P80 PCV System Repair on a Volvo 5-cylinder (-1998)

Post by **RobTheModd** » 14 Jan 2011, 21:37

I am really hating this pcv job thing....

currently stopped working on it since its now 11pm.

started working on it around 6:30 ish....
but im also doing radiator, and fMIC performance kit.

my question is...
1 how can I tighten the volvo clamps they gave me.
and 2.... how important are the clamps...

I havent put the manifold back on, but I cant figure out what to use.
needle nose plyers seem to be what I thought would work but not very well.....

Post by **jblackburn** » 14 Jan 2011, 21:45

1 how can I tighten the volvo clamps they gave me.

Have anything like these around in your garage? They're generally used for snipping things, but will work for pinching things too . I've used them on Oetiker clips on a weedeater engine before. My dad has a few laying around his workshop.

OR, go by an auto parts store and just pick up a few smallish screw clamps. They'll make your life that much easier, and you DO need clamps on every one of the hoses - unless you have the little metal fitting at the very bottom of the oil separator box.

bandwcow · Post by **bandwcow** » 24 Jan 2011, 20:16

Well, cleaned the EGR hole out, returned all parts to original locations, including all bolts and nuts. No longer any codes. Been ~500 miles and still clean. The PVC rebuild will need to wait til warmer and a bit dryer weather since I do not have garage.

This site is a keeper+

To reach the 8mm bolt I used a box wrench with the non-used end pointing towards the block. Put a larger box wrench around the end of the 8mm wrench. Worked great to pull or push on the 8mm wrench/bolt head.

Thank you
bill

chernobyl1 · Post by **chernobyl1** » 07 Mar 2011, 14:02

I have a 1998 V70 base and after noticing about 2 weeks ago that I was getting pretty significant dipstick blowby, i decided to leave the dipstick not fully seated in the hole so to allow the gasses to escape more easily and not blow out a RMS. Today when I checked the oil, the dipstick was covered from top to bottom with tan colored creamy goodness (if you're a guinness fan) and even the oil cap had some white gunk on it.

My question is: can a bad PCV system have caused this much water to mix with the oil? I just had the oil changed less than 1000 miles ago, drive about 60% city 40% hwy, and am currently dealing with late winter Michigan weather. It doesn't look like I'm losing coolant (level looks acceptable from where I filled it to). The car has 148k and even though I've only had it for about 4k, I'm starting to pick up on the fact that the prior owner wasn't a preventative maintenence kinda guy.

If it is PCV, how desperate should I be to fix it? Granted water in oil is never good, but is the dipstick creaminess just a result of the condensation pushing its way out of the engine and all getting stuck there, or reflective of the actual oil at this point. Also, since the engine is running about the same as it always has been (not bad, but not great compared to my wife's nearly Stage0'ed 99 v70), should I be concerned about a head gasket issue or just jump right into fixing the PCV and not worry too much about other possibilities?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! I'm eagerly awaiting shade-tree car fixing weather to return to Michigan!

Post by **jblackburn** » 07 Mar 2011, 22:52

A bit is normal especially if that system is not venting at all (it doesn't sound like it), then the air is drawn in and some vapors are blown out while the moisture remains in the oil.

I'd do the system as soon as spring rolls around your way. If it is just a base V70, remove the flame trap snorkel from the throttle body, perhaps this weekend if it is warm enough, and clean it out - it is easy to do without disassembling anything major.

sleedo · Post by **sleedo** » 13 Mar 2011, 05:45

jblackburn wrote: .... If it is just a base V70, remove the flame trap snorkel from the throttle body, perhaps this weekend if it is warm enough, and clean it out - it is easy to do without disassembling anything major.

Having spent my entire Friday evening and all day Saturday doing the entire PCV clean/replace job I found that the only component that was truly and COMPLETELY clogged was the Flame Trap. I wish someone had hit me on the head and told me to start there and see if that solves the problem. I should have taken a pic of the clog, it was about 1/4" thick behind the flame trap and took me all of 2 minutes to clean out.

Now it looks like I have a very bad leak at the Rear Main Seal to deal with, arrrrrrrrgh!

Sleedo
(whose first post should have been to thank the contributors to this thread and site for all of the helpful info here

)

sleedo · Post by **sleedo** » 14 Mar 2011, 04:24

I didn't think to have the camera in hand when I cleaned out the flame trap and installed the oil breather on Sat., but I wanted to make a post in appreciation of this thread and site on Sunday. So as I contemplated addressing what I thought was the RMS leak I ran the motor up to temp and tried to track down any additional leaking seals in order to form a hit list. To my surprise I found that the source of the oil was not the RMS but was coming from the top of the engine. After some more cleaning with this stuff from Auto Zone and removal of the torque link at the rear of the head I found that both of the Rear Camshaft seals were at fault. Very glad that I had ordered them along with the rest of the parts for the job from FCP. The new seals were installed in just a few minutes and I am one happy camper knowing that I don't have to pull the motor (now).

: this stuff works great for $4.00 for a gallon!; EPSN0025.JPG (458.61 KiB) Viewed 3292 times

: this is as bad as it looks, this cap was 2 weeks old.; EPSN0005.JPG (451.81 KiB) Viewed 3292 times

: something is not right here; EPSN0010.JPG (392.21 KiB) Viewed 3292 times

: this seal was ready to fall out too and was leaking badly also; EPSN0023.JPG (442.78 KiB) Viewed 3292 times

crezzy2k1 · Post by **crezzy2k1** » 18 Mar 2011, 08:19

Hello everyone this is my first post on this site and i would just like to show everyone what happens when you try and clean the brittle hoses to the PTC nipple on a 96 850 R!

I thought i was going to be clever and removed the air intake that has the PTC nipple on the bottom of it. The process was very easy and i cleaned the PTC nipple until it was immaculate! But i noticed that the large hose going into the nipple was badly clogged and thought hmmm i'll spray some carb cleaned up that and that will save me a fortune and i can put off the replacement PCV job for a while! Well i went out there earlier took the hose out of the bracket and SNAP it went, i pulled the foam back and there it was both lines snapped clean off!

I'm going to replace the PCV system in a few weeks, but would it be safe to couple these hoses back together with larger diameter rubber tube while i wait for the parts to arrive?

Many thanks

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Post by **jblackburn** » 21 Mar 2011, 08:24

I'm going to replace the PCV system in a few weeks, but would it be safe to couple these hoses back together with larger diameter rubber tube while i wait for the parts to arrive?

Sure, that should work (or at least help) for now. Those lines get to be extremely brittle - mine is 2 years newer and they just snapped into pieces when I tried to pull the line out.

peacock · Post by **peacock** » 27 Mar 2011, 08:10

This is easier then you would think to do, did mine in an afternoon last week and its went rather smoothly.
the system did not seemed to be that clogged over all however replacing one of the physically broken tubes eliminated the exhaust smell at idle.

P80 PCV System Repair on a Volvo 5-cylinder (-1998)

Re: PCV System Repair on a Volvo 5-cylinder