The story is this car, with about 170,000 mi, has been sitting unused in front of my house for quite a while - a year?? Not driven in several months. No drips on the street underneath. It was very dead (POINT 4 volts) so I popped in a new battery, started it up, warmed it up, got it smoothed out, added some injector cleaner, and drove it around some. Took it on the freeway and ran it fairly hard for brief spurts. The new vac hoses I replaced have solved the hesitation I had earlier. Ran really well.
When I came back from my drive, a line of oil drips was coming off the pan. Oil sheeting down the front / forward side of the pan. Got under there with lights to see what was happening.
There are the previous posts by me and responses so far......
Sept 19 BlackBart
Oil change (Castrol GTX 10-30 for the winter), flushed out 3 qts of ATF (pretty dark), new wipers, couple of little things.
As I was poking around under there, I saw that quite a bit of oil is coming down the front / intake side of the block and blowing back across the pan. Not the pan gasket, it looks to be pretty high. Better light and a mirror tomorrow.
What’s up there under the intake that has oil pressure? Does the pcv box have any pressure?.. It’s just a vapor separator. Head gasket? (OH NO MR BILL...) hmm.
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by bmdubya1198
It may be one of the rear cam seals letting the oil trickle down. Those leaks tend to travel.
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by BlackBart » Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:52 pm
Like on the distributor end?
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by bmdubya1198
Yup. Pull the cap and see if there's a bunch of oil in there.
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by ZionXIX
The oil dipstick tube connects right around that area too.
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BB
I looked at that. Possibility. There's an oil drip on the bottom of the manifold - unless it's spraying from way down there...
I'll check the cam seal at the distributor. I've had a PCV elbow hose split on my P2 and it really sprayed oil all over the front side, so that's suspect as well.
There's an even sheet of oil running down the side of the pan - a long trail of drips, rather than a big spot.
What is this T and fitting with the red arrow here off the long crank gallery? I found this in a very old MVS post.
- Oil-02.jpg (97.28 KiB) Viewed 1146 times
- Volvo DOHC left copy.JPG (374.97 KiB) Viewed 1146 times
by ZionXIX
I'm pretty sure that is for the oil pressure sensor.
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BB
That makes sense - it should be the lower one about in line with the crankshaft centerline.
Just did a glove test on startup - it is not inflating the glove, but it's certainly not sucking it in.
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BB
No smoking gun yet. The distributor cap and alum housing are dry. The front (cam wheel) end of the block is dry.
Is it me, or does the P2 have a lot more room to see and maneuver under the intake than the 850T? It may be the big ram's horn / barrel intake is way deeper than the flat-ish P2. I could reach the PCV hose clamp on the block from above and to the transmission end of the block on the P2. The starter, the knock sensors, PS hoses, and a lot of wiring in the way. I lifted the car and I'm trying to see with a mirror from below.
The underside of intake runners 1-2-3 are dry. Runners 4 & 5 are wet. 4 is directly above the oil pressure sensor. The dipstick tube is just forward (towards the cam gears) of that on the block. I snugged up the oil pressure switch, but it was tight. The big side hose with the 90º on the PCV is wet, and the block, as is most everything under there. I don't see any cracks in that hose, the clamp appears ok, but so did my P2 when it split.
So I think something is spraying, to get oil on everything, and running off the pan. I think the intake probably has to come off, then you might as well replace the PCV.
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by abscate
You need to get the intake off to determine if it’s pcv leak, oil pressure sender leak, or head gasket leak.
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by j-dawg
Does your dipstick stay seated while you go ham on the throttle? Mine used to eject itself and spray out oil.
The rearward port in that image is to insert a special crankshaft locking tool.
Foof a fine layer of baby powder onto the block and go for a drive, and you should be able to follow any trail of fresh from leaks. You can probably do that with the intake piping dismantled. Might be a pain to clean up, though.
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Post by abscate
That looks like a high pressure oil bypass dumping back into the pan.
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j-dawg wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:17 am
"Does your dipstick stay seated while you go ham on the throttle?"
Yes. But glove test shows a slight bit of pressure, so I feel like I should do the PCV while finding the leak.
It sat for 6 months and didn’t leak a drop, then I warm it up, let it idle a long time, and take it on the freeway full blast. Something changed due to that - dry seal, too much crankcase pressure, cracked hose…..
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by FLXC90
Well, The PCV has "flow" if there is a lack of adequate vacuum, oil will go where it can, if the air rushing past from the cooling fan made enough pressure differential, it could theoretically siphon vapor from a split hose or loose fitting. More likely a bad hose just spewing. Possibly the oil cooler or lines for it, or even the oil thermostat, depending on where the airflow through the engine compartment takes things. I would start at the cooler fittings at the radiator, because airflow, and work backwards from there. I would expect air to eddy up under the intake manifold, so that is where it ends up?
And as far as the oil pressure switch, the normal mode of failure on those is not at the threads, but between the body and the core.
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