My "new" 1984 760GLE Turbo Diesel

casioqv · #1 01-08-2011, 11:38 AM

I bought a retired diesel engineer for Kubota tractors out of his 20 year D24T hobby and got his car, special tools, green books, and a garage full of spare parts.

We just finished a 3,000 mile road trip to Washington in the 760 and it was great- absolutely everything on this car works like new (AC, cruise control, lights, etc.), it has a low-mileage factory crate D24T from Germany with 1-notch MLS head gasket (and various other later updates), a newly rebuilt M46 (swapped from ZF), and a new suspension/brakes (Bilstein HDs and new nivomats). It runs and drives exactly as I'd imagine a brand new 760GLE from the factory would.

I did have to replace the steering rack though out in the rain in Oregon as it suddenly failed without much warning, and I added an iPod input to the factory stereo.

iPod/aux sound input

My wife is "loving" the pile of D24T parts in front of the washing machine including 2 M46s, a complete D24T core, and another D24T short block.

Jason · #2 01-08-2011, 06:59 PM

Nice! Where did you find the car? Craigslist or something of that sort?

Jason

casioqv · #3 01-08-2011, 07:11 PM

Yes, I found it on Craigslist.

//edit: I was the first person to look at it. Searching "Volvo diesel" on craigslist and eBay everyday for years finally paid off!

Jason · #4 01-09-2011, 05:32 PM

Yup I know the feeling.. I looked for my car for a year and a half before I found it. (that is one that was half way close to me)

Jason

casioqv · #5 01-09-2011, 10:01 PM

Diesel 7 series are really getting rare... I think most of them have been scrapped in the last 10 years. I used to see them on CL all the time circa 2004 but nowadays you can do a nation-wide search on Crazedlist and not see a single one in the country.

The people whom can keep them going are all hardcore enthusiasts like us with special tools, etc. and aren't going to sell them.

ian2000t · #6 07-08-2011, 06:07 AM

Nice, I like this car!

Surely that expansion tank isn't standard though?

7 series diesels are rare in the UK aswell. Tends to be about 1 940 diesel appear on the Ebay every month - some of them complete basket cases though.

Had my 760 D24TIC for about 6 months now, didn't realise it was "rare". Don't know if you have the same in the US, but we have a site that shows how many of each car were registered during a year (i.e. how many are on the road).

Apparently my 760 D24 is one of just 60!!
http://howmanyleft.co.uk/?q=volvo+760+diesel

casioqv · #7 07-09-2011, 11:58 AM

The expansion tank is from a big diesel truck, from the 50s or 60s I think and holds over a gallon. The previous owner added it.

I was going to remove it, but after getting a coolant leak on a road trip, and being able to make it another 1,000 miles before adding coolant I can see the benefit of a huge coolant reservoir. It's actually a really nice feature, considering how often D24Ts get coolant leaks.

I have added a stainless steel float sensor to the tank, for my audible coolant level alarm.

The previous owner did lots of cooling system mods, but it still runs warmer than I'd like climbing a hill with the AC on. I'm trying to upgrade the system further. So far I've added a tropical fan clutch, but am considering a citric acid flush, and a better water pump (I'm assuming it has a crappy GMB, since 99.9999% of D24Ts do nowadays).