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740 Really could use some help guys.

W

whatshouldido

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2013
Location
Florida
Allright heres the deal, I was given a 89 Volvo 740gl wagon, But it has been sitting for the last couple of months, always had scheduled maintenance done, odo reads 268k but is broken haha, starts up just fine and drives and shifts fine(automatic) but the
REAL problem is under heavy acceleration it spits out white smoke like no tomorrow, it smells like super strong well exhaust, like burnt gas and there is no cooling missing, and the oil isnt milky and also there is no missing oil, so what gives? the car like i said has been sitting for a couple months, starts and idles just fine, anyone know what i can do to check for issues? Its really bad and i dont wanna drive like this. Any one know of the problem? If its a head gasket how screwed am i?
Its also a non turbo. Anyone help would be appreciated guys.
 
Could be small cracks in the head. White smoke is usually coolant, may not leak much that you would notice the level drop in a short time.
Any other issues? Rough running on start up? Pull the plugs to look for signs of coolant on them.
Could just be condensation from sitting burning off, old gas, etc. Run it through the tank, put in fresh gas and see if it's still doing that.
 
^^ what he said. Plus, 89 NA is lh2.4, so look at the codes, maybe there's a hint there.
Do a compression test, and a pressure test on the cooling system.
 
Canuckvolvo said:
Could be small cracks in the head. White smoke is usually coolant, may not leak much that you would notice the level drop in a short time.
Any other issues? Rough running on start up? Pull the plugs to look for signs of coolant on them.
Could just be condensation from sitting burning off, old gas, etc. Run it through the tank, put in fresh gas and see if it's still doing that.
Click to expand...

Yea it runs good, and downs feel like its lost any power either, cuz it still gets up and goes and if it used to be faster that would be super surprising. Ill have to do a pressure test on the radiator, i kinda think its running rich, couldnt that be a possibility?
 
Put a bottle of gas line antifreeze and octane booster......drive it till its empty until u buy more gas. Did that to my 240........sat 3 1/2years!
 
Running rich will produce black smoke, blue smoke is oil, white smoke is coolant. Sounds like head gasket to me.
 
^ if your mechanically inclined, yes it is fairly simple.. good set of tools, bentley book and some time.

HG job i think would run around 1k(+/- a few hundred). dont know for sure, done them myself.

But i look at engine jobs like this, Take each computer the car has(cruise,tachs,seats, etc etc), multiply by 3 add 2 zeros to it and change to dollar bills.
 
Forgive me for stating the blatantly obvious, but 1 extra qt of oil will cause enough windage under hard accel to wash the cylinders with enough oil to slip right by the oil control rings.
Also, any blockage in the oil drains will flood the valve guides at high RPM.

Oil smoke is blue but oil vapor is white.
 
machine shop to check the head $75~, HG like 15 bucks, engine flush/new oil/coolant 80 bucks maybe, might as well do timing belt and water pump while your in there $100~, new plugs 10 bucks. probably can be done for cheaper if you find the right deals or sales at whatever auto parts store you go to.
 
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