Oh boy. So, I did my timing/h20 pump about 5k miles ago on my girlfriends 2003 Volvo S40. Noticed a small oil leak a couple months later when I went to undercoat it for the winter, it appeared to be coming from the intake cam seal.. Bummer, seeing as I just had everything disassembled. I put it off because the leak wasn't horrible, however it began to get more obvious over time. Flash forward to today, finally going to tackle the cam seal, striped everything and all my pulleys look dry (both cams and the main)! For the amount of oil that its leaking you'd think you'd be able to see some signs oil coming out. I pulled off my cam to remove the rear timing belt cover and it looks like I may have a blown out head gasket. I don't have another engine block/head/gasket to compare it too so I'm looking for some help/advice. I was able to slide a puddy knife in between the block and head near the front passenger corner and I've never seen that before as most head gaskets you can see or feel the lip if you rub your finger over it. However, when I look up a replacement gasket it appears to have rounded edges and the block is pointed. Thanks in advanced!

 

Both cams look dry? I see oil all over the intake cam pulley. And oil from higher. Make sure the PCV hose isn't leaking at the head. Or the oil cap seal.

I never paid much attention to the area you believe is a blown head gasket, but I don't think you have a problem. It would leak coolant there.

 

Do you have any water in the oil?

Have you done a compression test?

Since you have it tore down I would pull the intake manifold and check for a clogged air/oil separator. I just cleaned mine after I found it clogged. It had a ton of back pressure blowing oil out everywhere. The bottom oil return port was clogged with a milky oily residue.

 

Sorry for the delayed response. I have been out of town but just got back into the garage to work on the Volvo again.
It looks wet around the cams because I had just used some cleaner to remove residual oil (which I have done multiple times now!). When the belts were on and the car was running and clean/dry I couldn't see anything coming out of the cams or leaking down the side of the block. When I looked underneath it almost looked to be coming from my alternator which would make since if my oil/air separator was clogged (seeing as its right next to and slightly above).
I haven't done a compression test, I figure if my gasket was blown where I am questioning, my valves would still hold compression seeing as the inner part of my gasket would still be in tact. (if that makes any sense).
I took your advice Hudini and pulled the intake and oil/air separator and like you said, it was pretty gunked up. The lower port was full of milky residue. I will upload picture when my phone gets some life.
What the best way to clean this out? Also, my block seems pretty gunked up as well (where the oil/air separator hoses connect).. Is there any way to clean that out? I tried to pull out the most crud I could using a pick but I have a feeling there's a lot more in there.

 

I would just buy a new oil trap. They ae pretty cheap.

 

I used a parts washer filled with PSC 1000 from Tractor Supply. (and eye protection, rubber gloves, etc) Another method is a shallow tub filled with gasoline or mineral spirits, (some type of solvent). I also used different sized steel bottle brushes.

As pierremcalpine wrote, it's cheap to replace if you want to skip the hassle.

Make sure to clear the corresponding bottom hole in the engine, the one that connected to the milky clogged up hole in the bottom of the air/oil separator. I placed a large hose over the hole and blew into the hose until I heard a 'pop'. After that it was easy to blow air into the hole. You could also see ripples in the oil through the (removed) dipstick hole showing air movement. The top hole in the block was dirty but clear.

 

Thanks guys! Just ordered a new trap and new seal (which I didn't see when removing the old one) from Volvo for $38. It's should be in tomorrow but I probably won't tackle it until this weekend. My fingers are crossed, hoping this is the culprit!