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FCP Euro Service Kits

FCP Euro Kits

The smell of burning oil and a cloud of blue smoke as you pull away is never pleasant...

I had this exact experience with my 1998 V70R shortly after taking delivery of it. I decided to go for a spirited drive one morning, and after about 45 min of driving, I reached my destination, a local coffee shop. Upon returning to the car after my cup of joe, I started it up and drove away only to look in my rearview mirror at a trail of blue smoke and a nice burning oil smell....Great!

I decided to take some degreaser

I went the shorter way back home and opened my hood to find quite a bit of oil residue on what one would think is the "valve cover" (Volvo white block motors don't really have a valve cover, its more of a camshaft cover). I had never heard of these gaskets leaking before on Volvos, however, the location of the oil residue coming down and burning off on the exhaust manifold did not make it seem unreasonable. Before declaring the valve cover gasket to be toast, I decided to take some degreaser and clean off all the oil on the top of the motor as well as along the side and then drive the car again. In doing this, I would be able to immediately see oil on the clean surface and could trace it back to where its coming from.

camcover002

As it turned out, the oil was coming from my oil filler cap causing it to spread all over the spark plug cover and down the backside of the motor on to the exhaust manifold. After removing the cap, I was pleased to see that there was a replaceable gasket. The one on the cap looked as though it could have been original as it was hard and clearly was not creating a great seal.

Oil Filler cap gasket

Volvo Oil Filler Cap Gasket (240 740 780 940 850) - Genuine Volvo 940096

Replacing the gasket is as simple as using a pick or a flat head screwdriver to pry off the old one and the new one slips right into place. Put a touch of oil on it to help it seal well.

A good idea would be to change this gasket at every oil change which will help keep the top of the engine clean but also is a good place to start if you are seeing blue smoke or smelling burned oil.

Similarly, before you declare a water pump to be leaking, check to make sure your thermostat gasket is seated properly! If its not, coolant will be leaking on the same side of the engine where the water pump is!

Check your gaskets!

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About the Author: Noah Jenkins

Noah_headshotNoah Jenkins is attending the University of Connecticut studying Electrical Engineering. He’s been around Volvos since birth and currently drives and maintains a 1998 S70. His knowledge and interest in European vehicles expands to BMW, Audi, and Land Rover as well.


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Written by :
Noah Jenkins

Noah Jenkins is attending the University of Connecticut studying Electrical Engineering. He’s been around Volvos since birth. His knowledge and interest in European vehicles expands to Audi, BMW and Land Rover as well. He currently drives and maintains a 2004 Audi A4 Avant and a 1996 Volvo 850


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