Hello. 1987 Volvo 240DL 107,000 miles. Engine is noisy rattling sounding . Sounds like from top of engine. Notice that it uses more oil then it should. After only about 200 miles of driving had to add about 8 ounzes. Could it be that valves need shim replacement/adjustment ?? Noise is chatter ? Any help Or advice as always greatly appreciated. Just got this car couple of weeks ago and am trying to get it running just right. My 1986 has been excellent and its going on 150,000 miles.

Do you have service records on the car? 107K is low mileage on this engine. It sounds to me like it may have suffered a lack of maintenence over the years. The first place to wear excessively on this engine is the head if it's run low of oil. The cam bearings are machined into the aluminun head. Steel cam against aluminum + no oil = worn bearing surface. I bought a 76 model one time (B21F) that had this problem and it sounded like a threshing machine. A compression test is a good idea. Also you can remove the valve cover and inspect the cam bearings by removing the top bearing caps (one at a time). Be sure to replace the cap in the same orientation and exactly as it came off, including correct nut torque if you do.
steve

Hercubar,

Very easy to find out if it is loose valves. Remove the valve cover and check the valves. The procedure is in the 700/900 FAQ. All you need is a 10 mm wrench and a set of feeler gauges to do it (and a new valve cover gasket). I like to check my valves on a cold engine, but some people like to check them hot. There is a spec for both, so do it the way you like best.

Also, you might want to do a compression check on the engine, if you have not already. If your numbers are low, you may have worn out rings which would explain the oil consumption.

If you are planning to keep the car for a while, you should buy the Bentley Volvo 240 Service Manual. Invaluable.

Oh, and clean the flame trap and throttle body if you have not yet!

Good luck.

-Josh in Seattle