Hi all,

I just picked up an 94 850 non turbo, because it had nice rims and brand new tires.

I knew the car had some issues, but what I bought it to put the wheels and tires on my other 850.

So now I'm wondering if I should keep parting it out or try to fix it. I would love to get some of you more experienced volvo owners opinion on this.

So the main issue is that the engine runs kind of rough with a fairly loud ticking noise, it puts out a lot of smoke, the dipstick tube is smoking pretty bad and the top of the engine is covered in oil.

It also has a small oil leak. Hard to say where it's from since most of the engine is covered in oil, but it will typically leave 2-3 large drops when parked overnight.

So from reading around on the forum I guess the pcv system needs to be replaced, but I guess my question is if this engine is already too far gone with the loud ticking and rough idle, or would the pcv system change any of that?

Part of me wants to just let this car go, but on the other hand, if I could get some life out of it with a relatively low investment I wouldn't mind putting some time and effort into it.

What do you guys think?

 

Totally a personal decission. I guess the main question is... do you need another car? Can you sell it for what you paid for it? Could have a damaged valve. If you don't need another car, dump it and run. Old cars could be money pitts. Personally, I would not put any $$$ in an old car that I did not need, especially a n/a model.

 

No, I don't need the car. Like I said, I bought it only for the wheels and the tires, and paid accordingly. So I don't really need to get any money out of it.

If there was some inexpensive fixes that could bring it back to life I'd do it and keep it as a spare car, but if it's too far gone I'll dump it and move on.

 

Sounds like, at minimum, it needs a PCV and oil pan o- rings (the ticking is indicative of lowered oil pressure due to that) Oil leaks... well, they could be anywhere. My "$300 Volvo 850" has similar issues, with the exception of the oil pan o- rings (but I'm gonna change 'em anyway, with 250,000 miles on it, they're due to pop) Do a compression check... if one or more cylinders has low compression, then it's gone. If the engine has decent compression, and the body/ suspension is okay, it might be worth it to do the PCV, oil pan o- rings, and a tune- up/ stage 0, to keep it as a spare. To me, it kind of hinges on body condition and internal engine condition. But then, I hate to see old cars die, especially European ones.

 

Being you don't need a second car, I would just continue to part the car out. Like Carrot's said, at a minimum, it needs the PCV. But that ticking sound concerns me because it could be a bad lifter or a bent valve. You could end up putting a lot of money into a car that you don't need and you don't know if it would even last anyway.

How much did you pay for the car?

 

One of the biggest costs with these vehicles is labor if you take it in somewhere to be worked on (I have agruments with service shops saying "these cars are just too difficult to work on"). Fortunatly since you don't "need it" you can take your time with every repair you do to it. If it were me I would keep it to take apart and learn from. Oh wait, thats what I'm currently doing with my 850!

They can be a bit of a money trap if you don't have a lot of disposeable income to throw into it, but oh so fun. When I bought mine it had a pretty loud ticking noise too. A Copression test ruled out a valve problem and it turns out that my 850 just has some of the loudest injectors I have ever heard! Put a couple of fingers on the fuel rail and if you can "feel" it tick in time with the tick you hear it may be just that.

The PCV system is relativly cheap and not too difficult to on your own when you take your time and *might* lower the smoke your seeing. Oil leaks suck if it is a rear main (I ended up paying a transmission shop to change mine out hence the argument over paying "import car labor" and the apperantly much eaiser to work on "domestic car labor").

Were it me I'd do a compression test first, if it fails then I've got a parts car. If it passes then I'd give the block and undercarriage a good cleaning with a de-greaser and a preasure-washer to try and find the oil leak while I decided what to do (and spend on) next.

 

Thanks for your input guys, you bring up a couple of good points.

I vetured under the car with a flashlight yesterday to take a closer look at the oil spills, and there's just oil everywhere, so it's hard to find the source of the leak. My guess is that there is more than one. I did clean up a good portion of the engine and undercarriage, so I'll put some more miles on it and see what happens.

However, I don't loose that much oil, so I'm guessing it's years worth of buildup.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards moving on. If I wanted a project car, I'd rather find a turbo in a little better shape to give me a better starting point.

The only thing I'm considering doing is changing the PCV system partly as a practice run before I have to do it on my primary 850, and maybe as a side effect reduce some of the leaks. But then again, if I'm just gonna part it out, then whats the point? :-)