850 NA engine shot, what should I do?

[Craigd2599]

did you change the plugs? They are full of garbage after the seafoam. If the smoking stopped except for after idle, you may have a valve seal gone out

[findude]

Interesting stuff; I appreciate all the input. I suppose I should replace the spark plugs and have a look at the head gasket before writing the engine off.

Just for fun, I called the Virginia DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) which is the agency with jurisdiction over emissions inspections. They passed me to a polite and knowledgeable expert--it's nice to know my taxes are paying for good people.

The technician told me that a 1996 850 with a manual transmission and a turbo engine was not a federally (EPA) accepted drive train. I mentioned that my OBD II results show six of nine monitors "not ready" and he said that if two or more monitors are "not ready" for a 1996 model year, then the car automatically fails inspection. HOWEVER, the 1996 Volvos had known OBD problems, so they are exempt from this requirement as long as the three "continuous monitors" are ready.

He also said that as long as there are no trouble codes and it passes the bulb check with an engine swap (should not be an issue with a turbo transplant as long as I transplant everything including the ECU), that it would probably pass inspection. Then he told me that he was obligated to say that he recommended I not make such a change.

Anyway, I'm thinking if I go the donor car route, I'll stick with a 1996 850 NA.

I appreciate the suggestion from CharlyW to dig into the engine and rebuild it myself if necessary. I haven't rebuilt an engine for 30 years, and I'm not sure I'm up to it for this one, so I'll have to think it over a bit.

I would also say the PCV is blocked somewhere namely that pipe coming from the base of the block going into the bottom of the seperator canister.

Where exactly is this?

[cjbmustang]

what color is the smoke? are you losing any coolant? white usually indicates a blown headgasket, usually accompanied by higher coolant temps and/or overheating, but not always. depends if it blew near a coolant jacket.

blue/black is from burning oil through the intake

you might just need to replace the valves seals or the head gasket.

the PCV is under the intake manifold (great spot). there's a write up on here to go about replacing it. hardest part was removing the upper intake.

[charlyW]

Interesting stuff; I appreciate all the input. I suppose I should replace the spark plugs and have a look at the head gasket before writing the engine off.

Just for fun, I called the Virginia DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) which is the agency with jurisdiction over emissions inspections. They passed me to a polite and knowledgeable expert--it's nice to know my taxes are paying for good people.

The technician told me that a 1996 850 with a manual transmission and a turbo engine was not a federally (EPA) accepted drive train. I mentioned that my OBD II results show six of nine monitors "not ready" and he said that if two or more monitors are "not ready" for a 1996 model year, then the car automatically fails inspection. HOWEVER, the 1996 Volvos had known OBD problems, so they are exempt from this requirement as long as the three "continuous monitors" are ready.

He also said that as long as there are no trouble codes and it passes the bulb check with an engine swap (should not be an issue with a turbo transplant as long as I transplant everything including the ECU), that it would probably pass inspection. Then he told me that he was obligated to say that he recommended I not make such a change.

Anyway, I'm thinking if I go the donor car route, I'll stick with a 1996 850 NA.

I appreciate the suggestion from CharlyW to dig into the engine and rebuild it myself if necessary. I haven't rebuilt an engine for 30 years, and I'm not sure I'm up to it for this one, so I'll have to think it over a bit.

I would also say the PCV is blocked somewhere namely that pipe coming from the base of the block going into the bottom of the seperator canister.

Where exactly is this?

Directly below the PCV Oil seperator canister there is a pipe which L's back into the block, guessing that being a US LHD car the engine is going to be round the other way so Cam belt at the passenger side if so it will be to the lower left if the engine is in the same way as the UK spec Cam belt on your passenger side then the Pipe is the lower right. It seems a lot of people replace the PCV but forget the clean this port in the block out as it has a compressed clip. At first when I replaced my entire PCV I forgot to clean this port out even though I removed the pipe for a new one.

[findude]

I'll check the pipe going from the block to the separator canister when I change the oil and spark plugs next week.

When revving the engine (using the throttle under the hood) after adding the seafoam, I noticed a vacuum hissing/sucking sound for a brief moment when revving it up high from idle. I've never noticed this from inside the car, but it was clearly audible while leaning over the engine. Is this normal, or does it indicate something else I should be looking for? I think I mentioned that I also had seafoam smoke rising from between the engine and the firewall in addition to the tail pipe. Does either of these, or the combination, suggest something about my head gasket or anything else?

Thanks.

[aviam]

I am not sure if the car smoking after being idle for a while is that bad. All three of my volvo turbo 850 did the same after idling for a while and disapated after driving for a min. I think its just xs oil in the turbo lube lines being burned off. if car drives fine just let it be and add oil as needed.

[aviam]

It can also be any of the intercooler hoses that have separated/gapped or ripped, specialy if the throtle body rubber hose came off will cause smoke.

[findude]

No intercooler. This is a normally aspirated car.

[pquiddy850]

Check the PTC. ***This can cause serious smoking-rich oily smoke***
see image

The air intake tube dose not need to be removed.
Unhook neg. Battery terminal to be safe.
To prevent wiring damage unclip the sensor clip at the master brake cylinder
The heater nipple has an electrical clip-sensor that needs to be removed before pulling the PTC and placed in a location easy to reach when reinstalling.
CarefullY remove breather tubing from top and side port of the PTC
Remove PTC and clean and reinstall.
Hook up wires before starting car- to avoid Check Engine Light


This device is awkwardly removable. To minimize damaging, the possibly oil saturated and degrading, rubber PTC body, push the end that is flat on the bottom towards the upper side that is rounded and lean and pull the flat end out. Once PTC is out hold it up to light and see if you can see through. This vital blowbye release port creates heavy backpressure on engine if clogged. As a result you are internally forcing oil all over the place and possibly out of fissures in seals throughout the engine-prolly all over your floor. NEXT CLEANING PTC

I used, with excellent results, the following method.

I set the entire PTC element in mixture of 2 cups WHITE VINEGAR, 1/2 cup LEMON JUICE, and 1oz Super Orange Degreaser. Let set for 2 hours, a good time to start cleaning up oil around the engine. Removed from mixture sprayed scalding wate with kitchen sprayer, did a little reaming with long qtips, and clean it was. I then blowdried it and reinstalled. Amazing results, easier start sounded much smoother and the smoke was gone.

THIS IS A BAND-AID temporary fix so you don't embarress yourself driving a smoking car. Your entire PCV system has that black stuff crawling its way through itself, it will build up again.


Hope this helps.

Turbo Air intake Hose to Turbo with PTC attachment.jpg (58.4 KiB) Viewed 1676 times