I just bought my first Volvo, A red 1988 740 turbo with 188K miles. I actually purchased the car for my son’s to use. I decided to purchase the car because the body is virtually rust free and the price was $500. I figure if I have to put another $500 into it, it’s still a good deal.

This is what I know:
1)The car sat 1 month outside (it was a very rainy August in Vermont).
2)The seller told me that a mouse build a nest in the air cleaner box.
3)The seller changed the spark plugs.
4)There was very little gas in the tank.

Problems I noticed when I first looked a the car
1)The car was hard to start and would not idle.
2)It runs rough up to 1800 RPM then is seems to smooth out.
3)When the car was running, the exhaust was gray. It did not smell like oil, was not viscous, but was watery. It was early evening and I could also see my breath, so I wrote it off to normal condensation.

I decided to do some research before purchasing the car. I found this site and read some of the forums.

Today I decided to purchase the car and I was able to drive it home.

Other observations I have:
1)After reading about excessive crank case pressure, I removed the oil fill cap and put my hand over the hole. The engine was probable at 1500-1800 RPM and there was positive pressure. I read that there is suppose to be vacuum at idle, but what about at higher RPMs?

2)While driving it ~15 miles, I had to use both accelerator and brake at intersections to keep it running. After it got going and the RPMs reached 1800, it would accelerate but not shift. I had to let up on the accelerator to cause the transmission to shift. Could this be caused be a vacuum leak?

3)I decided to tear into it and get down to the oil trap and see if it was clogged. I removed the intake manifold and noticed that most of the tubing is cracked. The oil trap looked clogged, how can I check for sure?

4)I also found oil in the air intake tubing between the turbo and the intake manifold. Is this normal?

I plan on replacing all of the vacuum hoses and installing a new oil trap.
What else should I do while I have it torn apart?

Thanks for you help.
Chris