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I just recently bought an '84 260 diesel with 220,000 mi for an around town beater car cheap.
Aside from a ravenous appitite for oil it runs great.
I had originally planed to drive it into the ground, but after closer inspection I found that the P.O. had done megabucks worth of maintnence on it (almost all new suspension , brakes, etc )so I'm looking into a replacement engine when this one goes.
so far I've found prices between 2800.00 and 3500.00 through Pep boys and auto zone, and $3300.00 from a local forign machine shop for long blocks, ( havn't checked rebuilders that ship yet ) and a place in Oregon , Mercy motive , does them for about 2500.00 installed, and has some good info on diesels ).
The engine is an overgrown VW diesel . I owned one of those before and was very happy with it , but couldn't find parts in small town middle America (pre-internet days, gapa.com and others have parts).
If you don't do all your own work, be aware that most Volvo dealers and mechanics know nothing about these things, It appears that you have to locate a liberal minded VW diesel mechanic for service.
If you aren't used to driving diesel equipment ( i.e. old truck driver ) you might not get used to people shaking their fists at you after being stuck behind you on freeway onramps, hills, steep driveways or roadkill.
they run about like an old Detroit or Perkins diesel, on the flat they get up and go but if they even see a hill in the distance they fall on their face and it's time to drop gears.
I'm very familiar with diesel equipment and I knew this thing was a gamble at best, I just came out OK . If you are not familiar with diesels , I would avoid anything without a fresh engine or find one cheap (almost free, blue book on an '84 is between $0.00 AND $288.00) and plan on replacing the engine or driving it till it drops.
Hope this helps.
--------Robert
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