GeneralDisorder

No - because like many luxury/performance vehicles, owners rarely work on volvo's unless they are the older models. You still see the really old 240's etc here, but anything between those and the late models has to be crushed because of the expense in maintaining them. I had an 850 turbo, and while it was indeed fast, it was a nightmare of a car to work on, and quite expensive. GD

5 speed linkages are completely different. 4 speed's don't have the linkage "shelf" you are refering to as the transmission is physically longer and serves as it's own linkage pivot point. See the above image posted by Skip.... GD

1. Aftermarket axles are cheaply made. We know this. 2. A HARD connection between the engine and the supension/body can transfer vibration. That's why engine/tranny mounts are made of rubber, not cast iron. 3. If the aftermarket axle's DOJ were to bind slightly due to poor machineing, poor grease distribution, or anything else, it *could* create a HARD connection between the tranny and the suspension. Thus transfering vibration when it would otherwise be isolated by the engine and transaxle mounts. What's so hard to understand about that? The ability of the axle to absorb vibration transfered through the DOJ lies in the ability of the joint to slide in and out freely. If that were comprimised by a poorly made axle then it definately would transfer lateral vibration through to the knuckle and this would be felt inside the cabin. End of story. BTW - I'm a mechanic too, and I DON'T have 35 years experience. But I understand - I work with a lot of people that do, and I have to correct them all the time. It's because I actually READ and comprehend the manuals. I'm constantly having to pull down manuals and look stuff up to correct folks. GD

+1 You'll be just fine if you grease it every 100 miles. Your vibration is the joint wanting grease - it will most likely hold together if you grease it. When/If it blows, you'll just lose power. They don't tear anything up or cause you to lose control. It will make some pretty ugly noises and you'll lose forward power. Just coast to the side. GD

Depends on what it looks like. If I'm tearing the engine down I'll replace it. If the engine is just pulled forward for a clutch job then it stays unless it's leaking. Besides - if you want an o-ring then go get a damn o-ring or make one. It's JUST an o-ring. You measure the diameter and the thickness with a caliper and go find one like it. There's nothing special here. If you can't find a size you like (unlikely) then you make one. GD

There is no slot - you have to CREATE the slot. That's actually a photo-shopped picture of my transmission when I did that mod a few years back. Mick photo-shopped it to show the short shifter mod, and he made the slot longer. Making the slot longer should help. In that picture the bolt being used is a 3/8" because I drilled both of them out so there wouldn't be as much play. Of course it was done with the tranny out of the car. Otherwise taking that picture would be nigh impossible. What I experienced, and the reason I don't think making the slot longer would work for me personally, is that the smooth inner sufaces of the rod and the sleeve still have no real gripping ability on each other. I'm a "spirited" driver, and I'll shift as fast as the tranny can handle - with Redline synthetic. In doing so I exert enough force on the gear shift when it hits it's limits of travel that it eventually works loose again. I've had to tighten it up a couple times. It's not easy to move, but it does move, and the hammering action of my shifting doesn't do it any favors. The other reason I don't like cutting the slot is that it precludes the new fix I've come up with..... but then I've never tried that fix as it's just silly to not install the 5 speeds.... It's worth a try - it does work for a while - we have consensus on that. If it doesn't loosen for you, then great. If it does maybe by then you'll be up for the 5 speed anyway. GD

It's not. How do I know? Because I own multiple "leak free" EA81's and none of them have one. I suspect it's to prevent oil from getting to the flywheel friction surface in case of a rear main failure. But that's just a guess, and oil wouldn't easily take that path. Maybe if it was really DUMPING out of there - but then you have bigger problems. Know how many rear mains I've seen fail on EA81's? You guessed it - NONE. I've done a couple front's, but rear's just don't seem to fail. It's aweful rare if I haven't seen it in the dozens I've owned. GD

LOTS of wiring. Would be a lot easier if you are pulling the dash anyway to just swap the whole car's harness to the GL harness. Sad to ruin a STD like that though. Why don't you trade your STD to me for my GL? I've always wanted a STD.... GD

It will if you didn't coat the whole gasket. Even faster if you didn't use an OEM gasket. Cork just sucks as a gasket material. It absorbs oil over time. Engine heat then breaks that oil down. Then you have shoe leather. That's why they are always stuck to the pan. If you coat it in RTV (very thin layer) on both sides and the edges you are preventing it from absorbing oil. This in turn allows the cork to retain it's "springyness" and maintain pressure on the bolts so they don't loosen. Letting it dry allows you to reuse the gasket next time you pull the pan, and you won't ever have to clean the surfaces again. It's a compression fit so the adhesive qualities of RTV are not needed, only it's oil-repellant qualities. This goes for the valve cover gaskets on the EA81 as well. N/A to EA82 valve covers as they are rubber. Effectively you are making your own rubber gasket with the RTV layer over the cork. In fact I've never had to replace one. GD

Actually that looks like galvanic corrosion - which can happen if not enough/old coolant is run for WAY too long. Coolant contains zinc which functions as the sacrficial anode. If too much water is used in the coolant, or the coolant isn't changed about ever 2 to 4 years (even if it tests good in a hygrometer), then insufficient zinc will allow corrosion of that type to take place. The result is that the aluminium itself becomes the anode and aluminium ions are stripped from the heads or block from the inside of the coolant passages. Eventually this can eat all the way through. Of course this is most often seen in aluminium heads attached to cast iron blocks, but there is sufficient iron in the bolts, and things like the stock heater core hose couplers to cause this in an EA81 over time. Of course the picture is small, and there could be some other cause - you'll have to disect the head to know for sure. But that's my gut feeling on your leak. Crack's just don't look like that - they look like cracks - not huge gaping holes with smooth surfaces like that appears to exhibit. If that's the case, then the whole engine is suspect. Toss it. GD

Only automatics were hydro in 84, so that is correct for you car. GD

I looked it up - it's just there for centering the flywheel to the shaft. Plus it's often lost on vehicles that I've done clutches on. Never had a problem without it. GD

Mostly it was the linkage - mudrat's cobbled together linkage never properly engaged reverse till I modified the tranny mounts to use EA82 mounts. It was half gone by that time though. The tranny's are quite strong, yes. But almost all of them have suffered from the poor linkage design. The 5 speed and the 4 speed have almost identical reverse gear systems - just the 4 has the linkage with the tendancy to not fully engage gears. GD

Then your thermostat isn't closing properly. 160 is too low - the thermostat should close and restrict flow till the engine is at 193 degrees. That's it's job. GD

4 speed linkages suck. It's best to drop the tranny if you intend to redo the linkage properly. Although some have done them in-place. The tranny shift rod has a hole in it that lines up with the hole in the sleeve for the shifter - they are pinned together with a roll pin inside another roll pin and then a special "capped" cotter pin inside both of those. It's strange, it's weird, and for all it's weirdness it didn't work well either. The problem is that the shift rod itself is what wears, and of course it's the one part of the linkage you can't replace without splitting the transmission open. You have a couple options at this point. In order of preference (yes, I'm serious): 1. Install an EA82 5 speed. 2. Fix the linkage.... ALL the problems with it. It's possible, and I have a pretty darn good idea of how I would do it. But it requires some welding skills, patience, and you absolutely HAVE to drop the tranny for it. I've done all the methods below (except #3 because I'm not THAT ghetto ), and I'm certain I could fix one and make it stick. BUT #1 is so much better of an option all around that I've never bothered. 3. Weld it solid. Great option for fixing the problem, but getting it apart again would seriously suck. Tractor mechanics only of course.... 4. Cut a slot in the sleeve for clamping force, drill out both the sleeve and the rod to 3/8" and bolt them together. This works well for a while, but will eventually loosen up again. The slight amount of movement wears down the clamping surfaces as they are smooth. You could perhaps cross-hatch both the rod and the inside of the sleeve to make them grip better, but if you do that you have to drop the tranny and you may as well ask me about #2.... wherein my answer will certainly be "why aren't you doing #1 ?!?!" 5. Bolt the linkage together using a bolt the approximate size of the old roll-pins..... half assed version of #4. Will loosen quicker than #4 and wear out the hole in the rod even faster. 6. Replace the roll pin..... probably not even much good at this point. 7. Who needs reverse anyway? Get out and push. GD

Be careful with it - you don't want to lose the white paint marks on the throttle plate stop bolt - and DO NOT touch that adjustment. It's set at the factory and there is NOT a procedure to reset it. Thus the white paint..... Also carefully remove and then reset the TPS using a MM. Verify it's smooth operation as well. There's things on there I wouldn't chem dip - this isn't a carburetor and shouldn't be treated as such. Remove the injector and the pressure regulator as well - neither should be subjected to solvents of that ferocity. Don't media blast the mating surfaces - you'll tear them up and they already have enough tendancy to not seal.... OEM only on the manifold gaskets BTW - unless you enjoy replacing them every couple months . The difference in OEM vs. aftermarket is staggering for those. Equal and proper torque is also very important - 12 ft/lbs only. And while you are at the dealer you'll need the TB o-ring/gasket kit. The o-ring under the TB is special and reusing them generally isn't possible. GD

How do you know it's good? GD

Temp should be 193. 160 is too low. Get an OEM thermostat, and verify temp with a known reliable gauge or laser reader. Sounds like your radiator fan isn't working. Should come on at 195 or so. The thermoswitch in the radiator can fail or the connections can corrode. Check that first. GD

I don't remember any o-rings behind the flywheel.... At any rate replace the rear main - beyond that I wouldn't worry about this o-ring. Remember to use blue locktite on the flywheel bolts as they are open to the crankcase. GD

Very useful tool - use one almost daily at work.... Take readings everywhere. At the temp sender will be the one you want to check against the stock gauge. Before/after the thermostat. Radiator inlet, outlet, and all around the surface to check for cold spots. Water pump. Heater core hoses. Etc. When you get enough data for a hypothesis of the problem, then start making changes to the system. UV dye is cheap, and you can get UV bulbs for maglite's and such. I have a flexi inspection tool set that came with a UV LED bulb. For like $10 you can get both the dye (multiple applications worth) and a UV light to check for leaks. You just dump the dye in and then check for glowing with the light while the engine is running. It's nice to steam clean the engine first, but not always needed. GD

This is one of those "OEM only" gaskets. Other brands use some very inferior cork. Take the (new) cork gasket and coat it in a thin layer of RTV. LET IT DRY before using it.... instant rubber gasket. Never had one leak yet. GD

I agree - sounds like there's pressure problems and some of your coolant is vaporizing - thus the no heat situation. Coolant vapor doesn't transfer heat in the core. Perhaps some dye and a UV light. GD

Depending on it's ground state it tells the ECU if it should be looking for the EGR temp sensor or not. Won't notice it at all. EGR makes so little difference to these engines you might as well leave it since you have to have it working anyway. I doubt you'll notice anything unless you port the heads, change the cam, and increase your compression. Remember the SPFI intake already flows 90 HP worth on the same displacement. In fact I wouldn't touch it unless you have access to a flow bench - changes to the turbulence of the flow are often detrimental unless you can flow test it before and after to get it just right. That's the heater core return pipe yes? I wouldn't touch it as it's likely a press fit and is probably glued in with something like a locktite product.... at least that would be my assumption. I wouldn't powder coat it - a couple coats of hi-temp epoxy would do the job. It's also a pain to remove the TB as you will certainly have to replace the special o-ring and gasket under it - it's a heated TB so there's a coolant passage in there. GD

I wouldn't think you would have too much problem - the SPFI is far more effecient than the carb that was on it. The EGR temp sensor is just there to make sure the EGR is working - that's the only difference between CA and 49 states SPFI. That sensor doesn't actually effect emissions - just tells you if the EGR is working or not. One thing I would sugest - REPLACE the cat. A new one installed after the original will be FAR more effecient and you can get them off ebay for dirt cheap. Just weld it in place in the mid-pipe where the resonator is now. It will blow ultra-clean with a brand new cat that has the benefit of 20 years of development in converter technology. GD

Never tried to hookup to an EA81 with AC.... there's an idle up solenoid on the carb throttle. You may have to investigate some wireing diagrams on that one as I've never had to work out how that would be done. It's probably a ground signal wire so if you can find a ground signaled relay for the AC system that would be ideal. For the park switch just punch the pins out of the ECU connectors. There's little "sticks" that pull out and then the wire and it's pin pop out of the connector. White and black..... possibly the EGR temp sensor that is specific to CA?? The gold one - did it have like 12 pins or something? That sounds like the dealer diagnostic port. I usually leave it, but it's pretty much useless at this point as I don't think any dealers have the machines needed to read from them anymore. It's probably a very primitive OBD-I like system similar to the early EJ's. But largely useless unless someone wants to go write an interface tool for a laptop (someone actually has for the early EJ22's), but that's also unlikely. GD