Leaky oil time

Arfsnarfy · Post by **Arfsnarfy** » 16 Feb 2005, 16:09

My 95 850 turbo wagon is messing up my concrete. I have a an oil leak that's driving me nuts.

Started when I noticed the ole back window getting an oil film on it on highway runs, then noticed the driveway spots. My mechanic who is also a good friend, I think, says the "o" ring on the turbo return line must be the issue. We fix, still oil coming from somewhere. He tears into the turbo area, says he could see it was leaking from the shaft and then dripping down into the turbo housing and out. I had my doubts but got a turbo from e-bay reasonably and we changed it. Guess what? We still got a leak. I finally get some time to dig into it myself and find the intercooler and associated ducts are heavily coated with oil and even found some oil leaking from the intercooler up front. That pretty much eliminated the rear main seal, which is what I was thinking about the most. I took off the hose to the turbo and found that the oil, I believe, is coming from a hose which tee's into the ducting just before the turbo. I see some electric wires in the area but I'm a bit miffed at what this is for. I trace the hose back to the valve cover and believe the oil is coming from there, and dumping through the hose, right into the turbo entrance, and then being sent right to the intercooler.

I'm almost afraid, but could I have that much blow by with only 123K on this engine? Could someone help me figure this out? I know that being a turbo, I have positive crankcase at all times, so how comes I have vent hose from the valve cover to the turbo entrance?
Should this be opened at certain times and closed at others, I saw some wires there and noticed vacuum lines in the area, actually one was cracked which I repaired, but it didn't make difference.

Help, my wife is kicking the Volvo to the gravel parking spot and wants the premium concrete spot for her... I'm ashamed...Pontiac.

blur · Post by **blur** » 17 Feb 2005, 11:46

The small hose which connects near the turbo inlet is a vaccum. It helps to pull the vapor from the large one which carries fumes from the PCV system. The electical connection keeps the area warm so the vapor doesn't condense.

I would guess the larger hose is suspect, probably something wrong with your PCV system, there's a box under the intake manifold which I'm going to look at on mine.

Arfsnarfy · Post by **Arfsnarfy** » 22 Feb 2005, 15:34

Thanks Blur!
Your idea prompted me to look under the intake manifold, low and behold it's an oil separator. I thought the hose from the head area went to the turbo, but I was wrong, the one that feeds right before the turbo inlet comes from the separator.

I still haven't figured it all out yet, but I'm going to have to take a look at the separator, unfortunately the intake has to go to get to it. I suspect that oil is coming from it and feeding towards the turbo.

blur · Post by **blur** » 22 Feb 2005, 19:25

One thing I've been doing for the past week was this.

After I park and turn off my car, I open the hood and open the oil cap for a few seconds, whatever excess pressure which was in the system is now gone, and magically no oil leaks out after that.

I've already replaced all the vac. hoses so I know those are good, I'm going to pull the intake manifold and get to that oil separator box pretty soon too. My guess is that either that or the hoses going into and out of it are clogged. I've also got a 433 error code which is the rear knock sensor, it's in the same area so I'll probably change that too.

If you get to it before me, let me know if it solves the problem!

Arfsnarfy · Post by **Arfsnarfy** » 09 May 2005, 13:17

If your still out there Blur, I finally got around to pulling the seperator. It wasn't a real bad job, the hardest part was getting the EGR tubing from the intake manifold. I had to hit it real quick with a torch to get it to free.

The seperator was clogged where in lets the oil re-enter the block. Not 100% blocked but enough to restrict the flow. I removed it and flushed it in the parts cleaner and re-installed it, seemed to help the oil problem to the turbo area. I still have a rear main leaking, but can deal with the small amount it leaks. The only parts needed were a new intake gasket, probably could've used the old one, but replaced it anyway. You'll also need to replace almost every clamp for all of the hoses, Volvo uses the one time stainless clamps. I simply used wire-ties on most of them.

Good luck

blur · Post by **blur** » 09 May 2005, 14:09

Arfsnarfy wrote:If your still out there Blur

Hey, I actually did mine a few weeks ago and I ended up with a EGR code in the end, i think it was a 241. I also didn't put back the dipstick correctly, or the gasket is broken so it's leaking more now than before.

Good info though, I ran into the same problems.