Hi, I just registered to this forum and as of late have been more and more into VOLVOS. I'm a VW technician at a dealership but now I'm working on my Landlord's V70 (98) 2.4 turbo. He is losing oil in several spots. What I'm trying to determine is if the valve stem seals and/or turbo are burning/leaking oil. Down inside the turbo it is very dry except for around the rubber boot where there is a lip there is some OIL there. Checking into the combustion chambers I see some shiny stuff :) . 180psi compression +/- 5psi across the board and slight white smoke puff for about 1 second on startup suggesting oil is leaking down from maybe the stem seals up above or is oil laying around in the turbo?

I found both the oil cooler lines leaking at the crimp fittings. The fill cap gasket leaking but not the spark plug o-rings. I found some slight oil coming down around the water pipe but not very bad (fill cap? fair amount of oil on Valve Cover from fill cap). The steering rack is soaked in something for sure. We are going to do the stem seals the oil cooler lines and some other seals behind the t-belt (cam seals) when we do the t-belt/w.pump. Does anybody have experience with there volvo burning a puff for a second at startup and was able to verify/repair the problem? The car has 150k on it and runs great. Not a noisy engine. A very slight valve tick but not erratic (sounds like they are adjusting OK). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

After a few days we have looked the car over very thoroughly for all maintenance issues and have replaced all the following items in the last week: distributor cap / rotor button and the coolant flushed. Also, the air filter, oil filler cap gasket are now new. As well, we found a local hydraulics shop to make new oil cooler lines.

so...

Still a white puff at start-up cold or warm, 10 minutes sitting... same thing... I am contemplating maybe removal of the entire turbo for further inspection of its bearings/lines/shaft and checking the housing's interior for any signs of failure in its infancy. I have listened to the turbo's bearings and they sound like they are very smoothly operating.

I am starting to feel like I'm running around in circles at this point from one possible cause (turbo) of it to the other possible cause (stem seals?)

From what I see though, this is a beautifully designed engine and okay (low-pressure) turbo setup with ample allowance in the oil cooling to haul the load(s). At ~150k the car has had all of its services done and all CELS taken care of...

I am going to replace the O2 sensor (front) because it is the original one.

Could be the breather box blocked maybe, it's under the intake manifold

Finally a freaking reply! Ready to give up on this forum. hahaha. I will post pics. The turbo is off and sitting in my toolbox in waiting for the turbo rebuild kit from gpopshop.com to arrive. I also removed the intake manifold and am replacing the breather box. I will try to make a good thread out of this if anybody is interested in seeing the rebuild process and the other stuff (timing belt, water pump, breather box, oil cooler lines, etc.. )

we had the oil cooler lines rebuilt with braided stainless for cheaper than one line new from autohausaz.com they just used the old fitting after the rubber and compression 11 flare fittings.

Don't think it was the turbo after checking shaft play and seeing the inside. We're rebuilding it anyway at 150k with ?able oil changes..

Could be the classic crankcase ventilation problem and or oil trap...check for puffs of white smoke out of the dipstick tube, with the dipstick slightly removed. This maybe why the oil filler cap gasket failed too due to the pressure build up. Oil on the rack may mean the rack seals have failed (common as no filter in the system) or could be from the rear main oil sealm which will have been caused by the CV/oil trap being blocked.

98 model year 150,000 mile engine and you want to fix a slight puff of oil on start up !!!!!. Think I would live with it. Not trying to be funny but at that milage is a puff of white smoke not something that you would perhaps expect and live with. Good solid engine, if it aint broke dont fix it.