Volvo and OMC ?

oldsub86

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 9, 2008
Messages
311
Is there a Volvo outdrive that one should avoid? I have this recollection that Volvo and OMC had some arrangement to use a common outdrive at one time. Since we are mostly avoiding any I/O that is OMC, I wondered if there was a Volvo drive of a certain vintage to be avoided too.
 

Lou C

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
11,803
The joint venture drives you are referring to were built from '94 to '98, the OMC and Volvo products were identical then with the same parts numbers etc. Nothing wrong with any of these. After that Volvo bought out OMC's interest in the joint venture and there were no more OMCs after that, they were all called the Volvo SX. Which was built till the SX-A came out. The one Volvo product you for sure should avoid, is the composite XPD drive. This thing is worse than any other Volvo drive ever built, it caused many buyers nothing but grief. The other Volvo issue is the electric fuel pumps on many fuel injected engines have caused their owners so much trouble and cost them so much money, that some wished they still had an engine with a carb and mechanical fuel pump! Watch out for those issues for sure.....
 

bruceb58

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
30,455
The other Volvo issue is the electric fuel pumps on many fuel injected engines have caused their owners so much trouble and cost them so much money, that some wished they still had an engine with a carb and mechanical fuel pump! Watch out for those issues for sure.....
I have a Volvo SX with a carb and an electric fuel pump. I don't think the electric fuel pump failures are all that common. I know MANY people that have fuel injected Volvos and not one has ever had an issue.

The one joint venture set up I might stay away from are the ones with FI Ford engines in the beginning of the joint venture. They have injection and ignition systems that can't be repaired because there are no parts. However, if you get one cheap enough, you can still buy one and convert it to a standard ignition system and carb.
 
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