So early last year I purchased a 1998 Volvo V70, who's tensioner gave up the ghost for $1USD+ Virginia minimum car tax of about $56.00. I procured a Head from e-bay for $200.00 shipped, and purchased the FCP groton kit. I had the head prepped and installed it. Turned over the engine, then started it and 2 weeks later went back to e-bay to purchase another head....

Whomever had previously worked on my friends volvo had apparently taken a saw to the front engine cover and in the process severing the timing marks on the bit of plastic that helps you differentiate between straight up timing marks and angled timing marks. Needless to say she's now back together. Also from now on if anything seems to stick when I'm turning the engine over I'd reccomend using a dowel to check piston height and look at the valves. If the piston is near the top and you've got open valves its bad news.

In the process I found that the head gasket that had came in the FCP kit didn't seal properly and let the coolant take full reign of the engine.

So as Tech has often said go OEM for the head gasket which is the "goetz" brand gasket. Its thicker and is a bit more tolerant to imperfections.
the rest of the kit did work out fine.

Once I had her all bolted up I went to start her and she decided that it would be a good idea to stall out every 3 seconds. This in turn wound up being a problem with me forgetting to reconnect 2 of the vacuum hoses. Hooked them up and she ran great.

The only thing I've noticed now is that she's a little sluggish off the line, but once you get her moving all 3K+ lbs of her seems to do pretty well.

So I have one question. I rigged up some tape and the decapitated timing marks to try and get it as close as possible. So my question is if being a tooth or so off on either the intake or exhaust cam would cause sluggishness ( a lot like an older car with retarded timing that is slow but once you get to about 3->4K it seems to move fairly well.

Could the sluggishness be due to the timing being off? Or is he just mad at me because he's dirty from sitting in the driveway for the past few months.

Next things up are the trans bushing and the upper engine mount that is torn. No leaks so I'm feeling pretty good!!

 

Yes it will act like that if off 1 tooth. Can you post pics of the front of the motor? I want to see how bad they messed it up.

 

Should look kind of like in the pic.

 

I lined it up using the carrots ^ | ^ where the timing belt attaches to the crank. I think its the intake cam. I'll check it tonight when I get home. I'm going to print off a scaled up template of the timing cover tonight and use that to check it as well, along with counting teeth to make sure I got it right.

If anyone has a straight on pic I of the cams gears I could reference, that would be really helpfull.

 

Let me know what you find.

 

Got it re-timed and performance is definitely better, getting a misfire now, so I think new wires and a cap are in order. I already put in new plugs so I'll pull them out and clean them.

I'll try and get a pic of the front engine cover tonight.

Drove her the 13 miles to work this morning without issue, just the misfire. I must say this is my first volvo's and they are very comfortable to drive.

 

Glad it is getting better. Once a new cap,rotor and wires are on it should drive like a dream.

 

Found when I replaced the second head that I left the last fuel injector unplugged.... Word of note, even with a cylinder down a volvo drives fairly nice, just idles a little roughly. It drives incredibly now. Pulls really hard in all gears and will chirp up to 2nd gear. I'm definitely pleased with it and she'll be making her maiden long distance trip in early September to my brothers wedding; 600 mile round trip. Should be fun.

 

Glad all is good now.

 

Sorry to bring this post back from the dead. . . .
I had a question about the timing marks.
I'm replacing my head gasket and want to know what harm would be done if I didn't lock the cam in place? Would I be able to reassemble the head if I neglected to lock the cam and just removed the head. Puting it all back together would I be able to tell what position the camshaft was in prior to removal?

What hurdles would I have to overcome doing it this way?

 

What year is it?
Did you remove the front pulleys?

 

Its a 98 V70xc

By pulleys, do you mean the sprockets for the intake and exhaust cam?

No I have not done that yet.

I was thinking about getting some large washers and doubling them up and getting a bolt with a wing nut and tighten it as much as I could....Think that would be enough to keep the cams from moving?

 

If you have not removed or loosened the front pulleys.(the ones the belt goes on) Then you can just put the cams in and set them about where the marks go and put the cam cover on. If they move a hair when tightening the cam cover just set the marks back where they should be. But also make sure the crank is in the proper position first.

 

Sweet!

Makes sense.

So one revolution of the pulley is = to one revolution of the cam shaft?
I cant put it in off by 180degrees?

 

1 cam revolution of the cams are = to 2 revolutions of the crank.
So if all the timing marks are lined up all will be fine.