Hello all,

First post, but I have been reading on here a bit.

Looking to pick up a 850 turbo wagon. Need some extra room for the family, but want something I can have fun with.

I have a '89 5.0 mustang that I drag race as a hobby. Built it from the ground up myself, never been in a shop to get work done on it other then welding, so I like to think I know a few things about working on automobiles.

I'm looking for a "mechanic special" car. someone that is selling there car for dirt cheap, because they don't know how to work on cars, and a shop wants to much to fix it.

I have found two wagons that fit this, and was wanting some of your guys opinions on them, and issues that could be wrong with the cars.

First up is this wagon:
1994 Volvo Turbo Wagon

owner seems VERY VERY honest about the issues which is good. But to me it doesn't sound like its anything serious from his description. I know on these old mustangs like mine, a simple TFI module on the distribitor will cause the same issues when they go bad. Who knows, could be as easy as a bad starter that wont turn over once its hot.

So I would imagine it is something rather simple that could be the problem.

thoughts?


Wagon number two:
95 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon (automatic)

The description of the issue sounds odd to me. My thought is its a head gasket, and the guy is trying to play it off a bit. Head gaskets are rather "easy" to diagnose, so I should be able to figure that one out pretty quick. A head gasket whouldn't scare me off from buying the car, as It wouldn't be to expensive to repare. I could also get the cylinder head milled down a bit, and port and polish the intake/exhaust ports while im there



Let me know what you guys think. I want to use this car for daily drive duty, but for my need of power, I was thinking of a turbo back exhaust, intake, maybe a boost controller to turn up the wic of the turbo a bit, and a nice tune. looking for around 280 at the tires if possible with these mods. (not sure if thats enough to make that much power)


Thanks for your time, looking forward to chatting with you guys, and hopefully showing off a wagon soon

 

Take a look at the 95, is a better year first year to have SIPS as well, but the oil leak is most likely one of the oil cooler lines or turbo return line. check the passenger side front to see if the oil is dripping from there, first one needs a bit but if you could get it for 700$ or less it might be worth it and the second i would offer 1000-1100 if its just and oil line and like 7-800 if the head gasket is actually bad, which i dont think it is.

 

I have a 1996 with a throwing rod if you think you can come get it im either parting it out or selling it as a whole to see if I can get more for it. Im actually about to buy another fox body as that is what I have always driven.

 

Great advice thanks! Any pictures of the oil line your speaking of? would help me out a ton!

I agree on the prices you have posted, I figure with the 95 I would offer 1000 to start, and if its a head gasket tell him 700 or so. IF the interior is in decent shape and such.

The other car has 260,000 miles, so I imagine ALL of the suspension is worn, and the interior is crap. the front seats at the least, but in the pictures the rear seats/compartment looks great!

where abouts are you located?


I'm a foxbody nut job. I'm sure someone will ask, so ill go ahead and post pictures of my baby. Remember, I built this car myself.










and the engine bay




To see videos of the car, go too YouTube - ‪Xarmy187's Channel‬‏
I have a ton of videos of the mustang, the most recent being better videos, as this car has gone through a lot of modifications, and the old videos the car was pretty s-l-o-w, haha.

 

You need to go check them out yourself. When you go there, print out the instructions (on the stickies up-top) on how to read the real mileage. Regardless, it will take you a while to get thru stage 0 (incl. suspension), then think about upgrades, you know this.

+ 1 on the oil leak, rather than HG. All turbos leak oil, potentially from a million places. The only place that it is a lot more work to fix is the Rear Crankshaft seal. Everything else is simple BS rubber lines and crimps leaking.

You probably done this -- read the stickies first in this forum...

 

Ugh thats nice, I had a "junkyardspecial" 90 hatch, and an 87 notch. The 90 was the track car for bracket, would run its time all day, Bored 30 over and Trickmax cam. Not the fastest car ive ever owned, but the most fun.
I just moved up to Saint Louis, MO the car rolls, idles fine and everything, but it has a moderate knock that goes away with RPM, and cyl 2 plug smells like unburnt gas.

 

On the '95, don't use the standard "how to tell if it's a head gasket" trick of seeing if the oil looks milky. A milky froth on the dipstick and oil cap isn't unusual on these cars if the PCV system is clogged. Look at the actual oil on bottom of the stick. If THAT is clearly thoroughly mixed with oil, then you can assume coolant is getting into the oil.

Other sources of oil problems include: blown oil cooler. This is inside the radiator, and usually, oil will enter the coolant- fill it, in fact, but coolant won't really enter the oil. Turbo drain tube gasket and o- ring- common leak, usually minor, most people ignore this one. Leaks from shaft seals are a good indication that the PCV system is clogged, too. This causes pressure to build up in the engine and force oil out of seals. It can eventually cause seal failure, particularly the rear main.

And what is it with Fox body Mustang owners and Volvo 850s? You, Junkyardspecial, and tech all need to get together! There might be others, too

 

Now, after looking at the ad for the '95, I wonder what sort of mechanic he took it to, if it was a Volvo guy or not? The turbo drain tube gasket is a VERY common leak spot, and these cars rarely have oil leaks from the head gasket. Turbo drain tube is an easy fix- 3 bolts, new gasket and o-ring, reinstall. The parts are like $5 from the dealer. Definitely look under there at the leak, but I'll bet it's the turbo drain tube. This is a thick steel tube, about 5/8" diameter, that runs straight down from the turbo to the block. There's a diamond- shaped gasket at the top, and a rubber o- ring on the bottom. And I agree on the 1995 being a better car, though the improvements are more cosmetic than anything. '95 will probably have both the regular Volvo diagnostic connector, which lets you do some things you can't on cars without it, as well as an OBD-II connector, which makes pulling codes easier. Best of both worlds! Most '95s have both, a few 94s did, and in '96 the old diagnostic connector was gone, and with it the ability to reset the service light without a special tool, as well as the ability to read the true mileage of the car if the odometer is broken- a common problem on these cars.

My recommendation if you get the '95: change/ clean the PCV system, as well as doing all the other maintenance stuff one typically does when buying a used car, unless it's up to date.

As for getting 280 HP at the wheels... I'm not the most knowledgeable about performance mods, but that might be asking a lot on stock rods. I think the stock rods are good up to 300 HP, and that's at the flywheel. Anything more, and you need to upgrade or you'll find your block ventilated. There's other guys on here that are more into performance- gilber33 and tech, to name a couple. volvospeed.com is a more performance- oriented forum to look at, too.

 

Thanks for the advice, I read a couple of the stickies already, but ill be sure to go back over them. the owner of the '95 and I have shot a few emails back and forth today, trying to set up a time to come look at it.

more and more, i think the '94 would need to much work to be considered worth it.

I wish I knew when I bought my car what I know now about foxbodys, I would have went a different route completely, but now I am way too deep into this one. goals are to run low 10's by the end of this year. if it doesn't happen this year, it will definatly happen next. still working on my nitrous system which is kinda complicated.


excellent advice! more then I could have asked for really! haha. Interesting that these cars have so much moisture in the oil, I read that in a few other places. I would think this would cause premature bearing failure? but seems these cars run extremely well for a very long time.

seems like these cars are like some mustangs, just **** oil out everywhere, haha. My car use to be like that until I rebuilt the bottom and, and was sure to replace ALL gaskets with quality stuff. damn drain plug bolt in the pan still drips though

Whats with foxbody owners and volvos? haha. well the way I have always looked at it, is I wouldn't own a mustang if I had money, I would probably have a vette, or CTSV caddy. same goes with the volvo, If I had money, I wouldn't be looking at cars that are under $2,000 for a daily driver! haha.

I agree with the statement about the '95, Idk who he took it two, because even the head gasket quote he says "head gasket $300" maybe he didn't remember it right, because its going to cost $300 just in parts if I do it, as I would replace a few things while in there.

Thank you for the very detailed discription of he turbo drain tube, I think I remember it from a picture I saw a member posted in a "build thread" where he rebuilt everything, so I should be able to spot it pretty quick. Wish I had a OBDII scanner, I just have a OBD 1 scanner for the mustang


as far as the performance, its just something I would like to have. I definatly want a decent exhaust system, because these cars sound awesome to me, kinda like higher revving BMW's/audis.

So I'm not worried about it really if the mentiond mod's don't get me much. But stronger rods are an option, If i go as far as to get a car that needs a total rebuild, I will get aftermarket rods while im at it just to be safe.

I use A LOT of nitrous on my mustang, so it would be fun to put a kit on the volvo at that point, haha.

 

Here is another one

1994 Volvo 850 turbo

High miles makes me think EVERYTHING would need replaced, I.E. suspension, and all sensors, blah blah blah.

might be a good starting point though. Not afraid really to have a good project car, but don't want something that is constantly having little failures.


I also love this one, but its from a dealer, and the price seems steep.
http://denver.craigslist.org/ctd/2389662345.html

 

Or this R L@@K 1997 volvo 850 R wagon Fast

 

haha, maybe if it wasn't 2,000 miles away from me

 

Just find an old 240 or 740 and do an SBC swap.

 

well like I said before, this is more about a funnier and more useable daily driver then it is anything.

My current daily driver is a 2000 focus.... very boring, and too small for much of anything.

The mustang keeps me plenty happy to get my power fix. but still would like a decent amount out of the volvo.

 

If it were me I would go for the 95 in your first posting. These cars typically do not leak oil from the head gasket so most likely your looking at the PCV system being plugged. If that car has weak compression then you will get a lot of blow by and with a plugged PCV will end up with a lot of crank case pressure...which leads to leaks. Turbo drain, rear main seal, dip stick, oil pan, mid block...everywhere. Unfortunately I know from experience. So, if you can get a compression test done I would do that.
Fixing the leak from the turbo drain is cake but if the problem is case pressure it wont stay fixed.
The other problems dont seem bad at all. Just use them to negotiate the price. Plus you get a Spock container. ;-)

 

Others do it... MA/RI/CT/NH --- Volvo pillaging grounds.....

 

That car looks real clean from the couple of pics they posted, I would check into that one. If it doesn't have any problems, you could be looking at a $4,000 car for under $2,000. I just went to that area & picked up a '95 turbo that has a bad tranny. Well worth the trip to me, 1,500 miles.Other than that I like the '95 models, especially the T-5R's. All the R's are nice.

 

That R is cool, good price, though UGLY wheels why would anyone put those on an R...... anyway. Theres always a good deal round just not locally 90% of the time lol. I lucked out and picked up my 95 850 Turbo wagon for 800$ locally, but would love to find another one, best of luck to you on your search. Every time I'm out in the Denver area i usually come across a good deal on a volvo.

 

yea I imagine with them being boosted they can push oil out of everywhere. This will be my first turbo'ed car, so should be fun! Thanks for the input!

Maybe If I had a big nice truck and a good trailer to haul, but no real option for me. Would have to have the starts align to work anything like that up. I.E. time of work, fly out to pick something up (plane tickets are retarded expensive right now) and then hope whatever I buy can get me home.

I know a guy that did that for a toyota or infiniti car, cant really remember, but I know it had a v8 and was pretty rare car sorta.


I wouldn't mind driving a bit, but not any 2,000 miles, haha. something I can go get, and get back home in a day I would consider. I will keep looking. Should be looking at the '95 the middle of next week when my wife can tag along.