2000 S70 Replaced cam seal - still leaks

pottzie · Post by **pottzie** » 03 May 2015, 11:08

Had a major leak from the timing cover of our 2000 s70. Discovered that the intake cam seal was pushed out. Replaced the seal, but noticed when I was putting the timing belt back on that the seal really didn't look like it was, well, sealing anything! I thought that while the outside of the seal fit snugly against the outer edge of the hole that the seal was installed in, where the head and the block mated, the part of the seal that is around the cam looked like there was a mile between the cam and the seal! I'd pushed the seal in far enough that it matched the notch that's cut into the area where the seal goes, and stopped at the edge of that notch. I hoped that the intake cam sprocket sealed that up (non vvt, the variable timing is on the exhaust on this engine.) The seal I used looked exactly like the seal that I was replacing.

When I started the engine, wallah, I still have a major leak. I'm going to have to take it apart again, and this time I'll have a look at the crank seal too, as it's a lot of oil coming out. I figured when I saw the intake seal half way out, that I'd found the problem and didn't look any farther. But what seals the cam, or is there supposed to be a lot of oil going to the intake cam? I thought perhaps the seal was gaping because there isn't a lot of oil feeding the cam at that point. Who knows?

I changed the flame trap when I got the car several months ago, but haven't checked for pressure at the oil cap. It had 200k on it and had never been changed, so I hoped to prevent any problems, but apparently that wasn't the result.

JeffHicks · Post by **JeffHicks** » 03 May 2015, 21:48

This may be a stupid question, but are you sure you got the correct seal? There are several different engines in S70 that year. Also, sometimes Volvo made some mid-year changes.

I say this because I went to replace the front cam seals on my '02 XC70, and found out that there was a mid-year design change on the same engine. Most parts places didn't even show that there were two different seals available.