For the past two years, I've been building my 850 to factory spec as well as performing a manual swap. The car was running beautifully for about 5000 miles. I put a motor in with only 90K miles on it. This is by far my favorite car in the world. I have much time and money into the car as it was really my beginning of mechanical work on any car. HOWEVER. Life has given me some lemons, and I'm too sad to make lemonade. I was making a drive down to Lancaster to look at another 850 ironically enough. This was about an hour drive. I was just leaving Lancaster when my oil pressure light came on and I almost had a heart attack at the wheel as I pulled over and shut the car off. First things first, checked the oil level. Was perfectly fine. No leaks, no smoke, no ticking valves. I start my car up again to find that the oil light has gone off. I drove very cautiously and pulled over every few miles. The light never came back on. The car never made any unusual noises. Finished my 30 minute trip home and noticed a slight ticking noise. A little worried about it, I hit my dash cluster a few times, and the oil pressure light flicked back on... I assume I drove my car 30 minutes with minimal oil pressure. My once completely smooth engine has a pretty hefty ticking now. Haven't started the car since, and I am just curious.. what the heck do I do now? Oil is fresh, so I doubt the pickup is restricted. I've heard o-rings in the sump can cause low oil pressure. My one question is, if I truly had no oil pressure, don't you think my motor would have blown completely after a 30 minute drive?! Is there anyway for a shop to know if the engine is toast before I invest more time into checking oil pressure and taking off the sump? I'm a very sad Volvo owner as I have no motivation to do another motor swap. I feel mostly responsible for thinking because the light went off my car was fine. I guess I just figured the light, or sending unit were faulty. They say we live and learn our mistakes. Well, this is one mistake I won't forget. If anyone has any input on what they think can be done as a next step, I'd appreciate it as I'm feeling a little bit helpless. Thanks

 

I would have done the same thing, or worse, I would have continued my trip with the light off.

I would assume you had LOW oil pressure and check the sump. Drop the pan, deal with that, put it back together, and see how it works out.

 

I think you'll be okay. I just got through having the same experience. I actually drove the thing home with the oil light on. Replaced the oil pickup o-ring (many threads on that) and the car is fine. It seemed to tolerate the low oil pressure without any immediate significant damage.

If you use the volvoclubs.org.uk (or whatever it is) online factory shop manual, there is an error in the torque specs for the oil pan bolts. The N-m figure is correct, the ft-lbs figure is way too high.

 

Thanks for the input. I talked to a great Volvo specialist in East Earl, PA and he gave me a quote for replacing those seals and checking my rod bearings. It'll be about $320 parts and labor. It sounds reasonable enough because I need my car to run. What do you guys think about that price? Typically I would tackle this myself, but its freezing outside, I have finals coming up, and I work full time. I hope she turns out to be ok! I'll post back with results