Newbie Frustration S70 GLT Engine Overheated CLASSIC LMS Topic is solved

[denraden03]

Hello all.
I am a newbie to the forum but I have been reading up on a lot of posts here. I am a retired school teacher and I purchased a 1999 Volvo S70 GLT a while ago. A couple weeks before Christmas, the top radiator hose broke off at the radiator neck and of course it overheated and stalled out.
Since I am mechanically inclined, I removed the cylinder head and took it to a machine shop to have the head checked for warpage and a leak test. Machine shop said the head was warped and they machined it. As per the tech they removed about 20 thousands and the valve leak test was okay. I installed the head and my compression readings on 1 thru 4 was 60 psi. #5 was 90 psi. My timing is set correctly. I did an oil test and the compression on Cylinders 1 thru 4 went to 120 psi and # 5 went to 160 psi. Given that the car was working fine prior to the overheating episode, I worked with the assumption that the bottom end of the engine was good.
Is it possible that the rings got stuck because of the coolant going thru the piston rings, and because it was sitting for about a month?
I put some more oil thru the spark plug holes and I will let it sit overnight to see if the rings will free up.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
If I have to take it apart again, can I do the rings without removing the engine from the car? seems to have a lot of room to drop the oil pan.
Thanks you all

[Ozark Lee]

Usually you can see the damage on the cylinder walls if the rings are damaged. Even on a high mileage Volvo you can usually still see the cross hatching and there should be no vertical scars. Do you happen to have any pictures of the cylinders from when you had the head off?

...Lee

[matt122s]

Hi Denraden03,
Does the car start and run? Is it running poorly? Is it smoking from the dipstick or tail pipe? I bought an 850 that had overheated and went through the same process, removed the head, had it machined and put in new valve seals. When I reassembled everything it started and ran, but I was getting so much blow by -it was pushing oil out of the dipstick. The previous owner had driven it too far once it had overheated that it damaged the rings. I ended up replacing the engine with a used one from the local junk yard. I hope you don't need to do that.
What are your symptoms? Maybe it's something different.

[rspi]

What he said... ^^^

[denraden03]

As of yesterday, not enough compression to get the car started. I don't think 60 psi will get the car started. With the spark plugs installed,It spun over as if they were out and attempted to fire. Will check today and report back. I just may have to take the engine apart. Don't know yet. Hopefully the rings freed up overnight.

[tryingbe]

Put some oil in the cylinders then try to start again.

[denraden03]

UPDATE: As of 8:30 a.m. this morning, I rechecked the compression. Cylinders 1 thru 4 went up from 60 psi yesterday to 95 psi today. Cylinder 5 was at 120 psi. They are all still lower than the specs. TURBO(150-180)???
Like I said in my earlier post, the car worked great with lots of power before the overheating episode .
My concern is why does the first 4 cylinders have such low compression readings and #5 is higher. Did I do something wrong during the head installation process? Is it my timing? I set up the timing as follows:
a) set crank at TDC. Between the two notches on the belt gear on the crank
b) Used the Camshaft Locking tool to set camshafts in correct position, with the exhaust camshaft gear in the "rest" position.
c)With the camshafts still locked, I installed timing belt setting up the exhaust cam by turning the exhaust cam gear clockwise to align the cam gear to the original timing marks on the cam cover. Is this the correct procedure?
I am going to do a leakdown test just to be sure that I am not leaking compression thru the valves even though the machine shop said they were good.
But then again, if it were the valves it would not increase the compression when I do the "WET" test
Am I prepping myself to pull the motor to replace the rings?

[denraden03]

ANOTHER UPDATE:
Before I post this update and in order to keep things in perspective, here is what was done prior to my existing issues.
Car overheated and cylinder was found to be warped.
Subsequently, the head was sent to the machine shop and was machined. Tech said he had to remove approx 20 thousands to get it true.
I reinstalled the head and timing belt as per specification.
I just completed a leak down test as follows:
With each piston at TDC. I applied 60 psi of air to each cylinder and here are the results;
No air escaping from the intake, exhaust, radiator or oil filler cap. So that rules out piston rings and valves.
However here are some other results.

AIR to CYL 1; leak from CYL 4 and 5
AIR to CYL 2; leak from CYL 3 and 5
AIR to CYL 3; leak from CYL 5 (lots of air escaping here)
AIR to CYL 4; leak from CYL 1 and 3
AIR to CYL 5; leak from CYL 1
So it seems that either the head was not machined properly or the deck of the block is warped. I guess I will have to pull the head again to see why it is not sealing the individual cylinders.

[scot850]

Unfortunately this sounds like you have to pull the head again. I know you will re-check the block flatness and check it has not twisted.

Like the guys have suggested, have you tried to put some engine oil in the bores and try to start it? There have been some folks that have had issues with 'lawnmower' syndrome, where the bores can get polished or fuel leaking from leaky injectors have washed all the oil out the bores and doesn't give enough compression to start the engine.

I don't think this is the issue in you case, but it may be a lot easier to try before a full on strip down.

Neil.

[tryingbe]

Both head and block is made from the same aluminum. If the head was warped, block would likely be two.

Personally, I would abandon that engine and get a used running engine and put that in instead.