Attention to detail

gregandterra · Post by **gregandterra** » 18 Jul 2012, 16:51

So, finished head reconditioning after burnt exhaust valve. 99 V70 XC, 152,000 miles. I consider myself a fairly competent mechanic, got everything together, started car and ARRGH, exhaust leak! Cooled her down, figured I missed a couple bolts. Rechecked, and re-torqued. Started again and still leaking. Let her run a few minutes to try and locate and ARRGH, water gushing out back of cylinder head. WTF over!
After a cigar and a Gin and Tonic, started looking with inspection mirror from top and bottom. Waited a day(for me to cool off) and looked again. Decided that pulling the turbo was not going to let me see any more, so head off again. Meanwhile, browsing my bench noticed this one o-ring left in the gasket kit I had purchased. After researching, found it to be for the water pipe to block connection into water pump. After getting head and exhaust manifold out of the way, found a broken o-ring at the pipe connection. Next to exhaust leak. Checked the head for trueness or a scratch at gasket surface. Checked with straight egde, all good. Checked the exhaust manifold for warpage, crack, scratch, looks great. Again, WTF? Decided to look at the exhaust gaskets for the leakage, and guess what, two gaskets perfectly aligned and glued together from factory. I was never going to get that manifold to seal.

Lesson learned, slow down, pay attention to detail, and if there are parts left over, stop and find out why. I had just assumed that the gasket kit was for several model years and I did not need the o-ring. Additionally there is no reference to the water tube in my Haynes manual that I can find, so I just had to add this to the lessons learned part of my brain for next time.

Post by **fazool** » 18 Jul 2012, 18:44

Wow....that makes me feel better about this

byeboy · Post by **byeboy** » 18 Jul 2012, 19:54

Well, having just finished the valve job on the 850R, I, too, noticed some O rings and gaskets still in the kit...but i have no leaks, no drips, so they are mystery pieces. I suspect some of them to be for Air Pump, which I don't have, and one of them is supposedly for my dip stick tube, but not one of them looked at all right for that, so I simply cleaned the one that was on it, and stuck it back in the hole. I thought I would copy the 'contents" tag, and do a check-off of ones I know I used, then see what are left over...but that's academic at this point, because the car is running fine!