I recently bought a 1995 850 turbo wagon with 87,000 miles. The car runs great except for an oil leak that leaks all over the back of the engine and has a very strong oil burning smell when stopping on exit ramps after freeway driving. After a little research on this forum I replaced the turbo oil line gasket and o ring, but the oil burning smell is still there so I'm guessing its a different issue. While changing the oil return line, I noticed quite a bit of oil on the bottom of the turbo, but I doubt its getting from there to the exhaust. I've also noticed some oil around the valve cover that I'm thinking could be dripping and burning on the manifold - doesn't look like its coming out the oil fill hole. Anybody ever have a similar problem or give me an idea where to look?

 

Did you clean the area thouroughly using some sort of degreaser after repairing the turbo oil line?

are you sure there's only oil from the rear of the engine?

-Mike

 

I did clean the engine with brake cleaner. I'm driving about 300 miles tomorrow, so I'll put it back on the ramps when I get home to see if anything else is leaking. I noticed a leak coming from under the timing belt cover, but that leak is so far from the exhaust I doubt it could be causing the burning smell.

The whole problem seemed to start when I switched it from regular oil which was what the previous owner used to synthetic. I even switch out the mobile 1 with a synthetic blend hoping it would get better, but no luck.

 

It is known for leaks to appear after switching to synthetic oil from dino juice.

Do you have Oil On your timing belt at all? If you do I would plan on replacing that belt, and the seals too while it's off. I would remove the covers and inspect the area well, take a look behind the cam gears to see how the cam seals are, you can also chweck around the crank pulley to see oil pump area and front crank seal area.

 

Hello Mr. BriGuy,

Greetings from Chicagoland.

I have a similar symptom as you do.

B5234T engine is notorious for oil leak. Slight oil leak under the turbocharger seems to be normal.

Oil cooler line is another leak-favorite location. Take a look at FCP Groton's parts illustration at:

http://www.fcpgroton.com/volvo850cooling.htm

About mid way on the page, you'll see an illustration titled "Engine Oil Cooler Lines Turbo Models". Leak under the timing belt cover may be from tired seals, numbered "7" or "8" (my car is leaking from the hose itself). But as Mr. MikeySq quotes, you might want to inspect the timing belt area. It's easy enough for anyone to do, simply remove one bolt, with 12mm (13mm?) socket and the cover should slide off, you may have to wiggle a bit. If you find oil leak around the area, you want to repair it or the head may find its way to heaven. If the area is clean, then it's probably from crank pulley seal or the intercooler thermostat seal.

I get burned smell too, except mine smells more like gun-powder. I've talked to 2 experts (one from this forum, Mr. Tech, and another at a Volvo dealer) and they both mentioned A\F mixture may be too rich, caused either by vacuum leak or failing oxygen sensor. I haven't found any crack or loose connection, so I'm not sure at this point what's causing it.

If synthetic (blend) leaks more than conventional oil, you might want to switch back to conventional 10W-30 (5W-30 may be too thin for this engine). My car seems to be happy with Valvoline synthetic blend. You might also want to re-clean the engine good, and see if it drips on the ground overnight. Locating the leak is half the battle.

Good luck,


JPN

 

As Mikey said leaks after changing to synthetic from dino are common. This happens because synthetic cleans the gunk from the inside of the engine and sometimes that gunk was filling some holes or holding seals together, with no gunk to fill holes or hold seals together leaks occur.

 

No more smell after running it with the turbo return tube replaced. It took a while to get the smell to go away, but that fixed it.

Tonight I took off the plastic cover that hides the spark plugs, and found oil in all the indentations in the head. After a little searching, I also found a hose that is connected to the passenger side of the intake manifold that had rotted off (5/16 od and 1/8id). Does this hose have anything to do with the PCV system? I never noticed any oil coming from the oil filler cap, just a little around where it meets the valve cover. I'll see what happens when I run it for a while now that that hose is re-connected (whatever its for?).

I pulled the cover over the timing belt and found no leaks under there from the cam or main seals. It looks like whatever was coming from there is actually coming from unter that plastic cover on the top of the engine. I'm guessing the PCV system needs cleaned and it should be good to go.

 

hello
I have a 96 turbo had the same trouble the oil leaks around the oil filler cap replace the gasket and remove the cover over the spark pugs you will find it full of oil the draiange for thisarea emptys on top of the turbo you may also find the oil trap hose bad that goes behind the intake it comes from under the cover over the spark plugs if you have to replace this hose it requires pulling the intake the gasket for the oil filler cap is cheap hope this helps
good luck Rick