1999 S70 - Auction Rescue Topic is solved

[Twarr12000]

I bought a project car at the Austin, TX Police auction. A ‘99 S70 GLT, unknown condition, no keys.
I pulled the Immo module and the drivers door lock cylinder and sent them off to ACM Locksmith Group in Duluth, GA. They promptly made me a set of keys and programmed the immo module. (But the cost was as much as the car). .
After getting the trunk open I was a little worried to see a spare ETM. Hmm. I pulled the spark plugs and ran a compression test - not good. Cylinders 3 and 4 were basically 0. I looked around with an endoscope to see an exhaust valve in each cylinder open but no evidence they had hit the pistons. I used spray Seafoam to lubricate the valves as best I could without removing the exhaust manifold. On the intake side I pulled the injectors to get to the valve stems. After repeating this a few times over several day I got the valves to move.
Progress!

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[Twarr12000]

On to troubleshooting the S70 auction car.
I had good spark, but strange injector behavior- the injectors would fire exactly once each time I tried to start the engine. Pulled the DTC and got codes for the ETM. Hmm again, maybe thats why theres a spare one in the trunk! Pulled the ETM and did the 8-second hum test. Failed. Tested the one from the trunk - good. Installed the spare one and the engine fired up! Great, more progress!
At this point I have the turbo hoses off and the cooling fan out - a good portion of the way to the PCV. I’m thinking to go ahead and pull the intake manifold and do the PCV cleaning before going back with all new silicone vacuum lines.

Hopefully the old car will make it back on the road. The interior and exterior are in good shape for a 25 year old car. The odometer says 120k. It has obviously sat a long time and I know thats not good, but it’s been a fun project so far.

[Twarr12000]

After finding the open exhaust valves but before replacing the ETM I checked the cam timing. I wanted a little more evidence the belt hadn’t jumped and actually bent the valves besides just the lack of kiss marks on the piston.

Camshaft locking tool in place

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[abscate]

Very pretty 421 Green, gorgeous colour. No doubt a beige interior

[Twarr12000]

I like the 421 Emerald Green exterior. All the Volvos we have owned have had excellent paint quality.
The interior is the somewhat uncommon 3990 Arena with granite leather. (And the obligatory sagging door card material)

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[Clemens]

Very pretty 421 Green, gorgeous colour. No doubt a beige interior

Steve, whom are we kidding. We all know there is only one color, being Nautic Blue ...

[Clemens]

I like the 421 Emerald Green exterior. All the Volvos we have owned have had excellent paint quality.
The interior is the somewhat uncommon 3990 Arena with granite leather. (And the obligatory sagging door card material)

IMG_1888.jpeg

That interior is awesome, I like the color. All the best for your restoration project, it looks worth saving.

[Twarr12000]

Update 3
I thought this would be a long thread detailing this S70’s next 100k miles. But it’s not to be. I don’t know how I missed this, but I decided to do another borescope inspection after getting the valves unstuck, servicing the PCV, and getting the engine to start up, albeit running poorly, and found this;

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Cracked liner in #3 cylinder.

The local salvage yard has a couple of engines priced very cheap;

A B5244T3 in an 01 V70 that was t-boned in the passenger door. I pulled the spark plugs and the cylinders look practically new.

A couple of B5254T2s but they are in cars with no obvious damage or reason to be in the scrapyard.
No B5254Ts or 2.3s

This yard sells engines cheap with no warranty so everything is a gamble (or educated guess). But my track record on this project hasn’t been great.

What do you guys think? Are either of these engines plug and play in the ‘99 S70? They are all automatics, no M56s in this yard. Should I sink more effort in this project or cut my losses? Just curious about others’ thoughts. Thanks!

[abscate]

You will need a RN engine with exhaust VVT ONLY to drop into a S70 GLT

My gorgeous V70 recently rebuilt B5244S engine won’t work, for example. ( and it’s lying NY)

[Twarr12000]

Update 4
Recently I learned either my borescope is useless, or I can’t see well (or interpret what I see?).
I went ahead and pulled the cylinder head, because why not? I have looked, photographed, videoed and looked again, and I don’t see a crack anywhere. But the head gasket was definitely blown.
I’m going to go ahead and put a head gasket on it and see what happens. I sent the head off to have surfaced and have got it back (another thread- viewtopic.php?t=104425
Maybe wasted effort…