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164e opinions

Hello All,

FP to this group! Just bought a 1975 164e for $1200AUD. Very much a spur of the moment decision... Have done a bit of Googling in Google Groups and am not yet regretting the purchase despite the fact that a 3.0l straight 6 with a BW35 slush box will probably more than double my petrol bill compared with the manual 1.1l 1975 Corolla (pillarless sports coupe!!) that I was driving...

Anyway, all seems well with the (as yet unnamed) new family member.

Am very interested in hearing others' experiences of this model as well as any potential gotchas and would also like to ask a few questions of you Volvophiles.

It seems to me that the gearing is wrong! In top it revs at about

2500rpm at 80k/h and roughly 3500rpm at 110k/h. The transmission is not slipping so I am assuming this is a design "feature"? I wonder whether the fuel economy would benefit from slightly higher gearing but suppose that this is a moot point since doing anything about it would most likely invovle fitting a non standard transmission which I would not be keen to do. This is a very original car.

Apart from that, was just wondering whether the airconditioning is always poor in these? Have not had it serviced/regassed so that may help but is it worth doing?

Ok, look forward to any info/opinions you may have to offer.

Regards,

Pete

P.S. There is a photo of the car (and my wife!) here:

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Reply to
Peter Fuggle
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Very nice car, looks like you found a particularly nice example as well. You're right though, the fuel economy stinks, that's about the only complaint I've ever heard about them.

Reply to
James Sweet

My god that is a gorgeous car!!!!

Don't know anything about them tho, sorry.... I don't think A/C has been a Volvo strong point, ever... It's good in the newer ones tho... But our old

740 had awefull A/C compared to our 960, and our 960 feels a little stuffy compared to the V70's A/C... My dad said he didn't bother getting A/C in his
Reply to
Rob Guenther

Hi,

Looks like it's in real nice condition! I still have one of these, a '73 model that I'm trying to sell, It was unfortunately involved in an accident two years ago and "written off" by insurance (accident wasn't my fault, I received payout from the other driver's insurance company).

I can't remember exactly what the rev was like in mine at those speeds, but I think that sounds about right. The top gear of the BW35 is a direct gear,

1 : 1 ratio. Plus the bit of slippage you get through the torque converter, you'll get high revs at highway speeds. The bad news is BW35 is that you'll have pretty high fuel consumption. But on the other hand since it's a very common automatic transmission (used on many other cars at the time including Jags, Falcons and Citrones) so it's not too expensive to get a rebuild. I paid AUD$650 to get mine complete rebuilt, whereas a later model automatic gearbox may cost you around $2000 for a rebuild. I've been told that the best gearbox is M410, which is a 4 speed + OD manual, but unfortunately it was never officially offered on Australian models, only the M400 standard 4 speed was offered here (and I've see one 164 here with it).

Have you been to

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? Lots of excellent informationthere about the 164. From your rego plate it looks like you're from Victoria? I'm up in Brisbane. _________________ Will '90 Volvo 744 GLT B230F converted to B230FB (531 Head & VX3 Cam)

Reply to
William Liao

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