1998 V70 oil leak and PCV issues

[obayha]

Sounds like the cam sensor area, which would be rear cam seal. Rear cam seal could be leaking from excessive pressure from PCV not working properly. Don't just plug the hole as another one will spring up and it could be the rear main (not a fun one).
As noted earlier, both are important, but one will shut you down, the other is spotty at worse. .
Shane

[SonicAdventure]

Ok so finally got my mechanic to do the comp test..he is a trusted local guy and client of ours, so no reason to bs

Cyl 1 140
Cyl 2 155
Cyl 3 135
Cyl 4 150
Cyl 5 160

he said it's not too bad for a Volvo p80 with 233k ... What do you think? It probably needs timing belt and pcv box done at very least...make it a parts car or fix it up? I don't have a ton of money in it, maybe $900? Want to have a Volvo but can't afford to be stupid and go broke

Peace....

[abscate]

How much are you driving? If it's a light use car you can take your chances for another 10000 miles or so.

[SonicAdventure]

Yeah it's a low use car, maybe 200-300 miles a month tops. Mainly an errand vehicle and for picking up big stuff. It's not knocking, smoking, slipping or stalling, always starts right up.

I wouldn't mind dropping $1000+\- into it over the next year to do or have the TB and PCV done, and just keep up the routine stuff. But the compression numbers may indicate it might not be worth it? I don't know what minimum spec to apply to that to determine if it's worth the investment or just run it till it dies and find another one and use this one for parts.

[j-dawg]

The exact values of compression numbers are not usually too meaningful. If your gauge is somehow way the hell off calibration, or your engine is hot/cold, or you have a turbo car with a lower compression ratio, etc etc, the mean will shift left or right accordingly.

What you'd like is for the numbers to be close across all cylinders (unless that number is zero). In your case, there's a tiny bit of a spread. I'm not experienced enough to say with confidence why that is. Maybe there's a bit of blowby past the rings on cylinder 3.

Either way, your compression numbers don't really look bad to me. Maybe the engine is a little tired, but I don't think you've got any monsters hiding under the bed.

[erikv11]

I agree that the spread is fine and likely there are no monsters here but those numbers are ridiculously low for an NA checked by a mechanic. A shop gauge just shouldn't be that far off. I would check it again myself with the engine warm and the throttle wide open.

The tool is $20-30 at Harbor freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/quick-conn ... 95187.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/compressio ... 69885.html

[sk55]

cyl 3 seems to be caution...

fyi i did mine on 99 v70 recently cold... all above 150 pretty close range.... except for the burnt valve cyl which was 0....

if seals from pcv are leaking near the engine... front near the timing belt you would have oil residue on your belt....

timing belt fix first....

you can get by with the pcv mcgyver fix with hose on the dipstick

[FLXC90]

Here's what I did with my $300 98 S70 N/A dd: P/O had just done TB and WP, thought he had head gasket leak-it's really heater core and radiator under upper neck.

Cleaned Oil trap and ports to block, repaired all vacuum hoses to PCV
Replaced both rear cam seals-intake was crusty, exhaust (cam sensor) literally fell out.
Did seafoam cleaning of intake tract x2 (evened out my compression had range of 135-180 before, 165-185 after

I used ATP-205 to reduce leakage from valve stem seals and very slight RMS weep.

That was about 15 months and 6-7000 miles. 6 miles each way to/from work.

Worst thing that car does is start every time I turn the key