I found a 1990 Volvo 740 with around 160,000 miles on it in the PacNW. The current owner bought the car with a broken timing belt. As a father / son project, the head was removed and rebuilt requiring the replacement of four bent valves. The bent valves did make contact with the piston crowns. A 'smile' was ground off the surface of one cylinder.

This B234 uses the spring-loaded belt tensioner.

The B234 is an interference engine, no matter the market. There's not much info on this board about B234 issues and concerns other than be sure you have the service history and keep after the wear items.

Valves banged into the piston crowns. The malleable metal used in piston would have me thinking the entire engine should have been rebuilt and, at least, the pistons replaced along with the head, unless connecting rods show damage (bent).

The owner's father says the 740 runs well and they have put 8000 miles on it since pulling, rebuilding, and replacing the head. Yet now it is idling at no lower than 1600 RPM.

Would you buy this car for 1600$?

Thank you,

Sam,
1975 244 DL with M41 and B20F (R.I.P)
1979 245 DL with M46 (R.I.P)
1976 242 DL with M46, Moon Roof (An SRO), and B21F (R.I.P)
1979 242 GT Grey Market Import with M46, Moon Roof (An SRO), and B21E (R.I.P)
1990 240 (245) DL wagon with M46, and B230F
1991 240 (244) Grey Market with M47 II, Moon Roof, High Compression B230E
You wish you owned a Volvo, huh?

Hmmm, I believe there have been quite a few posts here on the B234F head and bent valves. Use the advanced search feature (click on the red 245) and search the RWD forum using keywords such as "b234F valves" or "bent 16-valve" or "b234F head". Also look in the 700/900 FAQ. These should give you a good idea of what may or may not have been required and will allow you to ask more questions about the re-build they did. I really don't recall anyone talking about a complete engine re-build being common for a valve crash on the B234F.

If the present owners did a proper re-build and the car is otherwise in good shape then that may well be a very realistic asking price in the Pacific NW, but that doesn't mean you can't offer less. That high idle is most likely due to a vacuum leak (disconnected/cracked vacuum hose, air intake tube, throttle body gasket) or to a misadjusted throttle body or throttle body linkage -all easily fixed. Less likely to be a worn IAC valve or even a bad temp sensor which might set you back a few bucks. Don't tell them you know all that and use it as a bargaining tool.

If you decide to buy the car I would ask a few questions: When the new belts were put in, did the oil pump pulley bolt get replaced with a new Volvo (grade 8.8) bolt? -an absolute must. How were the idlers and did any need replacement? Did they notice whether it had the new style (all metal adjusted by a hex bolt) or old style (plastic toothed adjusted by a hex key) balance belt tensioner? Which, if any, oil seals were replaced? -ideally all of them. Where did they get their head and T-belt torque specs from? Where did they get their timing belt replacement and adjustment procedures from? If the answers to these indicate anything less than knowledgeable and quality mechanical work then either walk away or bargain the price down further and be prepared to redo the TB procedure. In any case, with the manual T-belt tensioner you should re-tension the timing belts now that they've had a break-in period.

I'd want to have a mechanical check done. There are a few important things I'd want to do, not the least of which is checking the compression to verify the valve/head work. Check everywhere for oil leaks, especially spark plug recesses, under rear valve cover dripping down the back of the block, under lower timing belt cover. Check motor mount and suspension bushings. Check for new style (diamond shaped tip) ABS sensors. Check for the new style (white stripe) RPM sensor. Check the timing marks with a light and if not close to 8-12 deg BTDC then the harmonic balancer (crank pulley) may be damaged (during removal). Apart from poor compression, these are all things that can be dealt with or lived with, but need to be factored into your purchase. It would be nice to know which ECU is in the car as the early ones were failure prone, but I'd guess if it was going to fail it would have done it long ago (do a search here and maybe check out Bill Garland's ECU table).

With the current owner's consent, perhaps check the local Volvo dealer(s) to see if there are any service records for the vehicle (perhaps indicating the original owners didn't mess around and perhaps revealing any defects that were dealt with). If you act like you might be using the service department in the future then they'll be more likely to spend time with you. If there is any doubt about the car's history then do a check on Carfax.

My point is that if you get a 16-valve 740 in good shape and are prepared to keep it that way then you can have yourself a wonderful car, but if there are any problems lurking you might want to steer clear.

I'm sure there are dozens of other things and hopefully others will chime in with their suggestions.
--
Dave -940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

Considering the owner could have chosen not to disclose the rebuild,
would you still buy it?

The question is do you want this car.

Its cheap and fairly simple to stay ahead of the timing belt changes.
As long as he wasn't doing 80 down the hi-way when the belt let go.!

Guys, thank you.

No, the oil pump bolt was not replaced. Only one tensioner was replaced. I'll continue looking for information you suggest. We'll see.

After a failure like that you would think the guy would replace the whole shootin' match up front. Some people just don't learn.
There's a pile of idler pullys on the front of that thing as well, any of theem get replaced? Last full timing belt job I did on a b234f with both belts and all the rollers , tensioners , pump bolt, new oil pump( was leaking ), new bearings in the lower balance shaft housing , the parts , even from FCP groton, added up to a pretty penney.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '86 740 GLE turbo diesel, '92 Ford F350 diesel dually