A piece of broken off cam lip

[jaccovdzaag]

Hi there guys,

First time poster, just joined after a long time lurking around. Ah well, long.. Just a few months I guess.
Long story short, I bought the B5234T5 engine from a running 850, just for the engine. I don't actually own a Volvo, my dad does though, he owns a '98 S70 and two 850 T5's.

Before I wanted to proceed and put the engine in the car (won't be a Volvo) I decided to take a peek, learn a thing or two and replace all the gaskets, inspect the bearings and make sure everything is nice and tidy.

I took off the cam cover and I immediately found a discrepancy in the cam lip on the intake side. I attached a picture of it. The cam cover side is good but this side has been broken off, clearly.

I found a topic here regarding the same issue, by futureboycolin, but that thread is 8 years old and hasn't been updated with any new information regarding the issue. I did learn however, this has to do with the cam being tipped over and so this might break. So I had my learning moment right there!

I'm thinking of doing these options:
- Put it back in there and let the pressure of the cam cover and the presence of a cam seal do the work;
- JB weld it back in there and the rest as option 1;
- Actually weld it (outsourcing);
- Last resort, new head.

What would you, experienced people, suggest on this matter?

Regards!

[erikv11]

Yeah this happens when the cams are not lifted straight out. As you've figured out it's a tough one to solve just because of the work involved if your solution doesn't work out. It is not a weight bearing or critical piece, just will probably leak oil too much if not in place. Welding seems overkill I'd replace the head before that, but heads are cheap here. I'd change the valve stem seals with the head out, Volvo brand only.

It might work to epoxy (JB Weld) it in and then install the cam seal on the cam when you put it together, so the seal presses down into the semi-circle. Because if you try to tap the cam seal in after putting on the top cover I think the force of installation may just dislodge the epoxied chip and put you back to square one.

OK you probably already knew most of that! My suggestion: I'd try epoxy and putting it all together, cam and seal, before you install the engine. Try putting it together a couple times make sure it holds. Otherwise if another head is cheap then I'd probably go that route.

[jaccovdzaag]

Hi Erik,

Thanks for your reply. I figured and found out about the cam lifting the hard way, unfortunately.. I agree with you about the fact it doesn't have a bearing or being critical and if I look at it, I won't suspect it as a point of a lot of oil leaking since there is a seal for that.

Welding might be overkill, I agree. Plus, you have to flatten it out and make it fit after the welding. I was planning on doing the valve stems seals indeed, just to make sure everything has been cleaned and fresh before putting it back together.

It will take a few days before I receive the JB Weld. Let it rest for a few days and we'll see how it holds after that. Good tip about the tapping, you're right. I think I break it straight off when I would tap it from the front.

I'm going to clean the head, take the valves out, replace some stems and fix the cracked lip. I'm going to give this an update when the time is there.

If it doesn't work, another head would be a solution. Here in Holland (might going to try other parts in Europe though) heads are not that common. Found a few, one being a solid lifter head and another one is fully overhauled but it's an NA head, means I have to swap out the exhaust valves because of the sodium. But that's not an issue.

I'll keep updating this!

[scot850]

Eric has made a great set of suggestions as normal!

If I can add to that it may be worth using a seal as a former and fit it in place and use that with JB Weld to make up the missing lip.
I think that would be strong enough to stop the seal from pushing out. The area of the break uses friction to hold the oil seal in place. There should not be too high a pressure in the system that would push the seal out if the PCV system is good and clean.

Now, if you are planning to build an engine that is going to work really hard, maybe another head would be the way to go.

Neil.

[850oldschool]

You've got 2 challenges to overcome when using epoxy here. The first is that the porous cast aluminum is saturated with oil. The second is the oxide layer on the surface of the aluminum. Epoxy sticks great to aluminum with no oxidation, badly when there is an oxide layer. The challenge lies in etching off the oxide layer without losing the helpful texture of the fracture.

[Azik09]

I would leave it as is. There is no mechanical load, no oil or gas pressure. Less than 15% of bearing area.