volvo 940 turbo buying

Indeed this is precisly what happenes. I bought a 745 TIC off Ebay for 130 quid and very much the similar problems. Here is what happenes:

The driver does not let the engine idle, in particular after a hard drive, and then oil gathers in the turbo, this will carbonise and block the oil ways. This in turn creates an excessive crankcase pressure which in turn will spurt oil all over the place. In my case, the oil breather box was also clogged and thus shooting oil into the airbox causing the turbo to suck in oil and air and making the engine smoke like hell. This is and "easy" repair but not much fun. In your case, I suggest removing the turbo and sending it off to someone like Turbo Technics to have it renovated, should cost around 350 pounds. If the car is in overall good condition, it is certainly worth it.

George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/M46, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230ET/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K/M55, 90k)