I was hoping to get your guys' opinion. I've uploaded a video of my 240 idling in my garage (door open) after driving home from work. It just seems noisier than it ought to for a car with such legendary motor integrity. Since mine has 113K on the clock and no obvious signs of abuse, and seems to have been well-maintained, I'm unsure what the possible culprit is. Piston slap? I thought that is typically on cold start-up. Valve train? Could be - I don't know when it was last adjusted. Bearings? I hope not. Dirty throttle plate/intake? Maybe nothing at all, and I'm just being paranoid. On a side note, I did recently change the oil/filter, spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor for a basic tune up. I'm not sure if I got my phone close enough, so I may have to take an additional video to make sure the audio is accurate.

 

You call that a noisy idle?


Really though, noisy lifters?

 

Are you SURE about the miles? Seem low for an 88k... No matter, it sounds fine to me. Have you had a recent change in sound? If not, don't worry sounds pretty normal, definitely NO piston slap or valves... These motors are great but not the quietest...

 

I'm about as sure of the mileage as any reasonable person can be. I'm inclined to believe what I've been told since they seller seemed pretty straight-forward. That said, the dash cluster does indeed work, so there's always a small chance it was replaced at one point with a working unit showing lower miles. Regardless, the overall condition of the car points me in the direction of lower miles, too.

The only real noticed change in sound is probably me getting more familiar with the car and hearing it more than a brief test drive. It always sounded a bit "tractor-like," even though the exhaust system was replaced recently and looks the part, too. I've been looking up and down on the internet to see if someone knew if these Redblocks sounded "agricultural" from the start or if that's the sign of poor engine condition. Granted, I could probably stand to look at the engine mounts sometime, but they don't seem too suspect yet.

I was also told the previous owner always ran synthetic 10w30 oil and Napa Gold filters (which I believe are made by Wix, so decent). So I changed the oil with Valvoline high mileage synthetic blend and the spare Napa Gold filter he had in the trunk since I couldn't find full-syn. Still, I can't imagine that'd be the cause since I understand Redblocks could be run with a Dixie cup with a napkin in it for an oil filter and sandy Coca Cola for oil and still go plenty of miles. Either way, sorry if the sound on my cellphone video capture was inaccurate - it probably didn't catch all the smaller nuances of slight clatters and other noise.

 

yeah, they are a tractor motor the fancier cars used more sound proofing (my 745T has a full insulating pad under the hood, for instance).

anyways, videos of car noise are really hard to judge, as there's no reference level, the camera has automatic gain control so it cranks up the volume of whatever it can pick up.

 

To mphileo: sounds like my 87 wagon with worn out valve hushers(absorber)...you can check these by removing the valve cover and take off the camshaft, remove the cam follower(with fingers) and you will see these rubber rings in the center of the valve springs, they might be missing or flattened and need replacing, just pick them out and replace.....this will require for you to redo the timing belt as you will need to take off in order to remove the camshaft...if you are handy with tools and have a manual it will take you around 3 hours to do and the hushers are cheap. 2 dollars a piece or so

I got my engine to quiet down by adding an oil stabilizer.....Lucas works and Rizlone or Rissole (something like that) these worked immediately...I did add good grade high mileage oil but was not enough, the oil stabilizer help for sure....

To: Mungulz you got exhaust problems (like u didn't know)....exhaust gaskets for sure or muffler...I had to drive my car around the block without the exhaust manifold for repairs and sounded like an old 1900 WW1 prop plane.....!!! very fun actually, people were yelling obscene things but luckily the exhaust noise canceled them out but could make out the words by reading the lips....

 

I'd not use High Mileage oil, in a Red Block... Oh, may be after 400k... Use quality 10-30, preferably MANN filter but as you say, not crucial, the motor is the last thing to fail unless you overheat it.

Re the miles. It's sort of important if you try to sort out a clackety motor. 113k is very low for an '88 and a Red Block should be quite tight if that indeed is the mileage, as well hardly any wear on upholstery, steering wheel, carpets, etc. I'd be disinclined to believe those miles unless you have some pretty good records to show evidence. Carfax/Autocheck records sometimes help to show mileage progression.

 

Any reason you would suggest against using a high mileage oil on this red block? If so, is there a generally agreed upon synthetic oil that's recommended?

I've thought about running a Carfax on it, but if you go to the following link, you can see in the pictures that she's in good shape overall, not that I'm trying to be defensive

https://volvoforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=351776#post351776

 

any major brand 10W30 is fine in these engines. maybe 15w40 if you live in the desert summer heat. I typically use Mobil 1 these days. Synth is a good idea in a turbo which really cooks the oil, but in a NA, its not going to do anything different. I do NOT believe in going for extended oil change intervals with a synth. change your oil every 5000 miles.

 

Thanks for the input, pierce. Since this is an N/A, I won't get too riled up about running synthetic blend. Also agreed on not doing an OCI longer than 5,000 miles. There's just no need.

 

Well, I got it warmed up and the engine itself seems to be idling smoothly (thanks for the oil stabilizer suggestion!). what I was hearing before has been isolated to an intermittent, light clunking. To me, it sounds like something somewhere is loose. I will have to do more investigation, possibly with a stethoscope, to find out. I'm not sure if it would be one of the pulleys or harmonic balancer or something else.

 

My wife wanted me to keep the Volvo outside while she moved some things around in the garage, but said I could park it back inside when she was done. So I took the opportunity to listen to the engine from a cold start and take some more recording in hopes of getting this irritating noise figured out. here's the links to the YouTube videos below. One is from the side of the exhaust manifold and the other is from the side of the intake, applying some throttle. The camera is closer to the engine in hopes of catching my phantom noise, so maybe this will help:



So far, I'm still stumped.

More annoyingly, my bulb failure warning light comes on only when I brake. It had done that when I first got it, so I checked all the lights and everything worked fine. For due diligence, I replaced any bulbs that looked suspect and cleaned the bulb contacts and the circuit contacts with electrical contact cleaner, ensuring everything was snug. The light came off after that. I was totally pleased. Now that I replaced the rear license plate lights (which work fine), it's back on when I press the brake. Is there a way to bypass this mechanism so I don't have to buy a replacement $50 relay in the hopes it'll solve the issue?

 

sounds like a 4 cyl engine to me.

there's what sounds like quite a lot of microphone-in-the-wind noise over the top of the engine. the exhaust side had more valve noise when you moved towards the back of the engine, but nothing abnormal.

 

OK, High Mileage oil is just unnecessary, and usually more expensive... I'd never use additives, stabilizers, etc.

Hushers do nothing to quiet the motor, I know they are called hushers, they look like crap when you see them laying there in the head all cracked and collapsed. You replace them, may be it will seem to you like there was improvement but no, they do nothing.

You can try to adjust the valves-that's where the most common and easily solvable noise could be... They are supposed to be adjusted a lot more than they get adjusted in the real world. Keep in mind that valve adjustment is tricky, shops often don't do a great job. And doing it yourself takes tools and shims and some fiddly measuring--a bit of a dark art if you will...

 

If you want to adjust the valves, IPD has a kit to do it:

Valve Shim Kit

Don't let the price scare you, it is a $210 deposit & a $40 rental charge (I'm not sure if that includes the charge for the shims you use). If you read the description, there are a couple of other special tools you may need that they rent out.

The procedure isn't all that difficult. You just measure your clearance that you have, compute the difference to the desired clearance and use appropriate shim. If I were in there doing it, I would replace the hushers as well. They may not matter to the mechanical functioning of the engine but they do reduce valve train noise (thats why they are called hushers).

 

I owe it to you guys to check back in, I think. I may have solved or at least reduced my mystery noise and improved my idle - of course, that just might be my ear dyno. I took the time to take the intake hoses apart and cleaned the butterfly valve and intake, idle air control valve (pretty dirty), air mass meter, checked all the vacuum lines were secure and cleaned out the flame trap for good measure (not that bad, not that good).

Anyway, based on the cleaning process, I think that the filthy idle air control valve was at least largely to blame for the loping idle issues. Everything else was probably helpful or at least the cherry on top. By the way, it's a lot more of a PITA to get the IAC off a 240 than it is a SAAB 900. Thank goodness the Volvo is built so much better and doesn't have its belts facing the firewall. Regardless, I may have one of my friends help me do a proper valve adjustment, too. Thanks for all your help so far!