I have taken the head off my 960 and all valves are bent. Cylinders look to be dented but no cracks..There are heads on ebay redone for 400 bucks. Whats the trick to putting my cam gears back on ? can I just line the old ones up vs the new ones.. example .. first two lobs facing up on old cam mark where they are and install the same way on the new ones ?

 

There is a little more to it than just lining up the gears.
you should be able to do some research and get directions.
It is not easy, hope you have some good skills.

DanR '94 964 355,000 miles (121,000 on the new engine)

 

It's not a big deal, I did it with NONE of the special tools when I did my HG. Honestly, by the time you figure in machine shop costs, purchase of a new head, all the gaskets etc. that go along with this - and after having done it myself - I'm going to recommend an American V8 swap instead of repairing your engine. I now wish I would have done a 5.3l GM swap, and it's what I plan to do once this motor fails.


Regardless, if you want to repair it, it's easy. Did you mark the gears when you removed them? If not, it won't be so easy. Did you remove the gears frmo the cams? If you didn't mark them, AND removed the gears from the cams - it'll be even harder.

 

I still have the old head with the timing gears on the old cams. When I get the new one it comes with a reworked head and cams. So I just have to put my cam gears on the new cams or I am assuming I can just use the old cams. I was going to mark one of the gears on the old cam by just keeping the first two lobs up and putting it on that way. I am guessing it can only go on one of three ways.

 

Are you saying that you have separated the cam gears from the cams?

Your new head may just be the lower portion, the top portion will come from you current engine.

If you have not separated the cams from the gears, don't there is no reason to do that.

The most important thing is, the crankshaft has to be on it's mark by the oil pump. When the crank is on the correct mark, all pistons are down in the cylinders, this allows for full rotation of the cams and not interfere with the pistons.

Then all you will have to do is put the cams on there timing marks and set the timing belt.

Let me know if you need further information.

DanR '94 964 355,000 miles (121,000 on the new engine)

 

The new head also comes with cams.. but the cam gears are not attached to the new cams. I have to use my old cam gears that are on my old cams. I guess I can just use my old cams since they look great. Does it really matter ? LIke I said there should only be three ways that I can put the gear back on. As long as assemble them to the new cams the way they came off the old cams (lets say two from lobs facing up) I should be ok. but at this point I might just use the old cams. Not even sure why they supply new cams with the head. it comes with a new valve cover as well.

You also mention that the crank has to be on its mark by the oil pump ? I dont understand. I know what marks you speak of on the crank I just line that up. Most the cylinders are all the way down except two that are partially down about a half inch. It would be cylinders 4 and 5 ... 123 and 6 are all the way down.

 

I would use the cams that came with head, leave it as a kit. There could be small differences in the cam journals, which are sized to the cams.

Are your old cam gears still attached to the old cams? If so just match, if not then yes, you will have a one in three for each cam. But there is an off center groove at the rear of the cams, this groove is in the same plane for both cams, so now you have only two possible positions for the cam. Just make sure you the both have the offset in the same direction.

Yes, again you are correct, with the crank marks, all pistons will be below the deck, meaning below the top of the block, that is where they need to be so you can rotate the cams into possible positions.

DanR

 

Dan thanks so much for the info. I have the old gears on the old cams so I am just going to put them on the new ones the way they came off the old ones. I did have a little piston damage but its only dents from the valves.. No cracks or anything. I guess this is normal when this happens in these cars since they make most of them no tolerance motors now which I cant understand.

 

I own a 92 960 that I recieved for free that had snapped the timing belt and toasting all the valves, including snapping the heads off of 5 valves. I purchased all the parts on-line, had a shop replace the valves and check the head, which checked out ok. The shop charged me 200 to pressure check and replace the valves that I supplied. I took a dremel to the pistons that had any sharp edges from the valve heads to eliminate any potential hotspots. I did NOT have any special Volvo tools. Over all, including the price of a new windshield, I spent aprox. $900 on parts and shop. Within 2 weeks of putting it all back together, I drove it over 1,000 miles when I moved without a hickup. The cams do have timing marks. They are EXTREMELY small. The previous owner had partially disassembled the engine and I had to go to the local wrecking yard for references and small parts. All I had for a manual was the Chiltons that cam with it a Gates timing belt reference guide. I put the engine together earlier this year, in February of 2010. If you want to talk, send me an email and I will shoot you my #. I live in St George UT. I moved from Spokane WA.