Volvo 850 build
Got this car for free from my father. It's a 1995 Volvo 850 GLT (non-turbo). He purchased it in 2010 for next to nothing from it's previous owner who ran low octane fuel and it eventually burnt a hole in the headgasket. Dad rebuilt the head himself except had a local machinist mill the head, valve job, and assemble the valve train with new seals, etc.
Ran fine until late 2011. Car began to misfire and eventually had no compression in cylinder 4. Father said he would give me the car and help me fix it if I paid for parts. So we began tearing it down the to block in January. No oil in coolant or overheating so we suspected something wrong with one of it's valves. After removing the exhaust manifold and pressurizing cylinder 4 at TDC air was pouring out the EX valve.
So here are the pictures of the journey. This was my first time doing internal engine work and I got to learn a lot.
It sat under this shop for 2 months
The Patient: 2.4l 5 cylinder 20 valve DOHC aluminium head and block
The operating room
The fourth valve from the right (EX 7) has a small piece missing if you can tell or not. After taking out the valves and cleaning all of them, EX7 had some crazy damage. Then I noticed three of the valve seats were missing and on those valves stems the stem seals were cut almost like the spring compressed sooo much the it crashed into the stem seal. This means we were misfiring because of all the oil seeping into the cylinder because all the oil seeping into the cylinder. The dirtiest cylinders you see above had a valve without a spring seat. Since we didn't assembly the valve train the first time it got rebuilt we knew the machinist did something wrong. After sweeping thru the head with a magnet we found the broken pieces of the missing spring seats. The brilliant machinist installed three springs seats upside down!! When confronted about it he assured me it couldn't be done, but i tried it later myself to see if it were possible and sure enough, it can be assembled upside down. When these particular seats are in upside down, the are able to be crushed by the force of the spring. So it was only a matter of time before they shattered.
Looks like a broken valve at first glance, but upon removal and cleaning with wire brush the back side had obvious signs of burning. I'm assuming the caked oil caused hot spots.
Hydraulic lifters
The only thing I had outsourced was the seating of the new valve and another valve job. This is the schley valve spring compressor tool i used to assembly the valve train. If you don't have one, get one. They make head work a walk in the park and you can use it while the head is on the car if you need.
(before installing valve train, i hand lapped all the valves for a nice tight seal. Had the head vacuum tested and came back 100%!)
Finally!!! Some parts going back on the car instead of removed lol.
All buttoned up as of this past weekend. Started FIRST TRY, baby!
Did a DIY lip. Came of a 90's Passat VW
Throttle plate from a 960. Stock 850 plate has a restrictor preventing fast throttle response. That's Volvo for you.
Rid the old sagging headliner and applied a suede one. Love it!!
Did the door inserts too.
How it sits today. Really fun car to drive. It's different, quiet interior, smooth suspension, and quality.
Did some yellow fogs, blacked grill, and the passat lip.
Roof rack came off a 960 Volvo wagon.
Future mods:
16" or 17" wheels (i have ready 5x114 spacers)
5 speed swap
window tint
coilovers
install my 2.5" turbo 850 catback
light pressure turbo (5-7psi) (engine has upwards of 10.5:1 compr ratio)
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and suede look so good
Originally Posted by 2turbo4u
