90 Volvo 740 GLE

I am an a-hole who is helping.

You claim that this newbie can use elbow grease and spend less than four hundred bucks to turn this apparent beater into "a good, solid car."

Given that it has NO HEADLINER, and runs LIKE A LAWNMOWER, and has a beat up body, I say NO WAY.

You are imparting FALSE HOPE there, Mr. Sweet, albeit perhaps unwittingly; you may not know any better.

In contrast, I tell it like it is.

"Mr. V" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

Good solid car as in a reliable runner that won't win any beauty contests. I've done it, I've seen others do it, it's not rocket science. My friend bought a beat up 240 for a few hundred bucks that was barely running, replaced a vacuum hose that had cracked off, did a tuneup with new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, changed the fluids and it's been a dependable driver. Another got one that didn't run at all for a song, swapped out the fuel pump relay, fired it up and drove it home. I bought my daily driver 8 years ago for 500 bucks, it ran poorly and had water in the oil, I thought the engine was shot but I did a tuneup and 80K miles later I'm still driving it, I never did find out how water got in the oil but it never happened again. Another friend picked up a Saab 900 that "was loud, had no power and the electrical system was shot" for $250, well the downpipe had a broken weld, so it was loud as hell. It turned out that the power was fine, and the electrical system, well both headlights were burned out. The point is it's a gamble, but 600 bucks is a trivial amount of money to spend on a car, you'd throw away more than that the moment a new car is driven off the lot. If he decides to give up on it, I have no doubt he could sell it to someone like me and recover most if not all of his investment. The 16V cylinder head alone is a rare part worth a few hundred bucks to guys who put them on turbo motors to get 300-500+ HP.

No headliner and beat up body in no way affect the drivability, they're strictly cosmetic. I would fix them personally as time permits, but a lot of people don't care about that stuff and just want dependable comfortable transportation. In my extensive experience, the running like a lawnmower is usually something simple, sure it could be a hole in a piston, dropped valve, or some other serious damage, but that sort of problem is rare. Usually with these motors someone has put the plug wires on in the wrong order due to the weird distributor cap design, vacuum leak, cracked downpipe, that sorta thing. Most of the parts are cheap and plentiful, no special tools are needed and the logical layout and spaceous engine compartment makes these cars a joy to work on. Give the guy some credit, don't assume he's an idiot just because he's a newbie. He seems willing enough, and with help from this group I'm sure he'll manage and either way the education will be worth something. Just because you are unwilling, incapable, or un-interested in taking on this project doesn't make it pointless for someone else to try. He's already bought the car so unless you've got something positive and productive to say, there's no point in saying anything at all.

He bought the car as a gift for his uncle: I have to suspect he's not damn-fool enough to give a car to an uncle as a gift if it has NO HEADLINER!

That is the OP's biggest problem.

As I posted, a headliner repair in a 740 is a major PITA.

Check on turbobricks: it is a loathed job, one that makes experienced shade tree Volvo geeks cringe and decide to farm the job out.

It is expensive to farm the job out.

You cannot seriously expect someone with little knowledge about Volvo repair to hit the ground running and refurbish a beater.

Oh sure, I have done it, but I've worked on these damned cars for more than 20 years and I know a lot about them: were I a newbie I'd never dream of taking on such a project: it would be the height of folly, and setting myself up for failure.

Do I suggest that people not repair their own cars?

Of course not.

I simply say this: do not take on projects which exceed your abiltiy.

Just because I could do it, or Mr. Sweet could do it, does not mean that anybody can do it.

I take great pride and satisfaction in working on these cars, but it is a skill I have acquired over time.

Start small, and work up: it's the only sensible way to go.

He posted that he bid on it and got it, and posted a link to the e-bay listing for the auction: sale price: $603.27.

From the link: "Up for auction is a 1990 Volvo 740 GLE that was recently donated to a national charitable foundation and is being sold with NO RESERVE. This vehicle appears to run ROUGH AND IS NOT DRIVEABLE ON THE ROAD."

So, the seller bought a beater, a car that is not driveable, rough body, no headliner, and which was GIVEN AWAY by its prior owner, who was probably savvy enough to recognize a tax break when he saw it.

I will call a spade a spade: I think the purchaser made a bad bargain.

Let this be a warning to others who hope to find a diamond in the rough; do not let your grasp exceed your reach.

Still and all, he has until Fall to learn how to repair a headliner, perform body work, trouble shoot fuel and electrical issues...it will certainly be a learning experience, IF he buckles down and does it, instead of giving up in frustration and kicking himself for having bought this beater.

A few things I'd check here:

Timing belt, someone may have changed this themselves, if the timing is off by only one tooth the engine will run very poorly. If you don't know when it was changed, change it anyway, but be *very* careful to do it right. This is probably the most critical maintenance job on the whole car to do correctly and on time.

Catalytic converter, if this is clogged you'll have very little power. Timing belt being off can clog the cat, as can a few other things. In my experience, you can gut a clogged cat and the car will still do well on the emissions test, but this may not be true in CA. If you're sure it's clogged, gut it for testing and buy a new one once you make sure the cause of the clogging is fixed.

Air mass meter, failure here can cause the engine to run very rich, these are spendy but if you can find a good used one, it's nice to have as a spare. Most of the time when I see these fail, the engine won't even stay running unless you unplug it, then it will run kinda sorta ok when warm.

Vacuum leaks, particularly the corrugated hose from the air mass meter to the throttle, they like to wear through when they rub on the body anywhere. A failure here on NA motors will cause lean running.

Ignition firing order, this should be 1-3-4-2, look at your friends 740 to see what order the wires plug into the distributor since the posts are inline. As I recall, it's not very intuitive.

Fuel pressure regulator, this is another good item to have a spare of. Mine failed once and caused it to run rich, took a while to track down what was going wrong.

Coolant temp sensor, if this fails the ECU can think the engine is always cold and compensate by enriching the mixture

I suspect I was right and you'll end up with a dependable driver for what amounts to just a few payments on a crappy new car. You made it home ok so I doubt anything serious is wrong. I agree, I think it's a good looking car for 600 bucks, my first car I bought when I was 18 cost me 3 times that and didn't look any better. Wash it, wax it, polish it, replace the broken lenses and it'll look presentable. If you wanna get fancy, wash all the black plastic trim with denatured alcohol and paint it with black plastic bumper paint, it's amazing what a difference that can make if you take your time to do a clean job, but focus on the mechanical stuff first, a paint job won't get you from point A to point B. Good luck and feel free to ping me with questions. I've been driving and working on these for a long time, fantastic cars.