1998 V70 Timing belt, cylinder head work 330k miles!

5rivers · Post by **5rivers** » 19 Jun 2016, 07:15

You cannot imagine the number of times I have thought of giving up on this project, but I love the car and there are very few things I have given up once starting. But, thank you!
I cannot see coolant anywhere except on the radiator where some has started to leak. I did take off the heat shield and the timing belt cover and did notice some moisture along the rear timing belt cover that cannot be removed without taking out the water pump. Before installing the timing belt back in late April, I recall there being some mineral deposit buildup and some rust spots on the inside of the water pump that I cleaned off. I am wondering if that is an indication of the pump not working or if it needs a drop or two of oil (there is that little hole on the outside of the housing that I recall oil dripping out of when I claimed the pump from the salvage yard). Appreciate any replies before I drain the coolant out, again, and make a closer inspection of the water pump and try to figure out where the steam is coming from when the motor is running and/or what might be causing the rad hoses to become so hot so quickly.

Post by **abscate** » 19 Jun 2016, 19:36

That little hole is a weep hole that warns you when the pump starts to leak.

Kally...I've got a spare HEPU water pump for my 1999 I'll donate if you want it...my T5 will go into light use at college,this fall and I'll never get to the 200k marker. I'll pm part number to check fitment

5rivers · Post by **5rivers** » 21 Jun 2016, 10:21

Thanks abscate, but I don't think I need a newer water pump. Here's why:
I did remove the water pump from the V70 (after removing many other parts that are part of the timing belt - which is okay because the timing was off!) once I drained the coolant out of the motor. What I discovered was a hairline crack on the part of the motor that the water pump covers when it is installed. I kept noticing wetness on the lower part of the water pump motor opening even after drying it numerous times (I guess I did not drain all the coolant) and getting a small mirror in there helped me to see what was happening. If I can get a pic, I will post it, but it' in a tight spot.
Anyway, my question is this: Is this part of the engine block bolted on or is part of the block itself? And if it cannot be removed, what options are there to repair/fill the hairline crack? And/or what kind of problems will this hairline crack cause if it is ignored? I think this may have been caused when the initial timing belt/water pump (fin) disintegration occurred in March last year. Appreciate your thoughts as always!

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 21 Jun 2016, 10:37

Oh my goodness - If I recall, that would be part of the block. It might be able to be spot welded there- a seam of aluminum added and then ground down to be true to the black with the block still in the car but it's a tight fit and I don't know if it could truly be done. I would think as Murphy's law dictates, things that are broken tend to break even further with time (heating and shrinking). Make sure that the hairline crack is really leaking (I'm sorry but don't know how to check myself....I suppose the way would be to make sure of a known good WP on but then that means more work if things have to come off again.

5rivers · Post by **5rivers** » 22 Jun 2016, 09:50

Yes, it is in a very tight spot. I am going to try liquid aluminum and see if that will fill the hole from the inside (if anything it should repair the small leak in the radiator!). If not I will have to reassess my options. I have reassembled the tensioner, timing belt, etc., and after two revolutions, find that the sprockets to the camshafts are off a bit. The rear is off by one full tooth, the front only by one-half a tooth. Everything else lines up pretty well. Not sure if I have to start all over - remove the tensioner I believe is the first thing to tackle. I will surf this site, but if anyone has any recommendations on how I would adjust the sprockets without extracting all those timing parts, I sure would be appreciative of your response?

Post by **abscate** » 22 Jun 2016, 10:43

I think I would try JB weld on that crack, Kally.

You should be able to slip the belt a tooth or two without having to do the whole job over again, with an extra pair of hands perhaps,

5rivers · Post by **5rivers** » 23 Jun 2016, 14:28

Well, I tried to get the car started but all it did was turn over. It started up fine the other day, but that was before I took out the tensioner, etc to get a closer look at the water pump. So, I have most likely re-installed something the wrong way. The only thing I can think of are the attachments to the rear of each cam shaft where the crankshaft sensor and distributor are located. I recall the indentation on the front camshaft cover (that is directly over the seal) is situated at the 4 o'clock position, but its the rear camshaft cover (again that is directly over the seal and that has a partial wall on it) that I am unsure of. Is the opening situated at the 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock position with the enclosed/wall part below or is the walled part located above? Appreciate your input on this! If I can get a photo of this piece I will attach. Again, if memory serves me correctly, the sprocket end of the front camshaft has two bolt holes up or is it one? The rear camshaft is just the opposite of the front with respect to the sprocket holes, correct?

5rivers · Post by **5rivers** » 23 Jun 2016, 20:14

Greetings!
I have some photos to illustrate my question on the positioning of the rear cover of the exhaust camshaft; this cover is bolted onto the rear end of the exhaust camshaft and has a walled protrusion that is roughly half the diameter of the cover. The crankshaft sensor is bolted onto to this part of the cylinder head/cover. So my question then is which is the correct position of this cover? A or B? I can't remember which position it was in when I installed it yesterday, but the little nubs on the backside that fit into the slot on the end of the camshaft are not as large as they should be! May have to visit the salvage yard yet again!

Could be why the motor did not start!!

: Position A?; Exhaust cam rear A.JPG (126.88 KiB) Viewed 1400 times

: Position B?; Exhaust cam rear B.JPG (133.84 KiB) Viewed 1400 times

I watched one of Robert's (rspi or is it rspl?) videos and found my answer to the question for the same cover only to the intake camshaft rear: one bolt up, the sprocket on the other end of the intake camshaft has two bolts up when the TB is positioned correctly. The sprocket for the exhaust cam has one bolt up when the TB is aligned properly with marks on the TB cover and the sprocket. Does this make sense?

Appreciate your expertise on A or B above!

5rivers · Post by **5rivers** » 24 Jun 2016, 11:08

Mystery solved! The cover for the exhaust camshaft rear end has the walled part of the cover beginning at the 1 o'clock position and ending at the 7 o'clock position. Another way to look at this is: the shallow part of the cover is positioned so it is over most of the numbers on the end of exhaust camshaft and the numbers on the end of the exhaust camshaft are above the slot. So photo A above has the cover in the correct position. FYI: the crankshaft sensor attaches to this part of the camshaft cover/cylinder head. It is definitely wise to take pictures of these two camshaft end covers before removing them to clean the underside of the camshaft cover or when replacing the seals. My memory is not as good as it used to be!

5rivers · Post by **5rivers** » 29 Jun 2016, 16:02

Greetings!
Well, over the last few days or weeks (it seems) I have managed to re-install the tensioner, timing belt, etc. Now, the timing marks at the sprockets are not quite a tooth off and I have settled with that since the camshafts are lined up pretty well, the shaft that holds the harmonic balancer is lined up well with the two teeth that have very small timing marks on them. The motor would not start on its own and it needed to be jump started. I let it idle for a good 15-20 minutes and after shutting the car off, it still needed be to jump started to get the motor running. I decided to check the battery fluid levels (I once owned a 1960 MGA that I ran twice or three times a year and had two 6-volt batteries that always needed distilled water). Guess what??? There was no fluid in the battery!!!! Even after having the Die Hard battery charged at Sears - guess their technicians did not check the battery fluid levels (da). If this happens to you, make sure you ask to have the fluids checked, its easy enough to do!

Jump started the motor again...and let it idle for 15-20 minutes. By this time, I began to worry about the noise coming from the alternator area...and you guessed it, a better conditioned alternator was needed. Almost 50% of the shaft had been worn down by the brushes on the voltage regulator!

Another trip to the salvage yard proved fortuitous...but only after checking the alternator in four 850's! One was as bad as the alternator in my car, one was seized, another had a decent looking alternator (meaning it was not full of oil, grease or grime) and the last one had a re-manufactured alternator.
The latter had the most possibilities and indeed it had new seals, a new shaft, but an unusual looking regulator. The standard 850/V70 alternator has a voltage regulator that has two brushes; the re-manufactured one only had one brush and the small clip on the alternator was in a slightly different location on the rectifier. It came out of an 1997 850 automatic sedan. Well, I installed it in my car and the most timing consuming part of this process was lining up the bolt holes for the power steering pump, alternator, and tensioner. Of course, I had forgotten some of the intricacies of re-assembling the brackets on the PS pump, so that was a good guessing game (should have taken pictures, again!!).

I added some JB weld to the leak on the radiator located below the upper hose about four inches where the molded plastic meets the aluminum. I will probably add some liquid aluminum. After refilling the reservoir with coolant I can tell I did not cover enough of an area to stop the leak. A newer radiator is definitely on the horizon!

So, I wanted to ask about this re-manufactured alternator - have any of you seen this sort of setup? And will it work in a V70? Will it cause any damage to the electrical system? I just finished installing the serpentine belt, the fan, vacuum lines, and reconnected the battery cables.