There was a guy, Tom, on the SwedishBricks mailing list who offered a 1 million mile warranty (or whenever he becomes physically unable to rebuild the engine.. whichever comes first) against oil related failures to the first sbricks member to take him up on his offer. There were a few (15 or so) requirements. The first being that he rebuild the engine (D24 or D24T). The second being that the person run only Mobil 1 (except for the breakin period of about 500-1000 miles) and change it (and I believe the filter) every 25,000 miles. The others were more along the lines of using quality parts and fluids in the engine.

Of course Tom has four or five high mileage diesel Volvos in his stable, all running Mobil 1 at 25,000 mile change intervals, and rebuilds the diesel (as found in our beloved RWD bricks, and perhaps others) engines for a living.

I wonder when someone will do that for the red blocks (boy I'd go out and have them rebuild one my engines for sure). I guess the key to longevity with these diesel engines is proper maintenance. It has been mentioned (I guess now I'll have to dig up that post) that you'll absolutely need about 17 special tools from Volvo (or perhaps VW) to do basic maintenance (adjusting valves, remove/replace rear timing belt, adjust timing, etc) on the big diesel. This is in stark contrast to the red blocks, especially the earlier ones, where the most specialized tools you need to perform said maintenance is a big screwdriver and a perhaps a breaker bar. Of course his offer has sent me looking for a cheap 760TD in which to put said engine in... cause 80hp just wouldn't do it for me... and besides aren't turbo diesels supposed to get better mileage? :-D

Just something to wrap one's brain around at this late hour.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo