Hello all, I'm Glen.

Yesterday I bought a 1991 740 turbo for 600$. It needs some work, but it runs and sorta drives.
The electric fan switch popped out of the radiator (it had been running hot, as well) and the PO noticed the coolant looked milky, so he stopped driving it.
It sat for... I think 2 years?
Anyway, one of my coworkers suggested I pick it up because I had been complaining about not wanting to continue to use my mazda miata as my daily driver when it starts to rain, I have crappy headlights, an aggressive alignment, and am too low and kinda hard to see.
So far all I have done is made a pick n pull run to replace the missing dipstick and tube, the broken passenger side front turn signal assy, and bought a stock roof rack for 25$ Also found a dash mat, yay.
Anyway, my ongoing diagnosis will probably warrant its own thread, and just wanted to pop in and share my woes. The miata cost 1700$ and I am up to about 3300$ into it altogether between tires and other bits, lets see how much this volvo will cost me.

 

Hope the milky coolant you mentioned is not oil mixing which means it has a blown head gasket.
if its running hot too and needs coolant top ups frequently. Means the same probably????
Suggest you do a compression test or a leakdown to confirm the above sooner rather than later. Running her will increase the engine damage and the repair costs.
Good luck with your new project.

Check the oil cooler too. coolant/oil mixing could occur there.

 

Nice find.

I visited a shop here in Albuquerque a few days ago that specializes in modding those red block Volvo's to tear the road up.

Those may be the best motors ever put in a passenger car.

 

I installed the dipstick tube today and when I checked the engine oil I was ever so slightly low, but my oil is black black, and I have churned its guttyworks up once or twice moving it from the street into the garage. If I had coolant within the oil I would expect to see evidence of it, but this dipstick looks normal. I pulled the trans dipstick afterwards and the fluid isn't even on the stick (which possibly explains why it takes more revs than I would expect to move the car), however, the splatter fluid on the stick is red and sweet smelling. As far as I know coolant is the king contaminator because whereas oil and transmission fluid main pressure drop down to zero rapidly upon engine shut down, coolant stays at around 12-15 PSI as it slowly loses heat and drops below boiling etc. So, I would expect that if I have coolant contamination that I would see it elsewhere and not just in the radiator. I have an exhaust gas in coolant tool coming to me tomorrow from the matco guy and will buy a coolant system leak tester from him or snap on in order to give a final word on if the radiator has a busted line from trans or oil cooler. It might just be that the PO was overly cautious and didnt really NEED the volvo anymore (he has a subaru wagon) and didnt bother with it. We shall see, I just hope to have the volvo running alright before the rain starts to hit hard

 

My goal is 300whp. My buddy is convinced it just takes minor bolt-ons. The car came with 6x uninstalled brown tops and has a turbo from an 850. We'll see. lol.

POWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH