Hello,
My 1983 Volvo 240 wagon has always had a bit of an oil leak. However, it's beginning to drip a lot more than usual, as in I'll park somewhere for a few hours, and there will be a few drops on the ground. I think I have found the location of the leak, here are some pictures. I want to know if there is anything I could replace or use to try and stop this leak, because there is oil all over the engine compartment.

Here are the pictures




view from further away



Another angle




Any help would be appreciated

 

you'd need to clean it up with something like Gunk engine cleaner, hose that off, then drive a few miles to see where the fresh oil is coming from, up there on top, it could either be the valve cover gasket, or the front camshaft seal. removing the timing cover may help identify the source. the camshaft seal is fairly easy to replace, the engine doesn't have to come apart or anything. There's a good chance your crankcase ventilation aka 'flame trap' is plugged up, when thats plugged, the pressure that builds up in the engine block tends to blow out the easiest path, which is often that camshaft seal.


side note... Weird, never seen fan belts with teeth on the outside. but then, a 1987 240 is the oldest Volvo I've worked on.

 

Where would I find the crankcase ventilation?

 

in volvo land, its known as a 'flame trap', and its under the intake manifold, ont he side of the engine block. there's an oil seperator box, and a hose off it that has the actual flame trap inside it. this should be serviced about once a year. the trap itself is just a little disk of plastic with a bunch of holes, its easier to replace than to clean.

 

By your picture, the leak is from the valve cover gasket, so change it! And yes, make sure the oil ventilation system is not plugged up. Good info here:
Guide to the Volvo PCV system (With video). - Turbobricks Forums

 

So I had a mechanic do a little inspection on the area, he said that if I pop the timing belt cover off, I'd probably really easily be able to see where the oil is leaking, because a majority of the oil is pooling near the bottom of the cover (not pictured). He also saw lots of oil near the oil pressure switch(?)

What are your opinions on this?

 

I'd clean it all up with some Gunk or other degreaser, then drive it and inspect for fresh leaks.

I had an oil leak that was hard to track, so I put a little bottle of UV dye in my oil (its sold specifically for this purpose), and drove 30 mins, and hit it with my UV flashlight (nerd toy), and voila, bright orange glow edging out of the front left corner of my valve cover gasket.

but, lots of oil in the bottom of the timing cover certainly sounds like seals to me. there's 3, the camshaft on top, the crankshaft on the bottom, and an intermediate shaft in the middle to the right side of the engine.

re: oil pressure switch, that's also right under the oil filter, so oil there could be coming from either, or it could be dripping down and blowing back from the top... again, clean engine, drive short distance, inspect. if you don't see oil, drive an hour or so, inspect again. repeat til you find it.

 

Alright thank you for the help! Would it be safe the just rinse the entire engine bay out? Like removing the battery and hosing it off? I don't want to short anything out

 

you'd be amazed how wet it gets in there in a rainstorm ...

don't even need to take the battery out. when the engine is cold, spray all the greasy areas down with a can of Gunk, let it penetrate for a couple minutes, then hose it off, let it dry for a half hour, ideally in the sun. if its /really/ greasy, use a brush to loosen the dirt after applying the Gunk. I try and avoid directly spraying the injectors, distributor, relays, but incident splash/spray won't hurt anything