I have had this car about 9 years now, and a few years back my wife had an alternator problem while traveling in SC and to make a long story short, it ended up trashing the belt and bending a few valves . It cost me $3500 to get it fixed as It happened 6-700 miles away I was unable to do anything except grin and bear it. Now its almost time to change the belt. I do my own on the volvo 850 and its not really that hard. While I flew down to SC to pick up the car I asked the owner of the garage why it was so expensive for the repair and he said that the cost of the head and a special tool that volvo only has to hold the camshaft, on the 850 its just a block of metal with 4 rods coming out of it basically freezing the camshafts in position whilst the belt is off so a new one can be installed and new idlers and tensioner also. My question is: is there a tool that can be purchased or rented to do this? Im not about to shell out another 2500+ of a job that I can do for maybe 4-500mbucks. Has anyone here done this job, that can add some info about this special tool?
Thanks
thagorilla

 

it is the L5 - b244s4 engine but it has vvt variable valve timing on the intake cam. Not really understanding if the cam shafts have to be locked in place like on the 850 or not. on the normal L5 engines the cams are at a low point and won't move when the belt is taken off, where as the 850 are up on the cam and will move to the off the cam position when the belt id released making timing the thing a PITA. Anybody with any experience with this please feel free to answer.
Thanks
Charles

 

It's time for another belt already?

If just replacing the belt, there is no need to lock the cams. That goes for the 850 as well.

 

Yes its been a few years. Wont the cams rotate off the valve springs if the cams are not locked? also this motor has the variable valve timing on the intake. Does that even matter?
Thanks for your response.
thagorilla

 

The belt is due every 10 years or 120,000 miles on the V50.

I've done hundreds of Volvo timing belts, never locked the cams. They shouldn't move. If they do, move them back.

There is a locking tool that goes on the back of the cams used when reassembling the cylinder head. But that tool is the same for the 850 as it is for the V50. Its only about $70, so that didn't really contribute much to the cost of the valve job. And if the shop charged you for the tool, it should be yours anyway.