hello

[gasssaver87]

hi,

im matt from colorado. i have an 87 volvo 740 turbo that gets 24mpg (around 4 more than stock) it has a k&n, straight pipe exhaust, new fluids (synthetic in rearend) the neat thing about this car is that i can adjust a a/f mix via potentiometer at the mass air flow sensor.
me and my dad have meddled some in getting better economy so i wil be pitching in some ideas and what i have tried.

[brucepick]

Hey, cool!
I'm driving an '9 245 (240 wagon) with the same engine, just not turbo.
I can't stay right now but we're gonna have to compare notes.

Definitely some mods and techniques will work out better/worse on the turbo and NA versions of the motor - but it's real good to see another brick driver here.

[GasSavers_Red]

Welcome to the site matt.

[diamondlarry]

Welcome to GasSavers Matt! it sounds like you may have a lot of interesting things to show us.

[brucepick]

Hi Matt,

Is your car a standard or automatic?
have a tach?
4-door or wagon?

If you don't have a tach see if you can get one from another 740. Junkyards are your friend; you can see other similar cars and what they had.

Tach is important because it's maybe the only instrumentation you'll get aside from speedo, fuel and temp gauges. Newer cars with OBD2 can use ScanGauge but ours can't use it. There's something called SuperMID from Japan that requires tapping into the FI system and I don't really want to do that. But a tach helps a lot. My car is auto-trans and I get a lot of FE help from the tach I added.

If you didn't already, go to GasSavers > Forums > GasSavers Forums > General Fuel Economy Discussion, and see the sticky items. One is "list of gas saving tips from best to worst" at http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=2584

Did you pump up your tires to "max sidewall", what's imprinted on the tire?

You can add basic car information to your sig so we'll know without hunting.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by brucepick

Hey, cool!
I'm driving an '9...

Now that's one old volvo


''i have an 87 volvo 740 turbo''

Awesome car

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by trebuchet03

Now that's one old volvo

''i have an 87 volvo 740 turbo''
Awesome car

OK. Mine is an '89.
Finger slipped.
My previous one ('86) was retired around 380,000 miles.

[gasssaver87]

Originally Posted by brucepick

Hi Matt,

Is your car a standard or automatic?
have a tach?
4-door or wagon?
If you didn't already, go to GasSavers > Forums > GasSavers Forums > General Fuel Economy Discussion, and see the sticky items. One is "list of gas saving tips from best to worst" at http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=2584

Did you pump up your tires to "max sidewall", what's imprinted on the tire?

You can add basic car information to your sig so we'll know without hunting.

auto, has a tach, four door, tires are all 35-40 (35 rated)

i like the boost guage, since it is directly related to engine load.

i also put an custom (read: lawn edging) airdam but it didn't help enough to measure.

i sometimes drive it hard (and i do mean hard) but normally try my best to time stoplights and go the route with fewest stops.

i have been working on putting together a water/alcohol injector

i have an electric fan, just need the stuff to mount it

reattaching the exhaust manifold that tried to fall off helped.

do you know of any underdrive pulleys for volvos?

the biggest thing that i dont like about volvo is no diagnostic codes and that its a batch fire injection (all four injectors fire at the same time once each crank revolution)

my local yard has two others, and one of them is the 2.4 turbo diesel with a 5 speed! i have seriously thought about making the swap...

[brucepick]

Sorry - I don't know about underdrive pulleys.
Try turbobricks.com for information on that.
But beware, it's more in the direction of a flat-out perforrmance forum.

Re. the vinyl air dam, it could be that it's flexing in use. Maybe you built in good stiffeners. I'm planning one; right now it's planned to be wood abou 1/4 inch thick, maybe a black vinyl cover.

Also I plan to build additional air dam on the sides, forward of the front wheels where the fender doesn't go as low as modern ones. The 240 is lacking there, I don't know about the 740. To keep the excluded air from sneaking in under the car at that point.

A friend of mine with high performance modd'ed turbo 240 says he gets about 20 mpg. Intercooler (I think you have one too), 3" cat-back, no muffler, upgraded clutch, and he doesn't hold back on the throttle. So those things can drink fuel if you let 'em.

Believe me, a brief period of high fuel consumption will wreck an otherwise good tank. This past weekend I tanked up before and after my drive home from work, and again for the Monday a.m. ride to work. I got 30.5 and 31.7 mpg on those 2 fillups, nearly 100% highway about 65 mi. each tank under pretty decent conditions. In between those two tanks I did four short trips which included 3 cold starts. The fillup after that short tank showed only 19.8 mpg in spite of the fact that I did my best to behave myself on those short runs.

[Hockey4mnhs]

welcome to the site