Looks like we need to do the heater control valve in Lisa's 240 as it's either off or blast furnace with the slide lever adjustment. Looking on FCP and IPD's sites it looks like the HCV for a 90 is NLA and you need to buy the refit valve kit, although IPD has the original available at $162 vs $55 for the refit kit. Is it worth the extra money to get the OG or cheap out and get the refit valve kit?

Last I looked, the OG requires you pull the heater matrix in order to install the thermocouple capillary. Maybe there's a shortcut around this?

The refit valve is throttling rather than on/off, so it's better than what you've got by a long shot, but is not quite as "automatic" as the thermo-controlled OG deal.

Edit - "last I looked" means a LOOOONG while ago.

Hmmm, will have to do some Bible reading, didn't realize it was going to possibly be that intense. Thanks Matt.

hmm, i believe i may have a retrofit kit in the garage here that i never used.... lemme have a look-see...

Whole heater mess doesn't need to come out of the car. It's no fun at all, but not that painful. Maybe you are thinking "standard" heater, Matt? No experience on those...we always got "deluxe."

The capillary tube goes into a rubber grommet that is pretty painlessly removed from the blower housing.

That crick in my neck and back from doing a few a week for a while and the smell of sweet coolant in the floorboard as it needed to be done yesterday won't fade from memory as fast. It isn't much fun being crammed up by the gas pedal there and under there, but a lot less time than a heater fan, though draining the coolant adds a bit of time and the setup and all that ish.

Most 240s are on/off by now, or "always on" or worse, always on, always leaking or about to be leaking on your foot (when they get run hot and tired especially...cali hot weather cars many times). I've got some DOA OE plastic late valves, but they work fine for the most part. I confess I change the hose and bracket off a late car to make the install a little cleaner/more correct/more reliable, but that is not absolutely necessary. Some of the aftermarket plastic valves sketchy. Beware. Beware the dealership too with volvo being sold to china.

The metal valves work a little better when brand new and you can adjust the influence the capillary has on the valve. Sometimes you can also take an early one and lube/reseat the seat in it and test the capillary and get it working decent without replacing it at all. If it isn't too cooked and the seat isn't too whooped, adjust the screw in it and see if it will work a touch better? It is a bit of an art, but I've deemed some "okay to reinstall and saving the customer the $150-200." YMMV.

swedishengineering.com is a discount dealership and parts source for OE. I use mostly OE stuff or stuff that is slightly better (rare in the past in my experience) through worldpac.

Good news is, if you run volvo coolant, a dab of water wetter, don't let it over pressurize or coolant get acidic or crusty on the metal valve, you can many times get pretty decent results adjusting the screw on them a little and getting them to work and having them basically last the life of the car. Well serviced cars rarely eat heater valves for no reason. There is a Ranco valve that can be used wholesale that is t-static and decent available for reasonable cost. Toyota 4runner valve nice or the VW one not restriction based, but of questionable quality control...it is on a car that I refer to as "Hitler's revenge."

I sold my 84 245ti and got the use of a mint 86 4runner. I LIKE it. Most are rusted beyond all get out. No pin striping, white/black, no rust. Still looking for the elusive black king-cab turbo 4wd '85 truck like "Back to the Future." Most redneck morons "wheeler" them. I had one with 40,000 miles on it...more reliable than any volvo...though it had NO miles and NO options. Also had more rust (not a lot) than my volvo and was a garaged 94. The reality and the dream are two different things...I'd just like a rust free well maintained not beat (people use them up and beat them down) king cab 4wd. 4runner nice, but not good for fixing up a house. King cab livable as a "passenger vehicle" but not ideal, heavy duty one still takes a beating.

Thanks for that James, as always lots of good info. I guess for starters I'll crawl under the dash and see what valve I have, it's a 1990 but may have been changed already to the newer plastic style. Will look at trying the adjustments, assuming it's still the OG, as you suggested for a start and go from there. From what I found elsewhere pinching off the hoses at the firewall is sufficient to remove the hoses and valve inside?

My biggest concern if I go to the refit kit is they are all Scan-Tech which doesn't really fill me with a lot of confidence. I took a look at swedishengineering.com but couldn't find anything to do with heater control valves either OG or the refit kit, although the OG valve is NLA but would have thought they would have the kit??

You can carefully pinch the hoses.

What I mean by the "coolant on the floor" reference is replacing one that leaked already, not where I made a mess of someone's car.

Some coolant needs to be soaked up and hoses hung up above the core.

Ah, well, 1991ish (I've seen some with metal and plastic 1990-1991...volvo is terrible about little stuff like that) they usually get the plastic valve. Shouldn't be too painful to order a valve for a 1993 and put it in if necessary.

Scan-tech...avoid on something like that generally.

Response Auto in Edmonton claims the lastest set up they are putting on -as per the dealer- is better than anything that was OE. There isn't that great control of the low end of the scale OE, IMO.
I used a Jobber/Ranco pce from some other make on my 142 that uses vacuum to open close. The deal Response was praising is cable, as are all 240's AFAIK.

I haven't had a chance to look at this yet, I am guessing the the Response setup is the refit kit? I don't know of anything else besides that or the OG unit c/w capillary tube etc, from what I have found the dealer's only sell the refit kit which was standard on the 91-93 models?

And the refit kit works just dandy. Takes about 2-3 hours.

Thanks Craig, if you did it in 2-3 hours I'll substitute days should be close. Where did you get your kit and what breed is it?

Dale had it with the car when I got it...it's the Skantech one from FCP (IPD sells the same one). I know they go bad from time to time, but mine's in it's third winter and working fine. I would strongly advice pinching off the heater hoses...I don't think I had more than half a cup of coolant. It's not what I would call hard - but I was wishing I more the size of a pixie that day!

^ Thanks for that Craig. My daughter's about 105# soaking wet, time for some forced child labor.

Did you ever change your heater control valve and if so, what brand did you go for?

My '91 has always blew hot air when the climate toggle is in any position, other than when set to the far left where it would blow cool. Recently though, I've been getting a mixture of cool and warm air when the toddle is set to the far left. I suspect the heater control valve to be the culprit...

Nope, still on the to do list... The only choice you have is the Scamtech retrofit kit or the big bucks original control unit from iPd, I have the Scantech which according to Craig has been fine in his car going on a couple of years I believe. I haven't looked at mine yet but I have read that you may be able to adjust the travel in the lever to get a little more time out of it.