Volvo Owners Club Forum - 1989 740 Turbo Intercooler estate

Afternoon all,

My 1989 740 TIC estate has just suffered a steering rack failure and I'm having a bit of a sense of humour failure with it...so maybe it's time for someone with fresh Volvo enthusiasm to take over the keys.

Car has done 166k, B230GT (no cat, originally) and M46+OD in metallic grey 214. Exterior condition is fair to middling - paint is pretty good overall but there is a dent in one rear door which lets it down. There are also a lot of stone chips (meticulously touched up by the PO but didn't survive the pressure washer) and a number of small dinks/scrapes.

Interior is very clean, headlining is a bit baggy on the sunroof but otherwise good. Original radio and equaliser work well, heated seats good, sunroof works. Moulded plastic boot liner and retractable load cover.

Wheels are Dracos in good condition wearing a very decent set of Michelin CrossClimate tyres with most of their life remaining.

Mechanically is where it gets interesting. The car has:

* Bilstein B8 shocks and iPD lowering springs (they're not very low, really - rear looks higher than on the saggy old springs!).
* Kaplhenke racing front top mounts (the less fancy sort).
* iPD front and rear ARBs
* iPD front radius arms and bushes.
* Adjustable rear panhard rod, rear trailing arm and axle poly bushes.
* 940 'jumbo' front brakes.
* Fresh front lower arms.
* Polybushed torque rods.
* JT (Martelius) 3" exhaust system with 200 cell cat. Still mated to the original Volvo downpipe as the supplied 3" DP didn't fit.
* Rebuilt 531 head with enlarged exhaust valves and VX3 cam.
* Stoni chips in both fuel and ignition (EZK) ECUs.
* Astra VXR injectors, brand new (can dig out specs).
* Do88 intercooler and intake hoses.
* Dave Barton graduated boost gauge.
* New ignition coil, distributor (complete unit, not just the cap), leads, ignition module, plugs.
* All coolant hoses replaced.
* Clutch hose recently replaced.
* New alternator.
* Fresh water pump, new radiator.
* Cambelt replaced at 161k in 2018.
* Intake manifold blast cleaned.
* Many and various gaskets, seals, clips etc replaced.
* New fuel pump and filter. I did a complete rebuild on the fuel system including removing and cleaning out the tank and fitting a good used in-tank pump after crud from the original one rusting blocked the fuel pump and caused a breakdown.

Other points of note:
* New rear lights and front indicator/side light units.
* I've had the instrument cluster out and sorted the dodgy solder joints. A couple of the gauges still take a tap to wake up but I think that's mechanical.
* 4th gear lockout switch is new, total pig to replace but O/D works perfectly.
* New front ABS sensors, ABS all happy.
* Pretty much all engine sensors are new - O2, temperatures, knock, etc.
* ICV is new.
* Oil separator replaced.
* Radio suppression relay replaced.
* Heater valve replaced with a 240 unit after it leaked.
* Original owners manual, service history etc all present.

Problems:

* Idle has a consistent fluctuation. I am pretty much out of ideas, I've replaced a ton of stuff and done various experiments to try and rule things out. It's either something to do with the bottom end or an air leak in the throttle body (I think). Can explain further if required. It's at the level of 'character' rather than a driveability issue.
* Sunroof headlining is coming loose.
* Rear side window seal is flapping on one side.
* Engine has an oil leak. This arose after I changed the head. I think it's coming from the rocker cover.
* Front brake hoses look a bit tired but I've not been able to shift the flare nuts. Flagged on the Most.
* Last winter wasn't kind salt-wise and a bit of surface rust appeared underneath. I've treated with rust converter but haven't got round to touching up the underseal yet. I wouldn't call it a rusty car by any means, but it was extremely good when I bought it and now it's only pretty good.
* Epic piston slap from cold, quietens down a bit when warm.
* Related to the above, plenty of blowby gases coming out of the oil separator.

Right now the car is not usable as PAS fluid is pouring out of the rack. I haven't worked out what in going to do about that yet. Car is on my drive in North Bristol.

I've spent a small fortune and a lot of time on this car but I barely use it (I have another car and usually cycle to work) and it feels like time to move on. I do really enjoy driving it but it's getting hard to justify and my motivation to spend time on it is fading.

In my garage I also have an M90H gearbox, a 3" downpipe which needs a bit of welding, a clocked 15g turbo, an iPad turbo cam, and a box of various new parts to fit including some hard-to-find stuff imported from Sweden/Germany such as a new accelerator cable.

I've also got an undented but not as tidy overall rear door which could be used to replace the dented one.

I don't really know what the car is worth. There is a small fortunes worth (I dare not add it up) of new and uprated parts on the car and it's now quite a rare model...but it's just an old Volvo to most people.

Having some trouble uploading pictures on mobile, will put some up later from a PC.