Hey folks, the other day I had a tough day trying to do the timing belt on my 240. I last did this in 2019, about 60k miles ago or so, maybe a bit more. Old belt wasn't bad at all, so it was more preventive maintenance.

I keep reading on this and can't find anything too solid. I have a scratch on the cam, which I remember doing in 2019 when trying to remove the old seal with a small screwdriver. My new seal did leak after a couple years for a while due to the flame trap, then seemed to either stop leaking or perhaps the leaking coolant washed it all away. No idea, but I have done 60k miles with this scratch.

What I've done (saw this on a toyota and a miata forum), was gently sand the edges off the scratch, then over the last couple days I filled the scratch with JB weld, sanded, filled it again, sanded, and then sanded with 3000/6000 grit sandpaper. Everything feels real smooth, but it's still a scratch. What I'm wondering is how deep can I push the replacement seal in to prevent any issues? It looks like if I seat the seal against the lip in there, I can bypass the worst of the scratch or even the whole scratch. I read about how pushing it too far in will cause leaks, but I can't seem to see why this is. I also read that you can block some sort of oil passage, but the only hole I see in there is behind this raised lip. I felt/ looked around with a toothpick to see if there were some small holes that could be blocked, and I just don't see anything.

Another question I have is in regards to how I rolled the edge on my brand new volvo seal. I do not know how this happened. I worked around the seal gently with a piece of wood and a wood mallet, very lightly tapping it into place/flush. When I started the car, oil shot everywhere. Don't know how it happened, but when the seal was removed I noticed it had no spring inside like every seal I've installed in the past. Maybe it never had one, maybe it was dropped. Any advice here, or general advice? The project itself caused a lot of worry and stress since it's my only vehicle, so anything would be appreciated.

As a side note to the whole mess, the oil leaking from the seal did save me in a way. Somehow I did not tighten the nuts holding the fan on, so it about fell off. One oil leak/seal issue saved the fan and the radiator. Still a stupid mistake.


Scratch after using JB weld and sanding

Seal with rolled edge and no spring. The seal reformed to the proper shape later, but I did not reuse it.