got a sweet deal on a '91 740 turbo wagon a couple weeks back and it runs like a dream. it literally belonged to an older woman who bought it new, but she was told she couldnt drive any more so she gave it up to a man we know who does salvage, and he offered it to me for 650. i'm about to take it to smog. i looked it up on carfax and it says it failed two years ago, and passed the next day. i suppose that means she had work done to it. it has been driven very little since then . i changed the plugs and distributor cap and rotor etc. the oil and air cleaner were changed about 1000 miles ago and it runs smooth. wish me luck, lol. is there anything else i should check into ? california's smog system makes me very nervous. lol
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as long as its gotten a new o2 sensor in the last 60-90k miles, and otherwise is in sound shape, it should pass smog just fine

at around 250k or 300k miles you will probably need to replace the cat to smog.

 

hooray passed smog . co is a bit high though, so i have 2 years to buy an o2 sensor. NO was so low that it leads me to believe the cat is new(carfax says it failed in 15 and passed the next day.) on my 240 i replaced the cat last time because there were so many exhaust leaks that the guy couldnt even test it. i dont know how many miles it has because the odometer works intermittently and when it does it goes really really fast, like 10-20 miles for every half mile or so lol .

 

a word of warning with that car replace the head bolts now before they let go. Turbo cars 1990 1993 eat head bolts from the heat of the turbo and exhaust side of the head, they decay and allow the head gasket to blow. It happened to all my 740,s and 940,s with turbos. Non turbos don't do it, or it just take longer pass 230,000. And buy ARP bolts.

 

Another thing get at the main fuel pump in the middle of the car and clean and inspect and silicone and or seal the pump wiring it will fail. age kills everything miles is not as important as father time eating away at the car.

 

Hmmm, interesting...

 

got it. i imagine i'd want to replace them one at a time? i havent had the valve cover off either of my cars, so my next question is can i do it without removing the cam?

 

Sorry can remember that feature about head bolts under cam or not but I don't remember having to remove cam for that, I work on to many diff manufactures to try remembering everything. My head hurts after 68 years of it.