Got the head and manifolds torqued down today and then installed the upper cylinder head and cams.

When the upper head is first laid in place it sits about 1/2" high because certain cam lobes must compress their valves before it can come down. It takes a fair amount of pressure to pull that sucker down. The bolts cannot get enough hold in the head and they will strip out the holes. To avoid this I started in 10 or so "temporary" bolts about 3/4 longer than the actual bolts and started to ease it down. As it came down I started to add washers to the bolts so they would not bottom out in the lower head holes. As it got closer I started the actual bolts (there are 42 or so of them) and continued to ease it all the way down by turning each bolt just a small amount while moving from bolt to bolt to bolt. All this was to avoid having to buy the special Volvo pull down tool.

I also double confirmed today by talking to a Volvo engine geru that the crank pulley timing mark is NOT TDC. That one had me worried.

Tomorrow I will Do the final torque on the 42 upper head bolts, install cam seals, idler and tensioner pulleys, time it with new belt then hook up all the "stuff". Maybe do the start up with crossed fingers.

This is the kind of job that takes a lot of time and great care and some ingenuity. It is not for the casual back yarder. If I had to do it again I could easily cut the time in half.