Alright... so I am taking the plunge into the Volvo world... I am looking at buying an 850 Turbo.

It is smoking under the hood... and on the exhaust... I pulled the heat shield from around the turbo and it appears that it only smokes when the waste gate blows off...

Any ideas of what this is?

It pulls real hard and the top end was rebuilt..

 

I hope whoever is selling it isn't asking a whole lot if it's smoking like that. Could have a plugged PCV, pull the dip stick while it's running to confirm that. Do a search too, there's a lot of info on here about smoking cars.

 

Yep, first place to check is the PCV system. That causes a lot of issues.

 

Thanks Guys!

Supposedly the top end was rebuilt and head gasket done several months ago... Some paper work to prove it... bottom end was from a 60k car...

The turbo was not replaced, so it has 140k on it...

I am very unfamiliar with a pcv system but have been trying to learn... I am absorbing everything I can... but I only have limited time to make the decision...

I am assuming from reading to check the pcv system, I pull the dip stick while running, if it is smoking then I need to just clean my whole pcv system, which I believe was supposedly located under the intake manifold... Is this correct???

Thanks

 

That is correct. +1 for doing the research, saves a lot of time mixed information. You can "clean" the PCV system, but it's usually something that should just be replaced. FCP Groton sells the PCV kit for a hundred bucks. And yes it is located under the intake manifold. It may sound like a difficult job, but it's actually fairly easy and straightforward. Do you do most of your own work on your cars?