I do have a very slow leak I suppose from the oil pump.It never makes it to the ground but does drip onto the oil coolant hoses.That caused me to replace hoses last week because they were bulging.I dont have the tools to get the balancer off(very high torque).Is going to synthetic going to cause a gusher and make the coolant hoses fail quicker? There doesn't appear to be any other leaks,although I'm at 188K miles.
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83 242 DL , 92-965, 94-965

I haven't really investagated the leak throughly but when I took it in for inspection the day after I bought they said it was the oil pump.I will try the oil cooler oil rings 1'st.It looks like a bear to get the balancer off to do the oil pump gaskets/o-rings.
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83 242 DL -120k, 92-965-167k, 94-965-188k

Not sure if you need to take the balancer off???? The leak is probably from the 2 large O rings on the cooler right next to the filter. Easy job needing only a large wrench or channel locks.

As stated synthetic will not affect any gasket or O ring. Some think that it may remove gunge from a shaft seal and cause oil to exit the seal (the seal was shot in the 1st place).
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David Hunter

No synthetic on the market today will attack any gasket or seal material.
It also does not replace missing material (or metal).
It may clean and soften seals, causing the leaks to lessen.
It may clean gunk and the leaks will increase.

Probably be a good idea to fix the leak first.

Your oil leak is probably the "O" rings on the oil cooler, simple to do and cheap.
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1996 964 138,000 Miles

small leak with dino oil = large leak with synthetic oil

basic rule of thumb.
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Kenric Tam
1990 Volvo 740 base sedan (B230F)
My Volvo 'Project'

Forgot to ask which weight oil to use to keep valve tick down,at least to a minimum.I used 20w50 on the 94 and the valve noise went away.The 92 still ticks using Dino 10w40 castrol.
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83 242 DL -120k, 92-965-167k, 94-965-188k

20w-50 is really too heavy - you should go with 15w-40. And any regular 10w-40 is a bad idea, since in order to get the weight spread, there are more modifiers and less oil.

-- Kane
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