaguars, MGs, Austin Healeys, Triumphs, and Volvos all used them.

If you have ended up with one, make sure that the OD lockout is operating.  Going into reverse with an overdrive transmission is a Very Bad Thing...

I was the caretaker of a '61ish Volvo 122S 2-door for a couple of years in the mid-'70s. Cost $150, ran OK, needed tires, front bumper, and the return spring in the ignition switch was failing (so the starter Bendix gear would stay engaged, if you didn't turn the key back from Start to Run). The clincher in buying the car was that it had the same HS6 SU carbs as my '67 Triumph TR4A (though the front and rear carbs were reversed). Painted the car. Had the long shifter handle pop off in my hand once or twice. Just pulled over and popped it back into the transmission, and shifted carefully. Since I happened to have a pair of snow tires leftover from a '63 Plymouth, I bolted those on, though the wheels added to the ugliness of the car.

At some point, I had to replace the fiber cam gear, since it started to separate from the steel center. In that same time-frame, I replaced a timing chain, etc. on my Triumph, and a cam gear on one of our tractors, so I was getting some practice.

Around the same time, my landlords had a '67 122S 4-door. They kept it pretty nice-looking by getting it painted every 3-4 years at Earl Scheibe's.

Yes, the optional OD unit was from Laycock-de Normanville, much like Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, etc. I knew the ODs used in Triumphs and Healeys better than those in the Volvos. TRs had A-types and later J-types. Reduction ratios were typically 28-32%, for the ones I dealt with. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics), Volvos used D-types and later modified J-types.

californiamilleghia said:

If anyone is parting a Volvo 122 , we need a pair of headlight buckets and chrome rings , 

Euro bulb ones would be a nice PLUS

Thanks

Contact (call) https://susquehannaspares.wordpress.com/ they may have something for you.

Shaun said:

IPD sold a Weber Kit that looked allot like that...

The SU's were wonderful.  The much later Stromburgs were not.

If the engine sounds terrible once running it could just be the fiber timing gear of the 2 timing gears.

The exhaust manifold cooks the control arms bushings on that side.

The specific output of the B18 engines if they were the higer performance version (bumpier cam- more compression-2 cabs) was very good.  The have abroad usable poweband.

The suspension bushings and engine mounts are very big squishy things.  I went through lots of engine mounts over the years.  The drive train moves around ALOTT- by design.

The body panels are made from real steel at a much thicker gauge than anything I've owned since.

Super easy to work on obviously.

Eventually I came to think of them as being 3 season cars as even with a fully functional heater defroster blower system they would not Un Fog in winter.

A couple times I had cars that over heated when the radiator water pump and everything to do with cooling was to spec.  The second time around a Volvo repair guy in Santa Cruz (there used to be a bumper sticker I would see in Nor Cal that said "old Volvos never die, they just move to Santa Cruz") told me to remove and disassemble the head and have it hot tanked and flush the block as well as I could.  With all that rust gone it cooled fine.

That said they can run a little hot with a fixed (sometimes just 2 ) bladed fan flapping in the breeze a looooong way from the uncoweled radiator.  If I owned one now I would convert to a coweled electric fan setup.

Even way back then the Volvo seats are amazing.  It was different era-  so they are more like a reading chair, but really really comfortable.

Loved the direct stick shift strait into the transmission setup.  Feels great.

They have the turning radius of a horse.

The U joints are small and many and wear out pretty fast. 

I guess the suspension geometry is good because they handle really well even though they lean way over.  All the fun stuff characteristics of a decent handling car are there. 

I personally loved the leyland electric overdrive shod transmission over the 4 speed.  It is a close ratio box and the rear end is 4.xx so it spins pretty hard at modern freeway speeds.  The overdrive 5th was a way long way taller.  Burbles instead of hollering at 75.   I put 2 of those into 4 speed 142s and it was very worth it.   I lived in what was then a wide open California and did allot of road trips so it really helped.  IIRC the rear end is a dana 44.

They have this smell that is some oddly comforting mix of grease gasoline leather horse hair steel and french fries.

I'm tearing up!!

 

Great info, Thanks!

Sadly the volvo is waiting in the gargae for me to get my truck running and sold so I can give it some love.