Lol ‘rough running’ FI redblock? What are you doing wrong or neglected pos 500 dolla holla cars are you buying much like my various field rat money pits that take a lifetime/life-sentence to properly fix up/sort out where every repair turns into a mini-restoration?
?
Is the compression, valve lash (& leakage?), vac leaks & sensors all working?
I mean, I get it…the front mount distributor cap that can trap moisture & cause it to miss when Parked over damp/snowy ground vs. the B18/B20 dist in a nice oily cloud by the crankcase vent middle of the engine w/plastic crankcase vent box/no more thru-flow crankcase venting for emissions sux, but uh…if the belly pan is sealing tight & radiator is blocked off for winter, & it’s boockheated w/working airbox pre-heat it should achieve good longevity & Economy?
This all said the early LH2.4 ecus, late wiring harness with shady crimps or corroded connectors on the late 1993 cars or more electrically complicated adaptive memory 2.4 cars, old beat cars, bad sensor readings some of the time, worn/uneven compression engines (n/a -‘84 redblocks are pretty tough & hard to kill at least…tho B230s are beam counter garbage
?), vac leaks, dirty injectors etc they’ll run like poop?
I hate the adaptive memory & prefer the LH2.2 & earlier manual window stripper DL cars. Adaptive memory it’s harder to nail down correct specs for all the sensors & relies on its diagnostic loop which mostly sucks on most OBD1 cars (not that I want the ecu to do anything besides make the car/engine go at all/don’t want full integration).
The 81-87 2.5Bar fpr has a lower failure rate & stirs the fuel less / stresses the fuel pump less on the halfass 240 fuel tank revision compared to the 88+ 3-bar setup…
That said, they *finally* galvanized all the body & stiffened up the chassis such that the windshields were less prone to leak with the flexible flier opening crappy 240 chassis & integrated flush rubber gasket & better butyl goop job 1989+…
…they had it right for chassis stiffness, body proportions & maneuverability & extruded super toxic rubber gasket -‘69 on the original 140 design…but then it wouldn’t pass new safety regulations 1970+ & they cheaped out.
Only took Volvo until ~1989 to properly rust proof (hot galvanize the whole car & better get the water to fall thru it drainage wise w/proper primer & paint) & stiffen the cheap flexible flier long ‘safety’ v6 engine compatible McPherson 240 front end up with thicker harder inner metal in key locations up front…only took the stooges/special needs/special olympians @ Volvo 20+ years from 1969 when they had it mostly right (other than the Hot galvanizing, seam sealing & drains/smaller raised separate cowling openings).
Paging cleanflametrap for his Bosch FI homebrew laboratory factory test bench & picture gallery…
Accepting donations now for the $250,000 of time/trouble effort it would probably take to acid dip, hot galvanize, & epoxy primer & super toxic electrostatic paint a straight 145 recombining the best parts of all of them ‘68-‘93
It should start smooth if it’s in good repair, tho it won’t fast idle @ a little higher rpm’s that Bosch designed them to to burn leaner appropriate to ambient air temps /not wash the thing down idling or crank a solid few rotations to build oil pressure with 0w-30 quality oil in extreme cold before it fast idles on the EFI Volvos 1970-1995 & the wax pellet for the airbox t-stat doesn’t last very long…