My Volov is leaking oil and I think I found where, but I am not sure what the part is...Its on the passanger side of the engine in the bottom corner of the engine, kinda behind the o2 sensor.

Does this part have to be screwed in all the way?

 

that is the coolant drain, its used to drain the last coolant out of the block after draining the radiator. its a sort of valve, you turn the small nut to open/close it while using another wrench on the large nut to hold the base part fixed.

it appears the oil is leaking from well above it, probably the valve cover gasket, maybe the head gasket, hard to tell for sure from those photos. I would spray that down with Gunk foaming engine cleaner (when the engine is *cold*), let it soak in, then wash it off with a garden hose, and take a short drive, then see where the oil is coming from.

 

Thx. The edges on valve cover are clean as far as I can see. But is there anything that can leak on the back side of the engine, in front of the firewall?

I will have to clean it and try that,but I am just afraid I will spray something wrong and mess it up.

 

valve cover gasket leaks would come out from the gap between the valve cover and the head. the top of the valve cover would remain clean... leaks always go down, and with the wind towards the back. the whole back corner of that head looks oily.

 

Yea I know where the valve cover gasket is, but I just looked today and it seemed dry. I had to change it on my old car and this one isnt like that. But I will have to look again.

I changed PCV in hope it will help but it didnt.... I will prob just clean it like you said and see what happens...

 

in your first picture, the whole side of the block looks oily from the #4 exhaust header back, and dirty, like its been oily for a while.

 

fwiw, volvo b230 valve cover gaskets more often leak up front, around the camshaft seal. then that oil blows back and covers the whole engine. yours looks like its just leaking in the back.

head gaskets can leak oil or coolant, depending on just where they fail. my 740 turbo was seeping small amounts of coolant below exhaust header 3 and 4 for about a year before it finally blew the gasket entirely and lost compression and stopped running.

 

I had that same problem and also thought it was the valve cover gasket, which turned out to be dry. It was the o ring around the distributor shaft. Oil was leaking from there and spread out all over the back, bottom of the engine. It's actually a common failure after 20 plus years, they get hard and stop sealing. FCP and EEURO both sell o ring replacement kits pretty cheap.

 

note only 740/940 have the distributor back there, 240's have it on the intake side of the engine

 

So what model do you have?

 

From the pics it looks like a 240. Not enough space between the firewall and the engine for it to have the rear mounted distributor. Also, spark plug wires are coming from the front of the engine.

 

Good observation.

 

I've heard of leaking at the plug/cap on the back of a 240 where a 740 distributor would be mounted, directly behind the camshaft... haven't seen it myself

 

I have seen where the rear cam plug can blow out on 240s. Usually this happens on cars where the flame trap has been neglected. IPD even sells a bolt on retainer clip for it.