OK.

I now have the infamous sticking valve/no compression/no start issue. The engine is a 91' 3.0 liter.

I actually put in this engine half a year ago as a replacement after a failing piston ring on the original one. Starting to regret I didn't put in a V8 while I was at it. But I don't like to give up so please help me out here...

Although I had read aout this problem and how to prevent it, I still was dumb enough to run the engine cold for half a minute when moving the car last morning. When I later on went to drive it, it briefly fired and stalled, then did not start due to what sounds like loss of compression on all but 1 cylinder. Timing belt is ok.

As the car now is parked at the cabin(far away), I had to take the bus home when the battery went flat and won't have a shot at fixing it until next weekend.

I will bring a battery charger and try cranking it some more, but that may not work.

So how do I proceed? Remove the valve cover? Can that be done without removing the timing belt? Can I then pry the stuck valves loose?

Oil is leaking from several valve cover bolts and the previous owner has tightened them so there is no thread left in the aluminum head, so might fix this as well, if I remove the valve cover. Has anyone attempted to rethread these bolt holes? Do I need to expand to M8 thread or what? And what parts do I need in addition to the liquid valve cover gasket? I beleive there are some O-rings around the bolts and spark plug holes? And maybe change the camshaft seals as well(then I for sure will have to remove the timing belt :) )

Responses are greatly appreciated!!

You will need to get that battery fully charged. Then once that is done, crank it for a few seconds, then release the key and turn the ignition off, push your foot fully down on the accelerator pedal and hold it down while cranking the engine again. Keep going until it starts to fire one cylinder at a time. Eventually you will get enough cylinders to fire to allow it to continue turning over with the key out of the start position.

As to your oil leak, there is not much that can be done unless you are prepared to remove the timing belt, tear off the head top, repair all of the damaged bolt holes, clean the mating surfaces and reseal using Volvo sealer.

Good luck.

'94 964 338,000 miles (104,000 on the new engine)