–By Eric Fantin–
As per previous articles, although I’m a Citroën wrencher and aficionado, on the foreign-cars side of the equation, Volvo has always been my default vintage car. The no-nonsense Swede brand (at least in the RWD cars) has always been a constant through the years. There has always been a 120, 140, 160, 240, 700 or 900 series car in my fleet. This year the count is up to 2 cars! The 1973 Volvo 145 wagon and now a 1975 Volvo 164.
As previously stated the 164 is my favorite in the Volvo line of yore for it’s stout 3 liter, 6 cylinder engine. This specific car has a 4-speed overdrive manual transmission with a sunroof. It also has the standard front power windows only available in the last year production, 1975. The majority of cars were sold in the US and most were automatics.
This is not the best condition car. (I covered its rescue in this article.) It was originally a dry car but sat outside for many years so rust has begun lurking in many areas. The decision was made to resurrect it. With the motor being free, my energy was directed to a new tank, fuel pump, and fluid changes. Once that was in place the engine roared back to life. With the big cast iron block running well it was onto new brakes and a few misc. items.
It was decided to drive it back to town on a 130/140 mile journey from up north. This is an old car with old tires and wiring so I first started out on county roads. After that worked out I decided to hit the freeway at 60 mph. After half hour of driving I felt pretty confident! The car purred at 2300 rpm but as I drove I noticed many issues: non-functioning gas gauge, some turn signals, and light but not all, center shaft differential bearing and rubber mount in bad condition, iffy exhaust, but overall no smoke! Tires held steady in one piece, tracked well, no major shaking, we might make it home after all!
Unfortunately, after over 100 miles of safe travel, I started to hear metallic raping noise coming from the middle passenger side of the engine combined with a loss of power. It seemed to be running on 5.5 cylinders. At the same a big traffic jam was upon us so we exited the freeway and stopped where we could safely assess the situation. The noise was only noticeable at the increased RPM and all the vitals were still good.
We decided to proceed since we were only 25 miles from home. Luckily we made it! In the process I also lost the tail pipe (another story), but the car is safe and sound in the garage. I started pulling the plugs, valve cover, did a baseline compression test. I also used my borescope to look in the combustion chambers.
So far everything checks out so the power loss issue remains a mystery. I will look into the intake manifold for my next step since the noise seems to come from that area. It is a puzzler so far and the investigation continues….