9 replies to this topic

[swedesteed]

Attached are some photos of a cylinder head recently taken off our 1998 S70 GLT. My daughter was uneventfully driving it to work out of town on a fairly level highway 90+ miles from home when the car suddenly begins losing power and stumbles to a stop by the side of the highway. We have had the car since 117k and it now has approx 147k, timing belt faithfully changed just before 140k miles, synthetic oil always while in our ownership.

The Volvo tech doing this as a side job has said he and others at his shop had never quite seen anything quite like this - most all the exhaust valves burned with approx 1/2" holes in four out of five cylinders,all at once. He said he did notice that there were gouges from valves striking the tops of the pistons at onetime in the past history of this car and thinks the head was defintely off to be reworked or replaced.

So what do you guys as Volvo experts think happened here and how can I prevent this from ever happening again?
I will be out over $2100 for towing, diagnoses, labor and a used remachined cylinder head.
With payments remaining on this nice car, I can't afford this to ever happen again... [attachment=628:attachment][attachment=629:attachment]

[merlin390]

the only time I have ever seen anything similar to this is when a car was overheated and running crappy gas and the timing was out.

[anarchyx34]

Maybe the engine was running lean due to a bad fuel pump/clogged fuel filter? has the check engine light been on for a while?

[ms007]

Take my advice put a engine in it. The engine overheated to the point of burning the valves. If you put a cyl head on there is a good chance it will burn oil.

[swedesteed]

Maybe the engine was running lean due to a bad fuel pump/clogged fuel filter? has the check engine light been on for a while?

Initially the CEL was on for an intermittent emissions/EVAP malfunction code but did not seem to affect driveabilty...would not there be a code for running lean? the final code to be pulled up was 'intermittent random cylinder misfire"....

[Mogatu'r]

Initially the CEL was on for an intermittent emissions/EVAP malfunction code but did not seem to affect driveabilty...would not there be a code for running lean? the final code to be pulled up was 'intermittent random cylinder misfire"....

Dude an Cylinder misfire means killing an engine, I had it in a 850 that I test drove and sure enough it didn't affect driveability, but that doesn't mean I would drive the car for a long time!

[850-Turbo]

Attached are some photos of a cylinder head recently taken off our 1998 S70 GLT. My daughter was uneventfully driving it to work out of town on a fairly level highway 90+ miles from home when the car suddenly begins losing power and stumbles to a stop by the side of the highway. We have had the car since 117k and it now has approx 147k, timing belt faithfully changed just before 140k miles, synthetic oil always while in our ownership.

Take my advice put a engine in it. The engine overheated to the point of burning the valves. If you put a cyl head on there is a good chance it will burn oil.

... the final code to be pulled up was 'intermittent random cylinder misfire"....

It's not surprising that the last code was misfire, since a hole in the valves will cause misfires and maybe even suggest that the valves were "burnt" at that time, meaning it didn't happen over a long period of time.

I don't think the engine was overheated. Did you see any indication that it was, like steam from the radiator or the temperature gauge pegged on hot or the thermostat stuck closed( remove it and test it)?

Those valves don't look "burnt." They look like they were subjected to severe detonation under some lean conditions.

Do you see any vertical lines on the cylinder walls? If you do, then maybe it's time for a new/rebuildt engine. Even if you don't see any lines, it's still doesn't say that you don't have piston ring issues.

Did you hear severe pinging noises right before this happened?

Well, you're in for a valve job at least. You just need to decide if there are any other damages to the engine.

If you find out that it was a lean condition, then you'll need to figure that out before you can run the engine for a long time.

Edited by 850-Turbo, 25 March 2006 - 02:29 AM.

[shurgen]

I'd consider replacing the whole engine. I bought me an engine for 650 shipped with 90k miles on it.

[Mesoam]

lets see your plugs...

[ms007]

I'd consider replacing the whole engine. I bought me an engine for 650 shipped with 90k miles on it.

smart choice replace the timing belt and tentioner if it wasn't done.