OT: '98 Volvo V70 GLT | Massive Oil Blow Out of Filler Cap

[ProZak]

Argh. Story:

Small stumble at idle, did plugs / wires / filters. Noticed some oil on the head, figured I'd better do PCV while I was at it. Done.

And now, massive oil blow. Shop thinks it's piston rings, but I'm not burning oil out the back... ?

See these posts (1, 2) on the VolvoSpeed forums for more detail.

Ideas? Did I ball up the PCV / swap hoses somehow? Mechanic said it looked good to him, but what does he know. (Actually, these guys are quite good; I'm just desperate for a second opinion because I can't afford to replace this engine / car) Thanks in advance.

[Ross]

Consensus among that group is oil cap gasket is bad.
Hold your hand over the oil filler hole while it's running. Does pressure build up? If so the crankcase isn't properly ventilated.
Is there smoke coming from the open filler while running? If so that's blowby, likely rings or a piston failure.
This sort of thing usually doesn't happen suddenly, I'll bet the PCV is at fault.
CAVEAT I don't know jack **** about specifics on a WOlvo.

[ProZak]

Consensus among that group is oil cap gasket is bad.
Hold your hand over the oil filler hole while it's running. Does pressure build up? If so the crankcase isn't properly ventilated.
Is there smoke coming from the open filler while running? If so that's blowby, likely rings or a piston failure.
This sort of thing usually doesn't happen suddenly, I'll bet the PCV is at fault.
CAVEAT I don't know jack **** about specifics on a WOlvo.

Yeah, it's a brand new oil cap / gasket. Don't see smoke anywhere (except off the exhaust manifold, dammit) but I didn't test for pressure. I'll try that tonight. If I've jobbed up the PCV, hopefully it'll be a simple fix. Thanks.

[winfred]

theres too many different variations on 850/70 series flame trapp's to really tell you what/where to look for exactly(picture of the engine would help), the flame trapp (what volvo calls their pcv system) is simple with no moving parts, it's a quarter sized disc about a 1/4" thick with lotsa holes in it that goes inside of a plastic housing (turbos don't have the insert just the housing) with a small vacuum nipple going to manifold vacuum and about a 3/8" sized nipple going to the intake air boot, the small hose and it's nipples on both ends gets clogged with oil crud, and in severe cases the larger nipple can get crapped up too, this housing can usually be tracked by the about 1/2" hose going from the air boot, or it's actually in the elbow right at the throttle body, when volvo updated the intake manifold and went to drive by wire (shitty) they absolutely ****ed the system that traditionally needs to be serviced every couple oil changes and made it a bitch, around 100k it clogs up and you need to pull the intake and clean out the fittings replace the hoses and a plastic separator box on the side of the block that gets shitted up, if you ignore it it will start blowing seals on the engine, seals on the cam belt end are a pain over and above a timing belt change, ignore it too long and the oil rots the belt trashing the engine if it snaps (major added bitch factor if the car has variable cam timing, $600 tool needed, no iffs ands or buts just to re install the cam gear in the right position/tension), rear main is a major **** job as that's about 10-12 hours labor ($75 a hour at my shop) to drop the engine/crossmember and complete front suspension out the bottom of the car and then break it down and extract the engine/tranny to then take them apart, when the flame trapp system is in good shape it will just about hold the loose oil cap down

[markus]

note to self:never buy a volvo. even tho i do like the S60R

[winfred]

240/740/940 great car, 850/960 ok car, pre facelift 70s a step down from the 850 it started as, post facelift 70s (the ones that look like 80 series) 40/80 ****ing pieces of ****, i can only guess the 60 follows the fine tradition of the 40/70/80s from the beginning of the ford error err....era

note to self:never buy a volvo. even tho i do like the S60R

[ProZak]

Thanks for the write-up. I'll try to get pics of the engine bay posted this weekend.