850 Turbo Valve Cover gasket

850Squared · Post by **850Squared** » 05 Jul 2006, 10:30

My first post! I have two 1996 850 Turbos - one sedan one wagon. My wagon is leaking oil from the valve cover. I went out and bought the liquid gasket from FCP, but I am wondering if anyone can give me some insight as to the complexity of removing the valve cover. I have a friend who works at a shop and he said the book said 6 hours to do the job.....does that sound right?!?! Any help would be greatly appreciated. I love this site, as it just helped me replace the fuel pump in my sedan.

Post by **pfeener** » 05 Jul 2006, 11:31

The reason the book gives 6 hours to do the job is because it's not really a valve cover. It's the top of the head that holds the cams in place. To remove the "cover", you need to remove the timing belt and then remove the top bolts on the cover in phased order so as not to warp the cover or break the cams. To reinstall you either need Volvo's tool for pressing the cover and cams down together or you need to fabricate your own tool. There's lots of ways to screw this up big time. Not a job for a novice DIYer.

On a more practical note; why do you think this cover is leaking? If it's because you have oil on the top of the engine, under the spark plug cover, it's most likely not due to the cover you're referring to. It's most likely caused by the oil filler gasket or the breather tube/PCV system.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 05 Jul 2006, 19:54

I agree 100%. Check your filler cap gasket. They're cheap to replace. But if your car has a ton of miles on it you might be better off replacing the entire cap as they tend to wear and not tighten down so well. The pcv hose from the oil trap is also a culprit. This happens when the clamp isn't tight enough and/or your pcv system is clogged and needs attention. Most likely NOT your valve cover gasket.

TuHandy · Post by **TuHandy** » 06 Jul 2006, 12:28

First thing I would do is clean engine very well, Get some DYE and add to engine oil. Run car for a while, possibly drive around, (the amount of time the engine needs to run depends on how bad the leak is) Then get the appropriate black light and check to see exactly where it is coming from.

Also, check the cam seals, if one is leaking it could look like a cover leaking.

utvol1984 · Post by **utvol1984** » 17 Jul 2006, 12:05

I too had oil all over the top/front of my "valve cover" and thought I would have to replace the "valve cover gasket." Then I learned how hard it was to get the "cover" off and realized it was probably just the seal on my oil filler cap. I replaced the seal, cleaned the top end of the engine with "Gunk" and have had nary a drop of oil since. It also made the car smell better since I no longer had oil running down onto the exhaust manifold, burning and producing the delicious aroma of burning motor oil.