My experience with mine over 80K and 12 years or so is otherwise as far as purported cooling problems go. Mine has never come close to overheating even with a leaking water pump which I replaced at belt change #2 and a pinhole leak in a relatively scaled up original radiator which I also took care of before it became a gusher. I do however try and take care of things before they become major issues. I think there are some diesel owners out there who get into them with a notion that thier bullet proof reputation somehow carries over to the rest of the vehicle and therefore it can just be driven into infinity without a hitch.

Keep an eye on your gauges (still haven't installed an aftermarket oil pressure gauge like I have been wanting to since day one) keep the oil changed and keep the tank as full as possible with "good quality" fuel and you should do quite well. Don't read the cetane spec for the D24 in the supplement to the owners manual if you have it.

I don't know how many miles on your 264 but I do know it is the same age as mine and if i were you I would be looking out for a possible head gasket in the not too distant future if it has not already been done of course.

Another thing I thought of. The heater hoses are prone to failure from what I have "heard". I did also experience this soon after I bought the car. One of them developed a small fissure that would spray a fine mist of coolant once up to temp. It took me a few weeks to finally figure that one out. You will see why if you start poking around behind the head. The radiator hoses are still original though and maybe due for replacement after almost 30 years.

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1982 240D auto
1978 300CD auto
1985 300D auto
1983 300TD auto
1984 Porsche 944 5 speed
1973 Opel GT 1900 4 speed
1967 Chevy C30 350 Sm420
1973 Mustang Grande Convertible 302 C4
1981 VW Pickup 1.6D Turbo 5 speed
1983 Rabbit 1.6D Factory Turbo 5 speed
Plus parts vehicles...

I keep my eye on the gauges ALL THE TIME!! I have already changed out the upper radiator hose. The car only has 74,000 original miles and I am the second owner. Currently I am going to look into why I have no heat and no blower fan. I am a stickler for oil change... I believe that keeps a car going. Do you recommend a brand of water pump?

Very similar to mine. I bought mine with 50K from the original owner. The blower motor is not a fun job. Incidentally mine went out around that very same mileage. Check the fuse of course. What happened with mine was the bearings went which caused the motor sieze, blew the fuse but toasted the resistor as well. I had the motor out in three hrs. and new unit back in 2 hrs. later. Awkard back breaking job though.

Can't remember for sure on the water pump you won't have much choice there though as with most of the parts for these babies it is either the dusty dealer NOS (if the parts guy doesn't immediately die laughing and then after recovering looks everywhere but in your eyes mumbling something like "Ah sorry looks like that's NLA") or the one aftermarket supplier who still makes/rebuilds the part.

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1982 240D auto
1978 300CD auto
1985 300D auto
1983 300TD auto
1984 Porsche 944 5 speed
1973 Opel GT 1900 4 speed
1967 Chevy C30 350 Sm420
1973 Mustang Grande Convertible 302 C4
1981 VW Pickup 1.6D Turbo 5 speed
1983 Rabbit 1.6D Factory Turbo 5 speed
Plus parts vehicles...

The dealer here just says go away basically.. they have NOTHING for this car. I have found an aftermarket place here but just figured I would ask.

For the heater do I have to remove the whole dash?

The dash is the easy part. You don't "have" to but I did. Sorry but this was 10 years ago now and thankfully I have not had to repeat the procedure since. Just be careful with all the little vacuum canisters they are the most delicate things under there from what I remember and make sure you label everything or else you will have cold air on your feet when you are needing hot air out the defrost vents. Lots of little vac. hoses under there. All the electrical connections are pretty easy to get back in order because most connectors are unique to the switch or what have you.

The beauty of it is that, unlike almost anything domestic I have worked on, each component has a way of coming apart EASILY. You may have to think about it for a minute or so but just remember that if brute force seems necessary you are doing something wrong.

I did not have a manual at the time and no online greenbooks so I just had to wing it but I had a Volvo mechanic tell me that it is just about the worst job to have to undertake and book time was around 10 hrs. I did it in about 6 with just common sense and some inherent mechanical abillity. I have some good mechanics in the family and picked up alot from them when I was younger and had time to watch and learn.

I am lucky in that my local dealership is actually willing to work with me on some of the harder to obtain parts. I also am very fortunate to have a guy locally who has an exclusively preowned Volvo dealership and races 144s. He parts out 240s all the time so although no diesel parts I can often get the other parts for the 240/260 era cars used that would otherwise be dealer items.

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1982 240D auto
1978 300CD auto
1985 300D auto
1983 300TD auto
1984 Porsche 944 5 speed
1973 Opel GT 1900 4 speed
1967 Chevy C30 350 Sm420
1973 Mustang Grande Convertible 302 C4
1981 VW Pickup 1.6D Turbo 5 speed
1983 Rabbit 1.6D Factory Turbo 5 speed
Plus parts vehicles...

Is that Long's Peak in the background?
Taken at Rabbit Mountain possibly?
Personally can't wait to move back to CO
the east coast just isn't as friendly.

Pikes Peak! Those others are a little north of here

Me too, I wouldn't have moved here 5 years ago if I didn't! Muuuuuuuuuuuch better than Oklahoma.