What to do with my oddball beater wagon, fix or ditch? Volvo 960 content

In January I picked up a running, decent-ish shape '93 Volvo 960 wagon for $1k.

After putting a few hundred into some tune-up parts, I tried to get it to pass DC's smog only inspection. No go.

I also tried to rallyx it a few times. This ended up with either Secret Agent levels of smoke screen, or Secret Agent levels of oil slick from the engine bay.

"Oh, that's not good.." (only seeing about 1/3rd of the smoke)

Smoke was from oil ingestion through PCV. Oil slick was from blocking the PCV to the intake, which forced the dipstick to pop from the tube and make it's best impression of a pressure washer.

I did compression test when I swapped plugs shortly after purchase. #2 was low. That, combined with above, points pretty clearly to me to a ring issue in that cylinder. I'm open to any other ideas on what's happening, but I haven't been able to come up with anything else.

So now I need to decide what to do. I'm not super attached to the car, other than that I've done a bit of maintenance and went through the trouble of mounting a set of rally tires to junkyard volvo alloys. It was SUPPOSED to be my backup car to play with at rallycross while I finished my e30 engine swap, but that's done now.

Scrap it? Spend a few hundred on a hone and re-ring? I don't have much time, nor desire, to do major wrenching on this thing, so crazy engine swaps are out. A 2jz-ge would bolt up fairly easily due to using the same toyo trans, and I see them often enough in the yards, but all the fussing with electronics/management that would entail is more than slightly deterrent in this case. I don't remember seeing whiteblock six cylinders, especially the RWD ones which only came in 960's/S/V90's.

Is spending the few hundred on a gasket set, t-belt stuff, headbolts, and rings a bad idea? I've never done a hone, or lower engine work before so this both interests and scares me. How bad is it to just remove the rod/piston together to do the rings and then just replace with the same bearing? Make more sense to do all, or just fuss with the one low cylinder?

I'm not thrilled to wrench on this a bunch, but I've already sunk enough into it, I'm hesitant to cut my losses scrapping it.

what say ye? also, you get a cookie for following along this far.

thanks!

Swap in a redblock?

Does is still run and drive? Think it would make it from DC to Philly?

so someday I can drop in a LSX and buuild something like this...

A t6 from an s80 is pretty close to a bolt in. It uses the same base block and are likely to be stupid cheap for a full donor.

Also, the auto in there is the same unit in the ls400, which means a 1uz will attach to the stop transmission.

Spend a few hundred on a hone and re-ring? I don't have much time, nor desire, to do major wrenching on this thing, so crazy engine swaps are out. A 2jz-ge would bolt up fairly easily due to using the same toyo trans, and I see them often enough in the yards, but all the fussing with electronics/management that would entail is more than slightly deterrent in this case.

I really don't see the point of talking about 2jz's when you already have a whiteblock and aren't even remotely shooting for 4-digit horsepower. It's a good engine. If anything, i'd just fix it and mod from there.

How low was #2? If real low, could be a burned valve. Did you fix the pcv system? They're not easy or cheap engines to work on. Head bolts can snap when loosening (has happened to me) and will snap when reassembling unless you use new. Might be easier to replace engine...if you can find a known good one.

Fix pcv, new plugs, chinese water torture and in 1k miles report back.

Im pretty sure you would get a medal for nuking a whiteblock under stock power.

Vigo wrote: I really don't see the point of talking about 2jz's when you already have a whiteblock and aren't even remotely shooting for 4-digit horsepower. It's a good engine. If anything, i'd just fix it and mod from there.

I didn't know the V6 was considered a "white block". I've always understood: 960 = V6; 940 = I4 (white block). The V6 (same engine used in the Delorean and Citroen DS) is not an engine I've ever heard of being particularly durable.

Ian F wrote:

Vigo wrote: I really don't see the point of talking about 2jz's when you already have a whiteblock and aren't even remotely shooting for 4-digit horsepower. It's a good engine. If anything, i'd just fix it and mod from there.

I didn't know the V6 was considered a "white block". I've always understood: 960 = V6; 940 = I4 (white block). The V6 (same engine used in the Delorean and Citroen DS) is not an engine I've ever heard of being particularly durable.

uh....have you ever popped your hood? the 960 has always been inline, the v6 died a long time ago with the 7 series..you sould have a whiteblock in that car.. and no 940 was ever a whiteblock they were all redblocks. first number (9) is series, second number (6) is cylinders, third number is number of doors (they quit this in the 80s but people still refer to them as a 964 or 965 just to be particular.) now it gets weird with some of the older 760s being 4 cyl turbos but yours should be a whiteblock unless some masochist owned it before you and put in the terrible prv

So have you fixed the PCV blockage and driven it again? This alone will probably take care of the oil slick problem, and might greatly reduce the smoke screening.

Before taking the engine apart, the likes of carbon solvent down the spark plug holes and an overnight sitting can free up a stuck ring. Not a guarantee, but sometimes it happens. Same with flush in the crankcase for a little while before the oil change.

Thicker oil tends to reduce smoking. 20w-50 has "cured" many a low oil pressure and smoking engine.

Guess I should have been more clear, but I was trying to limit the wall-o-text. First rallyx was the smoke. After that I replaced the oil/air separator and the flame trap (gutted the new one). The oil ingestion was happening through where the flame trap ties into the intake.

Second rallyx, I was still consuming a lot of oil through the same pathway (over a qt. in one run). I made a couple more runs (topping off), trying different stuff, and basically no matter what, the oil was being forced out somewhere due to crank case pressure.

Can you have a "stuck ring" in a running engine? Never heard of that before. Car drives fun, only has the problem when pushed in a motorsports environment, but wouldn't pass emissions to be legal.

I wasn't really looking to mod this car very much, at least not near-term. I brought up the toyo inline six because I see them in the yards more often than inline 6 volvos, and they share the same transmission (A-340/341). I wasn't thinking turbo, just another aluminum NA inline 6.

The turbo volvo inline 6 would need the engine management swapped, right? since most of those are obdii, and this is an obdi car, is more effort than I'm looking for. Also, would need to swap heads to keep old engine management, since the later ones all have some flavor of VVT. I guess I'd have the head off anyway for a ghetto hone/re-ring. hmm.

goal is a usable rwd wagon that will pass inspection. If I can't get there without putting more than $500 into it, I'll probably part/scrap it. I was hoping for info/advice on the hone/re-ring option.

If the system can't vent crankcase pressure, oil gets pushed out seals and other things. So fix that. Mine had so much coke/crud in the line it was effectively blocked, as well the flame trap. If a balloon on the dipstick tube inflates, you still haven't gotten this working.

As for driving with a stuck ring, it happens quite a bit. Usually some goo or carbon from burned oil, though sometimes gasoline buildup happens to. Conveniently, a good solvent will frequently, though not always, free up a stuck ring.

Were it my car, I'd fix the PCV system, which likely needs no money just some time. Then, I'd get two cans of cheap engine flush. Dump some down each cylinder and let it sit for a while, and put some in the oil.

From there, I'd then decide where I want to go and how much I'd be willing to spend.

I've already replaced all the main components of the PCV system. What else is there to fix in it? All the parts in the first image below were replaced, and the second is a sectional diagram of the system for this engine.

It's not clogged, unless there's some clog internal to the engine itself. While not impossible, that seems very unlikely with lack of similar clogging evidence elsewhere.

I know the compression was low on cylinder 2, so that seems more likely.