Seized camshaft, B230FT help

So a couple days ago, after getting a big dump of snow here in Calgary AB, I decided it would be a good time to go out and practice "winter driving" and really try to learn what it feels like when the power is going to the back wheels. Long story short, I believe my turbo oil feed line was cracked but still attached before I even started the car (most of the oil leaked out just after starting the car) but I didn't know this at the time. I started the car drove to get some gas then went to a parking lot and "practiced" pretty hard. Eventually the engine just stopped. Tried cranking again but it cranked very slowly, then it suddenly cranked fine but wouldn't start. Looked under the hood and the turbo oil feed line was completely snapped off (uses a metal 90 degree elbow which I am now revising as to prevent it from breaking not a second time but a third time). I asked my buddy to crank the car and instantly I knew something was wrong, the crank and all accessory belts were turning but the cam and aux shaft were not. Eventually got the car towed back to my place and found that the aux shaft could still turn quite freely and that the timing belt had been stripped of teeth around the crank (hence why nothing else was spinning), I then assumed the cam had seized. Also discovered a huge puddle of oil underneath where the car was parked before i took it out, right under where the turbo oil feed would have been. probably from when the car was just starting up, confirming my theory unless somewhere else was leaking significantly.

So here's my interpretation. Started the car with cracked oil feed and before long, oil was gone. kept driving car then drove it hard and eventually the cam seized, stopping the engine. Tried to crank the engine but the cam wouldn't turn hence the slow crank. attempting to crank with seized cam ended up shearing the teeth off the belt on the crank. Hence why it cranked fine after.

I feel very stupid.

Here's what I've found so far on the subject:
I found one user who said that usually when a cam seizes in one of these cars, the first approach is simply to remove the burs from the cam bearings, reinstall cam, use "high detergent oil" (i believe he suggested diesel oil) for the first bit, and pray. He said most engines ran fine after this. I've also heard of somebody suggesting that to remove burs, one could install the cam with a small amount of fine valve lapping compound and turn the cam by hand both ways for a bit.

Here are questions I still have:

-If the cam seized first can I assume my (rebuilt literally 120 km ago (not thousand km just km)) lower end is still okay even after being run with little to no oil?

-Is the valve lapping compound technique a good idea?

-Is there a certain gap spec between the bearings and the cam that I could check?

-If the car runs okay after the DIY refurbishing, will the minor change in bearing size affect timing to any significant extent (I have an adjustable cam gear I can use to compensate for this).

- would it be a good idea or bad idea to upgrade my cam after this? Good because camshaft journals will be as big as possible to fix tolerance issues? Bad because of it being more aggressive?

Side notes:

- I would like to go 16 valve turbo in the future but cant nearly afford the parts yet so I'm hoping this fix will last long enough for me to be able to do the swap in the future.

Thanks, Max

slow down.
remove spark plugs and try to turn cam gear, by hand, or with the bolt head.
limit assuming anything if you are pretty clueless about these things.
If it's so simple to check, don't assume.

good lesson here about hooning a car before basic things like working things like IDIOT lights.(apt name, huh?)
Don't think about upgrading anything until you cover the bare ass minimum of safety items.

You can not afford to assume anything. Spend some time opening up the top and maybe the bottom if the crank isn't rotating smoothly anymore. You need to find out how far the damage extended. If the oil feed connection came apart twice on the turbo there is something wrong with the setup. Those fittings aren't strong enough or there is too much stress on the line.

The head is aluminum. The cam is cast iron. Open up the top end take the cam out and see how the bearings look. Get a Bentley or Haynes manual and follow that for technical info.

You wrote that it is a new engine? Was the cam belt ever retensioned? You should after 400 miles and then every ten k miles thereafter till replacement. Myself I would never let valve grinding compound near anything in my engines oil system. If you need to clean things in the oil system I would first make sure nothing can get into any oil feed and returns and then use something like a grit cloth Then clean the areas as meticulously as you can. You don't want to add to the engines internal debris or worse.

Then after you do all that you need to change your oil. See what comes out. Then after a short while like 100 miles I would change the oil again. Then see how it looks. The cleaner it looks the more likely your engine may survive. Run a magnet through the oil. Look at some of the oil with a magnifier and see how much non ferrous debris is in there. Good luck with it.

Thanks for the replies, I will check some things (most likely after christmas) then update.

-Is the valve lapping compound technique a good idea?

Absolutely not!!!!

Get some newspaper and spread it out, drain engine oil into clear container..Get 100W light and look at the oil..See grey patterns swirling around?
Now get some tin-snips and snip open the oil filter..
(that's what the newspaper is about cause this is messy)
Spread the pleats out and with the 100W light look down in the pleats..
Se sumpin kinda like-a dis?


Or



That's the lead-tin overlay on the rod and main bearings..
You see that you're gonna hafta finger out a way to get all thoat lead/tin overlay back onto the bearings and get it to stay..

That's a nice way of saying You're bottom is is 99.9% certainly fawked UP..
Dead..
Passed on
Pushing up daisies
Gone to the great reward
Stuffed
Knackered
Fuxxored..

Ever pull a motor? It's fairly easy..

Pick-n-Pull - Calgary (Barlow Trail) (Approx Distance: 446 miles)
8600 Barlow Trail SE, Calgary, AB T2C 2N6 CA P: 403-279-7777 Store Layout Map | Part Pricing
Year Make Model Row Date On Yard
90 Volvo 760 0074 12/11/2017

Aw man seriously? All of my work, gone, just like that. Just one time will cause that?

maxitoman007 said:

Aw man seriously? All of my work, gone, just like that. Just one time will cause that?

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Oil pressure is pretty important. Do some investigation and see how bad the damage is.

John is showing you how bad it can be. It may be that one time did it in. What you can do is find that out and learn more about your car.

Whatever happened to a no fuks given 'build'?

Crush it now before you throw good money after bad.

And take another pull at the slot machine on CL or whatchacallit Kijiji up there in the frozen north.

maxitoman007 said:

Aw man seriously? All of my work, gone, just like that. Just one time will cause that?

Click to expand...

Example---create a big leak in your body, like slit your wrists and go run about in a parking lot..
REAL rapidly you're gonna cause damage---lose blood pressure, lose conciousness, starve brain. Die.

each piston has about 11.33 square inchs and each sqaure inch has somewhere around 70--75 BAR or around 1175 Pounds of pressure on it Per square inch.....11.3 x 1175 is a whole lotta pressure on that soft lead/tin alloy of the rod bearings..

I locked up a cam, replaced the head and am still beating on the same bottom end 2 yrs later. I did flush the oil 4-5 times, I'm sure it hurt it but it's still taking boost and not making too much noise even running 0w-40 oil.

Honestly, the zero f***s given plan continues. I'll fix my oil line issue, replace the timing belt, polish the cam, put some new oil in, and run it till it wont go any longer. By then hopefully ill be able to afford to build something better, possibly 16v?

Zero ****s given means zero miles driven

maxitoman007 said:

Honestly, the zero f***s given plan continues. I'll fix my oil line issue, replace the timing belt, polish the cam, put some new oil in, and run it till it wont go any longer. By then hopefully ill be able to afford to build something better, possibly 16v?

Click to expand...

There was quite a bit of aluminum particles in mine, your head is probably trashed. You'll be able to tell by pulling the cam. Does the bottom end spin freely?

maxitoman007 said:

Honestly, the zero f***s given plan continues. I'll fix my oil line issue, replace the timing belt, polish the cam, put some new oil in, and run it till it wont go any longer. By then hopefully ill be able to afford to build something better, possibly 16v?

Click to expand...

Check the oil and filter. Check that the crank/rods/pistons move freely like they should. If ok so far, fill with new oil and see what oil pressure you have while cranking (still without spinning the cam). If pressure is good, then worry about the cam and head.

Bottom end does spin freely.

The cam is probably fine-ish. The cam bearing caps are probably thrashed.