Stephanie took the key to George this morning. She came to the office a little while ago and reported that George’s people had taken off the timing belt cover and discovered that it’s not the oil seal at all as I had assumed.  I had thought it was an oil seal around the valve cams, or worse, the crankshaft gear.

But no! George’s guys found that it was a hose, a cheap and common hose, easy to fix.  Dang!

I didn’t call them in time, but I need to know if it’s the turbo oil hose, and if we should change the timing belt, too.  And I want to know if he Oil Separator is clogged, as that’s a common thing with these 850s.  Unfortunately this common problem is under the intake manifold!  FCP sells a kit for this that includes a new intake manifold gasket…  Klaus on Brickboard says that the hose under the manifold gets clogged and so do the vacuum lines. The way to tell is to warm the car up and then loosen the oil cap.  If it just sits there, you’re fine, but if it dances around, then the PVC/oil separator is clogged and the crankcase gets over-pressured.  The Turbo model, the Blue Volvo, doesn’t have a flame-trap, just the Oil Separator.  So yay.