Valve Train Noise

[JRL]

Call me crazy, but I seem to remember a post a while back talking about Volvo installing solid lifters in some cars around your model year. Also if you examine the symptoms and observations you're having, it sounds just like you have a set of solid lifters and a solid lifter cam. If you had hydraulic lifters and they had all collapsed, the knocking would be so loud you wouldn't be able to stand it. Couple that with the varnish on the low side of all the cams which is consistent with a solid lifter cam ad I think there's a good chance you have a solid lifter setup. If I were you, I would explore this possibility before I did any work to try and "correct" the problem.

No way
Nice try

[bobsnow100]

I've had the lifters out before on a 1994 850. You have to submerge them in oil and pump them up to prime them with oil.There is a tiny hole in them and you actually see the air bubbles come out. I had a couple that were stuck and didn't move so I replaced them. If you do remove the valve cover get a Haynes book. It is tricky and under pressure from the valve springs and can possibly damage the cam, There is also a special gasket cement volvo uses to coat the whole cover when re assembling. You need a special tool to insert into 2 spark plug holes to pull the cover back down

[hcritz]

Hello pfeener...
That's exactly what it sounds like...not sure why they would go that route, but who knows. The car does seem quicker than the 95, of course, the 2000 has the electronic throttle too.
I wonder if one of the Volvo service manuals would have any info on that???
Maybe a call to the dealer??? My experiecne with them is usually I know more than they do!!!
Hey Bog
That sounds pretty standard for that type of lifter...
I've read through the service procedure on removing the valve cover and it is a bit more of a job than most. Looks pretty easy to make up a special tool that uses the spark plug holes to help hold the cams in place...
pfeener may have hit on something here...maybe they installed solid lifters in this year model???

[hcritz]

Hey Guys...
after some searching and phone calls....Here's the scoop!
This from a post on the web.

I did not know that Volvo had gone to solid lifters in 1999. When I got my new V70 three months ago, I thought that it was more noisy than the 850 engine. It sounded like valve lifter noise. A trip to the local Volvo dealer, where I bought the car and where I have been dealing with some of the personnel for more than 20 years, brought the response: "Oh no Bob you are mistaken! Your car has hydraulic lifters! What you are hearing is injector noise!" Finally I stumbled on an internal Volvo document for sales people only, on the S60, and it mentioned solid lifters, almost out of context, with no discussion at all. Needless to say the sales people do not know a solid lifter from a football. By this time I had purchased the 2001 Parts Fiches for the V70/S60 2001, the only literature I am able to buy for this car. There they were, 24 solid tappets, (not shims! tappets) of a whole range of thicknesses. The Volvo dealer still did not believe me. I guess that then they started some serious checking because they believe me now, but they think that I am flogging a dead cow.

Here is why I am concerned about this. The modern Volvo engines are designed quite differently from previous engines. No more simple cover removal to get to camshafts and/or rockers for valve clearance checking and/or adjustment. Since the hydraulic tappets do not need checking or adjustment there is no simple access to them so that if you replace them with solid tappets you have major work to check same. The top cover on these engines is the upper half of the cylinder head and is also the upper half of the camshaft carrier. Take this cover, or top half, off and the camshafts lie loosely in the lower half of their bearings. If you are familiar with Volvo tools; all 999 prefix: 5450, 5451, 5452, 5254, 5453, and 5454 and their use as described in Volvo manuals TP 31804/1 and TP 2101201 you will understand what I am talking about here. I have made a couple of sets of these tools, by the way. I have not had to use them yet on my cars. But we are not finished yet. Once we get the top off we need another tool(s), (I do not have a part number for this tool yet.) to clamp the camshafts back into the bottom half of their bearings so that they will rotate so that we can measure the clearance. You will also have to put the pulleys and belt back on. Of course, if there is valve and seat damage you will have to take the head off as well. I can see why it took Roger's shop 12 hours to replace two exhaust valves. I would suggest that this is not a home shop job unless you really know what you are doing. I would also suggest that it is not an "Average Volvo Shop That I Have Known", job either; that is why I am so worried. The chances are that what would have been a simple valve clearance adjustment in the old days will now not be discovered until engine damage occurs. Volvo has ignored the fact that there could be any potential problems here. My service book goes past the 160k km check. No mention is ever made of checking valve clearance. Remember that these engines have been on the road for a good two years.

[Arbelac]

A quick google for "volvo solid lifters" brings up this link from the brickboard.com archives:

http://www.brickboard.com/ARCHIVES/2000 ... 3326.shtml

He says that his 2000 V70 has solid lifters, and it's in the documentation as well...

[hcritz]

Hey arbelac...
that is the same posting that I found...
Funny...dealers seem to know NOTHING about it! Guess it's not causing problems with reliablilty or they might be aware of it.
Guess I'll just live with the noise!
wouldn't be worth swapping out the cams and lifter with earlier ones to get rid of it for sure!

[hcritz]

the next question is WHY did the change over to solid lifters??? Cheaper???

[bobsnow100]

Maybe to get more opening lift out of the lifter, so the intake valve would get more fuel/air for better power because it is opening more and maybe for a longer time