What did you do to your Volvo today? Topic is solved

[abscate]

9Finally got the head pulled today on the xc90. I have a couple of questions since this is my 1st time pulling a head. Is it normal for each cam cover bay to be darker and more "cooked" looking from cylinder 1 to cylinder 5? When I pulled the head there were 2 sleeves sticking out of the cylinder block but there appear to be spaces for 4. Am I missing 2 sleeves? There are none in the cylinder head. It looks like 3 valves struck pistons for sure. It was pretty small though.

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That #5 is badly coked up, I’m guessing from stem seals. Did it puff smoke on hard acceleration after a hill drop?

I’m not sure what sleeves you are referring to, hopefully not the cylinder sleeves

[foggydogg]

1)Take off the exhaust pipe, and smack it with a BMF hammer ( pipe is 3" s.s. ) to flatten it out a little on the bottom.
2)Use a couple pieces of bar steel to shim the cross member down, and drop that section of the brace.
3)Take it to an exhaust shop and have them bend and install a new section of exhaust pipe to clear the cross member.
4)Try and find a local therapy group for my on going " tinkeritis ", and hang the brace up on the shop wall as a reminder.

I think #3 would be the proper way of handling this, but it would cost some $ and since I am still skeptical of the benefit, #4 is currently ahead.

The stock car crowd have flattened header pipes and exhaust tubing for decades. We used to put a pretty good dimple in our header tubes right at the flange for header bolt clearance. The current NASCAR big boys run flattened exhaust tube exit pipes for ground clearance. Some years ago, Hot Rod mag did a dyno test with a set of headers they didn't cherish; after the baseline pulls, they started to beat a couple tubes closed to see what happened to the numbers. One runner was finally down to about 20% of the original diameter before they saw any gross change in horsepower.
Whack away.

[Sveedy]

^ Thanks for that info Foggy. Good to know generally for working on any vehicle.
I only need apx 3/8"- 1/2" x 6" for clearance over that brace, which is way down stream, so I could put the pipe on a sand bag and easily flatten out that much, apparently with no adverse effect in performance.
3 or 4 good smacks with my dead blow hammer, and all should be good.
Thanks again !

[BlackBart]

Is it normal for each cam cover bay to be darker and more "cooked" looking from cylinder 1 to cylinder 5?

I had a bit of this, not as dark, on my P2. It appears related to the distance from the oil pressure source at the end of the engine.

[ZionXIX]

That #5 is badly coked up, I’m guessing from stem seals. Did it puff smoke on hard acceleration after a hill drop?

I’m not sure what sleeves you are referring to, hopefully not the cylinder sleeves

I guess the more accurate term is a dowel? It aligns the head and block together, sticks out a few millimeters. I only saw 2 dowels but it look like there is room for 4. I wasn't sure if this was evidence that the head has been removed before.

[abscate]

Ah, yes. They only come with two, I’m 99% sure. I’ll try link to pictures of my most recent valve job

On edit, on my T5 turbo motor there are 4 head cover locating pins. Let me know if you need some. I have an engine apart I can pull them, I think.

[ZionXIX]

Ah, yes. They only come with two, I’m 99% sure. I’ll try link to pictures of my most recent valve job

On edit, on my T5 turbo motor there are 4 head cover locating pins. Let me know if you need some. I have an engine apart I can pull them, I think.

That head looks so much better than mine. Every cylinder looks twice as dark as the one before. I assume this is due to extended oil changes by the previous owner or lots of idling and so forth.

I just dropped off the head at the machine shop for cleaning and checking.

[yanga001]

Picked up some Mobil 1 5w30 full syn for 35 cad. My rear mass motion sensor triggered a few times out of the blue. Will clear the back seats, ensure it is seated correctly, and hope for the best. Right now, the car is left in reduced guard mode.

Topped off coolant after timing belt change. Hoping to sort out getting a new bumper tomorrow or Friday.

[454cid]

Picked up some Mobil 1 5w30 full syn for 35 cad.

That's pretty light oil for a Volvo (according to the manual).

My rear mass motion sensor triggered a few times out of the blue. Will clear the back seats, ensure it is seated correctly, and hope for the best. Right now, the car is left in reduced guard mode.

What does this mean? I've never heard any of these terms before.

[abscate]

Alarm stuff. They have to put a lot of alarms on Canadian cars because their southern neighbors keep coming up and stealing their cars and geese,