1999 V70XC time to rebuild turbo... I think

Post by **Jack Rock** » 07 Jul 2014, 06:14

New to me XC only a few months ago, showed no signs of smoke when I bought it but now I get a quite a large cloud of blue smoke on start up. Naturally I read up what to look for here first and so I replaced the PCV based on numerous posts - no luck but oh well, probably needed changed anyway. Next thing is the turbo I suppose, I took off the intake pipe and felt for play and I would say there is quite a bit, especially in and out, probably 2mm. There's a good amount side to side as well.

My questions are; is it safe to assume that the turbo is shot and if so should I order a rebuild kit and assume that the impeller shaft is ok or do these get worn as well?

Post by **cn90** » 07 Jul 2014, 06:25

Usually the valve seals leak before the Turbo goes.

Post by **mecheng** » 07 Jul 2014, 06:49

Post the compression test numbers. How many km on it? I've heard Valvoline Max Life or Blue Devil Oil Stop Leak is pretty good at helping give some life back to old valve seals or at least buy you some time. I've used the Blue Devil product on a Honda I owned at it worked well.

Post by **Jack Rock** » 07 Jul 2014, 07:23

Car has 184,000km on it, so not much. I'll get a compression test but isn't that amount of play in the turbo excessive?

Post by **abscate** » 07 Jul 2014, 07:24

I think it is supposed to be barely detectable..something like a few thou (or 0.1mm)

2mm, I would say it needs rebuilding, badly. There is a pretty nice tutorial on this site somewhere, Ill try to find and link.

Post by **cn90** » 07 Jul 2014, 07:50

The thread below has some info on shaft play:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=29964

Post by **Jack Rock** » 08 Jul 2014, 07:45

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I will start with rebuilding the turbo, it's fairly cheap anyway. I will update this thread as I work through this.

Post by **cn90** » 08 Jul 2014, 08:25

Is there a Turbo Rebuild write-up somewhere that people can use?

Post by **matthew1** » 08 Jul 2014, 09:14

Turbo rebuild on page three of this topic. I don't know if it's the best we have, I've never taken this plunge and used any.

Post by **j-dawg** » 08 Jul 2014, 09:21

chances are you didn't notice the oil smoke a few months ago because it was colder. leaky stem seals become significantly smokier in the hot summer weather.

leaks at the turbo manifest themselves as blue smoke on hard acceleration as the heat burns off oil that is continuously being fed into the turbocharger. leaks at the valve stem seal cause blue smoke at the start of acceleration after idling or coasting, which should disappear after one big puff. do some hard acceleration and then some stop-and-go driving and you should be able to distinguish between the two. it may be both - if the head has never been off, the valve stem seals are almost certainly shot by now, and if there's that much shaft play in the turbo you're due for a turbo rebuild.

compression will not be affected by leaky valve stem seals. these occur entirely outside of the combustion chamber and do not affect sealing at the valve seat.