I had the delightful experience of owning a '79 264. The V6 was remarkable. FWD unserviceability in a RWD package- quite an accomplishment. Mine ran beautifully when I bought it, very smooth though not particularly powerful, but after a few months it developed the classic clacking camshaft commotion. Sounded horrible but on the other hand the car went another 20k and was still running fine when I pulled the horrible hybrid and swapped in a REAL Volvo engine.

I've heard that most of the fundamental design and fabrication errors were wrung out of this engine by the time the 780 appeared, but it'll still be tough to service. How does removing the _intake_ manifold_ to change the _waterpump_ grab you? A sick joke. Or how about dismounting the A/C compressor to do a valve adjustment?

780s are beautiful cars. If the body is in good shape why not buy the one you're looking at, take good care of the V6, and when the engine dies put in an authentic all-Volvo replacement?