DIY: 1998 Volvo S70 Timing Belt, WP, Cam Seals, SB Overhaul

[klever4ever]

Great write up.

I've read around in a few places that the cam seals are supposed to be flush, not driven in like you show...I made sure mine were flush using a piece of wood w/ a hole cut in it.

I did this last summer - I don't don't believe i'm leaking... i give a thorough check soon and post

Can anyone chime in for best practice?

[cn90]

UPDATE May 2015 @168K miles

So, the SKF Seal finally leaks after some 21K miles. Recall in the original thread that during install, the Front Exhaust Seal was damaged (the lip folded on itself) and it was a Sunday, I had to get the SKF seal from local Napa store to get going.

After some 21K miles, the SKF seal leaks while the Volvo OEM seal (Front Intake) is still fine. So I ordered Corteco seal from rmeuropean dot com for $9 (I also ordered other things to get free shipping).
As it turned out, the Corteco seal ($9) is identical to Volvo OEM seal ($18) at half Volvo price!

1. Oil Leak photos. Note that once oil trickles down behind the Inner TB Cover, it goes all the way down and drips onto axle boot, control arm etc.

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2. New Corteco Seal vs Volvo OEM seal (damaged during install in Nov. 2012). You can see that they are identical, down the markings etc. (The Volvo name was scratched out on the Corteco seal).
I learned the lesson from previous job: the PVC coupler was a bit too long, cut it down to 26-27mm width and it worked perfectly for install!
Now car is bone dry!

[cn90]

...I've read around in a few places that the cam seals are supposed to be flush, not driven in like you show...

To answer this question, the Front Intake Cam Seal (the seal that was installed "driven in") is now 2.5 years, and 21K miles later, no leak.

"Driving it in" means that the cup part of the seal is touching the engine. It will be fine this way as my experience shows no leak.

[dmack87]

So for the experts, I have read a bunch of threads on timing belt / cam seal replacement and have a couple of questions. Is some sort of cam pulley lock or holder required for this job? I have seen several used including a variety of hacked together tools. I have been looking at these:

This seems popular, but lacks instructions and I don't really see how it would work. On ebay for $62

Snap 2015-08-02 at 18.45.12.png (282.78 KiB) Viewed 3065 times

http://ebay.to/1ISL6F5

I think Ben in the FCP vid uses something like this one on Amazon for $57

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http://amzn.to/1VVLzdo

Alternatively it seems some people just loosen the bolts while the belt is still on?

Also, regarding advance or retard in cam timing, if I just want to make it the same as it is now, would it make sense to say outline the bolt head positions on the pulleys with white out before removal, or as I think Lee said, just center all the bolts in the slots and call it a day?

Thanks!

[Clujeanul]

Today my cam seal start leaking and I’m glad I found this write up. I’m going to order the parts and hopefully I’m going to have it fixed

[abscate]

Cluejenal, welcome!

Your 1999 will have some differences on the exhaust cam, most notably variable valve timing, or VVT.

that means the cam and gear can move relative to each other, so the setting up of timing is more complicated than the -1998 procedure.

As luck would have it I'm in the middle of my 1999 now, so watch my thread if you have problems!!

[gdarrah]

Excellent write up! I finally did a full timing belt, water pump, cam seals, pulley/tensioner job at 159K on my '98 V70 NA in preparation for it being the teen's first car this spring.

A few quick tips - if you don't have a serp belt tool, you can use a 3/4" drive adapter, $5 or less at Harbor Freight, and an adjustable wrench.

An assistant to help hold the serp belt tensioner when installing a new belt saves a ton of time and frustration, and would probably help with the TB too.

Taking off the ECU cover and loosening or removing the bolt under the coolant tank is worth the extra time. The welded nut on mine broke so I couldn't remove, but it was loose enough to give me extra room to access the tensioner.

Mark the cam sprockets / timing belt so you can count the teeth on install. I did not, but I counted from the "M" to 5 "valley's" past the intake mark to double check. My reference was 17 teeth and it saved me on install, having the marks would have made this a lot faster.

The exhaust cam likes to move a bit when installing the belt and/or when torquing the bolts - just put it back to the marks and note the teeth above. I found that going CCW from the crank sprocket -> idler -> intake cam -> exhaust cam -> water pump/tensioner made the exhaust cam advance a bit (I did not have a another person, it would have helped) Once the belt on the intake/idler side is tight you can move the exhaust cam and check the tooth count if anything moved. Don't spin the crank sprocket though!

Neon nail polish for the win - having daughters can be a blessing when there is no white out in the house

Final note - take a lot of photos for reference, just in case you need to go back and count teeth lol

If the car survives two teen drivers the next job won't be to well past 200K!

[abscate]

It’s even easier to put the SERP belt on the -1998 if you use the pin to hold the tensioner loose

I think a 3mm hex key slips in the hole and locks the tensioner

Pull the belt to loose position, lock with pin

Install SERP belt

Yell “fire in the hole’

Pull pin.