1. Home
  2. Volvo automobiles
  3. 1978 Volvo 242 mystery

1978 Volvo 242 mystery

Hi

I bought this car a few months ago and although its a 4 speed manual, there seems to be no overdrive. The engine seems fairly powerful, and it excellerates fast but I dont feel comfortable driving it above 75-80 mph as it get really loud. I don't know if this seems excessive but I live in the deep south and sometimes the flow of traffic is even faster. My confusion is compounded by the lack of a tachometer, so I don't know if I'm even harming the engine by going that fast. I just want to be able to drive on the interstate and listen to myself think. Why is it so loud? Why would they have made a car not designed to go any faster than that as late as

1978? Thanks for any insight you can give.

-Jonas

Reply to
Jonas McAdory
Loading thread data ...

You can easily add a tach, they drop right in where the blank spot is in the cluster, often you have to run one wire from the tach to the ignition coil on the older cars. At 80 mph you're probably running close to 4000 RPM, it won't hurt the engine, it's just noisy. An overdrive was available as an option but not everyone got it, perhaps they didn't live near a highway at the time or did very little driving on it. You can swap out the transmission and front driveshaft for one with an overdrive, it's not particularly difficult.

Reply to
James Sweet

transmission

Right. Most of the tachs on late 1970s B21 engined 240s were redlined at

6500rpm , with a yellow arc at 6000rpm. As long as the timing belt (and it's tensioner) have been maintained properly, about all that running the engine at 4000rpm all day (or slightly higher) might result in is burning more fuel and probably using up a little more oil. The engine may run hotter too if the radiator is a little old.

But right, there is nothing inherently harmful in running that engine that hard.

Reply to
Jim Carriere

Reply to
Bill Chaplin

It depends what you mean by loud. If it's just the revs, that's the way it is. If it an exhaust blowing, or mechanical noise off the tappets for instance, get under the hood and see whats up. Volvos like yours will travel all day at 4000 revs with no complaint from the engine.

Reply to
Stuart Gray

Hi: I have a 79 with 3 speed auto that also gets loud at about 55 - 60 miles an hour. Mine is quite quick around town for a 2100 cc engine and I think it is all in the gearing. I think they may have used a different rear end on my car compared to my other two 240s I've owned, a 81 and a 89. Those cars cruised better, but did not have the off the line jump of my 79. As said in other emails, the tach should read about 4000 RPM at 70. Mine does and I have driven long distances at that speed with no problem, just a need to turn up the radio and a little higher gas usage;). bill

Reply to
Bill & Maureen

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.