I do, Ian.

RPM = Ruins People's Motors. Volvo should have set the rev limiter to 5000, right? Or 4500?

my b230 at 7000 rpm's milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

Green locktite.

Dang, I sure hope this works. I finally got the time to work on the ol' winter beater, and I did this treatment to all 7 frosties. I have never actually installed one of these dished dealiebobs, so I hope I did it right. I used a 1.5" diameter piece of aluminium stock as a drift, and on the exhaust side I was only able to get maybe 6" of hammer swing room, so it took a while. I know the idea is to get them faintly smashed flat, but mine all ended up depressed in the middle.

Clean holes, JB inside, smashed plug, JB outside. Damn, why didn't I spot weld them in place first?

On another note, this was with a cast impellar pump. I pulled the one that was on the motor and it said "Volvo" on the impellar. I put it back in rather than use up a new Hepu.

I hate Volvo frost plugs.

Sounds like you have it right. There should be at least a quarter sized dimple in the middle of the plug. I had to whallop the hell out of mine. If they are still causing problems after all this then I would drill and tap the holes for screws and hold downs. Welding cast to steel is not smart unless you're an alchemist.

Meh, it's not that bad. I've done it a few times, MIG welding drain tube fittings into the block for turbo drains. Volvo's "cast iron" blocks aren't very difficult to weld, at least for non-structural areas. All I do is pre-heat things with propane to get the sweat out and then weld it up. It's been done on a few other engine blocks I know of, still going strong. In fact, I know of one where the owner tried to braze the plugs in place and cracked the hell out of the block, and then the block was repaired using MIG.

If you were to do this, and I will concede that the alloy that Volvo uses is especially high quality (not grey cast iron), then I would go with a rod that is designed to do this sort of work. E70 wire will stick stuff together but I doubt it will be around for long. While your pre heat was a good idea, when welding castings you should also post heat. When I was doing this for a living, there were specific temps that things have to be at to avoid post weld cracking (both pre and post heat).

If I was doing this, I'd spark up some NI99 rod and give it a whirl - I've even got some if you need it (it's very expensive, but works).

SFSG: The JB weld seems to be holding things in place. I've spent some time on the limiter and though with the current weather it's impossible to get the engine THAT hot, I haven't been treated to a glycol shower lately.

There's some good news. I'm sure if it hasn't gone yet, they'll hold just fine. When's it going to be summer so you can really test things?