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Hi Volvo owners,
I bought my Volvo 740 wagon with a B230FT at an auto auction for $1450. It was the most beautiful blue I had ever seen with perfect black leather seats. It was my first Volvo and I appreciate the intelligence of all the Volvo owners helping me to get the kinks worked out. This is a much more complicated car than I am used to.
The car had 200K miles, knocked, blew oil, and got 16 miles/gallon. I took it to my local "import" car expert. I got it back running worse and $500 poorer. Now it could barely get up hills and blew black smoke.
I pulled off the catalytic converter and replaced it with a "test" pipe. The converter was OK even though it was working hard. Reading through the posts, I found a similar problem with a leak by the mass air sensor. I taped this up with high temp tape and it immediately fixed the black smoke problem.
Oil consumption was a quart every tank (about 160 miles) and oil was over everything. The mechanic told me that both the valves and pistons were leaking, the wiring harness was rotten and fixing it all would be from 4K-5K. No wonder such a beautiful car was so cheap!
I cleaned the engine and replaced the oil with racing 50 weight oil. I am careful to let it warm for a few minutes before driving. The blow by and knocking were substantially reduced. Now I use a qt every 400 miles. In the winter, I will switch to 20W50 Castrol. It does not get that cold here on the Washington coast.
Gas mileage was still only 16 mpg. Reading further, I surmised that my O2 sensor and injectors probably needed replacement and cleaning. Injector cleaner was generally not effective. But for $5.00, why not try it anyway? Gas mileage went up to 20mpg! This might be all I can expect from a worn out engine.
I still have a problem with surging at startup and the engine will often die once when it is still cold. I am not going to worry about looking at the bypass valve (or other solutions) until it gets worse.
My ultimate plan is to drop a Ford 302 into the brick and join the Volvo V8 club. I am a poor Volvo owner who cannot afford the Converse kit, so I will just be a retro type and put on a Holley 4bl.
But I am not going to do that until the tired engine won't go anymore. Thanks for all the good tips.
Joe
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