1997 850 GLT Engine swap wth B5254T 2.4L LPT from 1998 V70

[Volvo4Life777]

Update!

Finally got her working ok not quite perfect yet

My ex-Mechanic knows nothing about Volvo's although he claimed to.
Maybe he was a Volvo Truck mechanic and the skills don't transfer well.

It took him over a month to get the car to start, and there were several issues. I wish i would have just Did it myself and used the money I paid him to buy the tools I didn't have.

When I picked up the car there was no oil in it, But I just wanted to get her off of his property so i just paid him and hoped to get home ok.

Of course I stopped at the gas station to buy some oil to put in.

Immediately i noticed that the pvc line going in the the passenger side of the intake manifold was not present and creating a major vacuum leak.

long story shorter I got her home safety and i clearly had a major oil leak because i dropped about 2 quarts during the 30 min drive.

for the next few weeks I drove it best i could filling it with oil almost every day (like i could afford it)

Also I noticed that the serpentine belt was squealing and stripping.

**Not related to my ex-mechanics work my fuel pump went out at the gas station was running low on fuel and pulled up and turned off engine and then put gas in and no start. after replacing the fuel pump i jumped the fuel relay to prime the fuel lines with the fuel rail disconnected and in a bucket to catch the excess fuel. Then I had lawnmower syndrome so i put a little oil in the pistons and she started nicely.**

Finally after about a month of babying the belt and oil leak my belt broke off on the highway but luckily I was able to make it home off of the battery and with no power steering.

after considering a new car payment of $400 a month and a $100 increase in my car insurance. I went in to inspect the cause of the leak and belt.

The belt was caused by the alternator being installed incorrectly The long bolt the goes in <-- from the drivers side to the passenger side on the bottom back end of the alternator and then into the idler pulley bracket was reversed.

I had to cut the bolt off because there was no room to pull it out with the engine in the car. it was surely put in with the engine out. Got some new bolts from the junk yard and put the alternator in correctly, The belt had wrapped around the inside of the alternator pulley so it took me a while to luckily slip it off while i was trying to figure out how to remove the pulley.

While i had the intake manifold off I noticed that my brand new pvc system had been ghetto engineered. Clearly my lazy ex-mechanic did not use the haynes manual or VIDA print outs that I supplied for every step. I re-worked the routing for the pcv and de-ghettofied the engineering and clearly that was a major source for my oil leak.

The car started great and the belt i put on was running smoothly but the was still a smaller leak coming from the area near the oil pan drain bold. It was the turbo return line seal!

took me about 30min to replace the seal, easiest leak possible besides the dipstick seal.

Thanks for listening to my rant about my lazy ex-mechanic. good cheap mechanics are impossible to find its easier to become one yourself. Shame on me for trying to save $ on craigslist.

Good mechanics charge what they are worth and you will get what you pay for!

[erikv11]

It's so hard to find a decent mechanic. The V70 I currently have, I got for very, very cheap because a mechanic almost brought the engine down, the problem was a clogged PCV and the mechanic did several stupid things but never got near the PCV. It was bleeding oil everywhere (except the RMS, thankfully!) and the previous owner was just fed up.

Great job diagnosing and getting it going.

[osman]

No, you are not crazy for spending that money, your whole saga illustrated your intimate knowledge of these cars and your desire and willingness to invest in teaching yourself how to maintain your vehicle. You learned a valuable lesson. Yes you should have just invested in the tools and stuck it out, but sometimes the time and opportunity is not always right. It sounded like it took a long time anyway. The harbor freight engine hoist goes on sale for $150 and the floor jacks and stands are cheap too. The fact that that mechanic used the subframe drop method while the car was propped up with what looks like a Jenga-stack of 4X4's, shows that guy is flying by the seat of his pants with this one. Im guessing the guy had neither hoist nor jack stands nor a truck to put them in. However, it got done and now you have even more extensive knowledge of your car. Not all craigslist or mobile mechanics are bad guys, many guys just take peoples money and run with their cars disassembled, but there are some skilled, knowledgeable people like myself out there as well. The problem with craigslist is people dont vet the people they contact. Just because the first person you called said yes means you got the best guy. Be thorough. We put our families in these cars, for sakes.

[osman]

Where is the LPT?

[Volvo4Life777]

That Low Pressure Turbo from my original engine got rebuild and put back in. I didn't mention it because i haven't had any real problems except the one line that took me ages to properly secure from around the air intake area to the bottom of the newly rebuilt 13G Turbo. When I really think about it My ex-mechanic could have just took my money and ran. at least he was determined to get the car running despite not being an expert with this model volvo or a particularly detailed oriented mechanic.

lol after all of that ranting I drove to the post office to get my mail and now I have to go get my car from the side of the road because the tire that my ex-mechanic put on either came off or has a hole in it.

After I get this new tire the next thing i will need to do is replace the 12 year old battery then it should be smooth sailing for a while at least.

Thanks for the encouragement and knowledge! I'll continue to update!

[kcodyjr]

Who voted this model sucks?

The 97 850 GLT might just be the zippiest drive Volvo ever built. First year with the torquey LPT, last year before they messed up the aesthetics, delta link rear end, and a tighter turning radius than the later P80's. They also have real controls instead of all that menu driven crap.

What's not to like?

[Volvo4Life777]

Yea Kcodyir, I love it LPT4life!

Do you have a boost gauge and Does your boost gauge still work?

Another project that i have put on hold is fixing my boost gauge which is permanently stuck a little past neutral.

I've read somewhere that this model does not have a boost gauge, i'm thinking either i read wrong or my instrument cluster was replaced before i purchased and they never connected the vacuum line.

I've read on here that there is a vacuum line that may need to be reconnected or replaced. and that it runs from the dash cluster under the battery some how then connects to the vacuum tree on the intake manifold. I did see a line under the battery but it connected to something else not the vacuum tree. Any insight would be great considering we have the same car!

Also, I need to replace the oil dipstick and transmission dipstick if you could measure the length of both and tell me where u measured from I'd be thankful!

Thanks in advance

[kcodyjr]

I didn't measure my dipstick, I simply ordered a new tube and matching two-ring dipstick. I don't think there were two lengths for the transmission.

The LPT cars have never come with a factory boost gauge. I sourced a T5 instrument cluster from a certain auction site, and did the microsurgery to transplant only the bezel with gauges, keeping my own original housing and circuit board. I had to route a line myself; straight down along the firewall to the conduit going through the firewall, then over to the tree. The hard plastic stuff works best.

[Volvo4Life777]

Thanks a million for confirming the boost gauge issue i will run the hard plastic lines in the near future I am guessing that the last owner replaced the cluster with a HPT cluster like you did.

I have the dipstick tubes in place for both the oil and trannny but i went to a volvo junk yard and asked for the actual dipsticks and they wanted to know how long because apparently there are different sizes.

Any idea how long your oil and transmission dipsticks are for 1997 Volvo 850 GLT, 1998 V70 AWD, or any other cars with the B5254T engines.

[kcodyjr]

Depends whether the tube has been updated. The newer one has a longer flared section at the top to accommodate a dipstick with two o-rings rather than one.

If you just put in a new tube, get the stick with two o-rings.