Volvo V70 XC wont start, no compression cylinder 1,3,5.

greyfoxisa · Post by **greyfoxisa** » 17 Feb 2012, 19:38

Ok there is quite a story for this car. First off its not mine, but a friends.

It over heated about 3 weeks ago. Turned out the water pump bearings gave out and dumped all the coolant out. I replaced the coolant pump but sadly it ended up needing a head gasket job as well. It was running but very loud as one of the rocker arms was smacking one of the pistons. I found out that someone had bypassed the coolant level sensor to tell you that you always had coolant which was why my friend didn't realize the problem till it over heated.

I completed the rebuild and started the car up but it was running very rough, and a very slugish response to the throttle . It ran about 2 minutes and than died. I pulled a whole bunch of codes for random misfire, sensor problem etc. I ended up finding that the insulation on the wires going to the coil packs had cracked and started to fall off causing the random misfires etc. Since you have to buy the wiring harness for the whole engine i decided to just make a new section where the wire insulation on the valve cover had come off. I replaced the wiring. Now the misfire codes are gone as well as the sensor. The only code remaining was there before i started working on the vehicle p1113 which to my understanding should NOT affect it starting. I already checked and each spark plug is sparking good and in the correct order. When i took the spark plugs out it seemed as though they had allot of fuel on them. Now i have checked and double checked the timing (i still could have it wrong though) and believe i have it right. It seems like it only fires a cylinder now and than when i turn it over. I have noticed a strong gasoline smell when i do try to start her up. Any thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated, im about ready to start hitting my head against the wall.

Post by **rspi** » 17 Feb 2012, 21:49

Hi Grey, welcome to the forum. Did you send the head to a shop to be check out? Do you think compression is good? Sometimes the bottom end of these motors get damaged in an overheat situation.

greyfoxisa · Post by **greyfoxisa** » 17 Feb 2012, 21:56

I am going to run a compression test tomorrow. I checked the top end and the bottom when i had it off. Thankfully she barely overheated it as she was driving a very short distance. I don't think that would be the issue because if it was, it shouldn't have started up before i redid the wiring for the coil packs. And i might add that she did run for a little bit there before she died with the random misfires and all. I am thinking it "may" be a case of gas washing down the oil around the pistons causing low compression and no start so i am going to try putting a small amount of oil in each cylinder https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=27152 and hopefully that will work. Any other thoughts than the link that i posted that would cause it to not start? Any suggestions for tests?

Post by **rspi** » 17 Feb 2012, 22:01

Not at this time. Let those cylinders dry out and see what happens after you do a compression test.

greyfoxisa · Post by **greyfoxisa** » 18 Feb 2012, 13:19

Alright i tried the oil in the spark plugs to no avail. She wanted to start but wouldn't so i went and rented a compression test. Cylinders 1,3,5 had NO compression. Cylinder 2 and 4 had i think it was 60 psi. Could this be a timing issue? Or could when it was having the random misfires and backfires it caused the valves to either get damaged or not seat right on cylinders 1,3,5.

greyfoxisa · Post by **greyfoxisa** » 18 Feb 2012, 14:15

Update i ran the compression test again. Its 60 psi on cylinder 2 and 45 psi on cylinder 4. No compression on the other 3 cylinders

Post by **fazool** » 18 Feb 2012, 14:59

not many things come to mind that can cause some cylinders to ALL have no compression. I suspect a valve/camshaft problem. Especially if its every other cylinder, its not likely a bad gasket or warpage. I think your camshaft is off timing or the timing belt is bad or some such thing.

Thats just a guess...

Post by **regent** » 18 Feb 2012, 15:06

Can you doublecheck the timing; if it is correct AND you have no flooding, then a blown gasket is the culprit.
You could not have bent the valves unless you cranked it with timing off (or if it jumped time).
Overheating very often results in head warpage, and sometimes causes cracks in the head => next to no compression. Not very encouraging...

greyfoxisa · Post by **greyfoxisa** » 18 Feb 2012, 15:21

regent- I just replaced the head gasket, it could have blown from the the misfiring possibly? Remember it did run for about 2 minutes AFTER the head gasket was replaced so i know the head is not warped or cracked or it wouldn't have run in the first place. I am wondering if when it misfired it caused the timing to get off and messed the exhaust valve.

Post by **regent** » 18 Feb 2012, 15:32

Like I said, did you confirm your timing was off?