To fix or not to fix a 94 Wagon 960?

himmelsm · Post by **himmelsm** » 21 Jul 2008, 20:57

Aggrivating: 14 years old w/107000 miles, Blown head gasket, Low oil pressure, Front end out of alignment, Needs 4 tires, Cracked windshield, Due for timing belt change-idler, Due for inspection 11/08, Probably pads and rotors all around.

Mitigating: The body and electrical are in very good condition. Engine is not using oil. Up to this point I have maintained this car. Complete Exhaust, Calipers, Timing belt-water pump-serpentine belt, tires, fuel line.

I am not asking how to deal with the issues. I would like to know if anyone has gone down this "major repair" road with a B6304F and what their experience has been.

Logically, I should spend the $$$$ on a down payment for a newer car. Emotionally, I love this car and I hope that I can celabrate its 20th birthday.

danr960 · Post by **danr960** » 22 Jul 2008, 11:31

I have been there, since mine is a '94 too, it sort of matches your question rather closely. 107,000 miles, it is still a baby.

It really depends on a few things, are you capable of doing some of the repairs, do you drive many miles, is the body and underbody sound, do you desire a different vehicle, if so would that be a new car or used one, how used?

My spot in life is that I drive 25-30K miles a year, for me a new car in a year will be three years old in comparison to an average car. I am no longer driving the volvo for work, my wife uses it as a train station driver, and the kids use it when home from college all summer. With the miles I drive, a new car will quickly need major repairs in two to three years too. So I control the car payment end, just don't have one, buy a used car that is two to three years old, pay cash and wait for the maintenance and repairs, they will come, does not matter which brand of car either.

My wife being an accountant, this all makes her nuts. Putting more money in a car than it is worth makes her cringe. What she does not understand and will never understand because she is an accountant, is that I don't care what the car is worth on the open used car market, I am not selling it, I am driving it until it is really only worth a few hundred bucks or is become so unreliable. So the reality is my repairs are my car payment, it is just that if the car was new, soon it would require those same repairs no matter the brand of car.

So I repair my 94 to keep it running, my only requirement is there cannot be any rust. So with that, its days are numbered, because all four doors are rusting through at the window frame just above the door sills. While the spots are small, they are growing larger. Other than that it looks just fine.

To get where I am today, I have spent much money on some big ticket items. The engine was replace at 230,000 miles, unlike you, my original engine used oil from day one and grew so bad that I was adding a quart at every fill up with gas. At 200K miles, the whole suspension was torn down and all springs, shocks and every rubber bushing was replaced, nearly a $2,000 repair, well worth it though, it was like driving a brand new car.

Currently, it is going to need brakes at all four wheels, everything about the brakes will need to replaced, calipers, hardware, rotors, pads, fluid hoses and master cylinder. That is maybe $600 in parts?

Another aspect that I have used with my wife is that, my way is more enviromentally friendly. Keeping and maintaining a used car means that one less new one is needed which saves all of that energy to mine the minerals, manufacture and transport.

I hope this is of some value to you. Good luck.

DanR '94 964 337,000 miles (104,000 on the new engine)

himmelsm · Post by **himmelsm** » 23 Jul 2008, 10:32

DanR,
We are a pretty close match. During the week I commute 34 miles in and out of town. On weekends I cruise at least 240 miles, sometimes twice that. The interstate is where this car really shines, tach'ing 3000 for hours at a time.

I agree with your philosophy regarding repair/replace. I only need to mind my budget and this will push it to the limit. I will need have the work done by a mechanic.

Your milage numbers are encouraging. When you replaced the engine was it a complete swap or did you refurb' the exiting block? How many years ago was it done?

Thanks for your insights.
Mark

danr960 · Post by **danr960** » 24 Jul 2008, 09:41

It was a complete replacement about 4 years ago, the block was my problem. The cylinders were worn really bad at the tops of their bores, and after tearing it apart, the rings and piston grooves were shot too.

The good part was, someone I knew had a brand new engine, it was a demonstrator for volvo dealer mechanics. It was a very early engine, the serial number on the block was 4,000 something. The down side was that it needed new rings, bearings, a good cleaning and all of the bolt holes needed repairing. That was all required because this engine had been torn apart hundreds of times. A local machine shop did all of the hard stuff, like matching the rings to each cylinder diameter, measuring the crank bearing clearances, replacing a few missing valves and with a volvo rebuild manual and the shops input, I did all of the assembly. The real attraction for me was that the cylinders and pistons were virginal, so the fit couldn't have been better. It was quite fun to do too.

So I went from an engine that when new, used a quart of oil evey 1,500 miles, to now where I never have to add oil between changes, and that is every 5,000 miles. Went synthetic from the 1st day on this one.

DanR

himmelsm · Post by **himmelsm** » 07 Aug 2008, 22:56

Here We Go!
I drove it as far as I could and built up my savings account. Coolant finally showed up in the crankcase. Indicated by a 3' coating on the dipstick, so I parked it. (I am amazed how well this engine has run for the 15000 miles since I first noticed the problem.) I made some phone calls and everyone declined to work on it except for the local dealer. The Service advisor, Shop foreman and myself had a meeting so that we are all on the same page. I am willing to go as far as milling the head, but I will have to stop at a replacement.

He called this afternoon to tell me that a pressure test of the cooling system did not force any more antifreeze into the crankcase. But! it did show two leaks in the radiator, plasic case w/aluminum core. It will need replaced eventually. He, off hand, mentiond $600 for the job. Has anyone replaced a radiator on a 960? If so, which brand of replacement would you recommend? I may need to study up and handle this myself before winter.

Dissassembly of the head starts in the morning. I will post a progress report for anyone interested

himmelsm · Post by **himmelsm** » 13 Aug 2008, 23:34

The head gasket work is completed, along with a new timing belt, idler and tentioner. The head and block surfaces were "okay", only a bad gasket. I ran it, gently, a few miles and it seems to run as well as before. I am pleased that the invoice came in a few $$$ under their initial repair estimate. It will enable me to move on to tires and wheel alignment sooner.

They want another oil change in 1000 miles just to help clear all of the antifreeze out of the crankcase. Has anyone noticed any performance difference running synthetic oil in the B6304? Is it worth the added cost? I tend to push my regular oil changes an extra 1000-1500 mile due to my low city/highway ratio.