I just moved to Albuquerque from St. Louis. The altitude here is about 5000 feet above sealevel, compared to 700ft back in St. Louis. My volvo hated it at first, it would barely idle, suffered from enormous power loss and lagged. It started to gradually get better after a few weeks and is doing pretty well now. I've heard that LH-jet and many others are capable of learning what parameters work best in different environments. I would be very impressed if it actually is 'learning' and it remembers these parameters after I shut the car off. I know the O2 and knock sensors give realtime feedback but that doesn't explain why my performance has improved so significantly over time. I'm guessing that my injection just has problems and it should've accounted for the environmental changes when I drove it here.

- Nate
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90 745 16v 190k.

the lh 2.4 cars have adaptation, or learning, built in. that's why code 113, 231 and 232 are in the self diagnostics. they set when the range has been exceded. i've had 2 cars learn bad habits through adaptation and run so bad, they fouled the plugs. 1 needed a new amm because it would go out of range after 200 miles in 1 trip. the other needed a new ecu because it was demented and fouled the plugs for no outside reason. of course, it spit codes out like candy 1 or 2 times a month and ran so bad, it wouldn't start. it's possible yours has adjusted to the climate and fuel available. good luck, chuck.

I am a little confused - I thought you were rebuilding an LS 400 to take out there instead of the 745.

How is the transition to the southwest going for you? I bet you will miss the messy winter streets of old ST. Louis, not to mention the pot holes.

Dan

I did rebuild an es300. I didn't like it and the neighborhood that I live in is kindof rough and it's not a good idea to bring something with a lexus badge on it here. I like my volvo too much. I sold the lexus for $4500 and I've been living off of the money. I didn't like it much anyway, FWD, V6, automatic. it felt slugish and squishy even though it's much faster than my volvo. A bitch to work on too. It took my 4 hours to change the thermostat and fuel filter. They bury that stuff.

No pot holes! This neighborhood has something worse which is lots of gravel alleys and stuff which are full of nails and screws and things that messes up tires nicely. I've dug 2 nails out of my front right tire in 2 months and pulled another out for a friend yesterday. I really don't get it, but there's a lot of things about this town I don't get.

I haven't been to any southwestern junkyards yet, but I hear that it's a moving experience with all the old cars.

-Nate
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90 745 16v 180k.

I don't think the LH-Jet generations used in RWD Volvos were this sophisticated. The 850/S70, yes, has some adaptive programming. The system you have doesn't.
The probable cause of better running: buying the fuel sold locally. It has to have a higher vapor pressure to deal with the reduced atmospheric pressure at the higher elevations. It took a couple weeks for you to burn all the old "sea level" fuel left in your tank and replace it with the high altitude stuff. The fuel vendors formulate a bit differently based on market. In essence the stuff sold there has a higher octane rating, though it's not expressed as such.

As with any Volvo, it'll probably benefit from a good throttle body cleaning and a flame trap service, as well as a tuneup if it's been 25K or more.
Good luck with it!
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 230K, 88 744GLE- 220K, 82 245T-181K Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 231K, 87 244DL, 239K, 94 855GLT 189K