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ive been driving it to work dayly and seeing some patterns.
when I start it and pull out on the road I seem to have a cloud of white smoke following me and is very weak on power. at first I thought well it's just vapors from a cold engine, kind of normal but it seemed a bit excessive. I do not think it has a blown head gasket, no coolant loss.
Im wondering if I have a stuck injector and the gas is leaking past and giving one of the cylinders a spurt of gas and causing it to become flooded in that one cylinder? I know about the leakdown test but dont have a fuel pressure guage yet , but maybe I can crack the fuel line after parking and also after letting it sit overnight or for an hour or two and I'd expect to see a little spurt of gas when I crack the line open. If the pressure dissipates all on it's own maybe it can prove my theory of a stuck ( open) injector.
I have some spare injectors and got the parts, filter some o rings etc to rebuild them so maybe I can spend some time rebuilding my used injectors and then pull the fuel rail and swap them. Ill pull the plugs first and see if I have one that looks any different from the rest.
I think maybe when I get going it blows that excess gas out and runs sort of normal. Probably not great for the rings.
it seems really weak under about 2K and from 2K to 3K it has more power until it shifts and then seems weak again at the lower RPMS. Ive had lots of other volvos and none seemed this weak at the lower RPMS..
I dont think it's a clogged cat because it will make power and rev up.
i can try swapping the air mass meter from another volvo and drive it , and see if that makes a difference.
It idles at about 1000 RPM but seems to shake more than normal during idling. maybe its sort of pulling a bit but it's not lurching ahead when I take my foot off the brakes. It should idle a bit slower but I think that will make it shake more. If I can slow the idle a tad maybe it wont be pulling as much and maybe that contributes to the vibrations.
I should recheck the timing with a light. I could try to advance or retard the timing a little and see if that makes a difference in running. the distributor has only one way to go it so I dont think it s possible it is mis-timed by one tooth and there is only so much movement of the distributor ( its at the back of the engine)
I have a cheapo chinese copy of a volvo distributor I can try. maybe i can swap that in as a test. Ive had the sensors fail a couple of times but usually I found that would create a no start condition or maybe just die suddenly. It starts fine, I dont think this is a issue with that sensor. at one point I could buy the sensor from rock auto but they seemed to go into no stock and I bought he plate with the sensor before for about 100 bucks. when I tried to replace it again to keep that sensor in stock at home, all they had was this cheap distributor. it comes with the cap and rotor but when I saw the quality of the rest it was real garbage. I bet the sensor and plate can be removed and put into a volvo distributor. right now it has a distributor I simply pulled from a working car the same year.
the way it runs I wondered because it seems a bit like the distributor isn't advancing properly, that might cause low power at certain revs but most of that is determined by the ICU. i wonder if replacing he electrolytic caps it the ICU or ECU might change anything?
I'll do more once I can get time off with the car when its not pouring out or too dark. i should check compression and see if I have a weak cylinder or if they look even.
other than vibration at idle the engine itself sounds ok.. no knocking or anything unusual.
long thread and I appreciate the help and ideas. thanks Guys ! I'll report back once I can try the above things, that might give me better info on the symptoms and help isolate some things. I's not failing to start or dying in traffic but there is something not right with it and whatever the issue is I think it crept up on me slowly and wasn't a sudden failure. I don't think it's lost compression but this I can verify with a compression test.
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