I am getting a oil leak driping on the exhaust manifold shield an stinking

up the car (some smoke from under the hood ) It appears to be coming from

the gasket around the valve head. Should I try tightining the screws on top of the valve head or get a new gasket!!!

There is no gasket as the other post said, just a special glue. I would find a torque wrench and re-seat the bolts on the camshaft cover one at a time to see if that cured the leak or at least reduced it to acceptable levels. You need a set of tools that lists for about $1000 to properly remove and re-install the camshaft cover because you need to hold the cams in proper relationship. Cleaning the old glue requires solvent, plastic razor blades and lots of patience. The dealer must get a good bit of $ to fix it. The torque according to the pocket data book, TP0302207, is 17 Nm for the camshaft carrier cover.

The flame trap is also a candidate for service. It is in a housing with a bayonet style cover. The housing is clamped into top of the big rubber duct feeding the throttle body. The cover is attached to a hose coming from the breather box up through the runners of the intake manifold. If you look at the cover from the pasenger side of the car you need to turn the cover clockwise to release the bayonets.

Good luck, keep us posted

Jim, I replaced my head gasket without one special volvo tool. It wasn,t easy but thinking well in advance helped (that was the hard part the thinking). Could this be why you haven't replaced your cams yet?

Dan Ray 94 960 164K

Naa! I'm just a hopeless do-it-yourselfer and have too any projects started. On weekends in the summer I race a Snipe sailboat with my daughter-in-law as a crew when she is available. I am also helping my son remodel their kitchen and I started a major landscaping and deck rebuild project at home to keep my wife happy. Right now I have a set of parts sitting and waiting to replace the timing belt on my wife's BMW and to stop an oil leak as well.

I bought the Volvo cam timing tool and the crank setting tool and have them available for the project. I also have designed the remaing tools and have the materials ready to change the cams on my 965 but that hasn't moved to the top of the "list" yet.

I realize Dan already covered this, but I just want to emphasize the flame trap issue.

I had a friend who got a 245 for cheap from his dad. His dad thought it was doomed because it was leaking oil. My friend asked me about it and assumed a seal was blown somewhere and I gave him the canned "check your flame trap." Finally, he gave up trying to find it and I helped him out with it. The thing looked like someone had filled it solid with black shoe polish! Needless to say we found his problem.

The flame trap is a part of your engine's breathing scheme. If the vapors that find their way into your oil can't escape using the path the engineers wanted, they will find their way out some other way.

There is an entry on this subject in the 700-900 FAQ here.

Good luck.

/Jarrod

First, rule out the rubber gasket aroung the oil filler cap is not leaking. They do dryout and get hard. If your convinced it is indeed coming from the joint between the upper and lower head, there is no gasket, they use a sealing compound buy it from volvo, but thats the easy part. The two piece head is what holds the cams. You will definetly need the volvo manual for head replacement, there are special tools and tear down considerations, which can be worked around but you need to see the pictures.

I would also check your flame trap for any gunk build up.

Dan Ray 94 960 164K