Hi everyone,

Sure am glad I brought an extra coat with me last night to the work Xmas party. Otherwise, my girl would have frozen her ass off as we walked off the exit ramp to call AAA. It is cold in CT these days!

Been reading the archives and will be checking the fuel pump relay tonight, but thought I'd post the details for anyone who cares to chime in.

30 minutes into a 45 minute ride, I lost power on a hill, couldn't get the car over 65 anymore. Turbo boost guage was still showing good boost, but I wasn't getting any of it. As we crested the hill, I tried to accelerate and couldn't. Motor stayed running, but car would not accelerate. As the car slowed down and we moved across to the right lane, I downshifted and still couldn't get anything. When we came to a stop, motor died. I didn't try to restart it. Took a look under the hood and the turbo and ex mani were glowing red. Seeing as we had just climbed a hill, I guess that this isn't that unusual. My catalytic converter is new - less than 5K on it.

So, I'm suspecting fuel. Haven't had a chance to do anything with the car yet, but it cranked fine and wouldn't fire up this morning. If the timing belt broke, would the motor have continued to run as I coasted to a stop? I'm just about due for a timing belt change, but have never experience a broken one, so I don't know how the feels when it happens.

Car sits in front of my house awaiting my attention. It's a shame it's 27 degrees out and will be dark by the time I get home.

Any opinions welcome,

Jake

The only times my car (83' Turbo, non intercooled) died and wouldn't restart are when:

1. The fuel pump fuse blew; I just replaced it with a different one.

2. I washed off my engine, which in turn ruined my already junk wiring harness. I took it apart and replace the wires.

I have had symptoms similar to yours though, and thought it was the cat. I took it off, cut it open, and to my surprise the previous owner had already gutted it (welds looked a bit suspicious, not the same as factory).

I put it back together, and found the problem was some old and leaky vacuum lines, along with some loose turbo pipe connections, and a loose electrical connection to the fuel pressure regulator. I was having a super rich condition, which caused the car to overdose in fuel, and have terrible power under boost, and terrible gas mileage, and lots of black smoke. The car ran fine with no boost at lower RPMs. Replicating boost related problems is next to impossible while you look over the engine, unless you have a dyno to run it on.

Your timing belt may have skipped a tooth or two, it happened on my mom's 81' DL when I warmed it up one morning. It would not run at all (no compression, cranked over very easily.)

You could have a problem with the cat; you can unhook it at the turbo and try that (very loud, not the best plan to drive it this way). It sounds like a fuel problem, if the car struggles then stops, but I wouldn't be sure. You might just have some leaky connections and loose electrical connections that finally made it to the point of not running.

Good luck, and hopefully you can get some good tips from people on the board.

Look for pressure leaks. I had the same sort of problem, except mune kept running. No power under boost, fine otherwise. It turned out the hose from the throttle body to the IC pipe had popped of and was held by vacuum but let the compressed air out.

Resolder the fuel pump relay, check for broken rubber connecting hoses or loose intake hoses.

I assume it's intercooled, what boosted Volvo isn't?

Thought from a 700/900 guy.

Yeah, I'll check that stuff, for sure.

84 was the first year intercooler was an option on the 240T, so all pre-84 Turbos were non-intercooled, I think.

I would start with the basics first:

Got fuel? (fuses, pumps, relay)

Got Spark? (Use #1 plug wire)

The glowing mani may or may not be related. Believe or not our cars are very simple. Answer the above, then we'll see if you got the spark at the right time and compression to set it all up...

Thanks, Paul. That's the plan.

A busted belt would stop your progress right away. But if it slipped a few notches you might find that it would still run, just really badly. I guess the FP relay could be bad. Check to see if the pump is running when you crank it.

It does sound really suspicious especially because you have a 5000 mile-old cat. The hot uphill run might have broken something off on the inside. I had the problem once on my Audi. Something in the cat broke off and it stopped dead with the same symptoms. Then it wouldn't start. But when I smacked the converter with a hammer, everthing got back to normal and I was on my way.

that's weird that hammering the car would get things going again. i might try that if i get nowhere with the fuel pump, relay, etc. what do you think the "something" was that broke off?

If you try it (I'll accompany this by "DUH") use a block of wood or something. Otherwise you could bang a hole in the cat, so if that isn't the problem, you'll have busted up a good cat.

Car starting fine after hammering the cat is not really strange. I've had mechanics swear to it. The explanation lies in the contrasting ability of the engine to run fine (which itself demands very low horsepower and produces a small amount of exhaust) and it's total lack of "guts" when you stepped on the accelerator. The back pressure developed by the broken off internal in the cat robbed you ("I wuz robbed!") of the horsepower that should have been developed by the engine. With a richer exhaust can easily come burning in the exhaust manifold and extraordinary heat at the manifold and turbo.