Charcoal Canister Part 2

A continuation of the last post on rehabilitating the P1800E charcoal canister (click here for first post)

     After priming I decided to try some Bondo Spot and Glazing Putty to even out the top surface and mask my poor smoothing and sanding of the Epoxy used to fill the holes. The putty sanded  easily; it took a few coats to feather the surface up to the highs created by the epoxy. I hope it sticks to the primer! 

Here is the top painted with NAPA high temp flat black paint (it's what I had on hand....) The top although not perfect looks much better.

The bottom obviously still has issues, but hopefully the POR will stop further rusting.  Now all I have to do is find a filter to fit in the bottom.

All finished with the bracket at the base, when installed, the bracket sits closer to the middle of the cylinder. Again, not perfect, but much better! It should work once I find/make a filter for the bottom, and oh, yea, get the engine out of the car and fixed...put back in.... etc. etc...

Front Turn Signal Lights

Unpolished, covering Nixon's face

Unpolished

Polished, but note two symmetrical reflections in the center, closeup below.

Clearly, this is an octopus, note the eye. Also, note, there were no octopuses present.... ghost?  Call captain Nemo!

Heater air intake grille

This is the oval grille just front of the windshield on the hood that allows fresh air to enter the heater box. I though it was just aluminum and would be easy to just polish up. It is made of aluminum, but appears to be anodized. The coating looks like chrome, but based what I've read, aluminum is typically anodized for car trim and not chromed? When I think of anodized aluminum I picture the black coating on Calphalon pans.... I tried to clean it up with metal polish which did improved the surface, but its not great.... I guess I could sand off the anodizing and buff it up, but that might be an overkill at this time, furthermore it would need some kind of cleat coating to keep it looking good.... the trim looks better and a quick coat of black paint on the grate neatened it up.

Before polishing and painting.

After fresh paint and polishing. It's hard to see a big difference between the two, its not perfect, but better.

Before

After

Here is bracket that holds the grille to the body. There are three of these, I was able rotate them out from under the lips on the underside of the grille to remove the great for painting.

Charcoal Canister (Evaporative control system)

The charcoal canister is part of the evaporative control system. According to Wikipedia, all cars sold in the US starting in 1971 (1970 in CA) needed to be equipped with a fuel evaporative control system. The idea is to prevent fuel evaporating from the gas tank entering the atmosphere; traditionally, expanding fuel vapor was released to the atmosphere. To prevent this the gas tank filler cap is sealed, thus forcing evaporative gases through a vent hose that lead to a canister containing activated charcoal. As the gas passes through the canister the charcoal sequesters the hydrocarbons and the "clean" air is then vented. When the car is running, air is sucked back through the charcoal and into the engine, burning off the gas vapor.
     This Volvo canister (for a P1800) is open on the bottom to vent the filtered gas and to allow fresh air to enter the canister and passing back through the charcoal when the engine. From what I can tell (quick Google search) gasoline vapor is heavier than air, and therefor I don't understand why fuel vapor would not leak out the bottom of the canister? If the charcoal does hold on to the vapor well enough to prevent it leaking out the bottom, what makes the sequestered vapor "release" when the engine is pulling air back through the charcoal? Anyone? Inquiring minds want to know....
     Regardless, the canister must have worked, or at least was better than just venting unfiltered gas - so the charcoal canister will get a makeover.

Here is the charcoal canister with the hold down bracket removed; the less rusty band shows where the hold down bracket attached. The canister assembly sits between the front grille and radiator (I just learned that grills are for cooking and grilles are for cars).

      There were a bunch of holes rusted through the canister top, which, if the EVAP system is to work, clearly need to be filled. Given that the bottom also had extensive rust, I should probably have looked for a new or used replacement in better condition. Word on the interwebs is that the charcoal itself does not go bad, so I assume it does not need replacement (if it did, I wonder if aquarium filter charcoal would work?). I also hear that you don't really need the canister for the car to run correctly; but I do want to be somewhat eco friendly and it may also cut down on the gasoline smell in the garage.  The canister itself is obscured by the radiator from the perspective of the engine bay, and by the front grille from the outside. Therefore we don't need perfection, just function. So I tried to plug the leaks, stop some of the rust, and make it look good enough that I will not be embarrassed to show pictures on this blog (all two or three of you - feel special).

   A wire brush and sandpaper were used to remove rust scale, and a small amount of what I presume was a rubbery underbody coating. Before filling the holes with JB Weld, the top was coated with POR-15 "silver"paint, allowed to dry, and then scuffed up to provide key for the JB Weld adhere (not sure if that was necessary).

The base of the canister. Note bits of the filter remaining on the left edge under the rusted steel lip. (Click for larger image)

Close up of the vents on the bottom; in the larger wholes you can see some kind of mesh that must hold the charcoal in place.

This is the best photo of the holes. The top has been coated in POR-15 Silver. The largest hole is South-East of the outlet on the top.

JB Weld Stik. This is a two part epoxy that is kneaded together to catalyze. In cross section it looks like a corn dog (click for the wiki photo of a corn dog cross section).

The hardened JB Weld. I got it as flat as I could, but it's still mounded up.

After the JB hardened, I used a Dremel tool to grind off the high spots and somewhat feather the edges of the epoxy. More grinding and sanding could have produced a flatter surface, but that did not seem necessary given the 'hidden' location of the canister.

     After the grinding of the JB, the whole top and sides of the canister got two coats of POR-15 and a few light coats of primer.

Coated in primer, waiting for the final coat and maybe light sanding.

Now its time to start on the base.  EDIT. Blog magic, click here for part two.

Temperature Sensor

Bosch Coolant Temperature Sensor (0 280 130 014)

Before Cleaning (obviously) Bosch 0280130014

After cleaning and polishing

You can even get it on Amazon, who knew...

Results from testing the sensor in a pot of water on the kitchen stove. Measurements started out in ice water and continued until the water boiled. Measurements from my sensor are the blue X's. The other data is from J. Tang's blog and includes his original and new sensors (much nicer than mine, he even shows the test setup, I was too lazy to clean the stove for a photo shoot, plus, you would laugh at how the multimeter and thermometer were set up.....) This data was collected with a food thermometer and a Fluke Multimeter, all data was collected in good faith and is believed to be accurate. This data comes with no warranty, expressed, or implied, and should not be used to diagnose any part of a motor (or any other means of propulsion) vehicle that might carry a person(s), pets, valuable artwork, or Tribbles. This data is for entertainment purposes only! Although the entertainment value in not warrantied. In fact, just don't look at the data.

Graph of the data from my sensor with the upper and lower limits interpolated from the Volvo Shop Manual, see below. It would seem that my sensor falls within the correct range and would seem to be OK. Yay! 

From the Volvo Service Manual or "Green Book"

My raw data..... Left column resistance in Ohms, right column is temperature in F.

4280	43
4310	42.8
4500	41.9
4590	37.4
4460	37.6
4440	38.3
4150	48
3700	52
3200	59
2990	61
2800	62
2808	61.3
2585	69
2330	73
2180	77
2028	80
1948	83
1820	85.5
1700	88.7
1600	90.7
1500	94.6
1431	95.2
1431	95
1432	95.2
1350	101.5
1200	107.1
1100	111.4
1000	116.6
900	122
800	128.3
700	135.7
600	144.5
500	155.3
400	167
350	175.6
300	185
270	192.2
250	196.3
240	200
220	204.3
210	207.5
203	207
200	208
197.4	208.2
199.5	209

Oil Trap/Crankcase Breather

These photos were taken after the 2nd coat of POR Engine enamel. Toward the left edge of the oil trap you can see where the paint sagged, being thicker, the sag has a fully developed color, which of course highlights the regions that do not. Switching to a better brush allowed me to get more consistent, but thinner coats of paint.  The first coat on this parts was made with a cheap disposable brush that resulted in thicker but uneven coats prone to drips and sags. No more cheap brushes, except for the POR-15 (requires lacquer thinner vs. just paint thinner).  I guess I should give this a 3rd coat, but again, I'm not sure how visible this part will be, and from two feet away without strong lights it looks great; it wants to avoid the limelight I guess. I'm going to put this in the done pile, maybe when the paint is out again for the engine I will give it a third coat....

Coolant pipe repaint

Here is the rust old coolant pipe.... Note, some of the red is rust, but in a few places you can see the original red paint showing through.

OK, not the best photo... The coolant pipe got a coat of POR-15 gray and then 3 coats of POR-15 engine enamel (Ford red). I don't think the engine paint needed 3 coats, but I had some drips and runs on the first coat that needed to be sanded out. There were a few runs on the final coat that I might try to buff out with rubbing compound, but I doubt they will be visible and may just leave them. Switching to a higher quality paintbrush seemed to help, the first coats were done with a disposable brush that did not produce a smooth finish, and to compensate I globed on more paint leading to the runs...

Intake Manifold: All Back Together

After the cleanup all the parts go back on! 

Click on images for larger versions.

The throttle position sensor (TPS) was cleaned up (see post on that), and got two new stainless steel machine screws to hold it in place. It has not been correctly positioned yet. The cold start injector was shined up using fine sandpaper followed by metal polish, it also got new stainless screws to hold it on the manifold.One of the original screws had been replaced (before I got it) with a self-tapping sheet metal screw, that hole had damaged threads. Luckily the threads could be cleaned up by running a tap of the original size through the threads.

The silver colored bracket is to hold the throttle cable in place, it was sanded and painted.

The throttle plate was cleaned up with metal polish along with all the vacuum hose nipples.

The nut that secures the throttle shaft was replaced with a new nylon lock nut. The throttle adjustment screw and nut were also replaced with stainless.

Close-up of the throttle shaft and New York Times before installation. Hopefully I put all this back in the correct order, from left to right, E-ring, washer, space were the plate goes, felt washer, washer with slot to fit on the flattened shoulder of the shaft, spring, don't know what you call it, and nylon insert locknut. The newspaper was read, but not installed in the manifold.

The Intake Manifold: Clean and Shine

Intake manifold still in the car (Volvo P1800E 1970).

Below are photos before removal of the attachments and cleaning (Click for full size photos).

Intake before the bulk of the repolishing, but after loosing polish in the wheel cleaner mishap ( see text below).

A manifold of issues cleaning the manifold. After stripping the intake of all the hose fittings, throttle plate, TPS, and cold start injector, the first cleaning attempt involved hot water, Simple Green and a scrub brush. The Simple Green removed a good portion of the grime, but things were still looking grim. Next in the arsenal came a spray can of a carb cleaner. Carb cleaner helped in a few spots, but still not great. I should have tried paint thinner, one of my new favorite part cleaning fluids...... next time. Lots of Googling suggested that aluminum wheel cleaner (the kind for wheels without a clear coating) was the thing to use. Well, it did a great job getting the rest of the gunk off, and with the gunk, the original shine/polish. I assume this was an acidic cleaner that etched the surface? Now, had a nice clean manifold that looked terrible. Had this been a relatively smooth casting, loosing the original polish would not have been a big deal because it would be trivial renew with metal polish. The rough "sand cast" surface creates problems for the metal polish. To avoid all these pitfalls, it seems as if most people decide to media blast and then followup  with a clear or metallic powder coat or paint. Other options seem to be grind off all the casting marks and surface irregularities to create a smooth surface that can be easily polished. The manifold is rough cast and it seems that most of the advice on the "interwebs" is geared toward manifolds that are inherently smoother. I had a hard time finding useful information on how to approach such a rough surface.

 I'm still weary of painting things and try to avoid it if possible.  I see paint as something that can scratch, peel, chip, discolor and always need to be repainted, therefore "natural" surfaces would seem the most durable and easy to maintain. Clearly, lots of people with MUCH more experience than I have in these matters paint these things, they must be on to something. The paint looks good and may even aid in cleaning by creating a smoother surface that oil and grease can be wiped off.

I decided I would try to polish my now clean and dull manifold although after the cleaning described above, maybe I should have just painted it. Live and learn.  Just taking polish to the surface only shined the high parts, simultaneously filling the voids with black residue, not so good. A carbon steel wire brush on a Dremel seemed to do a good job, but I was worried that I might be causing the aluminum  on high parts to actually smear over the pores, possibly entrapping stuff in the pores of rough cast surface.  As I used the wheel I noticed the apparent porosity of the surface diminishing, without the apparent removal of material. The dremel did help clean up hard to reach areas, but mostly I went after/over the whole thing first with a rough and then a smooth Scotch Bright pad, followed by metal polish and a few rounds of scrubbing out the reside with a toothbrush and dish soap. Actually, the dish soap was not so good at removing the residue from the Mothers polish; Mr. Clean worked better.

Here is the finished version, before replacing all the fittings.

The manifold certainly looks much better than when when the process started. If I were starting again, I would try using Never Dull wadding polish after the Simple Green. The Never Dull did not produce a great shine (Mothers did that),  the solvents it contained were effective at cleaning the surface and it certainly would not have damaged the surface like the wheel cleaner. I wonder if Mothers polish contains more fine abrasives than the Never Dull.  The final result is not perfect, but certainly a step in the right direction. I can always work on it latter, right now there are bigger fish to fry, like all the other parts and the seized engine....