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Volvo in trouble 700 1989

I've read the FAQ's to death, as I am not much of a mechanic it is a bit overwhelming. Today my car is on the verge of a meltdown.

About 40 miles into my trip today I got stuck in traffic. After about 20 minutes at idle my car appeared to be a Stanley Steamer, directly out of the tail pipe.
The car a 1989, 760 Intercooled Turbo wagon was begging me to pull over and have a smoke. After thinking a bit I checked the oil for water, it was looking fine. The water tank was still in the clear, and the temp gauge never did show any signs of getting hot. I decided to get the car off of the freeway and so babied it about 5 miles to the service station. I figured I'd let it cool and then make my move. A little open road and the steam went away. All the time getting farther from home. Finished out my trip and now I am 70 miles from home. The exhaust manifold seemed to be a thousand degrees upon arrival at my final destination, spit evaporates practically before it hits it and the oil is burning off like a self cleaning oven.

The symptoms are steamy carrying soot or smoke briefly.
followed by a sizzling hot exhaust system. I have some ideas as to what is wrong but I think I better ask up first.

I need a bit of help diagnosing this one. And I need to get home by Sunday.








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    Volvo in trouble - Solved 700 1989

    Thank you everybody for your help.
    I replaced the fuel pressure regulator and did away with the back pressure problem. The car has been running great since though a bit loud.

    Temporarily I have been running it with no muffler. There is still a cat and the resonator. That problem is next up.

    Thanks again.








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    Volvo in trouble 700 1989

    I tend to agree with "Will740turbo". A very hot exhaust manifold usually means a too lean condition. Not too rich. Check all the intake tube connections especially the one from the air intake to the turbo. Mine came loose and the rear muffler got so hot it melted the black trim under the rear bumper!! Of course the white smoke could also be a fried catalytic converter.








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    Volvo in trouble 700 1989

    Howdy there.
    First off, the 700 series has a "compensated" temp gauge. Translation: people worried about minor fluctuations, so we set it to read an artificial normal value, once warm, until your car is about to melt an engine.

    I wouldn't try to take off any exhaust parts at this point. You're 70 miles from home, got any tools?


    Try to check thoroughly for any kind of intake leaks! That could cause the whole problem. My car would "buck" when the gas was stomped and get capped out violently above 3500 rpm and run hot when it had an intake leak. It was mis-diagnosed as a blocked catalytic converter before finding the real issue.

    Check the FPR, good advice.
    Smell the air in your coolant bottle for exhaust. A smell of exhaust screams head gasket leak. It doesn't sound like that to me.
    You can also start the car from cold with the coolant cap removed and your hand in its place. Then you can see if it build compression in a few seconds against your hand. If so, it points to a bad HG.

    See if you can look up how to check the timing with the timing marks and looking through the oil fill cap. As I understand, (on some rotations) you should feel compression build until you see the cam depress the exhaust valve on the frontmost cylinder. I can't give you more than that, sorry.

    It's an 89, and unless it's got an LH2.4 system in it, you can't pull error codes AFAIK.

    If you bang on the catalytic converter, does it rattle?
    How does it run if you pull the cable from the AMM? (I don't know how to clear an engine code for the 89 - and on the 90+ series, it sets a code that ignores the AMM input until re-set.....)

    I still don't know what to say about the steam...

    Good Luck and post back!
    Will
    --
    1990 740 Turbo, on its way to stock specs, maybe beyond








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    Volvo in trouble 700 1989

    If you're getting tons of white smoke out the exhaust, then you have to consider a blown head gasket or a pinhole (or larger) leak between the cooling (antifreeze) channels and the combustion chambers. I had that happen to an old Alfa Romeo of ours.








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    Two issues 700 1989

    I think that you have two problems here: Your mixture is definitely rich, and your catalytic convertor is possibly blocked. The rich mixture could be caused by a faulty air mass meter or a bad diaphragm in the fuel pressure regulator.

    Does the rest of the exhaust glow red, or just the manifold?








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    Volvo in trouble 700 1989

    sounds like your burning rich! smoke from tail pipe thats white can be unburned fuel, did you smell it? this would also cause the turbo to turn bright red!








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      Volvo in trouble 700 1989

      Thanks for the replies NovaSCotiaDave and VolvoSteel.

      The Exhaust system seemed to be hot beyond the manifold, the turbo and the down pipe were also very hot. Out at the exhaust tip temp was fine. I didn't crawl under to check any more.

      At the freeway stop the exhaust smelled, and looked like steam to me.
      I did notice the 3000/3500 rpm cap a couple of times yesterday, which I think points toward the cat being clogged. Car is at 240,000 miles, about 500 of which are from me so it could be.

      Question; Could the turbo let water in for just about 10 minutes and then seal back up under these conditions?

      John G








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        Volvo in trouble 700 1989

        try removing the header pipe test port plug and see if the engine improves.
        check the FAG link under exhaust section

        take off the fuel pressure regulator vacuum hose off and smell for gas. if so, then it is bad. the fpr is on the front of the fuel rail on the top of the motor

        i was thinking a blown head gasket. check if you coolant is not getting low.

        good luck

        rob








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          Volvo in trouble 700 1989

          Guess what. I smell gas.
          I also have confirmed a back pressure problem in the exhaust system.
          Trouble, big trouble.

          Thanks for the input.








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            Volvo in trouble 700 1989

            John, how did you confirm the back pressure problem? Are you absolutely sure there is one?

            Check your plug wires and distributor:

            I had the glowing manifold/exhaust problem once in a Ford Bronco II (never been so happy to get rid of a car in my life). After the dealer spent 2.5 hours playing around, they traced it to a failed #4 (of 6) spark plug wire. The #4 cylinder was blowing unburned fuel/air mixture into the hot exhaust system, where it burned non-explosively and caused the glowing exhaust system, including the converters.

            Don't know about the steam . . . my Bronco did this in the pouring Florida rain, so did not look for/notice any steam. My attention was focused on the lousy driveability and the front/underside of the car. In fact, what brought my attention to it was the fact that the passenger side carpeting was beginning to smoke from the heat! So much for heat shields.
            --
            Scott Cook - 1991 745T, 1986 Toyota Tercel (Don't laugh, it is reliable, faithful AND gets 41 mpg!)








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          Volvo in trouble 700 1989

          Did you check mileage? Should be pretty bad if running really rich, like under 20 highway.
          A voltmeter on the O2 sensor will also tell you if it is idling rich.
          Taking the test plug out could be really difficult, and it may break and then you'll need a new header pipe which are pretty expensive.
          --
          84 242Ti IPD bars&springs, 89 745 16v M46 IPD bars, 89 744 16v M46 IPD bars, 93 945 Turbo AW71, 91 245SE AW70 IPD bars, 93 245 CLassic M47







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