Hi,

I very much appreciate your dissertation about the volvo diesel and it's pitfalls. Most of what you said is correct and I know that the hard way. I also have a diesel. Mine is an '82 240 which I've owned since 1985. I bought mine w/71K and it now has a 'lunar unit' (240K) on the odo. It has suffered through a broken timing belt w/the resultant valve/head/cam grenade problem. The reason why mine is still running probably is due to the frequent oil changes I subjected it to (every 3K) and alo for most of its life it had an external oil cooler which added about an extra quart of oil.

Your precis errs when you caution about using veggie oil in these motors. I've been doing this for more than a year now w/o any ill effects. You are correct that the car won't tolerate straight WVO in cold Wx but a bit of kerosene mixed in will fix that. In the summer here (NC) which can be awfully hot, I've run up to 70% WVO w/o any ill effects. A 50% WVO/diesel mix will run anybody's diesel volvo or old VW rabbit wonderfully.

Anybody w/a volvo diesel which still runs needs to be congratulated.


salute!