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help...cleaned up air idle control now car wont start

I agree with Khrrck, you may have some other issues going on, but if your harness looks like I think it looks, you're not going to get where you want, without a new harness. You just can't ever get to the end of the bad wires to do a repair, especially as old as these cars are now. There was a range of years back in early 80's, going through late in 80's (don't remember exactly the date range), where all the harnesses fell apart. Volvo had a recall (#37) on those vehicles affected (which , by the way, included all the 240 turbos/ they were particularly negatively affected. I think mostly because of the extra heat generated in the engine compartment from the turbo. I'm pretty sure that I got the last warranty recall on my 81/242T, back in 1994. It took Delores, our warranty administrator, months of fighting to get them to cover it. Got lucky!, lucky that I had Delores!
Dude thats is def a piece of volvo history i wont forget, such good info, and reinforces the push to restore bit by bit this car, as fast as funds allow lol. I cant see how the heat has affected these cars electrical systems, i always let the engine run for a bit before shutting it off. Ill definetly redo the isolation and go for heat better dampening, but in winter its great the car is a furnace haha. Never knew about a recall, some wires and parts were changed looks great, but more can be done 😳🙏
 
Dude thats is def a piece of volvo history i wont forget, such good info, and reinforces the push to restore bit by bit this car, as fast as funds allow lol. I cant see how the heat has affected these cars electrical systems, i always let the engine run for a bit before shutting it off. Ill definetly redo the isolation and go for heat better dampening, but in winter its great the car is a furnace haha. Never knew about a recall, some wires and parts were changed looks great, but more can be done 😳🙏
The heat isn't affecting the electrical components, just the insulation on the wiring they used during that time frame. The vehicles before that time frame, and the ones after that time frame, didn't have the issue of insulation decomposing, and exposing bare wires. It wasn't just the turbos that had the problem, non turbos had it as well, just, usually not nearly as bad. Just a bad supplier issue, at that time.
 
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The heat isn't affecting the electrical components, just the insulation on the wiring they used during that time frame. The vehicles before that time frame, and the ones after that time frame, didn't have the issue of insulation decomposing, and exposing bare wires. It wasn't just the turbos that had the problem, non turbos had it as well, just, usually not nearly as bad. Just a bad supplier issue, at that time.
Makes sense since the cars work haha but from the wires appearance makes someone doubt how its even possible 🤣 volvo power 💪
 
any more renowned issue in those years? im gonna look it up for sure. Definetly wanna bring the car to zero, before upgrading.
Whats the word as of today on here about rebuilding b21ft s ? Regarding oversized forged piston, what works well/stable and good hp. ive got about 1200$ in my rebuilding fund, not there yet but hoping 3-5k will do it. I found a shop that can do it, trying to figure out where i wanna go first. Been hearing for a while that redblocks can handle 350hp ish?
 
Getting your car caught up on all the maintenance issues is definitely where you want to start. Although in your case I'd recommend doing your wiring harness first. You'll want to check the firewall wiring connector, where the engine harness plugs into for deterioration also,and for bare wires on the other side of that connector. If compromised replace it, (it's located on firewall, clipped to the body seam, just about at the end of the valve cover, maybe offset towards the passenger side. It's a grey rectangular multi wire connector). If the wires are also bare on the other side of that connector replace them. Volvo makes pigtail wiring repair splice sections of wire, that come with the correct connectors already installed with the proper insulating seal end that fits into that grey connector properly. If the wiring is compromised any further than an inch or two, I'd pull the passenger side firewall wiring grommet and do the splice repair on the other side of the firewall, inside the car. Just make sure that the volvo repair splice wire will be long enough. The repair wires are only available in white, so once you have the connector, and the wires, you can disconnect the connector, leave the wires in the bad connector, and just cut the wires at your splice point. That way you can see which colored wires go into which receptacle, then you can mark them, or just throw the old connector with the wires still in, into a plastic bag, and keep for future ID. Before you do the splice I'd recommend putting heat shrink on all the wires, I usually do a second layer of heat shrink, then do your butt connector splice. I recommend the connectors that volvo has, that are shrink sealing( you crimp it, then heat up the connector with a small hot air torch(soldering kit with a hot air tip), it starts to collapse, and a glue sealant flows out to the end of the connector, as it fully collapses. Don't over do it and over heat the wires. Then top it off with using the split plastic conduit on the engine side, that'll keep you good forever. You might want to consider pulling your intake manifold at the same time, and replacing your intake manifold gasket (it'll give you more room to wrestle with the wiring harness, and then it's easier to replace all your vacuum hoses there at the same time, you'll also want to replace all your injector seals, and possibly the injector housings if they're cracked. There's an O'ring on the injector, and also one on the housing. While you've got the intake off, might as well clean your throttle valve, it's probably pretty gross. I know this isn't the cool big HP stuff, but it's the stuff that will plague you. There's a lot more I could recommend, but this should keep you busy for awhile. Have fun. Good luck!
 
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Getting your car caught up on all the maintenance issues is definitely where you want to start. Although in your case I'd recommend doing your wiring harness first. You'll want to check the firewall wiring connector, where the engine harness plugs into for deterioration also,and for bare wires on the other side of that connector. If compromised replace it, (it's located on firewall, clipped to the body seam, just about at the end of the valve cover, maybe offset towards the passenger side. It's a grey rectangular multi wire connector). If the wires are also bare on the other side of that connector replace them. Volvo makes pigtail wiring repair splice sections of wire, that come with the correct connectors already installed with the proper insulating seal end that fits into that grey connector properly. If the wiring is compromised any further than an inch or two, I'd pull the passenger side firewall wiring grommet and do the splice repair on the other side of the firewall, inside the car. Just make sure that the volvo repair splice wire will be long enough. The repair wires are only available in white, so once you have the connector, and the wires, you can disconnect the connector, leave the wires in the bad connector, and just cut the wires at your splice point. That way you can see which colored wires go into which receptacle, then you can mark them, or just throw the old connector with the wires still in, into a plastic bag, and keep for future ID. Before you do the splice I'd recommend putting heat shrink on all the wires, I usually do a second layer of heat shrink, then do your butt connector splice. I recommend the connectors that volvo has, that are shrink sealing( you crimp it, then heat up the connector with a small hot air torch(soldering kit with a hot air tip), it starts to collapse, and a glue sealant flows out to the end of the connector, as it fully collapses. Don't over do it and over heat the wires. Then top it off with using the split plastic conduit on the engine side, that'll keep you good forever. You might want to consider pulling your intake manifold at the same time, and replacing your intake manifold gasket (it'll give you more room to wrestle with the wiring harness, and then it's easier to replace all your vacuum hoses there at the same time, you'll also want to replace all your injector seals, and possibly the injector housings if they're cracked. There's an O'ring on the injector, and also one on the housing. While you've got the intake off, might as well clean your throttle valve, it's probably pretty gross. I know this isn't the cool big HP stuff, but it's the stuff that will plague you. There's a lot more I could recommend, but this should keep you busy for awhile. Have fun. Good luck!
100% 100% 100% im all about bringing the car to zero before upgrading ANYTHING, only if i can upgrade a part while im at it, that will serve me or be kept for the rebuild, i'll do. I'm gonna follow your procedures meticulously better believe it. thanks for your experience and details. It's my daily driver so im never gonna risk reliability 🙏
Thats why im here, so much experience and trial and error, mad respect 🙌. I do have a bunch of seals that came with the car and do have the injectors seals, one injector seems to be sweating a bit. Ill do my research and get it done. Learning so much!
 
The wiring that goes to the side of the distributor is what your computers use to fire the ignition. It's notoriously fragile when that old, most likely that's where your problem is. Gently peel back the boot on the plug that connects to side of the distributor and see if the insulation is missing on the wires inside. You probably bumped it when you were messing with the iac. I saved one of these with some liquid electric tape but it's best to replace it with a good one.
 
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amazing thanks more learning, i enjoy it, i will definetly look into it 🙌
 
little update, really happy how much info came out from this thread and others, to pinpoint and deal with issues.
Now first reason i did this post is in the title but initially wanted to bring down post highway idle rpm (16-1700) down to its city idle which is 1000, still bit high imo? but whatever for now.
Flunk the engine etc but while cleaning spark plugs noticed a bolt missing from exhaust manifold and a couple kinda lose, got a few bolts from ipd and got it nice and tight "enough".
Meanwhile tubing off the turbo to acces front of engine, cleaned good gunk.
Anyways now coming back from highway today engine idles at 1400 after the highway im happy, step by step. I took note of recommendations to look for potentia leaks, that can affect idle.
Got a "new" iac coming soon, so probably will help a bunch, guessing mine is done for now 🤷👍
 
If it looks like it's never been done, and you're taking that side of the engine apart anyway, a new intake manifold gasket and throttle body gasket is pretty cheap and a good starting point to cut down on intake-side leaks.
 
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Every turbo 240 I've ever bought needed the intake manifold gasket, injector seals and usually one or two of the air handling hoses.
i appreciate it, got the injector seals already, waiting to install, and ordering intake mani gasket right now! Lots of the air hoses have been changed already by previous owner. 🙌
 
Hey JTF

I am curious if you get your brick running. Do not be focused on the IAC itself because a failure in any position cannot prevent engine startup. The valve does nothing more than provide supplemental air to the throttle body airflow so that idle speed can be adjusted by an electrical signal.
 
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Hey JTF

I am curious if you get your brick running. Do not be focused on the IAC itself because a failure in any position cannot prevent engine startup. The valve does nothing more than provide supplemental air to the throttle body airflow so that idle speed can be adjusted by an electrical signal.
hi! much appreciated, indeed youre right initially i had no clue how come it wouldnt start, and since i had just worked on the IAC that was my thought.
Turns out engine had flooded, turns out i had never started my engine properly (even previous 242T) with gas pedal to the floor.
Cleaned everything up, got it started. Got a "new" IAC thanks to toomanyturbos, went from 15-1600rpm after highway, or long drive, to a steady 1000rpm at all times. Got it done couple days ago and i am really psyched!!
Added a missing bolt and tightened the exhaust manifold, before that new iac which brought it down to 1400.
Working on the zero of the car step by step 🙏
 
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