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crummy gas mileage on 1976 265DL 200 1976

based on what you wrote, here's what i'd do-

change all the injector seals. nothing to worry about anything else falling apart. just be careful with the plastic injector hoses and replace all the copper seals. no fuel leaks.

i hope you got the bosch cap and rotor. i've fixed alot of poor start, poor run or both with real parts, not the cheap stuff in the stores. and yes, bosch or ngk copper plugs only. but-no bosch wires. they cause problems out of the box. oe or bougicord only. at 86k it might be ok to used the wires on it now, but 22 years is long for the insulation. they might cause a problem. do the plugs, cap and rotor and wait and see on the wires.

you're gonna need to know the fuel pressure, so the right gauges are paramount. fuel pressure is the only thing that injection system uses to open the injectors. low control pressure when cold, higher as it warms, so it doesn't run rich or lean all the time.

the poor starting when hot sounds like rest pressure is falling off. it's supposed to maintain close to hot control pressure for about 20-30 minutes. yours sounds like it's not. a 22 yo car with 86k on it has sat alot. sounds like the accumulator is shot. it has a rubber diaphram with a spring behind it that really doesn't like to sit unused. just went through this with an 84 ferrari 512bbi with 6k and 2 injection systems on it, so it needed 2 accumulators to get it to start when hot. there is also a check valve screwed into the fuel pump which also helps rest pressure, but they rarely go bad while sitting.

the raw fuel may be leaking injectors. i like to replace them at 100k, because they do wear out. 86k is close. i know they're not cheap anymore, but, to go through replacing the seals and to have to do it again to replace the injectors is not fun. but, the raw fuel may be those fancy plugs. change them first, check the fuel pressure cold thru hot and make sure the ignition system is ok. if you still get the raw fuel thing, then have someone scope the ignition system and look for available kv at the coil. if they look at you funny, find another shop. if the coil output is low, it can look, and smell, like too much fuel when it's really not enough spark to fire the fuel in the cylinder. at 86k, i'm not worried about the coil, but it's a possibility. i've had to replace maybe 3 coils of that era, 1 was my 76 242 with 200k that screwed me in 99 or 2000. and it was not the oe bosch but some generic that the previous owner installed at 1 time. if it needs a coil, get the real bosch. THEN, look at doing the seals and the injectors-if neccessary. seals at 22 years don't suprise me. they're rubber, they rot and crack.

be advised-these cars do not have the smooth idle cars have nowdays. they are lumpy by nature of the engine design. they were never smooth when new, so don't cry when everything else is new and perfect and it's not what you want. and don' raise the idle speed to make it look smooth. if you have an automatic, the higher idle wears out the trans. raising the idle was common back then but we started seeing trans failures later in their life. i guess that's enough. there's lotsa stuff here and on the web to help you muddle through. good luck, chuck.






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New crummy gas mileage on 1976 265DL [200][1976]
posted by  powood  on Sat Nov 15 18:11 CST 2008 >


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