2004 V70R - Bent Valves

conorb · Post by **conorb** » 16 Jul 2017, 16:16

Hi,

I have a 2004 V70R with about 145k miles. I did the timing belt shortly after I purchased the car 4 years ago at about 81k miles. On our way home from visiting family over the 4th of July Holiday the car started running erratically and then refused to start at a rest area off the highway. I had the car towed to a local repair place and we diagnosed that the timing belt had slipped due to a locked-up idler pulley and I authorized replacing the timing belt, the water pump, the idler pulley and the cam o-rings, etc., hoping to get back on the road.

The repair place called me and said that the car is back together and refuses to start which to me and everyone else means bent valves in the head. I can't afford to get all the work done at once and was thinking about getting the car towed back to me - it's about 70 miles away - and taking the head off myself and sending it to a local machine shop for repair.

I have a few concerns mostly regarding the pistons and if there's any damage to those but I probably won't know much until I get it apart.

Questions:

1) Where can I find a service manual for the car? There seems to be a few on-line pdf files or things on ebay - are those legit? Is there a preferred source?

2) In terms of buying additional parts - like head gaskets, and other items what's a good/reputable source? I actually live in the Portland, Or area and was thinking that iPd could help me out.

3) I've done this type of work before but not on a car this complicated/new. Are there any "gotchas" I should be aware of; especially in the turbo area? Or can I just remove the head, send it to the machine shop and put it back together - all things being equal?

4) Does anyone have any experiences to share with this type of thing?

And lastly - is this worth doing or am I just dumping more money into the car? I'm thinking the transmission is going to have to be overhauled soon and I just don't want to go down a rabbit hole just yet.

Thanks,

conorb

Post by **precopster** » 16 Jul 2017, 16:54

The certainty of bent valves when a timing belt comes off is about 99.9%.

The belt may have been replaced but were the tensioner and idler pulley done at the same time? If so is there some recourse with the fitment place?
It may pay to try.

The heads are pretty easy to remove on these. You can hang the turbo at the rear while just removing the 4 nuts which attach the exhaust manifold to the turbine housing.

The hardest part is re-attaching the 2 x 10mm bolts at the rear of the head while retaining the small paper gasket. Some people attach the gasket to the head with sealant first.

Air cleaner to turbo housing hose also has many attachments including the PTC nipple.

I would invest in a set of cam locks for such a high performance machine so I can setup the CVVTs in their centre position and aid in fitting the belt.

Put aside about 30 hours for this.

Post by **oragex** » 16 Jul 2017, 17:48

I assume the timing belt kit installed 4 years ago wasn't original Volvo parts? Aftermarket timing belt kits are for most part terrible on this car, including the water pump.

As for the valves, as above, the valves will touch the piston every time the belt fails on this engine. It's terrible the garage didn't let you know this before proceeding with the job.

The engine may also not fire up because improper camshaft pulley alignment. But you are 99% sure the valves are bent anyway.

At this point, unless you are very skilled, replacing the head is a huge and especially risky job on this specific engine, nothing to do with your regular head job on other cars. You don't know the damage to the pistons or cylinder walls, plus the job itself has tricky steps that can leave you with a engine with codes/misfire/etc. Less expensive is replacing the whole engine. And hopefully not by the garage who didn't know the valves are bent.

Post by **jonesg** » 16 Jul 2017, 18:48

conorb wrote: ↑16 Jul 2017, 16:16

Questions:

1) Where can I find a service manual for the car? There seems to be a few on-line pdf files or things on ebay - are those legit? Is there a preferred source?

2) In terms of buying additional parts - like head gaskets, and other items what's a good/reputable source? I actually live in the Portland, Or area and was thinking that iPd could help me out.

3) I've done this type of work before but not on a car this complicated/new. Are there any "gotchas" I should be aware of; especially in the turbo area? Or can I just remove the head, send it to the machine shop and put it back together - all things being equal?

4) Does anyone have any experiences to share with this type of thing?

And lastly - is this worth doing or am I just dumping more money into the car? I'm thinking the transmission is going to have to be overhauled soon and I just don't want to go down a rabbit hole just yet.

I just visited a guy last week who had a gates water pump fail, rusty, ruined his cyl head. Sad, the car was gorgeous.
Genuine volvo parts is best especially anything to do with the timing belt .

1. IPD has the Haynes service manual. Its ok.
2. Yeh I would go with IPD for parts.
3. You can do it. Biggest gotcha can be cheap parts, they already gotcha once.

Its definitely worth doing. Especially for the Turbo R versions.

Some volvo specialty tools can be found on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Crankshaft-Camsh ... FZX96N9EAT

Watch some youtube videos, make a workflow chart for order of disassembly if necessary.

Post by **jonesg** » 16 Jul 2017, 18:52

google 'volvo cam locking tool' for amazon, read the reviews, they're chinese but work ok.
Robert DIY videos will give you a decent idea of what to expect, some things are different from the models he demonstrates but you'll get the jist.

conorb · Post by **conorb** » 16 Jul 2017, 19:37

Thanks for the replies.

I'll definitely take a look at those crankshaft tools.

The replacement timing belt (if I remember correctly) was a Continental which I don't know if it's up to OEM quality or not. I'll call my previous mechanic and ask him if we did the idler pulley and water pump then. Honestly, I don't remember.

I'm not planning on doing the actual head work myself, that's beyond my capabilities, but I would take the head out to serviced only if the bottom end of the motor looks okay.

I've done some basic searching looking for a replacement motor but haven't found anything other than one on from an auction site and I'm hesitant to look at that until I can at least triage the motor more over the next few weeks.

Thanks for the tips!

Much appreciated.

conorb

Post by **erikv11** » 17 Jul 2017, 08:45

On these engines, the bottom is almost never messed up with timing belt failures. Just the valves. Visual inspection of the cylinder tops will do. Your best source of valves is another, intact head from the same engine. By themselves the valves are super expensive.

Swapping in another engine is a much less technical job, if you can find one. It shouldn't be that hard to find one in your area, not sure what is up with that. Engine swap still takes many hours, but it is mostly just heavy work, keeping track of parts and an exercise in safety, whereas a head swap is an exercise in patience, care and informed decisions. Extra hassles all the way around since the car is AWD.

For a timing belt job on these engines, the belt itself is the least important component, the job should always include replacing all pulleys. Water pumps the Volvo pump can go 200k no problem, it is criminal to pull it out and put in an aftermarket one. Conti is the factory timing belt, no worries there.

About your other, original question: Expect the AWD to go out soon, those components are basically wear items. Angle gear and collar. If you haven't replaced the 4C struts and shocks yet, those are coming up at $300 or so per corner (especially the fronts). Similarly, control arms usually go out by now or about now (140k), those aren't too pricey if you DIY. If you take the plunge and invest in the engine job, don't be surprised if there are some more big ticket items fairly soon.

Post by **vtl** » 17 Jul 2017, 10:53

Did you (or garage) do a compression test? It will tell for sure if the valve are bent in the cylinder. Compression gauge is cheap, job is quick.

conorb · Post by **conorb** » 17 Jul 2017, 11:42

erikv11 wrote: ↑17 Jul 2017, 08:45 About your other, original question: Expect the AWD to go out soon, those components are basically wear items. Angle gear and collar. If you haven't replaced the 4C struts and shocks yet, those are coming up at $300 or so per corner (especially the fronts). Similarly, control arms usually go out by now or about now (140k), those aren't too pricey if you DIY. If you take the plunge and invest in the engine job, don't be surprised if there are some more big ticket items fairly soon.

Thanks for the info. I did the full suspension including the computer a couple of years ago so all of that should be good to go for a while yet. I've also done all the brake pads and rotors along with the front driveline components. I'll definitely have to check the control arms.

I'm always interested in things that should be done if the car is "already apart" and the transmission and suspension pieces seem like a good place to check.

conorb

Post by **mrbrian200** » 17 Jul 2017, 23:50

When you get it home, before tearing the top end apart double check that the garage got the timing set up correctly to the marks.

My thinking being it was running bad but just wouldn't restart at the rest area. If the belt had slipped enough to cause damage I would probably expect it to have stopped dead on the highway.