2003 V70 T5 Engine rebuild project

Mountainman45 · Post by **Mountainman45** » 01 Mar 2019, 00:17

I've recently decided to undertake a huge summer project and I definitely don't have the know how to complete this without some help.
My project is my father's somewhat blown up 2003 Volvo v70 t5. He originally bought it as the successor to my 98 V70 GLT as it was only 600$ and only really needed 2qts of ATF to become road worthy.
Fast forward a year and a half or so and he managed to hit a pothole big enough to crack the radiator after tearing the front bumper off! Now it puked up all the coolant, then the oil and then blew the head gasket.
Its sat for roughly 9mo and was only cranked once but only long enough to get it on the trailer that we were using to move it to our new home.

I've been told that I'll need to pull the engine and transmission (bad valve body in the tranny) and tear it down to the cylinders and rebuild and replace the seals as I go. I'm using this as a huge learning experience and I'm just curious about things I need to watch for and certain actions I can take while it's a apart for a while. Any maintenance that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise?

Post by **abscate** » 01 Mar 2019, 03:57

You can drop the trans with an engine support bar , the engine does not need to come out to address the head gasket

Take a compression test first, to assess damage.

How many miles on it? Plan on timing belt replacement and refreshing rear engine seal with trans out

Mountainman45 · Post by **Mountainman45** » 01 Mar 2019, 05:13

The engine is actually an 05 t5 engine with 80k and a new timing belt on it. The rest of the car is an 03 and it has 170k on it.

I want the engine to come out so I can do the HG, valve seals and other various gaskets while it's apart so I can have a good zero to start from as I slowly upgrade and mod it. Stage 0 is the goal

Post by **oragex** » 01 Mar 2019, 07:08

You are perhaps much better off swapping the engine/transmission. A used transmission may be risky, but doing that engine job, unless you,ve already done a few hg on other engines, it is actually trickier to set the cams, replace the top end, etc Look up on Youtube

You want to get an engine that has had the PCV done in time as well

Mountainman45 · Post by **Mountainman45** » 01 Mar 2019, 07:23

Unfortunately I would absolutely love to find a decent R engine and swap it along with an m66 trans but that's not exactly in the budget so I'm kinda stuck with it.. I'm not completely alone my father is an amazing mechanical engineer and I have friends that worked for Volvo but I'm trying to gather some extra info so I can grab some things they may have missed such as that rear main seal mentioned earlier.

Post by **jimmy57** » 01 Mar 2019, 08:45

The starting point and determining factor in this is to pull the cylinder head and inspect block. If it has gotten hot enough the block will distort and can't be repaired. Sorry but this is true for huge numbers of cars built in the last couple of decades. Hondas, Toyotas, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, GM all have aluminum block engines in their products. Some mentioned have Al blocks in all their engines in this period.
If the cylinders are below block perimeter, aluminum has separated from steel cylinder liners, or the slice cut between tops of cylinders has distorted then the successful repair of this one will not be possible. Blown head gaskets happen more often but losing coolant can be fatal quickly and how fast it lost out and how far, etc is hard to determine without inspection. If the ECT sensor melted and the timing belt and coil covers melted then the chances of salvaging it go way down.

I'm crossing my fingers that it is OK. That 2005-2009 2.4L T5 motor is the best 5 cylinder motor Volvo built. Stronger than the R motor owing to thicker more rigid cylinder walls (81 mm bore instead of 83 mm) but with the long stroke crankshaft to give it more displacement than the more common 2.3 L T5 engine.

Mountainman45 · Post by **Mountainman45** » 01 Mar 2019, 09:07

It is the 2.3L engine (B5234t3) but I'll have to interrogate my father on what happened lol.. he's a very competent mechanic and I don't think he'd set me on this project knowing it would fail. But unfortunately the story on how it happened is the only help I'll get outta him as he wants this to be my project

Mountainman45 · Post by **Mountainman45** » 01 Mar 2019, 09:08

And I took the timing belt off myself... It's nowhere near melted

Post by **abscate** » 01 Mar 2019, 11:12

Here I am on my first ski jump run, after Dad said "Go for it, son - you got this..."

Jump to 0:15

[youtube][/youtube]

Post by **SuperHerman** » 01 Mar 2019, 11:21

You need to step back MM45. You have two issues: 1) Blown HG, and 2) Transmission.

Based on the information you have provided, at this point the direction you need to take depends on the transmission, not the engine.

Why do you say the valve body is bad? This is critical - on an 03 the transmission was pretty well sorted out. Usually a few drain and fills on the transmission will clear up the problems. What is the condition and service history of the transmission oil? What is the transmission doing or not doing? Neither the engine or the transmission needs to come out to replace and/or repair the valve body.

Expand on the transmission problems by giving more details - if it is a bad transmission and not the valve body then it has to come out and be rebuilt. An engine and transmission pull makes some sense at this point. A transmission rebuild is not difficult, but not easy. Usually the problem is a clogged filter, which on this transmission, is internal. There are work arounds which allow the transmission to stay in the car. But if the transmission is coming out, at your miles it would make sense to rebuild it or at the very least open it up and replace the filter. Valve body rebuild - tranny stays in car - engine supported from above, cradle lowered/tilted forward, some lines removed, cover removed - a number of bolts and it is out. Rebuild done on your workbench.

Assuming the transmission can be repaired without pulling it out of the car, the engine has about 80k miles. The RMS should be fine and not in need of replacement. Every other seal, gasket and related can be replaced with the engine in the car. Just about every part, except the oil pump and oil pan, will be replaced when you pull the head - no need to pull the engine. I don't think pulling the engine makes any of these tasks easier. Most of the items you need to replace are on the head - not on the block. Head has to come off so all the valve stem seals can be changed, cam seals replaced, valves lapped, head planed ...

Whether you have block damage can be ascertained when you pull the heads. I don't think you do, but if you seriously cooked the block it is possible - I have heard of very few Volvo overheats resulting in block damage. Very rare. Still you will know when you pull the head.

MM45 I think you are going down a dangerous path where the costs will eat you up. Figure out the transmission issue first - this in my mind defines the direction you take not the head gasket. The only thing pulling the engine gives you is the rear main seal (which should be fine at 80k)- if the block is toast you need a new engine. A used transmission may be cheaper than rebuilding what you have. You need to do some more investigating.

What I am seeing is a transmission with 170k on it with possibly no maintenance and a blown head gasket from an over heat. An engine rebuild, which includes bearings, is not economically viable. The parts alone exceed the price of a new used engine.