I already posted on the Family-topic introducing my Volvo 340, but decided to post also a new topic in a bit more detailed mannor.
Last friday finally got my hands on a 1988 Volvo 340 with B172K. I have been looking all fall long for a RWD (or AWD) car to be my secondary car, as my primary car VW will undergo a total teardown in the winter. We have exceptionally long winters with lots of snow, so RWD or AWD was my only option...
I've previously driven a Volvo V40, but sold it at the end of summer '13. I work as an IT systems specialist in a major multisite retail car dealership in Lappeenranta, southeastern Finland. Our salesmen get in total about 400 bummers per year which go straight to used car shops and never enter our lists. That's where I spotted my Volvo (and actually the soon-to-be teared down VW), and for such a low price for it I'm not gonna even say it out loud. It has 100k km on the clock and besides a few spots of rust it's like a new car. It has something called Redline-option on it, and has decals on the sides and red lines on the seats. Every little detail of it's services is in the maintenance book, and it comes from it's first owner.
So friday after work I went to Mikkeli, where my 340 was sitting neatly in our dealership's parking lot. I have to admit, I've never driven a car with manual choke, but after a few dozen swears and a tear of pain I managed to get the car running (it hadn't been started for a week). I drove to the nearest petrol station to put some petrol in to make it home to Lappeenranta (100km or 60mi drive).
After filling the car with petrol and myself with Red bull, I went to start it up. Starter was turning the engine but nothing happened. I pushed the car aside and started investigating. Everything seemed normal, and I tried again, no dice. For some forces beyond human understanding I pulled the choke all the way back, floored it and turned the key. Nothing, but now the plugs were all wet with petrol
I waited for an hour for them to dry out and went for coffee inside. Went back to the car and turned the key. Wohoo! It made a sound promising of starting up. Then at the next turn of a key all too familiar sound: battery was dead.You may notice that at this point I was at the mental state of filling the whole damn thing with TNT. I was 100km from home, on a friday night (which, in Finland, basically means that none of my friends, family or relatives are in no condition to drive).
I decided the only way was to try a hill start (without a hill in sight...). I pulled the car all the way to the other end of the petrol station, started pushing like hell and hopped inside when the car was travelling about 15km/h. Just when I landed on the seat and started to put a gear in, I noticed that the key was not in the ignition. Of course, I left it in my pocket. It must have looked funny as hell, me in a Volvo quietly strolling across the petrol station trying to find the key in my pockets at the same time. That moment when I got my hands on the key, the car stopped.
When this happened, I hopped on the bonnet and lit up a cig. I'm done, I thought, I'll find the nearest lake and push the car in there. A Micra-driver spotted me when he was filling his car up and shouted:"Did you run out of gas? I can give you a push." I answered with a taste of blood in my mouth that I've run out of nerves and electricity. Luckily, he had jump cables with him and after all the pain and the misery, I got the car running. Here's a picture I took when I just pushed the car aside from the petrol pump:
) to enjoy the ride with me. After the 5th shutdown in a major intersection the look on her face was priceless. Looked like she would rather crawl on her knees back home than to sit any more in the passenger seat. Luckily she was a tad drunk and I got her to stay in 
With a well slept night, I opened the hood up again to adjust the idle screw. Now I managed to get it idle at 900rpm, but it started to wave from 900rpm to 1200rpm. When on partial or full load, it runs like an angel and never misses a beat, only idling is problematic now. I guess tonight I'm gonna try to adjust the idle mixture screw, if the idle mixture is messed up. I'm already prepared to work on it the whole thursday evening, when our workshop is open for our staff to work on our cars.
I took this picture after I managed to get the car to idle on saturday. Volvo is anxoiously waiting for the snow to fall in a parking lot us in Lappeenranta favor one of the best lots to slide a car during the winter. Of course in the summertime there's the pokemon guys with turbos the size of my head, but I'll leave them in their own value...
I don't think the shop owners care too much for it, but for my defence I'm only there by night and still have not crashed through their window. I still think here's an accident waiting to happen, since this Volvo is my first RWD car. Thank god it's so underpowered, though. At least I will not be going through the window at 100km/h wrong end out.
Tero Korhonen
I'm not gonna order that B18FT just yet, but in the late winter (maybe march) the hunt will be on 
