Fellas:
I was in an interesting debate with a fellow Volvo owner. He loves his 89 turbo 740, and I beg to differ. I currently have a 1991 740, a 1987 740 Euro wagon, and a 1993 850. I have owned two Turbos that seemed to be more problematic than the non turbo models. My 1991 models that I have owned seemed to be the best year of any that I owned. maybe it was just me but the 91 suspension was better than the 90, and the engine seemed to be buttery smooth. I havent looked at the high mileage club in a while, are there more 740's than 240's?

HAVE A GREAT DAY

I've been asked the question of "which car should I buy" by several potential DIY buyers and my vote is for the 1988 non-turbo 240 or 740 (depending on your preference of body and interior). Here are my reasons:

Advantages:
1. Not plaged by the crumbling wiring harness issues of the 1980-1987 cars.
2. Of the LH-2.2 vehicles (1985-1988), it has the best fuel injection mixtures programmed into the 554 ECU (which can also be swapped into the 1985-87 cars in place of the 511 or 544).
3. Bulletproof LH-2.2 ECU, but any of the 511, 544, or the 554 ECUs from 1985-1988 fall into this category of an uber-durable ECU and I have yet to see one fail. I will not travel cross country in a non-turbo 1989 or later vehicle without a spare ECU as I've had too many of them die on client's cars to be considered reliable enough not to carry a spare (mostly issues with Pink, but I've also had two White labeled 951 units die too).
4. A minor item, but worth noting: 1988 is the first year that you can grease the U-joints on the driveshaft (after removing the metric allen set screw and installing a Zerk fitting).
5. Very common in the salvage yards (unlike the 1990 740 which has a lot of unique parts).
6. Improved K-Block engine in most if not all the 1988 and later cars (the first few off the assembly line may have missed it). The original 1985-87 B230 blocks are perfectly capable of long lives (I'm driving one now), but the 1988-1992 K-blocks received a much improved crankshaft with a better thrust bearing, and thicker connecting rods. (The piston slap issue remains the same until the 1993 L-blocks were introduced.)

Disadvantages of the 1988 cars that the later cars have:
1. No Self-Diagnostic system. (OBD-I is included on 1989 and later non-turbo cars, and 1990 and later turbos)
2. No Airbag.
3. No ABS on the 240 or 740 cars (optional on the 760 that year, standard on the 780).
4. 1993 B230 L-blocks have piston oil cooling jets that reduce piston temps, eliminate piston slap, and provide additional longevity to the pistons rings and cylinder walls. (I did a tear down on a 1993 240 block a few months ago that had 300,000 miles, and you could still see the factory cross-hatching on the cylinder walls, she looked almost new.)


Issues that I share with someone who is considering a turbo-equipped vehicle.
1. Take the planned maintenance costs of a non-turbo car and double it. A turbo car that's farther along in it's years will have a lot of fatigue of nylon, plastic, and wear items in the engine bay.
2. If you think you might need a replacement turbocharger (due to excessive wear or abuse), start shopping the salvage yards for a gently used one right away and you'll find one soon enough.
3. Carry a spare ECU that you know is good in your spare parts kit. Even if you have a blue labled one from 1985-1989 LH-2.2 I would have a spare as I've seen at least 3 of them die in the last 4 years.


Items I encourage everybody to have as a spare parts kit, for all rear-wheel drive 240/740/940 red-block engine Volvos. About $50 to $100 at a salvage yard can acquire all of the below listed items.
1. Spare Main Fuel System Relay (white) that powers the ECU and the fuel pumps. (On the 1988-1990 760 Turbo cars, this relay is Green and not compatible with the standard white relay.)
2. Air Mass Meter (not applicable for the 740 cars with Bendix/Regina/Rex systems)
3. Fuel Pressure Regulator (average life is 100,000 to 150,000 miles).
4. Overdrive Relay (white)
5. Spare 25 amp blade fuse (for 240 cars only, underhood fuse for fuel injection).
6. ECU if you have a '89 or later 240/740, or a 740/760 turbo 1985 and later.
7. Two quarts of oil, and two quarts of transmission fluid.
8. (suggested) A half-gallon or a full-gallon of engine coolant.

God bless,
Fitz Fitzgerald.
--
'87 Blue 240 Wagon, +300k miles.
'87 Silver 240 Wagon, 412k miles (wife's car).
'88 Black 780 Coupe, PRV-6, 144k miles.

My first Volvo was a 1989 740. The ECU (LH 2.4?) did fail once, as did the air mass meter (as Volvo called it then) and the overdrive relay.
Piston slap was a reality, but it never did any harm. I saw the engine with the head off at 309,000 miles; yes, the cylinder walls still showed factory cross-hatching! A valve spring had broken; it needed a new valve, guide, seals, springs, and a quick clean up of the valves and seats to get it running again. The rest of the car was getting very tired so I chose to move to something else, but the shop bought the car from me, repaired it, and sold it a few months later. I actually saw it advertised for sale a couple of years later with 360,000 miles on it.

This is an 18 year old post.

Good topic though - You might consider starting a new thread to draw more potential posters. The Brickboard has mostly been offline for quite some time. A new topic would be helpful since there aren’t many new posts due to its unavailability. Incidentally, Fitz Fitzgerald was a very knowledgeable RWD poster in early 2000’s through about 2015?

--
Will I buy another Volvo??? We'll see....

My 88 745 GLE has ABS. It's an early production car--9/87.

To the spare parts kit I would add:

Radio interference suppression relay
Ignition power stage
Cap and rotor (save the old ones, if they aren't too bad, when you put new ones on)
Hall effect sensor can fail without warning too, but if you are going to carry one, it would make more sense to take an entire distributor.

You are absolutely correct on all of those spare parts. For some reason my mind wandered over them, I must have been thinking in 240 mode. (I personally have two extra Radio Interference relays in my 780 trunk, just as a precaution in case the aux-cooling fan relay dies on the same trip (uses the same relay).


To the spare parts kit I would add:

-Radio interference suppression relay
-Ignition power stage
-Cap and rotor (save the old ones, if they aren't too bad, when you put new ones on)
-Hall effect sensor can fail without warning too, but if you are going to carry one, it would make more sense to take an entire distributor.

Sometimes it's not the radio suppression relay. I had what I thought was a bad one and it was the contacts in the connector. A little silver conductive paste and it was good to go, but BOY was that a bugger of a problem to find. Intermittent starting and sometimes quitting on the road for months!

As an owner of 240's, 700's and 900's I have found that prior ownership and maintenance history are the most important factor in determining reliability. If you can't determine the cars history I wouldn't buy it.

Here are my thoughts:

I think the newer the better, generally speaking. Any 740 after '87 should be a good bet due to the correction of the crumbling engine wiring harness issue. Earlier models should be checked for condition and to see if the harness was replaced.

Potentially, non-turbos should be more reliable than turbos due to more simplicity, less stress on components and less heat.

Some owners prefer Bosch injection/ignition over Rex/Regina (Bendix) that is found on many '89 up non-turbo models for some reason. Personally, my '91 Regina car runs like a top.

Many here say that the best red block cars were the late ('93-'95) 940 cars which were the final evolution of the 740.

Just my 2 cents.


Andrew S.

'91 744

Well, I have a 1992 940 non-turbo, ok it's not from the golden years of 1993-95, but here's a list of the problems this car has had at 164,000 miles:
Blown head gasket (knew that when purchased),
Leaking rear main/oil pan gasket,
leaking coolant into transmission fluid- needs new radiator (maybe new tranny later- yeah!),
frozen caliper slider pins,
ABS light on- bad sensor,
Driver's side power window rattling,
broken e-brake cable

The only saving grace is there appears to be an unlimited supply of these cars in the junkyards. My last count at my smallish junkyard (probably 500 cars) was ten 740/940 sedans.

Good luck!