Volvo 480 Club Europe

Can you see the piston, isn't there a hole in there?

Oh no

Could be a major headgasket blow I suppose?

Any change with a bit of clean engine oil down the spark plug hole before tesing?
That would confirm rings. But even if you'd lost one or both compression rings you'd still get a little compression I would have thought, even if it was as low as 0.1 bar.

Burnt valves tend to leave little to no compression, but that wouldn't explain the oil blowing out of the exhaust.

Sorry to say, that it does sound like a busted piston, be it cracked or holed from detonation

Only way to tell is to whip the head off I'm afraid.

Hope you manage to find the problem, Jim

Try get an endoscope and look through the spark plug opening.

Van wrote:Try get an endoscope and look through the spark plug opening.

it actually read 0.5 (estimated) bar which is as good as zero.

gltease wrote:

Van wrote:Try get an endoscope and look through the spark plug opening.

explain

hi Jim, any update?

No swamped with work and family stuff just now dont think the situation workwise will get any better until June . So it will stay off road just now.

ah they must be working you hard in the new position. Hope Pollution can be saved.....let me know if terminal pls

James the deprtment was a total shambles with more temp than permanent staff and still working to sort things out and on top off that the new boss is making enormous changes all at once so the work is very time driven just now. Which is why I really dont have a lot of time at all . So the forum has been a priority just now which is why I am slow to respond to pm's at times or just dont post up as I know I will not be able to respond to any follow up posts and wont have the time to respond fully.

Will do abnother compression test tomorrow but not hopeful . Got my better half to do some phoning around when I was at work and I did one or 2 discrete calls as well. The cost to get piston rings replaced is serious money the cheapest quote was £500 as a ball park figure you wouldnt want to know the rest ......

I dont have the equipment or time to do it myself so it looks pretty terminal still 1 or two things to try tomorrow but I am not holding my breath. Feel bad about this though !

Most is labor, you can take the piston out yourself, have it fitted with pistons rings and put it back in, but I think a replacement engine will cost you less.

Shame to hear that but never terminal looks like I will have a spare B18FT engine shortly if you like. Also got a renault 1.4 GTT (C1J) engine that would be fun and cheap tax too

If you don't have the time to fix it up, Jim, pls just let me know and we can make a plan for Pollution to get down to my storage place for some surgery...!

Was out today and spent some time testing and checking the engine. The results as follows
Numbering the cylinders as 1 nearest the distributor side

cylinders 1 ,2 and 4 are all ok
cylinder 3 compression tests at 1 bar

Plus the spark plug is wet with oil and even after a few minutes with engine turned off
there is blue smoke coming from the spark plug opening.

when the engine is revved the oil is forced up the dip stick tube and sprays out pushing the dip stick up the tube.

Plus plus when the engine is being revved up for about 10 15 seconds blue smoke is escaping from the top of the oil separator


Plus plus plus there is a noise of a valve opening or closing ? from the top back right as you stand at the front of the car looking into the engine bay and then the rather low revs suddenly increase noticabley. On top of this there is still the blue smoke from the exhaust.

So it is definitely blown either the piston or the rimngs have gone on that clynder big time.

The car will be declared sorn and I will put it up on the driveway for now. I wont be able to fix it up certainly not in the foreseeable future ( in the next year or so).

Have to say, I think I agree with you, Jim.

Think it's the rings myself, that'll be the metallic noise you're hearing, as they scrape up and down the bore.

Pollution soon to be heading home again. It cant like the biofuel we use up here (liquidised fried mars bars mmmm yummy )

just waiting to confirm transporter & someone to receive at my end end Jim, then will give you a shout. I haven't seen the 440 turbo yet, which was to be the donor car. I'm not sure I want to break it, so the plan is to put the 1.4 engine in Pollution for now. Hopefully the 480 ABS gubbins don't clatter the Renault exhaust manifold (turbo is above gearbox on 1.4)

C1J engine:

Yay!

Wooo hooo biffo passed his mot on a retest . First test showed nearside front worn bushes , offside rear drop link and near side rear flexi pipe split. All service parts so did the work myself and it went through its retest and passed . Plus no advisories not bad for a 23 year old car

But still got messed about by eurocarparts ordered the front wishbone and got an industrial sized one delivered the original barcode label had been damaged and torn off , someone had hand written the wrong on it and then someone printed a replacement barcode label for the incorrect number. wasted 2 days waiting for a replacement.
Ordered 2 nuts and bolts for the front suspension unit and surprise it was held up at Calais . You couldnt make it up could you. Still everything done within the 10 day partial retest period.

Had massive problems trying to locate the cause of the loud roar/rumble noise eventually stripped the front nearside wheel down and discovered it was the wheel bearing that was goosed big time. reassembled wheel and ordered a replacement bearing from eurocarparts. So yesterday stripeed the wheel down and removed the stib axle carrier . A quick chat with a neighbour confirmed my worst fears that I couldnt do the job myself without a bech press. so today went to a local garage £20 later the old bearing had been removed and the new one put in position . Took my time making sure everything was tight and torqued correctly test drive and Biffo was back in form again.

A good day