164e opinions

[Peter Fuggle]

Hello All,

FP to this group! Just bought a 1975 164e for $1200AUD. Very much a spur
of the moment decision... Have done a bit of Googling in Google Groups
and am not yet regretting the purchase despite the fact that a 3.0l
straight 6 with a BW35 slush box will probably more than double my
petrol bill compared with the manual 1.1l 1975 Corolla (pillarless
sports coupe!!) that I was driving...

Anyway, all seems well with the (as yet unnamed) new family member.

Am very interested in hearing others' experiences of this model as well
as any potential gotchas and would also like to ask a few questions of
you Volvophiles.

It seems to me that the gearing is wrong! In top it revs at about
2500rpm at 80k/h and roughly 3500rpm at 110k/h. The transmission is not
slipping so I am assuming this is a design "feature"? I wonder whether
the fuel economy would benefit from slightly higher gearing but suppose
that this is a moot point since doing anything about it would most
likely invovle fitting a non standard transmission which I would not be
keen to do. This is a very original car.

Apart from that, was just wondering whether the airconditioning is
always poor in these? Have not had it serviced/regassed so that may help
but is it worth doing?

Ok, look forward to any info/opinions you may have to offer.

Regards,

Pete

P.S. There is a photo of the car (and my wife!) here:

http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~pfuggle/files/164e.jpg

 

[James Sweet]

Hello All,

FP to this group! Just bought a 1975 164e for $1200AUD. Very much a spur
of the moment decision... Have done a bit of Googling in Google Groups
and am not yet regretting the purchase despite the fact that a 3.0l
straight 6 with a BW35 slush box will probably more than double my
petrol bill compared with the manual 1.1l 1975 Corolla (pillarless
sports coupe!!) that I was driving...

Anyway, all seems well with the (as yet unnamed) new family member.

Am very interested in hearing others' experiences of this model as well
as any potential gotchas and would also like to ask a few questions of
you Volvophiles.

It seems to me that the gearing is wrong! In top it revs at about
2500rpm at 80k/h and roughly 3500rpm at 110k/h. The transmission is not
slipping so I am assuming this is a design "feature"? I wonder whether
the fuel economy would benefit from slightly higher gearing but suppose
that this is a moot point since doing anything about it would most
likely invovle fitting a non standard transmission which I would not be
keen to do. This is a very original car.

Apart from that, was just wondering whether the airconditioning is
always poor in these? Have not had it serviced/regassed so that may help
but is it worth doing?

Ok, look forward to any info/opinions you may have to offer.

Regards,

Pete

P.S. There is a photo of the car (and my wife!) here:

http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~pfuggle/files/164e.jpg

Very nice car, looks like you found a particularly nice example as well.
You're right though, the fuel economy stinks, that's about the only
complaint I've ever heard about them.

 

[Rob Guenther]

My god that is a gorgeous car!!!!

Don't know anything about them tho, sorry.... I don't think A/C has been a
Volvo strong point, ever... It's good in the newer ones tho... But our old
740 had awefull A/C compared to our 960, and our 960 feels a little stuffy
compared to the V70's A/C... My dad said he didn't bother getting A/C in his
240's because he heard it wasn't worth the fuel economy loss (don't know he
heard this from, so it might not be valid, or the person had a bad A/C)

 

[William Liao]

Hi,

Looks like it's in real nice condition! I still have one of these, a '73
model that I'm trying to sell, It was unfortunately involved in an accident
two years ago and "written off" by insurance (accident wasn't my fault, I
received payout from the other driver's insurance company).

I can't remember exactly what the rev was like in mine at those speeds, but
I think that sounds about right. The top gear of the BW35 is a direct gear,
1 : 1 ratio. Plus the bit of slippage you get through the torque converter,
you'll get high revs at highway speeds. The bad news is BW35 is that you'll
have pretty high fuel consumption. But on the other hand since it's a very
common automatic transmission (used on many other cars at the time including
Jags, Falcons and Citrones) so it's not too expensive to get a rebuild. I
paid AUD$650 to get mine complete rebuilt, whereas a later model automatic
gearbox may cost you around $2000 for a rebuild. I've been told that the
best gearbox is M410, which is a 4 speed + OD manual, but unfortunately it
was never officially offered on Australian models, only the M400 standard 4
speed was offered here (and I've see one 164 here with it).

Have you been to http://www.164club.org/ ? Lots of excellent information
there about the 164.

From your rego plate it looks like you're from Victoria? I'm up in
Brisbane.
_________________
Will
'90 Volvo 744 GLT
B230F converted to B230FB (531 Head & VX3 Cam)