I am having a wierd BOV type sound coming from the turbo,
I installed a highflow air intake and have been hearing this sound coming from the air intake when lifting my foot off of the accelorator. usually under harder acceleration.

I also only hear a smooth turbo cry when the engine is cold and just started. When it is warm the turbo cry almost is non exsistent and the boost pressure is weaker then when it is cold.

I live in sarnia ontario and if anyone knows someone in my area who can help me out or if anyone on this forum can help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank-you.

 

Your turbo may be getting old. Your oil may be getting old. I would say the biggest reason why you can hear it now is that high flow intake thingy. You can just hear it better. When the blow-by valve opens, you can hear the noise better. That noise is probably not a problem. You can check your turbo by removing the inlet pipe. Look for oil and shaft play. There can be a tiny bit of side to side play and even less back and forth play (along the shaft). Make sure that the compressor wheel is not touching the housing anywhere and you should be fine. Another thing to note. When oil is 'old' (like not changing the oil enough) it has been heated up and cooled down a lot (the turbo really heats it up) it becomes less viscous. It becomes a looser fluid. That's not good for your turbo. If you are changing the oil regularly, then it's probably fine.

 

I appreciate your knowledge.

I had removed the air intake houses as far as the turbo, I saw oil leaking.
It doesn't seem right to me.

I have not to see if there is play in the blade but I am wondering what to do with the oil that is in the turbo.

My father passed this car down to me and told me that he oil changed it maybe 2 times a year and always kept adding oil. Didn't seem right to me.

I hope I have not damaged my turbo.

 

If I'm following you right, you haven't checked for shaft play right? When you do check it, look for scrape marks on the housing and play with it a bit to see if it scrapes any where. If it not scraping, then it will actually operate fine even if it does leak oil. Mine leaked oil since it was replaced. It makes me question the quality of the unit. But I think a little leakage is normal. You could use some brake parts cleaner and clean out you intake hoses. You can pull them off and clean them really good with that stuff. When you put them back on, you can check them periodically and see how fast the oil redeposits itself. Another thing is you could pull the turbo and maybe rebuild it if it is leaking oil but isn't too sloppy. I pulled mine off to do that and found out that it needs a new turbine/shaft because the shaft itself was worn. I got pretty unlucky with that.

Good luck.

 

Just an unsolicited observation but that "high flow" air filter a/k/a cold air intake serves very little purpose other than give rise to concern about your turbo. The o.e. Volvo turbo air box gets air from the passenger side fender well, i.e. cold air. The cone gizmo's suck air from the engine compartment...not exactly an improvement. I use a stock turbo air box on my 347 cubic inch V8....gets plenty of air...as I said, just an observation...

 

TO: titanjoe, Thanks. I am going to do the job today and clean everything up as much as possible. I am going to go and get my oil checked as well.

I don't think my father has taken care of this engine as much as he should have but do you have any recommendations for type of oil to use for the flush.

TO:swift justice, Thank for your observation. I have the highflow intake setup almost identiaclly to the OE box, My next job is to make a cone to partially isolate the filter to suck air from the original section from the passenger side. I do have the half of the air filter right up snug to that side and then the rest and you geussed it open to the rest of the engine.

I do enjoy the extra sound it gives the engine and the turbo, better when everything will work right. Thank you for your time! enjoy your volvo as I am trying to do with mine.

 

unless you're doing a whole lot more to the engine, like major +++ stuff, you could take the stock air filter completely out of the car and not get one horsepower more. those high flow cone air filters do a WORSE job than the stock filter, but they do make more intake noise and I guess thats, um.... whatever. the same goes for K&N filters, btw. all they do is let more dirt into the intake track and lighten your wallet.

 

Once I fix the turbo or gasket because the turbo leaks oil SOMEHOW. I plan to install a full highflow magnaflow 2.5 exhaust system with high flow cat and a high flow muffler. I also am going to install new sparkplugs and wires.

The Air filter I use is a very good filter that is new and just like the old one. But new and cone like. It's not your shi**y canadian tire filter.

I also plan on rebuilding the engine with a stronger turbo.. So the highflow air intake setup I have which is almost like the stock one ( sucks half of it's air from the passenger quarter panel and has a heat filter coming )

I also just replaced some of the vacuum lines because the old ones were cracked and stiff.

I plan on a rebuild of the engine and maybe the body, but If I don't go with the body and I have the engine fully rebuilt than I am taking the engine out of the volvo and tranny out and putting it in my mint 1995 sunfire GT. rwd conversion

Thanks for the replys and your time and advice.

 

If you are planning on getting a stronger turbo, I wouldn't worry one bit about this one. Unless that is several years down the road. If it doesn't scrape, you're good.

 

I had taken everything apart yesterday in an attempt to see if the fan was loose or scraping. I took off everything before the fan and the BOV. The fan was not a mm loose but it does look VERY VERY close to the walls. I spun it with my fingers and it didn't make any sounds. seems very strong. I replaced the vacuum line from the BOV to the intake manifold and It seemed to have really helped out. I know hear the normal turbo pressure hiss under load, Still not as strong as it should be and not as loud as I am used to hearing it a while ago but it did help. I can still not find where the oil is coming from. I plan on the rebuild a bit further down the road when I find out if I am going to be keep the engine in the car it's in or swapping it to me other car and doing a whole transplant. For now I plan on a few simple bolt on's for sound and gas mileage.

 

You guys are a really big help thank you,

I have another question.

We recently had the car etested and it did not pass, apparently the cat-converter is only working at 41%????? has anyone heard of these tests that tell you how much % they are running at.

Also when I was looking around for a new cat I was told if my cat is getting plugged and old that it could hurt the turbo bad. Is this true.

Also, when I looked under the car looking for the EGR valve on the cat I only saw a screw in the side where it looks like a valve or sensor would be. I look on the websites for the OEM type one and they all say that they require a sensor on the cat.

 

there's two different configurations with and without EGR

the actual EGR valve is under the intake manifold, and is connected to a vacuum controller thingie thats on the front of the left wheel hump and behind the ABS controller.

 

Ok, thanks.

So in my case I can buy a new universal 2.5" cat-converter?

I do not have the money for a new OEM style converter and a magnaflow universal converter is around 80$ all in.

Is my exhaust 2.5" or 2.38"? I was told my converter is only working at 40%.. that could be a reason for non-top performance from the turbo no?

 

I dunno, I've always had my cat's replaced by pros. I've always heard that the european cats in Volvos, VWs are 'honeycomb' design and much higher flow and longer lasting than the 'can of pebbles' style of the domestics and most universal replacements. The one on our 87 240 lasted 20+ years and 350,000+ miles before we had to replace it due to not passing smog, so we went ahead and got a real Volvo one. I had to replace one on a 89 VW Jetta GLi at about 250k miles due to damage from being rear ended (bent my whole exhaust system up), the independent muffler guy I went to used a honeycomb universal 'core' that he spliced into the original VW cat end pieces, that also seemed to work quite well. as far as I can recall right now, those are the only ones I've ever had to replace.

 

I had a loud hiss under boost when an idiot installed the turbo with a plug missing. It was in the front of the compressor housing down low. It was just a threaded hole that needed a bolt sunk into it. In the pic you can see it after the cast "VOLVO." It's filled with a hex head bolt.

 

the bov sound your getting is more than likley your stock bov(i know thats not what there called) on your turbo theres a triangular plate with 3 , 10mm bolts, thats where it is, and you wont be able to really hear it with the stock box but you will deffiniatly hear it with an aftermarket intake for your turbo, i used to hear it all the time until i made a plate to bypass that for my aftermarket blow off valve, so needless to say i replaced all of my intercooler piping. but now im starting to hear it again , but i have a lil shaft play in my turbo back and forth play (probably due to 15 to 17 lbs of boost on the stock turbo) no side to side and no oil leaks, but with an after market intake like that its normal to hear that, dont be to concerned about that...