84 760 Turbo DIESEL purchase?

Just ran accross an 84 760 Turbo diesel for sale sort of locally, very
cheap, under a grand.
Seller tells me it's pretty beat up interior wise, and some crinkles
in the body in various places, a little rust around sunroof, etc.

But the diesel motor is mechanically sound, supposedly.

Although I was looking for a gas turbo model, (another 84 760T would
be SWEEEEET), I was just wondering what the consensus was on the older
turbo DIESELS by Volvo.

This one has somewhere between 100 and 120,000 miles on it (with a
broken odometer, of course) so it may have some serious miles, but
only smokes a puff or two on acceleration, which may be normal for a
diesel, I don't know.


What do you long- timers think of the diesel models, aside from the
obvious smell, and lack of quickness of course?


Thanks

 

I have a 940TD and when the engine is cold it feels like a real truck
engine, but it's a sweet motor when warm. The 940 *isn't* slow-although
a 0-60 time of around 12 sec suggests otherwise. In "real world" on-the-
road acceleration it's no slouch.
My insurance company doesn't think it's slow! They insist on no drivers
under 25-y-o and with at least 1 year driving experience.
The only time I notice a diesel smell is when I fuel up, or open the
hood.
The vacuum pump (powers the brakes) has been known to get very noisy at
around 150K miles. It's internal spring breaks and allows the drive
pushrod to rattle around. Sounds like one (very) loose tappet. See your
local VW commercial vehicle dealer for a repair kit.Yes, VW!
This engine is a 6-cylinder version of the VW Golf (Rabbit) diesel 4,
and was also used in VW's original LT van/truck range.
Change the cambelt every 80k miles, use quality oil changed every 5k
miles, warm up the engine before giving it hard use and you will be
rewarded with a durable engine.
Everything else about the car is standard Volvo 7/9 series.
HTH

 

Those engines are very expensive to fix, and it's fairly hard to find
someone who really knows what they're doing to work on them. They are
less tolerant of poor maintenance that the 4 cylinder as well. I would
recommend against it.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Have a 86 740 TD. Had to replace the cam shaft a few years ago. It snap in
two. looked like a manufacturing defect. It did cost a lot of money to
replace. Tried the salvage yards but couldn't find anything available. Not
too many diesels around. think Volvo had the six cyl for only two-three
years. I still like the car but my wife wants me to get rid of it. Some
people convert over to gas engines when the diesels goes. Bill

 

The VW/Audi six was in use by Volvo in the 200, 700 and 900 series cars until
1998 so was in production for a very long time. Volkswagen themselves tweaked it
up as an experiment and got 225 bhp from it. They had to change the camshaft to
achieve this, but reached 200 bhp before the camshaft change. The four variants
were straight diesel 85 bhp, turbodiesel 109 bhp, intercooled turbo diesel 122
bhp and a variant for the Italian market 780 127 bhp. My own (with hydraulic
tappets and cambelt tensioner other than the waterpump!!) is producing 145 bhp
with some mild tuning of the fuel pump by an expert.

Cheers, Peter.

: Have a 86 740 TD. Had to replace the cam shaft a few years ago. It snap in
: two. looked like a manufacturing defect. It did cost a lot of money to
: replace. Tried the salvage yards but couldn't find anything available. Not
: too many diesels around. think Volvo had the six cyl for only two-three
: years. I still like the car but my wife wants me to get rid of it. Some
: people convert over to gas engines when the diesels goes. Bill
: : > Just ran accross an 84 760 Turbo diesel for sale sort of locally, very
: > cheap, under a grand.
: > Seller tells me it's pretty beat up interior wise, and some crinkles
: > in the body in various places, a little rust around sunroof, etc.
: >
: > But the diesel motor is mechanically sound, supposedly.
: >
: > Although I was looking for a gas turbo model, (another 84 760T would
: > be SWEEEEET), I was just wondering what the consensus was on the older
: > turbo DIESELS by Volvo.
: >
: > This one has somewhere between 100 and 120,000 miles on it (with a
: > broken odometer, of course) so it may have some serious miles, but
: > only smokes a puff or two on acceleration, which may be normal for a
: > diesel, I don't know.
: >
: >
: > What do you long- timers think of the diesel models, aside from the
: > obvious smell, and lack of quickness of course?
: >
: >
: > Thanks
: >
:
:

 

Thanks all for the opinions, given that this car (Which I have not
seen, but the dealer selling it says it's a "little beat up but runs
good") sounds like it may too much of a handfull.

If the motor turns out to be a dud, I'm not prepared to swap the
engine out. That's beyond my realm of capabilities for a 20 yr old
auto.

And diesels still scare me.

 

If you liked your 760 Turbo, avoid the diesel like the plague, you'll be
dissapointed. The older Diesel Volvos were slugs, the Volkswagon
manufactured engine is notorious for being noisy, slow, and smoking heavily.
From the description containing ratty interior, crinkles in the body, and
worst of all, rust, it sounds to me like this particular car is scrap, and
that's coming from someone who loves Volvos and hates to see a repairable
one parted out.

 

Diesels are great, the particular Diesel that Volvo used in these cars
though is a much less than stellar example of the technology.

 

I agree James, plus the fact that it was a dealer who was selling it,
so I just figured it has too many negatives.

Hey, the reason I fell in love with the old 760 Tubo to begin with is
that it handled and moved superbly, especially for a 20 year old car.

If fuel economy was my only concern, then yes, I might have considered
a diesel. But I like just just a little bit of fun when I drive.

My "new" 99 S80 is a real pleasure to drive, although it lacks that
charm the old 760 had.

I'm sure there wil be problems down the road as with all cars, and
that the S80 will probably have some that I am unable to repair,
especially if they are computer related, but that's the chance I take.


So my quest continues.

For the repairable, exciting, reliable ol' Volvo.

 

It seems as if there is a lot of close minded people trying to turn you away. The vw diesel d24t is a great motor. Parts are harder to come by, as they are for anything this age. They're .o.more expensive then the gas counterparts they compete with.

While that can be argued, I can safely say you would like the car. There only downfall is that they are indirect injection. Also, when mated to a standard shift car, lagging gears under heavy load when the engine is modified (over 175~ hp) will result in bent connnecting rods. Ask me how I know.

As for slow...let's look at something. They VE Bosch pump on this motor is.nearly identical to that of a 6bt cummins...which with that pump regularly make 350+ reliably (I have seen upwards of nearly 600hp fuel only, but that is really pushing its limits). Currently, with head studs, a larger turbo and somewhat basic pump tuning, my motor is making 250~ hp to the ground and just about 400 lb/ft of torque. Trust me, that is no slouch. The.motor is in a Toyota pickup, I made a custom adapter plate etc, as I am a fabricator.

I am very happy with the motor!