Wade,

Glad to hear someone's benefiting from my sometimes horrible learning experiences. :-)

The bad news is you'll notice I haven't made an update since May. Around May, I failed inspection, 3 or 4 times over. After replacing the O2 sensor as well as the spark plugs, it still failed. At home, I pulled the newly installed plugs, and planned on compression testing, but found that cylinders 2 and 3 were damp. The plugs did not smell like fuel. I believe it was oil. Bad news, guess it was the piston rings. I didn't have the time or money to replace the rings, as it's a big job if I'm not mistaken.

I just sort of gave up, and had someone 'take care' of the emissions problem, if you know what I mean. I feel sort of bad about it, but I think in a while, maybe another few years at most, my car will be reaching the end of its life.

If I had a nice garage and some more tools and a spare car to use, I would consider doing all this stuff myself, but alas, I don't.

On a related note, this is why money is of importance when I made this post concerning my suspension. I don't want to use any more money on the car than I need to. However, I feel that suspension items like shocks and struts are somewhat of a safety matter, so I do need to spend a bit even if I only have another year or two out of the car.

When the time comes, I'll probably end up selling the car for very very very cheap to someone on Brickboard. I may even consider donating all the proceeds to the site but we'll see. :)
--
Ken
1990 Volvo 740 base sedan (B230F)
My Volvo 'Project'