Hi all, thanks for stopping by. I'd hate to start a thread for something that's already been solved on here, but after looking around I haven't been able to find anything that describes my issue. There's a chance I'm just being silly and mixing up an issue, but I wanted to ask anyways. I've never owned a volvo but loved the community so I figured why not buy one. I'm still learning a lot so I'm sorry if I ask a lot of dumb questions, but I appreciate you for stopping by to help.

THE CAR:
It's a '91 240 wagon with the 2.3L and AW70 transmission. Not 100% on the fuel system but I'd imagine it's whatever was more common.
THE PROBLEM:
The car starts fine, a little movement but its a volvo. The car will idle fine, it doesn't sound sloppy or rich, but it will make a weird "catching sound", while raising the RPMs a bit. It happens every few seconds, but only for like, one second then goes back to normal. The car drives fine and other than that "catching" sound when the RPMs rise for a sec, the idle is steady in the 700-800 range.

I'm about to take off the intake manifold to get to the PCV system so I can't check, but I only notice it while it's idling.
Thanks for reading.

 

not nearly enough to go on. so it stumbles a bit at idle... is it idling otherwise at a steady 700-800 RPM ? does it drive OK ?

the PCV on these is pretty simple, there's a plastic 'oil separator' tank mounted on the side of the block, and the plumbing above it has a little ceramic 'flame trap' filter in it to keep oil spray from getting into the intake, this can clog up especially if you don't change the oil frequently.

 

Yeah, other than that it idles good. Runs and drives good, sometimes it sounds like the motor lugs itself but that could just be the way the car sounds

 

the idle air controller and/or throttle body might be gummed up. Note that removing the IAC from a nearly 30 year old engine, the hoses are likely going to crack or rip, so you might have a fresh pair of them on hand for this. AFAIK, they are still available through dealers and such.

 

The PCV won't solve this. As this car is new to you, start with a basic tune up, fluids, filters, vacuum hoses, etc. go from there...
Not really sure what is a weird "catching sound".