Hey All,

First post here; apologies if this info is elsewhere and I have failed to find it - it's not for lack of looking.

I am considering buying a 250K-mile 1983 Volvo 760GLE diesel to run on biodiesel/SVO. I am interested in what the common weak-spots are for Volvo 760s and what I should look for when I go to look at it? How robust is this engine? What are the performance numbers for it (I understand it's one of the quicker diesels around...?).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fiid.

 

My first experience with Volvo was when my in-laws bought a 1983 760GLE Turbo Diessel. Shortly after that I bought my first Volvo, a 1985 760 Turbo Diesel. The 85 had the four speed automatic while the 83 had a three speed. The 85 was a much quicker car that would get close to 40 mpg. The problem was that it stunk. The thing smoked like crazy. It was fast and it ran great, but when you stepped on it, it blew smoke that was so thick you could hardly see through it. I would never own another one, but I really liked it when I had it.

The motors they came with were six cylinders made by Volvswagon. Mine ran really bad when I moved to Colorado Springs. It did not like the high altitude at all. You had a choice of power of LOTS of smoke. Even more than it smoked in Virginia where I bought it. It had 160K on it when I finally got rid of it. We drove about 100 miles in it shortly after moving to Colorado, and all of us were nauseous when we got out of the car because of the smoke.

 

The one I am looking at is a 4 speed with overdrive. I'm guessing that would be most of the quickness difference? I worry about the excessive smoking though.... although with Biodiesel it's a bit less of a worry.

 

I just bought a 1983 760 GLE Turbo Diesel. I jumped right in and drove it 1540 miles from Seattle to ABQ. Great running car, but it is pretty slow. You said your was pretty quick. Mine runs great and doesn't smoke unless you take it about 3500 RPMs. It has the 4 speed with electric over drive. I got 38 MPG on the trip. I can't wait to run it on BD.