To Volvo or not to Volvo

Seems like you have your heart set on this truck. There are plenty of volvos laying around all over the place. The market is flooded with them and freightliners. With that mileage there are many listed for less money. However, if you have a good feeling on this one and think it's the truck for you then pull the trigger. When buying a used truck your gut feeling is what you should go on.

 

http://www.damirontruck.com/invento.../list.aspx?ETID=1&pcid=705705&dlr=1&bcatid=27


Here's a Volvo 23k

 

I've always been told that the overhead should be set every 150K but, I have a Volvo engine, not an ISX so I'm not sure what the Cummins calls for but I would think it would be the same. Maybe not. If there is no record of it ever being done in it's 600K history then I would think it is a prime candidate for scored camshaft and rockers.

 

I think that you can find a really nice Volvo or Freightliner in the price range you are looking for. I love my Volvo. I paid 24 for mine, it's a 630 though, but I was lucky enough to find it at a Volvo dealer and the previous owner took it to the same dealer for everything. They were able to pull up the entire history report from day 1 and give it to me. It was nice to be able to see what had been done and what hadn't been done so far. And, to discover that the previous owner was anal about having it serviced, PM's every 12,000 miles and overhead every 150.

 

Why the big push to change oil/pm every 10-12? I've asked Mack (basically a D13) that I should be changing oil and pm every 20k. I'm sure it's better to keep fresh oil, but your like doubling your cost a year.

 

My owner's manual says that the oil should be changed every 15K. That's why I said the previous owner was anal about having this truck serviced, you can see on paper that it was in the shop every 12K for pm service. Since I've had it, I've been trying to stick to what the manual says and been doing it at 14-15K.