"twochevrons" (twochevrons)
08/16/2015 at 23:00 • Filed to: volvo, 850r, beaters, maintenance
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"twochevrons" (twochevrons)
08/16/2015 at 23:00 • Filed to: volvo, 850r, beaters, maintenance | 2
| 6 |
Between my car ownership history and that of my parents when I was growing up, I’ve been around high-mileage beaters my entire life. One of the things that I learned early on was to never look too closely. It really doesn’t matter whether you know that the rings are worn, or it’s down on oil pressure, or that the transmission is slowly grinding itself to pieces. All those things are going to happen anyway, and stopping them is a matter of major outlay that it’s simply not worth doing on an old beater.
As a result of this philosophy, I don’t make a habit of compression-testing my cars unless they’re actually showing signs of a weak cylinder. After all, what you don’t know can’t hurt you, right?
I broke that rule today, and decided to put my 850R to the test. I’d been feeling a bit down about it lately – the transmission is getting noisy, and its chronic oil leak has risen to “the Exxon Valdez parked on my driveway” levels of bad. As much as I’d love to fit a new (manual) transmission, I couldn’t quite justify it if the engine was on its last legs, and at 216,000 miles, it has every right to be a bit tired.
After all that worrying, what did I get? Spot-on 180 PSI on all cylinders, with no variation to speak of, and still very much on the high side of the factory specs (158 - 186 PSI). For an engine that’s gone as far as mine, and that has obviously been driven ‘enthusiastically,’ I’m amazed. I was expecting it to be borderline at best, but instead, it’s still nearly as good as new. I think, too, that it speaks pretty well of the Volvo Whiteblock; despite not having the cockroach-like levels of durability of the old Redblock, it’s still a remarkably solid motor (so long as you never overheat it).
It’s always fun looking at amazingly long-lived engines; what are some of your stories of engines that refuse to age?
Anon
> twochevrons
08/16/2015 at 23:13 |
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I feel the exact opposite way, I’m paranoid that any small noise is catastropic engine failure! But to answer your question, we have a 1998 chevy silverado that has around 300,000 miles on it. Everything in the car is trying to die but the 5.7 vortec refuses to die! We’ve had probkems with almost everything in the car but we’ve never had to replace a part on the engine! My current DD is a 2008 GMC sierra 1500 with 124,000 miles and still is good as new! I have faith that if there’s ever a nuclear war the only things that will survive will be cockroaches and GM’s vortech V8s!
Big Bubba Ray
> Anon
08/16/2015 at 23:17 |
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This. Exactly this. My dad’s ‘99 Suburban is still going strong with 261,000 miles on it. All I’ve done to it is replace the spark plugs.....once. Those 5.7’s are indestructible.
TheD0k_2many toys 2little time
> twochevrons
08/16/2015 at 23:33 |
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Powerstrokes. The old 7.3 is know to go half a million no problem and usually the trans is still original too
DogonCrook
> Anon
08/17/2015 at 00:40 |
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My buddy has a 98 Silverado that overheated and dieseled for a good 5 mins. It’s a hunting truck, so no fucks are given, he never even changed the oil, just topped it off. It’s been 3 years and the damn thing is still running. Completely baffling.
BoulderZ
> twochevrons
08/17/2015 at 01:54 |
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I still own my first car, an ‘89 Toyota 2wd “XTra Cab” pickup. My Dad bought it new, and gave it to me as a high school graduation gift (got him out of moving me to/from university, I see now). I got it with around 70k miles (more or less). I learned clutch hill starts on it (5 speed, yay!). We (him and me) towed boats with it. I did my Geo-B.S.-required field camp work in it. I went to three proms in it (then girlfriend, now wife). At not quite 200k miles, it was clear it was needing to be re-ringed or replaced. I looked at new trucks, and their prices. I went with re-ring and modify. It was a 22-R. Now it’s a 22(plus bore-out)-RET. I have to get it re-emission-tested this month. It should be fine. If it’s not, I should be able to fix it. But, I’m still nervous and I have a lot else to deal with. I hope it just passes and I can work on other things.
Autofixation
> twochevrons
09/09/2015 at 20:28 |
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My 2000 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport has 238,000 miles, leaks no fluids at all, never puffs smoke (even when I hammer on it), and is getting better than original EPA gas mileage at 27 mpg.