2001 S80 T6 complete turbo replacement guide

[abdomar528]

Dear fellow S80 owners. I am doing this write up because there are not many write up's on turbo related posts. I will post some links that were helpful to me, which lead me to do this complete turbo replacement write up.

This link is useful if you only need to replace the return line seals: http://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-s80- ... als-15272/

If you guys request, I can do a write up on this. I might do this later this month. I was desperate and I used 2 orings and some high temp silicone to seal the deal! I have no oil leaks, but I will go back in and do it right later.

Important specialty tools I highly recommend:
1. Low profile ratchet one of both 1/4 drive and 3/8 drive.
http://www.sears.com/search=craftsman%2 ... %20ratchet
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsea ... le+ratchet
2. Ratcheting box end wrenches in metric.
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-pc-metri ... 61400.html
3. 1/4 drive torx set
http://www.harborfreight.com/6-pc-14-in ... 68015.html
4. 2 x long 1/2 drive extensions for impact wrench.
5. Impact wrench socket set.
6. Long reach nose pliers (one bent, one straight)
http://www.harborfreight.com/11-inch-lo ... 39540.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/11-inch-lo ... 39537.html

Things to buy:
1. New or rebuilt turbos
2. New turbo return line seals
http://www.ipdusa.com/products/5352/111 ... e-seal-kit
3. New set of 6 exhaust manifold gaskets
4. High temp gasket maker silicone (red stuff)
5. A pack of new studs and nuts in case anything breaks. (M8 x 1.25, M13 hex head)
25 nuts for 16 bucks https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056L28DA
25 studs for 16 bucks https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IK45DBY
6. A set of copper crush washers.
http://www.harborfreight.com/80-piece-c ... 67526.html

The steps:

1. Drain the radiator

2. Unbolt Strut bar

strut bar

3. Remove all turbo pipes and airbox, also unscrew the torx bolt for the transmission dip stick

4. Remove heat shields

5. Un-mount the waste gate line from the passenger side.

6. Spray WD-40 or Liquid Wrench (my personal favorite) on all nuts for the down pipes, exhaust manifolds and everything in between.

7. Disconnect all the radiator lines going in and out of both turbos. They use a t50 torx. We will get to the oil inlet and outlet lines after a few things are done.

P-side top view with ratchet

8. From underneath the car, remove all 8 downpipe nuts. Use two very long extensions and an impact wrench. The nuts will be 13mm hex head.

9. From underneath the car, unbolt the first exhaust pipe support from the subframe. It will be a 12mm hex head.

After step 8 and 9, the down pipes should fall off the turbos. Loosen, but to not remove, the second exhaust pipe support if you want them to fall more.

10. Remove the exhaust pipe section that is between the turbo and downpipes for both turbos.

behind engine view

11. Remove the passenger side tire and CV joint as well as the CV joint bracket on the engine block. There is a bolt we need to access behind this bracket. It is the oil lines going to the top of the turbos.

CV joint removed and bracket view

12. Unscrew the oil inlet lines going into the turbos.

Passenger side turbo top view

Driver side turbo top view

13. Now you can unscrew the bolt behind the cv joint bracket (its the Banjo bolt for the oil lines). One thing to note here is that once you unbolt it, you will have two crush washers fall, while one is still on the bolt. This is a double banjo bolt we just removed. That means there is a total of 3 copper washers. One is between first oil line and bolt head, second is between both oil lines, and the third one is between the engine block and the second oil line. I forgot to take a picture of this step. See this picture for a reference though.

random double banjo bolt pic.jpg

random double banjo bolt pic.jpg (91.63 KiB) Viewed 10485 times

14. Using a torx bit, attach it to your new 1/4 drive low profile ratchet and unscrew the oil return lines from both turbos from the top. The passenger side is easy once the CV joint is out of the way. I done remember what the size was, but you need the torx sockets like these: http://www.harborfreight.com/6-pc-14-in ... 68015.html

15. Now you can use your new 3/8 drive low profile ratchet and unmount the exhaust manifolds from the engine. Remove the passenger side turbo/manifold first. The driver side will be tough. But the low profile ratchet and a short 13mm socket is the only way you can do this.


Now assembly is very critical. Its pretty much reserve but not quite. I will explain shortly. You don't want to half-ass anything ever! You have to jump between steps 12 -15. Read below.

Any nuts that came out with the studs, use this trick to separate them!


The two nut method used by Eric the car guy is removing a stud from the engine head. What you want to do it very similar. The nut that is stuck on the stud should be clamped into a vise! Then you can use this method to separate the nut from the stud. Use liquid wrench to help you bust that nut

Any studs or nuts that broke or stripped, replace them.

When putting the new turbo/manifolds back onto the engine, make sure you screw the studs back into the engine head by hand first! Use silicone to stick the new gaskets onto the engine head and the studs to guide you.

Keep the exhaust manifold nuts loose. This is very critical. You will need to put in the turbo oil return lines into place before you tighten any manifold nuts. You will need to jiggle the turbos around a bit as you try to get the return line into place. You will find yourself cursing a lot as you do this oil line installation part coming up in the next 2 paragraphs.

BEFORE placing the oil return line seals back into position, you want to use some silicone to stick the gasket into place. Let it dry so that it does not budge. You will not be able to see anything happening while you put the drivers side line into place. You can only feel whats going on down there. When doing the drivers side, you want to double and triple check by feel that the turbo gasket has not moved to the side during installation. You will find yourself cursing a lot because it wants to move to the side. Thats why you need to let it dry into place. For me one side of the gasket moved to the side and was clamped down that way. I was so incredibly mad and sad Oil was spilling everywhere when I turned the car back on after complete assembly. I had to call it a day and go back in the next day and fix the issue.

After installing the oil return lines. Screw the oil inlet line back into place with the banjo bolt, using two copper crush washers. You do not need to use new ones. If you loose them during assembly in the engine bay, your copper washer set will save you. The water cooling lines are a piece of cake compare to the oil lines. Don't forget to use a copper washer before and after the oil line. See image below:

random banjo bolt pic

Once you get the oil line fiasco taken care of. You can now proceed to tighten the exhaust manifold nuts. From here just follow step 11 going backward to install.

HAVE FUN!!!

[MyS40T4]

Great write up - hope I don't have to do it!

Thanks for referencing the tools/parts - that make life easier too.

Cheers,

Chris

[xiami]

Hi abdomar528,

Thank you for the great write up. What lead to the turbo replacement and how did you diagnose it? How many miles do you have on your S80T6?

I have 2002 S80 T6 with 142,000 miles.

[abdomar528]

Hi abdomar528,

Thank you for the great write up. What lead to the turbo replacement and how did you diagnose it? How many miles do you have on your S80T6?

I have 2002 S80 T6 with 142,000 miles.

Don't waste your time rebuilding these tiny turbos if they are bad. Just replace them both.

Well first thing is lack of power or inconsistent power. It will come and go or just not be there. And boy when I took this thing for a drive after the repair it was kicking like a mule.

Second, I had this grinding noise when the engine decelerates when you let go of the gas pedal. That's a failed bearing in the turbo causing the turbo exhaust wheel fins or compressor wheel fins to hit the housing.

Third, One or both of these will happen due to bearing fail:
a. When you take off the turbo hoses in the middle of the engine bay (where the compressed air travels), you will see lots of oil leaking into the pipes. Whichever side has the oil is the leaking turbo.
b. Blue smoke coming out of the exhaust pipes.

A very important note I should mention! Do not do this repair until you fix these things-
Recommended:
PCV System
Crank seal and Cam seal (major oil leak)
Oil Sump / Oil Pan Seals (major oil leak)

Optional:
Any potential small oil leaks like valve cover gasket should be fixed.

I say all this because if you have bad oil pressure due to all these oil leaks, it will cause pre-mature turbo failure. Not something you wanna do again and again. I have learned this the hard way. I have learned a lot from this. So far I have done this three times.

I have now 124000 miles.

[abdomar528]

The previous owner apparently caked the oil by never changing it by complete neglect. It also had a head gasket repair done caused by neglect. I bought it anyway. When I changed the oil the oil filter was crushed.

If anyone out there wants an s80, make sure you get one where the turbos are actually working or have a mechanic friend inspect the car for oil leaks. Tell him to check and see if the oil filter housing is leaking. If it is, its probably leaking from being deformed, not loose. Also have him drop the oil filter and make sure its not crushed. XD jk... If the right side of the car where the control arm and engine mount are on the frame is soaked in oil, run away. The crank seal is leaking. Probably from late oil changes, caked old oil or it was never even done.

Now anything oil seal related needs to be replaced. This is why I have had to replace the turbos. I failed to pay attention to the oil seals leaking. I rebuilt them the first time, it failed. I did it again and it failed again. So I changed the PVC system seals and cam/crank seal. That's when I made this and did it again for the third time bur replaced the whole thing. The housings were bad anyway.

[gpdeering17]

The Volvo technician told me that the PCV breather box on my new used '01 S80 T6 was leaking. I didn't want to pay his price, so I took it home and did a little research. I flushed the PCV hoses with kerosene and bought a new box. It turns out that the old one was okay. But the front side (toward the radiator) of the block had oil all over it, as if it had squeezed out of the oil trap ports. Needless to say, it desparately needed an oil change--it was black. I'm thinking that the previous owner let it go too long and the oil starting caking and began clogging things up, forcing oil out the engine through the oil trap ports.

I was a little worried that I'd have a main seal leaking. I looked around without removing the belt cover. I could not see anything around the head (other than the splatter on the front) nor anything underneath. Everything was dirty, but most of the "dirty" came from the breather box area. So my imagination was hoping that I wasn't seeing anything from the main seal area. (Crossed fingers!)

The car hasn't been driven too much yet. I've had a number of repairs to do. I had tried to clean it up after I replaced/cleaned up the PCV system. I took it to a car wash, but the engine cleaner they have doesn't work too well. And now, I still see a lot of oil around the bottom areas of the engine and underneath: frame cross member, oil pan, exhaust pipes channel member, multiple places and surfaces beneath the car. I don't really see anything on the right control arm. So, again, my imagination is working overtime to avoid seeing any evidence of a main/cam seal leak. I suppose I won't be sure until I get under there and clean up everything I see.

Good post. I appreciate the advice about running away if oil is spotted on the control arm. Too late for me! I've already dumped over $1200 into this car: new struts, seats and mounts (did the work with my son), upstream O2 sensor (might need another one, I haven't mounted it yet), purge valve, breather box, coolant reservoir, hours and hours of labor and research, and some labor money for the local mechanic. (After I replaced the fuel rail, I didn't re-seal the injectors--oops! I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start. That's one expensive lesson I'll never forget.)