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300/66 Series General Forum for the Volvo 340, 360 and 66 cars

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300 series curious

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Old May 28th, 2020, 14:52   #11
Clan
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Do you use the valve saver fluid? I find it quite good, saves having to adjust the tappets quite so frequently
No never had the need for that in any engine , The valves and seats are already of the highest quality .. Even on cast iron heads you would have to do a great deal of motorway miles for it to be a problem , then if it is , just get the seats fitted then ..
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Old Jun 1st, 2020, 15:36   #12
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Certainly are a practical classic with the red block 360s being the most fixable and durable but fewer were made and these are often fairly rusty and into restoration terratory and so not many registered for road use now. New panels are mostly not available, but still many donor cars with good parts.

Spare parts are not need often, and there is a good community with professional carb rebuilts and upgrades, but not as numerous as Ford or VW, and a few specialist suppliers dotted around the EU.

Best gems are;
1-Barn/Garage find low milage 340s
2-No rust 360s (any milage), GLT (injection) is the most desirable, and saloon probably more than Hatch.

I've restored my 360 Saloon, upgraded to GLE spec and then modified with a 940 Turbo engine and various other mods for track days and shows.

My person pet hate is the 1.7 engine, too many issues.
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Old Jun 1st, 2020, 17:45   #13
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Certainly are a practical classic with the red block 360s being the most fixable and durable but fewer were made and these are often fairly rusty and into restoration terratory and so not many registered for road use now. New panels are mostly not available, but still many donor cars with good parts.

Spare parts are not need often, and there is a good community with professional carb rebuilts and upgrades, but not as numerous as Ford or VW, and a few specialist suppliers dotted around the EU.

Best gems are;
1-Barn/Garage find low milage 340s
2-No rust 360s (any milage), GLT (injection) is the most desirable, and saloon probably more than Hatch.

I've restored my 360 Saloon, upgraded to GLE spec and then modified with a 940 Turbo engine and various other mods for track days and shows.

My person pet hate is the 1.7 engine, too many issues.
I've a feeling that the OP may have had second thoughts, Tony, his last post in these forums being his reply to me (post #3 above) of April 21st. I don't know if my response to his original request for information put him off; that certainly was not my intention.

FWIW, I agree with you regarding the redblocks, but then we've owned quite a few of them in other marques as well as the 3-series. Also agree regarding rust issues - we found that out the hard way on my MIL's 360 GLE! My 360 GL was quite nippy stock, so I imagine that with a 940 turbo under the bonnet, it is a very quick car.

A friend had a 360 GLE saloon, which was quite refined and a nice car if you didn't need the load capacity of the hatch. I also ran a 1.7 GLE saloon as a business tool for a year in the late '90s, covering over 20,000 miles without issue apart from a broken throttle cable (in Sweden, of all places!). While more economical than the two litre, I much preferred the 360 in all other respects.

The one I would be least inclined to buy would be the 1.4, especially in CVT guise, but that is purely personal choice and no reflection on the car.

Regards, John.
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Old Jun 3rd, 2020, 08:52   #14
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The throttle system seems to have its gremlins. Once, just tinkering under the bonnet there was a snap and the engine went flat out. There's a little plastic insert where the cable goes through the bulkhead (this was a CVT) and when it fell apart it released the linkage into full throttle. Scary.
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Old Nov 23rd, 2020, 15:04   #15
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Do you use the valve saver fluid? I find it quite good, saves having to adjust the tappets quite so frequently
no need, the head is alloy so has hardened seats and the valves are volvo quality not renault quality .. after the first couple of years production volvo upgraded the pistons and valve quality ..
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Old Jan 13th, 2021, 00:05   #16
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I used to have a 360GLS (See below) the 2ltr engine from the 240 as far as I could tell, rear gearbox so very well balanced

bought for £200 including the petrol to get me home, 60k on the clock give or take. I felt like it was a gamble, until half way home when I realised I had basically robbed the guy

I lowered it 2" on ford escort lowering blocks and persuaded a mate to cut the springs for me (done while on the car lol BOOIINNG)

the rear shocks were dead so I replaced with landrover 90 front shocks. I believe that is a standard thing and it totally transformed the handling.

the BBS 4 stud rims from a e30 fit on perfectly and give you some extra width (wahey) meaning when you nail it into a corner it literally never once skipped a beat. it was the best handing car I've driven and I've driven a few. it could have done with more power though

saying that on the way home from the gym getting out of the carpark I definitely used to notice the heavy steering .. arms were killing

Gearbox very positive and one of those real 'driver' cars where it is a pleasure to execute a proper heel toe/blip/downchange and pull away hard in 2nd. until i snapped the linkage and had to limp to my mates garage in 2nd and 4th only .. he welded it up through the gear selector hole like a total G

I put a straight through 2" pipe on it (very loud), I had a pair of 45 webers and I was in the process of hunting down / commissioning a manifold, but then I sort of fell out with the volvo friend i had at the time and I got fed up and ditched it for an escort

stupidest mistake ever

i have never owned any other car that attracted anywhere near as much attention at shows or just at the garage. people couldnt get enough of it. and it wasnt even that clean tbh, it was just a really cool and different car.

also just for that dagenham boy racer charm you can close the bonnet 'wrong' so it looks like it's on risers ch-ch-check it brap brap and so on

I surprised the hell out unsupecting golfs and fiestas etc lol and the best thing is with a good boot and some savagery on the clutch it went very sideways. less so after i put the wide wheels on it. then it was just basically a not very fast race car

if you can get one, you have to. forget Alfas, or the classic mini, everyone should have a 360 in their life at least once

I would pick the hatch over the saloon just for ease of access and i think it looks better
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Old Jan 13th, 2021, 01:07   #17
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Holy thread revival Batman!

My experience (FWIW) from about 25 years ago when i owned a 360GLT and about 35 ish years ago when i had a 360GLT company car, the 85-86 models are better built but afterwards go downhill. On occasion i also used a 340 1.4 or a 240GL estate as a company car but not often.

The 1.4 even in manual form is vastly underpowered, thirsty, heavy steering and very prone to HGF. The 1.7 (slightly larger version of the same Renault engine) is also prone to HGF and often the liners can shift in the block rendering it either scrap or in need of specialist machine shop work to realign them and even then it's a gamble. Repeat HGF is about an 80/20 chance.

Contrary to what was said above, the rear brake shoes do wear out, had to renew them on my 360GLT and Mk2 Escort items are the same.
The B19E (as it was in my 360) or B200E (86/87 on) are the better engines to go for, especially if you're not considering any sort of engine upgrade. They not only have better performance as standard than the 1.4/1.7 but are much less stressed so will last longer. They're also not inherently prone to HGF like almost all Renault engines of the time were.

Many of the steering components (manual not PAS) were also shared with the Mk2 Escort so a lot of things are cheap and easy to find.

If i was looking for one now i'd go for the saloon 2.0, either GLE injection or GLT spec, some GLE models had carbs so weren't quite so lively and then there was the manual choke which if you've never used one can be a pain. Second choice would be the hatchback but the saloon will be quieter and the bodyshell stiffer.

Good luck in your search, better to wait a while and view several to make sure you have the best one for your needs.
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Old Jan 13th, 2021, 09:03   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Laird Scooby View Post
Holy thread revival Batman!

My experience (FWIW) from about 25 years ago when i owned a 360GLT and about 35 ish years ago when i had a 360GLT company car, the 85-86 models are better built but afterwards go downhill. On occasion i also used a 340 1.4 or a 240GL estate as a company car but not often.

The 1.4 even in manual form is vastly underpowered, thirsty, heavy steering and very prone to HGF. The 1.7 (slightly larger version of the same Renault engine) is also prone to HGF and often the liners can shift in the block rendering it either scrap or in need of specialist machine shop work to realign them and even then it's a gamble. Repeat HGF is about an 80/20 chance.

Contrary to what was said above, the rear brake shoes do wear out, had to renew them on my 360GLT and Mk2 Escort items are the same.
The B19E (as it was in my 360) or B200E (86/87 on) are the better engines to go for, especially if you're not considering any sort of engine upgrade. They not only have better performance as standard than the 1.4/1.7 but are much less stressed so will last longer. They're also not inherently prone to HGF like almost all Renault engines of the time were.

Many of the steering components (manual not PAS) were also shared with the Mk2 Escort so a lot of things are cheap and easy to find.

If i was looking for one now i'd go for the saloon 2.0, either GLE injection or GLT spec, some GLE models had carbs so weren't quite so lively and then there was the manual choke which if you've never used one can be a pain. Second choice would be the hatchback but the saloon will be quieter and the bodyshell stiffer.

Good luck in your search, better to wait a while and view several to make sure you have the best one for your needs.
Very good advice there Dave! It took me a while to get used to starting the engine when warm (not hot but warm) on my 1984 carb 360 but I learnt that it needed no choke just a slightly open throttle and away it would go.
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Old Mar 14th, 2021, 10:11   #19
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It’s been a while but thanks for all the replies! Life has taken a few different turns over the last year or two, as you could imagine, and classics have been off the menu. I keep looking at various cars I like and they seem to be increasing in price on a daily basis, but the good old 300 remains reasonable.

Might be time to look again soon, but I notice there aren’t many about.

Cheers.
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Old Mar 14th, 2021, 12:52   #20
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It’s been a while but thanks for all the replies! Life has taken a few different turns over the last year or two, as you could imagine, and classics have been off the menu. I keep looking at various cars I like and they seem to be increasing in price on a daily basis, but the good old 300 remains reasonable.

Might be time to look again soon, but I notice there aren’t many about.

Cheers.
There are a few immaculate ones left in people's garages and they DO come up for sale now and again at a "reasonable" price ...
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