Engine rebuild for 2.5L L5 Turbo - what am I getting into?

Daveturnswrenches · Post by **Daveturnswrenches** » 22 Dec 2021, 15:44

My 2006 XC7-70 is in good condition at about 160K miles. Unfortunately the PCV system, as most Volvo folks know, stopped up and blew out the cam seals while my daughter was driving the car and she wasn't sure what "no oil pressure" meant. I had the car towed home and had to drive for it for minute up the driveway and it ran fine. I purchased all of the parts from FCP Euro to do the job and decided to pull the oil pan as well. When I saw a few flakes in the oil pan I decided to cut the filter and as Hans Solo would say, "I've got a bad feeling about this." It's been a VERY long time since I rebuilt an engine and I've never been into one of these.

I'm not afraid of jumping into this but am looking at all of my options. Spending winter in my unheated garage isn't exactly what I was looking forward to. What am I getting into here? I'm assuming bearing damage. Just starting to look at parts cost. I've already spent close to $1K for the PCV system, timing belt, tensioner, water pump, etc.

Has anyone repaired an engine after this type of failure and how much damage was found?

ignatz · Post by **ignatz** » 22 Dec 2021, 17:27

When you drove the car for that short period of time, was the oil light on and did it make noise?

Post by **vtl** » 22 Dec 2021, 18:47

It cost me $3k in parts/consumables/some tools to do a complete rebuild a year ago. Well, almost... I didn't touch the main bearings, because I took apart my donor engine with similar mileage and they were good (and I've used much better oil through car's life). Also I did exhaust manifold and new turbo some time ago, so that saved quite a bit of $. But at 220k miles my exhaust VVT was bad, so I've replaced both. Yours are probably still ok, just replace the cheap O-ring, $9 at FCP.

The price included welding a hot tank and buying a piece of nice thick flat glass for head polishing. The block was in car, just took the head and the pan off. Even managed to re-hone cylinder sleeves with the Flex-Hone brush.

If you already have bore gauges, micrometers, straight edge and the rest - if will be even cheaper.

Post by **vtl** » 22 Dec 2021, 18:50

Other option would be buying a very common T2 from late S60, transferring your new/fresh parts, replacing RMS just because it's accessible, and swapping the whole engine. Though difficulty would be about same. Maybe I'm biased, I hate dropping the subframe or pulling engine+transmission combo from the top.

Post by **abscate** » 22 Dec 2021, 19:13

Get some oil in it and give it a gentle run. The bottom ends of these engines are really tough and it might have 100k left in it,

TisMe · Post by **TisMe** » 22 Dec 2021, 21:45

abscate wrote: ↑22 Dec 2021, 19:13 Get some oil in it and give it a gentle run. The bottom ends of these engines are really tough and it might have 100k left in it,

My post won't provide you with any answers to your questions, but I do agree with Abscate. You say it ran fine when moving it a few feet, so what's the harm in chugging it around a bit to see it performs? Given the nature of the resilience of these beasts, even if you've shaved off some internal metal, I'll bet it's likely to hold up for a while before the damage from the blown seals compounds and makes it inoperable.

Maybe do a dry compression test and that will offer you confidence, it's not like you sucked a valve

Post by **vtl** » 23 Dec 2021, 05:18

Unfortunately, the first thing that starves of oil is camshaft bearings... Which are not replaceable in our engines, they are integral part of head/valve cover. By the time the low oil pressure warning displayed, the head already received some damage.

Daveturnswrenches · Post by **Daveturnswrenches** » 23 Dec 2021, 12:57

I appreciate everyone's input here. Unfortunately I don't know for sure how long it ran with low oil pressure since my daughter was driving it. My message screen on the dash has been flashing off and on for a dumb light bulb as well as a maintenance message that I can't get to go off so the oil pressure message was somewhat lost in the mix. I will say, though, that it didn't blow that much oil before she called me. The first thing I did was look down the front of the engine to see if there was oil present and it was so I knew right away what had happened. I had changed the oil not long ago so it was still well within the safe zone. I work at a heavy equipment dealer and we cut filters all the time for inspection so when I saw this much metal my heart sank. However, because it did run nice and quiet to get it up my driveway maybe I'll give it a whirl. I'm already well into the teardown process. Would agree with the top end likely being the first to go. Thanks, everybody!