tuner4life Posted November 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 (edited) I started on the valve seal project yesterday. Holy crap, this is the most aggravating tedious thing ever!! The intake valves aren't too bad, but the exhaust side is nearly impossible to get the keepers back into place, even with trying the "dab of grease" method. After 4 hours I got it torn down, and got done with cylinder #1. I called it a night after that. I'll do the other 4 later this week. Now that I have sorted out what tools and things I need to do this job, I think I can get in a rhythm and get the rest done relatively quick. The valve seals that I removed though were in fact hard as a rock and cracking badly. I'm optimistic that this will fix my smoking issues. Edited November 30, 2015 by tuner4life 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 Finally got the valve seals done. What a pain! I believe that fixed the smoking issue. No more smoke on start up or hot idle. I havent really gotten on it yet, but by all other indications the turbo seems to be fine. Now I'm working on putting the interior back together. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kampman Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 Glad you got the leak fixed-which valve spring compressor did you use? I'm planning to replace the stem seals in my XC at the same time I do the timing belt but I haven't gotten a compressor yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 I got this one from ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331551681946?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT It worked pretty good, when doing the exhaust valves it didn't line up perfectly centered on the valve and made it interesting getting the keepers back in. Definitely usable though. The whole project is a pain nomatter what you use lol. Remember to get the hose for pressurizing the cylinder too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 (edited) The VR is finally on the road!! Drove it to work this morning. I finished up the valve seal project and the changed the oil again shortly after to clean out any junk that had gotten into the oil. Also changed the trans fluid again.. After 2 changes it's slowly starting to look red again. I'll do another atf change in the spring. Also got it aligned on Saturday. Everything came back alright except the caster was off on the front right. I'm assuming it's a bent strut since I changed everything else. I'll add those to the list soon enough. Also had to tweak the mufflers slightly because they were contacting the bumper mounting bolts. They hang a little lower now, but seem to clear everything. The more I drive this car, the better it seems to run. It is making boost (something that is never did when I bought it for a variety of reasons), but it seems to be a little inconsistent and surge on occasion. Going to run some seafoam through the next tank and see if that does any tricks, but I'm assuming maybe the tcv or something is confused. otherwise it seems to run fine and pulls hard. Put about 100 mines on it so far over the weekend though and it doesn't appear to have lost any fluids. Also repainted the roof racks and roof trims that I pulled from a 1998 XC at the junk yard a few months ago. I think they make the car look better and will definitely be useful. I have the crossbars too but one of them needs repair. I also underestimated how much the exhaust drones. If it was a sedan I doubt it would be this bad, but being a wagon it definitely drones on the highway. It's not even that loud outside. I'm going to add some sound deadening this week and see if I can combat that noise. I'm confident that I can bring it down to an acceptable level. Lastly, I had previously posted about redoing the failing headliner in black while I the sunroof was out to be changed. Well I finished that up over the weekend as well. I painted or dyed all of the ceiling parts and trim to better match the headliner. I'm very happy with how it turned out. (Crappy pictures, but you get the idea) Edited December 14, 2015 by tuner4life 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 So after driving this for a whole week I am confident about the reliability. It's started every time, no significant leaks, no fluid loss, etc... I am off work next week on vacation so there are a few issues that I am hoping to be able to sort out. -The droning exhaust noise on the highway! I vastly underestimated the "wagon effect" with this exhaust. On a sedan it would probably be fine, but in this wagon the exhaust drones like crazy despite not really being very loud outside the car. I am not changing the exhaust, so I am looking into some sound deadening materials and going to try to quiet the cabin down that way. I am confident that I can bring the noise inside to a more acceptable level. -The weak heater... The heat does work but it is not very hot, worse on the passenger side (wife isn't thrilled about that), and basically only cold air to the rear floor boards. Water pump, thermostat, radiator, hoses, etc are all new. The temp gauge goes to half and stays there. The automatic hvac controller seems to function correctly. No flashing lights, every vent mode seems to work when selected, and the temp control on both sides also seems to be working. It just doesn't get warm enough. (not even close to my other 2 P80 cars). My bet is that the heater core is partially clogged. The retarded PO has a bunch of stop leak in the system and while I managed to flush a significant amount out, I believe that the heater core may still be clogged. I need to disconnect the heater hoses and flush it backwards separately from the rest of the system and see if that makes a difference. Heater hoses seem like a pain to get to though.. -Rear wiper motor inop. Bought one yesterday from a member here. Will install next week. -Cruise control inop.. I checked vac lines. Need to diag further. -Drivers heated seat inop.. I think this is just a bad switch, Will switch around to check -Key fobs (2x) both inop. Need to Diag. Etc, etc, etc... There is still a bunch to do, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. BTW: Instagram can make Saffron look so good! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2015 Over my time off, I had a chance to look into the heating issues. The heat does work reasonably well when the fan is on a low speed, but if I turn up the blower fan speed the temperature gradually cools off indicating a partially clogged heater core. I pulled the lower dash apart and pulled back the carpet to check the heater core. I'm fairly confident that it has never been changed before. As you can see in the picture, the plastic end tank of the core is very dark brown and is even showing some stress cracks starting to form. There are also traces of a previous leak on the floor below the core. Considering that there was a considerable amount of stop leak in the cooling system, I am assuming that the core started leaking, the PO couldn't find the leak and put stop leak in the system. The stop leak the effectively fixed the leak but partially clogged the heater core in the process. I'm going to change the heater core, o-rings, firewall adapter plate/pipes, and both heater hoses.. I don't want to mess with that again any time soon.. Picture of heater core: In an attempt to be thorough, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to check on the A/C evaporator while I was in the area.. The A/C worked when I drove it home, but slowly lost pressure over the next few months so I added some dye. I didn't see anything obvious under the hood so the evaporator was worth investigating.. Yep.. There's the culprit: Terrible picture, but the evaporator is definitely leaking. Looks like I'll be pulling the dash and doing the A/C evaporator, accumulator, all accessible A/C seals, heater core, firewall plate/pipes, all o-rings, both heater hoses, cluster lights, and hard wiring the radar detector under the dash.. What else should I be doing while it's apart? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Riker Posted December 28, 2015 Report Share Posted December 28, 2015 Glad to see it's on the road! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H0lD mY d6InK Posted December 28, 2015 Report Share Posted December 28, 2015 You definitely should reinforce the whole dash while you have it out. PITA I know, but you will eventually break the mounting points, so do it while your dash is nice. You reinforce the whole rear of the dash with fiberglass btw. Don't do any pipe strap method, I actually need to correct this on mine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojojo Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 (edited) Too bad about the evaporator. I just wrapped up a heater core job on my 850. I installed new hoses, a Behr heater core, and new firewall junction. My Behr heater core did not come with new o-rings. I was able to get them locally, but I'm fortunate enough to have a good source close to me. If I was ordering on line, I'd order extras just in case. Edited December 29, 2015 by mojojo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyb5 Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 Order the "eBay" heater core - there's a long thread about them in the -98 maintenance forum. The construction of the core is changed to eliminate some of the failure points of the OEM core and it much cheaper than a Behr core. No one has reported any issues. I've been running one for the last 25,000 or so miles and it's been great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 I remember that thread.. Finally found it after a while of searching.. Thanks for reminding me about that! Here it is: http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/155521-anyone-tried-the-ebay-improved-alvo-brand-heater-cores/?page=12 It is archived now like many other useful threads on here making it hard to find and unable to post in.. Anyways, I've ordered one. Should be here in about a week. Hoping to put an FCP order together soon for the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 Also just found that Viva Performance has Do88 Silicone heater hoses for $50 while a pair of OEM replacements is well over $100.. Score. I'll cut the crimps and reuse the old elbows for that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyb5 Posted December 30, 2015 Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 5 hours ago, tuner4life said: Also just found that Viva Performance has Do88 Silicone heater hoses for $50 while a pair of OEM replacements is well over $100.. Score. I'll cut the crimps and reuse the old elbows for that! If Eurosport Tuning has the hoses you need it'll probably be cheaper from EST - despite the fact that EST is in Canada, Viva's shipping prices are ridiculous and end up making it any purchase I've looked at cost more than at EST for the same product 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuner4life Posted December 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) Interesting.. You are right. The shipping is cheaper from EST. Not sure why I didn't check them previously, but I had already ordered from Viva when I posted previously. Thankfully there was only about a $3 difference in total price. Definitely will be checking EST first in the future. Edited December 30, 2015 by tuner4life 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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