Help with 1999 B5254t - cranks but won't start Topic is solved

[erikv11]

Did you try putting one treaspoon of oil into each cylinder?

I haven't. The fact that the leakdown test showed better results than the compression test leads me to believe that it may be something other than rings. Also, I don't think bad rings should keep the car from starting. This was supposedly a running and driving car before it blew a head gasket. Even if it had bad compression due to rings, I would think it would at least try to start. It's not even sputtering.

Agreed. My suggestion was not about suspecting bad rings, it was about the cylinder walls being washed dry, basically something like flooding or lawn mower syndrome.

[bmdubya1198]

Check out a couple posts down on the second page. I had the same issue of incorrect firing order on my cousin's S70. There is a wiring diagram posted for the ignition coils.
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 6&start=10

[pvfjr]

Never mind, it started!

I got it warmed up to temp, seems to run OK. There's a bit of a lifter tick, but these did get a little dirty and dry. I cleaned them up as best as I could before I put them back together, but the lifters haven't been used in a long time. Maybe it'll loosen up a bit over time. If nothing else, I can try throwing a little Marvel's oil in there. That has worked absolute wonders on stuck lifters for me in the past.

I've got a lot of smoke coming off the backside of the motor, but I'm betting I just got the exhaust nice and grimy throughout the process of fixing this thing. Hopefully it doesn't represent an actual leak of some sort.

[bmdubya1198]

My cousin's S70 was smoking from the back of the motor too the first time we ran it after fixing it. It cleared up after a little while. Probably because it had not been running for 6 months.

[pvfjr]

I am seeing a little bit of oil floating to the top of the coolant reservoir (no bubbles though), but the motor oil still looks perfect. Perhaps some oil got in the coolant passages when the head gasket blew, and it's still working itself out. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

It seems as though the smoke has cleared, but the engine also seems to have an intermittent miss. No check-engine light so far. The miss is not steady nor rhythmic, and seems to go away under moderate throttle. I drove the car about 4 miles, and could feel the miss while cruising or idling. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever end with this car, but at least it was a day of good progress.

[pvfjr]

I drove it around for a few more miles, and it got worse. I had a p0300 random misfire code, and a p0303 cylinder 3 misfire. I cleared the codes, then drove it some more. P0300 came back, along with P1171. I guess I'll be researching possible causes for that one.

[pvfjr]

I checked out the voltages at the MAF. While "ON", I get the expected 5V and 1V at the MAF. When "idling", I see 1.7V, 5V, 13.5V, and 20mV on the wires. It seems as though the MAF is functioning. The car idles rough whether or not the MAF is plugged in; I don't see any change when I unplug it. The funny thing is, my scanner shows 0.00 lb/min under it's MAF reading on the "live data" page. My scanner is old and cheap though, and I've often noticed a lack of data for random fields, even when a car runs fine. So I can't say for sure that that means anything.

I also found a vacuum line that was unplugged, but fixing that didn't seem to help. My ST fuel trim is at 22% or so, seems quite high. This of course is what the P1171 is all about, but fixing the vacuum line and clearing the codes did nothing. Would it take more time for the STFT to go back to normal? Does the ECU need to relearn anything?

What else should I check?

[Ozark Lee]

The ECU does need to establish a new "normal" but that shouldn't cause misfires. Have you done another compression test?

...Lee

[pvfjr]

The ECU does need to establish a new "normal" but that shouldn't cause misfires. Have you done another compression test?

...Lee

Not yet, though I've been thinking about it since I wasn't thrilled with the first set of numbers. I left the battery disconnected overnight, so we'll see if I get a new normal. I'll probably have time this afternoon to play around with it some more.

There are engine speeds that seem to smooth out a bit. This gives me the impression that it's probably not a failure of hard engine parts, but rather part of the control system. At least I hope that's true, anyway.

[bmdubya1198]

Check out this page: http://www.volvo-forums.com/t10577-p1171-code.htm
Are you sure your coils are plugged in in the correct order? If you're driving it, you're probably running on at least 4 cylinders, and you'd be down at least 2 cylinders if the wires were plugged in wrong, but it doesn't hurt to check.
Check all the usual suspects with a misfire (coil pack, injector, spark plug, boot). Swap them around to the adjacent cylinder one at a time to see if the misfire moves (again, if you haven't ruled that out yet).
If the engine is running the same with the MAF sensor unplugged, it still seems possible to me that the MAF sensor is bad.
And yes, that fuel trim in ridiculously high. Make sure you don't have any vacuum leaks.

As for the oil in the coolant, I'd flush the coolant sooner rather than later.