This is the first car I have ever outright owned. I had a Prius before this but I needed something with soul. Knowing what I know now amazes me that it ran before as well, even if it did only run poorly. The guy who sold it to me said he had done quite a few different maintenance items including the timing belt, amongst other things. I didn't know too much about cars when I bought this and definitely not anything about redblocks. I was eager to learn about cars and how to work on them, and I had heard that old Volvos were easy to work on and that they don't really die. I wish the car was in a bit better of a mechanical state when I had gotten it but for better or for worse, it wasn't and I had to figure it all out.

Since your reply to my post, I have successfully gotten it running and driving with a custom ecu and tons of help. (Post about that available on my profile here) It runs better than it ever has during my ownership (since early april 2024). I can finally focus on other things than getting it running and wondering why the hell it is sputtering out above 3 grand. I have learned a lot and a lot of the knowledge I gained during the process of putting a standalone ecu in would have been helpful before I did that trying to get it to run okay. Either way, I'm happy with the way that things turned out and my car runs like a top.
--
Nathan Micklatcher