Got it all opened up again.

I used a blunt piece of wood to push the seal a little bit past the face of the head





Then I watched the IPD video again and I felt like I should push it more in. Which I did. And........rolled the seal. Clearly, I’m not good at this.

Here are pictures of the original Volvo seal which was replaced during last timing belt change and pictures of yesterday's Elring seal that rolled.



Yellow areas show the small nicks which probably happened during seal removal.


Right now, I have the bore wiped and cleaned up as best as I can without forcing the back timing cover too much.

Can anyone provide tips/tricks on how to install this seal without rolling it? More oil as a lubricant perhaps? I admittedly was a little miserly with it on the inner surface.
Im thinking:
1. Put a new seal after its lubed well inside and outside, then press it by hand even as far as possible.
2. Use the back timing cover to press it farther back. 3. Then take my old rolled seal and put in the camshaft and then use the back timing cover to push both seals back until adequate depth is achieved.
4. Remove the old rolled seal and voila! The day is saved (in theory, we’ll see how this goes in practice...)

Also, can the older Volvo seal be used again?

 

use an old seal on top of the new one being inserted and lightly hammer the new seal in, going around the perimeter of the seal to get it seated evenly.

i'd say it's a gamble using the old volvo seal.

don't be too discouraged - if everything goes right you don't learn as much.

 

I appreciate the encouragement. I’m using a new seal (last one that I have in my pile of parts).

How critical is it to be perfectly flat top to bottom of the seal?



Phone keeps inverting the pictures for some reason. The bottom left corner (so bottom, passenger side) is just a tiny bit out compared to the other sides and I can’t get it to budge really anymore.

Any thoughts?

Here’s the seal all assembled. I’m pretty at this point it’s all squared up or best as it’s going to be from my eye’s perspective.

 

that looks better than before to me. try to get it as even as possible top to bottom, but it looks pretty good from the angles

 

I idled the car for 10 mins. No leaks.
Drove her about 25-30 miles mostly freeway/country roads and so far so good!!

I’m cautiously optimistic here, but I think problem solved.
Almost makes me wonder if I shouldn’t have tried pressing in the original Volvo seal that was only a couple of years old farther back and seen if that resolved the problem. Oh well, live and learn I guess

 

I made a pressing tool out of a 3/4in block that I drilled out with a forstner bit that made a hole big enough to clear the end of the camshaft. You could tap on that and apply relatively even pressure. I ended up using on the transmission input shaft too, since it was about the same size.

 

I still think it's much easier to loosen, if not remove, a couple of the front cam caps and then that seal is infinitely easier to take out and replace, no special tools needed... and you can place it exactly where you want! Those caps are never hard to unscrew, take very little torque to tighten.

 

True, especially if the valve cover gasket is being replaced. I think one could get away with loosening all the bearing caps but just taking off the front 2.
Using the old seal to push the new seal in did the trick for me.

 

Wanted to post an update. The cam seal is doing well. It’s been just under 300 miles and it’s still doing good.

That being said, the valve cover gasket is starting to weep on both sides. I tightened the acorn nuts a little bit (1/4th turn)and that seems to have mildly worsened the weeping.

Should I try backing off the acorn nuts say half a turn? The tightening pattern I followed initially was the one in the Haynes Manual (start with middle two, then the 4 on either sides, followed by the final two on the opposite ends). If there’s a better method, I’m all ears for it.

Thanks lev and mschultz for having helped me through this project.

 

that tightening pattern is correct - a sort of star pattern that widens out from the middle.

if the tightening worsened the weeping, do try backing them out to the original torque, or as close as you can, and then report back if that helped.

that would be my thought anyway - if you change X and problem Y worsens, go back to X, adjust, and then observe Y again.

 

Well, the gasket has to be changed. Both surfaces have to be very clean, I use carb cleaner or similar. The nuts have to be tightened to 9 f/lbs which is not much, I don't torque but that's me, there may be a tendency to overtighten. I use sealant only in the corners where elevation changes. You can use sealant on both sides along all the edges but that will make it a pain to clean next time though it should take care of leaks if done right...

 

Sounds good. I’ll order the new gasket and replace it. Fingers crossed, this time I get it right.

 

One last follow up: is there a trick to get the upper front timing cover back on without having to take the timing belt and the accessory belts off?

If not, is there a problem with not putting the cover back on?

 

The cover should be on there, not that it's crucial but keeps things clean, etc.
I usually loosen the water pump pulley some and that gives enough room to get the cover on/off. The timing belt should not be an issue...

 

i don't have much experience with the b230, and haven't changed the belts yet on either of mine, but i used to run my '95 subaru legacy without the covers. ran it that way for 200K miles of the 300K miles the car ended up with when it finally rusted out. i did two timing belts on it. never had an issue, and changed the belts at the proper 100K interval.

 

That’s reassuring to know. I might try to get the cover back on at a later point. But for now, I’ll be leaving it off.