V70 stalls when warm. Reason to suspect Fuel Pulse Damper Topic is solved

[volvolugnut]

Those look like standard high mileage ignition wear marks to me. Scrape them off with a sharp, stiff blade …a Boy Scout knife …isn’t life grand ? Girls are scouts now, and direction finding has been changed forever.

I agree. Terminals on cap can get like this and you get poor ignition. Quick and dirty fix is to scrape off the crud.
volvolugnut

[dalel]

Maybe just a poorly built aftermarket cap and/or rotor? Or somehow got installed wrong. Are you sure the metal mount underneath the rotor is in the proper orientation, on the end of the cam?

The rule on P80 cap and rotor is Bosch only and Bosch only.

Thanks to all for your input. Please don't take my comments as argument; just thinking out loud.

Put a new Bosch rotor and distributor cap today. I let it run for 5 minutes. Tomorrow (Friday) I'll pull the cap and see how the terminals look. If I have shavings after only five minutes I'm pretty sure the camshaft must be loose. ...Dale

[dalel]

Those look like standard high mileage ignition wear marks to me. Scrape them off with a sharp, stiff blade …a Boy Scout knife …isn’t life grand ? Girls are scouts now, and direction finding has been changed forever.

I agree. Terminals on cap can get like this and you get poor ignition. Quick and dirty fix is to scrape off the crud.
volvolugnut

Check the pic again if you can see it. The contacts/terminals are actually spotless. There is actually a chunk taken out of each one. ...Dale

[volvolugnut]

OK, It looked like corrosion pitting. Is the rotor damaged? Does the shaft move when you wiggle it?
volvolugnut

[Vova585]

Ecu or ignition module(if not replaced prior as part of coil swap).
Warm up the engine. Recreate stalling. Get yourself spark tester and noid light injctor pulse tester(both probably $45 at HF) and see what is missing during no start. To me smells like ecu

[dalel]

OK, It looked like corrosion pitting. Is the rotor damaged? Does the shaft move when you wiggle it?
volvolugnut

Before I put the new rotor in I grabbed the old one (still attached) and tugged, then yanked hard. Didn't feel any movement. So tomorrow I need to look at the new distributor cap and then see if it will run more than five minutes now. ...Dale

[erikv11]

Maybe just a poorly built aftermarket cap and/or rotor? Or somehow got installed wrong. Are you sure the metal mount underneath the rotor is in the proper orientation, on the end of the cam?

The rule on P80 cap and rotor is Bosch only and Bosch only.

Thanks to all for your input. Please don't take my comments as argument; just thinking out loud.

Put a new Bosch rotor and distributor cap today. I let it run for 5 minutes. Tomorrow (Friday) I'll pull the cap and see how the terminals look. If I have shavings after only five minutes I'm pretty sure the camshaft must be loose. ...Dale

Great to hear the thinking and get some dialog, no complaints here.

I've never ever heard of a camshaft getting "loose" or otherwise started to wobble. But also if it did, the main issue would be internal to the engine not at the cap and rotor. Good chance you've solved It!

[gdog]

With hope of not being a burden I will start brief and give you as much as you might want if desired.

Note: I have video of fuel pressure gauge and engine sound during start, stumble and stall.

1998 V70 base model with 169k miles runs for a minute or two then stalls. No error codes.
- During end of winter a "low on steering fluid" sound started.
- Sound went away after adding fluid (ATF) and temperatures warmed.
- Two weeks back the car died after a 5 minute drive.
- Can restart if I let it sit for a couple of hours.
- Replaced relay immediately.
- Bought new fuel pump but haven't put it in.
- Has an unwavering 42 fuel pressure (42 when priming, 42 even while stalling and 42 immediately after.)
- Replaced Crank sensor this week.
- Has spark immediately after stalling (testing spark with $5 tester from Harbor Freight.)

Based on an old Matthew's thread I'm concerned about Fuel Damper under fuel rail. ( viewtopic.php?t=86966 ) As stated earlier I had a sound I though was low steering fluid. That just happens to reside in the same area as the fuel damper.

Local shop has some guys reputed for old Volvo work. They say that after what I've done they would just be throwing parts at it.
So that leaves me kinda desperate.
Also I just bought a ICarSoft Vol V2.0 scanner and hope to figure out data capture very shortly and see if that is any help.

Hoping for and looking forward to your advice.

Very interesting case. Certainly sounds like fuel starvation during stall, but fuel pressure clearly is not dropping. Are you sure your fuel pressure gauge is functional, or possibly sticking on a reading? And I assume you're connected to the end of the injector fuel rail?

Sanity checks:
- Besides while it is stalling, does the car run and drive?
- Have you checked the compression? Ck it cold, and then ck it again after it's hot and just stalled. I'm thinking possibly loose valve guides.
- Has the car been sitting for a long time? I.e. does it maybe have bad gas?
- Does it lose spark during stall?
- When you say "crank sensor replaced", do you mean the one on the flywheel bell housing, or on the cam (CMP)?
- Have you tried running the engine w/o MAF plugged in? Also try the O2 sensor (pre-cat) unplugged too. You'll have to reset codes after this.

If the fuel pressure is truly fine, that eliminates any possible issue with any/all relays and wiring that powers the fuel pump, and the pump itself, so don't waste time throwing parts at that subsystem. That being said, if that fuel pump has over 120K miles on it, you're on borrowed time anyway. Try to answer above questions and will let you know if I think of anything else. Good luck!

[volvolugnut]

Maybe just a poorly built aftermarket cap and/or rotor? Or somehow got installed wrong. Are you sure the metal mount underneath the rotor is in the proper orientation, on the end of the cam?

The rule on P80 cap and rotor is Bosch only and Bosch only.

Thanks to all for your input. Please don't take my comments as argument; just thinking out loud.

Put a new Bosch rotor and distributor cap today. I let it run for 5 minutes. Tomorrow (Friday) I'll pull the cap and see how the terminals look. If I have shavings after only five minutes I'm pretty sure the camshaft must be loose. ...Dale

Great to hear the thinking and get some dialog, no complaints here.

I've never ever heard of a camshaft getting "loose" or otherwise started to wobble. But also if it did, the main issue would be internal to the engine not at the cap and rotor. Good chance you've solved It!

An old distributor can for sure get worn bearing and get side to side play. The gear drive at the bottom can also get worn, but that leads to poor ignition timing consistency.
volvolugnut

[erikv11]

...
An old distributor can for sure get worn bearing and get side to side play. The gear drive at the bottom can also get worn, but that leads to poor ignition timing consistency.
volvolugnut

Yes, for sure. But OP posted concerns about the camshaft and that is almost certainly not the problem.