I have a 95 volvo 960. There is a pulley that comes through the timing cover that either the bolt snapped off or the nut just came lose. What does this pulley do. The engine no longer runs. I pulled the cover back and see the timing belt is still on. Are these considered interference motors ?

 

They are interference motors...

 

Do not try to start the car if that pulley is off. One bolt removes that cover, remove it and post a picture.

 

By posting a pic can you tell if it took out the valves ? I spin the motor over very easy by the crank pulley and watch all the timing gears move and cam through the oil fill hole but it just seems to easy to turn over by hand, Almost like its got no compression.. which a bent or broke valve would do. I will take a pic tonight.

 

Here are a couple of pics. I think I know what happen, the car was stolen and driven to NYC then died. Looks like the cam tensioner pully snapped and blew through the cover. They tried to get the car worked on getting a new timing belt and tensioner. Someone then told the owner that the car would need a new motor. I am guessing because it trashed the valves. I can pick up the car for 250 and its in amazing shape with new tires and winter tires. I am going to do a compression check on it but think it will have none. Can I get a new head for this or this one reworked ?

 

I am wondering if the t-belt is installed correctly?

It would be highly unusual for the valves to be bent and still allow the engine to rotate. Since you can turn the engine, but feel no compression, but it does turn, makes me think it is not installed correctly and by some great fortune, the valves are not interfering.

The important thing to remember is this in not like most other engines, the #1 cylinder is not set to TDC when doing timing belt changes, when the crank is correctly on it's mark, all pistons are down into their bores to allow for full rotation of the cams to line them up with out hitting pistons.

If a piston did hit any valves, it most likely caught a few valves and would not allow the engine to rotate full revolutions.

Before doing your compression test, get familiar with the factory markings (which are stamped on the cam gears) not marked with whiteout or pen marks, and the hard to find crankshaft marking. Make sure all is lined up correctly, otherwise your compression test may not prove anything.

I guess, worse case, is valves were broken, and it so bad, some pistons are too, which would allow for rotation but no allow compression.

Have read of two cases of broken pistons, so it very rare. But not sure if those still allowed for engine rotation.

Heads can be gotten, you would not really know the damage until it was torn down, so it might not be worth it to you to blindly take the car. Most of the time, the head survives, just the valves need to be replaced.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

DanR '94 964 352,000 miles (118,000 on the new engine)

 

Yes the motor turns over very easily.. the cams rotate with no problems as well. Is there any place I can get the timing info on these so I can check the original factory marks vs. the pink lines someone put on the engine ?

 

That installation looks perfect to me. However, when I did the two timing belt replacements on the 960 & S90 that I did, it was very hard to turn the crank.
http://www.atthetipwebs.com/technolo...iming_belt.htm

The cams have a little line groved into the cam gear sprockets and the crank at the bottom has a little notch in one of the gears where it lines up to the line on the block.

Something tells me that something is WRONG if it turns easy. Since everything in on, have you tried to start it?