2001 V70 2.4T Oil pooling in the wells around ignition coils, Permatex 51813 cam sealer Topic is solved

[abscate]

Mike..what about that sealer blocking those big ports partially at the head end? Are those just oil returns so that that really isn't an issue?

[prwood]

Great pics!! I see you got some cam holding tools. Do you also have the wing nut pressure tools?

No. I had just purchased the cam holding tool when I replaced the cam seals. At the time I didn't realize I'd soon need to crack open the head.

The residue from the old chemical gasket are the dark orange lines you see; the anaerobic sealer dries to a very thin film.

Question about that - when you refer to the dark orange lines, do you mean the ones like the one I've circled in red here, or the ones like what I circled in yellow?

Cylinder 1 closeup with some areas circled for clarity.

The reason I ask is that the ones circled in red seem to line up with the oil channels cut into the cam cover, which I'm assuming wouldn't (or shouldn't) have had gasket residue on them... I had figured those were stains or scorching from oil as a result of that surface being the bottom of the oil channels.

Other than the obvious crud and carbon (quite a lot of it there indicating multiple missed oil changes and/or use of mineral engine oil throughout its life) which must be cleaned off with a chemical stripper and use of scrapers nothing is really out of the ordinary there. Most people prefer to use a plastic scraper to avoid damaging the surfaces. I'm not so patient and will use a steel blade very carefully on a very obtuse angle.

Is it safe to use degreaser on the cylinder head? I was considering using that to get out the crud from the recesses in the cam cover. On the other hand, is it strictly necessary to clean off surfaces that aren't part of the gasket mating surface?

If you use a chemical gasket stripper you can use water pressure to clean off the upper half of the valve cover. Of course you'll need to dry it off quickly to avoid corrosion. Compressed air comes in handy here or a hair dryer.
With the lower half you'll need to be more careful of course. Whatever you knock down into the oil ports will mix with your clean oil so I would flush a couple of litres of cheap oil into the oil filler then drain that out. Some pipe cleaners would help knock that carbon down the oil ports. Don't worry about that crud blocking the oil filter as these oil ports lead straight down into the crankcase below the pistons.

Do you know if a "Goof-off" type of household gunk remover can be used for removing gasket material, or does it have to be a specially-made gasket remover?

https://www.amazon.com/Goof-Off-FG653-P ... B002MPPYYS

vs

https://www.amazon.com/CRC-05021-Techni ... B000M8IE6W


Another thing I'm not clear on, with the bottom half of the cylinder head, is whether the oil pooled around the tappets is supposed to be there, or is it supposed to have drained? If it's supposed to drain, where does it drain from? I did read somewhere that the tappets are normally immersed in oil and operate using oil pressure, so maybe it's normal?

[precopster]

The residue from the old chemical gasket are the dark orange lines you see; the anaerobic sealer dries to a very thin film.

Question about that - when you refer to the dark orange lines, do you mean the ones like the one I've circled in red here, or the ones like what I circled in yellow?

The reason I ask is that the ones circled in red seem to line up with the oil channels cut into the cam cover, which I'm assuming wouldn't (or shouldn't) have had gasket residue on them... I had figured those were stains or scorching from oil as a result of that surface being the bottom of the oil channels.

Other than the obvious crud and carbon (quite a lot of it there indicating multiple missed oil changes and/or use of mineral engine oil throughout its life) which must be cleaned off with a chemical stripper and use of scrapers nothing is really out of the ordinary there. Most people prefer to use a plastic scraper to avoid damaging the surfaces. I'm not so patient and will use a steel blade very carefully on a very obtuse angle.

Is it safe to use degreaser on the cylinder head? I was considering using that to get out the crud from the recesses in the cam cover. On the other hand, is it strictly necessary to clean off surfaces that aren't part of the gasket mating surface?

If you use a chemical gasket stripper you can use water pressure to clean off the upper half of the valve cover. Of course you'll need to dry it off quickly to avoid corrosion. Compressed air comes in handy here or a hair dryer.
With the lower half you'll need to be more careful of course. Whatever you knock down into the oil ports will mix with your clean oil so I would flush a couple of litres of cheap oil into the oil filler then drain that out. Some pipe cleaners would help knock that carbon down the oil ports. Don't worry about that crud blocking the oil filter as these oil ports lead straight down into the crankcase below the pistons.

Do you know if a "Goof-off" type of household gunk remover can be used for removing gasket material, or does it have to be a specially-made gasket remover?

https://www.amazon.com/Goof-Off-FG653-P ... B002MPPYYS
vs
https://www.amazon.com/CRC-05021-Techni ... B000M8IE6W

The circled in red areas are the oil channels. They turn this color when oil passes over the sealer. There was a little too much sealer applied there as some are blocked with it. Yellow areas are just crud. Clean it all!! Trust me the red areas will be a lot more work.

Degreaser, gasket stripper, petrol, anything you have in your arsenal that cleans will work. Don't know anything about "Goof-Off" You could try it on an external part of the cover as a test spot. The technician gasket remover is more up your alley. I've used the CRC stuff and it's pretty much the same as paint stripper in a can; it's pretty caustic and smelly.

The tappets on these cars are clearance solid tappets (no oil feeds to them) There should be a couple of drain holes down there; just pour some oil in there and use a torch to check it drains. You can only be so fussy with that area near the tappets of course as you can't get to it properly.

Abscate all that crud has to go. It can contaminate the new sealer. You should be able to eat from it once it's done.

[prwood]

So is basically any chemical ok to use for cleaning the cylinder head / cam cover? Or are there things one should avoid? I'm usually ok with trial and error, except in this case I feel errors could be expensive.

[prwood]

Also, ignorant question, but was I supposed to drain the engine oil before I started this? None of the instructions have mentioned it. Some actually mentioned draining the engine coolant, but I figured that was because they also included completely removing the head, which I’m not doing.

[precopster]

After you knock down and drain down all those carbon deposits you'll want to change the oil. Just don't start the engine until the oil is replaced as those carbon deposits shouldn't go anywhere near the oil pump pickup pipe which has a mesh screen.

I can't tell you what isn't safe around aluminum as I'm not a metallurgist.

Needless to say stick to gasket removers which are tested on this metal. Anything else you want to try is at your own risk but I don't see why you can't test patch that Goof-Off product on a scrap piece of aluminum or on the top of the cam cover.

[prwood]

After you knock down and drain down all those carbon deposits you'll want to change the oil. Just don't start the engine until the oil is replaced as those carbon deposits shouldn't go anywhere near the oil pump pickup pipe which has a mesh screen.

I can't tell you what isn't safe around aluminum as I'm not a metallurgist.

Needless to say stick to gasket removers which are tested on this metal. Anything else you want to try is at your own risk but I don't see why you can't test patch that Goof-Off product on a scrap piece of aluminum or on the top of the cam cover.

precopster, thanks for all your help with this! Last night I did some experimentation on the top of the cam cover, which I figured was pretty safe since, other than where the VVT solenoid attaches, there aren't many machined aluminum surfaces to worry about. Brake cleaner, carb cleaner, and degreaser didn't seem to do any damage. All seemed to clean off light grime pretty well, but the degreaser had the added advantage of not immediately starting to evaporate, which allowed it more time to soak into tougher grime.

[prwood]

The weather was great last night, so I seized the opportunity to spend some time examining, experimenting on, and cleaning the cylinder head parts. Here are my notes, observations and questions. P.S. Feel free to correct any of my terminology... this is a learning experience for me.

1. I poured oil into the camshaft wells to see how/if it drained. I found that it drained differently on the intake and exhaust sides. On the intake side, oil drained through notches cut into the big oil drain holes just above the tappets, and also over the edges of the well where the camshaft would normally site. Put enough oil in and it runs out of either end of the head where the oil seals would normally be. On the exhaust side, oil drained through tiny holes just above the tappets (more or less in the same place as the notches were on the intake side), as well as over the edges of the camshaft well.

2. All that being said, on the exhaust side, the oil was definitely not draining through the drain holes. I used a small nylon pipe cleaner to give them a good scrubbing and then poured oil in again. This time it definitely drained down to a lower level. It didn't completely drain out, but definitely lower than it had been before I cleaned the drain holes.

3. Given the above, it seems that under normal operation, oil would drain more quickly from the intake camshaft than it would from the exhaust camshaft. I'm assuming there's some engine design reason for that?

4. After spraying with chemicals, I used a plastic scraper held perpendicular to the surface to scrape gunk off of the cylinder head. I found that holding it this way scraped more effectively than holding it at a lower angle. I'm thinking bread bag clips might work well too, because they're even thinner which would be an advantage.

5. I am not nearly finished with cleaning, but I think I have a pretty good start. I feel like I have a good method now and just need to keep working at it. However I'm always open to suggestions for improvement.

6. I have a set of nylon bristle pipe/tube brushes of various lengths and diameters mounted on hex shanks for use with power drill/drivers. Was thinking about using these to get the cam cover screws and screw holes really clean, as well as clean down any drain holes on the cylinder head. Any thoughts on this?

7. Am I correct in thinking that before I apply the liquid gasket and replace the camshafts and cam cover, I need to remove not only all surface grime, gasket material, etc, but also all other stains? I ask because with some of them it doesn't even seem like there is anything on the surface that I can remove, either by chemicals or scraping. In the photos below there are some places where it's obvious that I didn't finish the scraping process, like on the right side of the cylinder head... and those aren't what I'm referring to. I'm more talking about the blemish-like stains here and there along the outside edge of the cylinder head. They feel completely smooth. Is literally everything that doesn't look like shiny brushed aluminum a surface stain that can be removed?

Here are some photos of my progress.

Thanks to everyone for your help, advice, feedback and comments! It is all appreciated!

BEFORE: Top side of cylinder head with camshafts in place, before cleaning.

AFTER: Top side of cylinder head without camshafts, after the first round of cleaning.

BEFORE: Underside of cam cover before first round of cleaning.

AFTER: Underside of cam cover after first round of cleaning.

[precopster]

Great job on the cleanup; just a little cleaner and you'll be there.

As a solution to your dirt drainage problem you can remove all 20 of the bucket tappets and you'll have oil drain holes down there to help release any grit. This will also prevent any dirt from lodging between the side of the tappet and the cylinder head. The oil/petrol/solvent will all drain down to the sump. A lot of people say it's crucial to number all 20 of them so they retain their wear characteristics.

[prwood]

Did a bit more scraping today. I tried a razor blade with a very light touch and it was very effective at removing the very thin deposits. I couldn’t get them off any other way.

I was reading through the cylinder head procedure on AlldataDIY, which I think is taken from Volvo’s manuals, and they instruct you to use gasket removal solution and a razor blade to clean the surface. So, if precopster does it, and Volvo specifies it, then I think I’ll proceed this way... very, very carefully.