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I own and drive (when it doesn't need fixing) an 85 240 Turbo. The cream of the crop if you will. I would never own a normally aspirated 240. Yeah, it's a PITA to fix and do routine maintenance on in some ways. But it's worth it! When you want to pass someone uphill, just pop it in third, blink, and feel the boost hit (all 10+ psi of it). Before you read any more, if you want an automatic.. go for the later normally aspirated cars. Maybe put a (hotter) VX3 cam into it. Any way you slice it, a turbo is *not* automatically more expensive to fix. In fact consider that a new turbo may run about $1200. You could easily spend that in a few years on top notch tires. A turbo can easily last 150k+ miles (say.. 15 years?) with the proper care. No way your tires will last that long. Anyways, most of the quirks (read: annoyances) you'll run into are as a result of:
- the intercooler
- the CI fuel injection (Bosch K-Jetronic)
This means:
The intercooler reduces radiator <-> engine clearance, and runs hoses everywhere. Ugh. Makes clearance by the exhaust side even tighter, and does a number on the intake side too.
Using the CI fuel injection meant that Volvo made a few quick tweaks to the old intake manifold. If you go for a B230 intake manifold upgrade, you'll get much more clearance. This makes the flame trap more difficult to get to (not that it's really easy on some of the mid 80s 240s either). The mechanical fuel injection also means that the air filter is burried under all sorts of fuel lines and such. The intercooler hoses run near by, and the funny shaped turbo "cobra" intake hoses get in the way too.
The turbo itself gets in the way of the alternator a bit, and if it's water cooled you'll have hoses in really odd places (and if you go to the dealer, they're really super spendy). Oil changes are more complicated now too (since the turbo gets in the way. Go for a remote filter setup if it drives you nuts.
If you want an automatic tranny, the (240) turbo conspires against you here too. The Turbo uses the less sophisticated Bosch Breakerless Ignition, with no knock sensor, and only a simple mechanical/vaccum advance/retard setup. This means a super low 7.5:1 compression ratio (unless you're in Europe), and a lowish stall speed torque convertor. Really a dog around town.
Go drive both.. the normally aspirated will probably be more tolerable around town. If you really want a 240, is it more important to get the extra boost from the turbo? or the finishing touches put on a 1992 model (the turbos ran until 1985)? If you want both, go search for a 740 or 760 Turbo. They have higher compression ratio engines, more advanced ignition control, electronic fuel injection (no mess of CI bits everywhere), a relocated alternator, etc. Basically a more serviceable engine.
- alex
'85 244 Turbo
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