Ok I'm really set to buy this car(90 760 v6 130,000) but there is one thing that really bothers me about it. It seems to have a bit of valve tap to it and that really gets on my nerves. The person that owns it said that he would pay for the next service which is due in 2000 miles and that they would adjust the valves then. Ok heres the question....when they adjust these valves will the tapping go away..or is this motor just "prone" to tappin and that just something i have to get used to. Thanks in advance buddies!!

I seriously doubt that your cams are eaten away. Try to get a valve adjustment before purchase, and be around to take a look at the valvetrain when the covers are off. I had an '82 264 GLE with 132,000 on it when it got wrecked, and it ran great, except for a little bit of valve noise. To bad I never got a chance to adjust them... Again, probably not the cams.

It could very well be the rockers or cams, and it depends on whether you or your mechanic are willing to do what is necessary. If the engine had regular oil changes (faithfully every 3,000 mi) then the top end of the engine should be pretty clean. The problem is that carbon accumulates around the rockers and gets into the cam and rocker lobes, causing rapid wear. Frequent oil changes reduce this, but don't completely prevent it. The main thing is, if you like the car, negotiate the price knowing you might have some cam work to do (should help drop the price quite a bit). When you have the car, immediately remove the valve covers and carefully inspect all the lobe surfaces, rotating the engine. Use a small mirror to see everything - it is easy to miss rocker surfaces which are beginning to wear through. If the cam lobes are not badly damaged they can be polished up in situ. Rockers go bad first, then damage the cam lobes; replace with new or good used rockers and you often don't have to replace the camshaft. I've done it all, and you can too if you are willing to buy or make your own cam gear holder, etc. I maintained one 76 B27 and one 80 B28 this way. The '80 was a super car. Everyone complains about the V6, and even the B280 doesn't get the mileage one would wish, but the B28 and B280 have plenty of torque - good for climbing long hills on the interstate - and are also plenty smooth. Just a different personality than the turbo B23, and a greater cost if there are cooling problems, so you will want to keep good, fresh coolant and a sound cooling system, since most Volvo mechanics don't want to replace head gaskets on these engines (although they will often buy these cars themselves and do the job....) The bottom end of these engines hardly ever shows any wear, but the timing chain can break and lock up the engine - another reason for frequent oil changes.

Hello Mike:

I doubt that it is the cams-- design changes improved the oiling on these cams substantially. More likely is that it has an exhaust leak at the manifold as the result of losing a stud. My B280F made some tappet noise on the right bank. When I crawled underneath I noticed that several studs had fallen out completely. It seems to me that these studs were supposed to be tightened early on as part of regular maintenance. I doubt anyone did it for mine. Replacing the exhaust manifold gaskets and a few studs is unlikely to me more than a few hours work. Maybe you can negotiate that as part of the prepurchase maintenance.

Run a way from it.It means camshaft has been eaten and it is end of it, unles you would like to face very expensive repear.