Hello,

I have rebuilt 4 B16 engines and all of them within the last 10 years,so I have some experience in this area.

There are 3 sets of parts for sealing the rear of the crankshaft.

There are 2 paper gaskets, 2 wooden side rail seals and 2 felt seals.

AFAIK, the paper gaskets have never been a problem. I use a little oil resistant silicone mostly to hold them in place.

Its the side rails seals and the felt seals that are more likely sources for leaks.

The original side rail seals are made of wedged shaped pieces of wood and when rebuilding my 1st B16, I was not able to get those f~!@#%g pieces of wood to go all the way in even after multiple tries using original Volvo parts.

Then I remembered a car I worked on back when I was a mechanic in training. I assisted in resealing an engine from early 1960's Ford Galaxy. This Ford engine used similarly shaped wooden side rail seals and at that time FelPro had recently released an updated seal kit which used wedge shaped rubber strips instead of the original wood. So I ordered a kit and was able to use them instead.

When installing the felt seals, it's very important to tuck in as many of the of the stray filaments as I believe any filament hanging outside of the back of either half can be a source of an oil leak. I have taken to using a cigarette lighter to carefully burn off any hanging filaments before I lightly lubricate each felt seal with some engine oil.
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Eric
Hi Performance Automotive Service (formerly OVO or Old Volvos Only)
Torrance, CA 90502
hiperformanceautoservice.com or oldvolvosonly.com

B16 - The front felt seal is in one piece and although there is a special Volvo tool to centralise the timing cover, you can get it close enough by eye and maybe use 3 feeler gauges as aids. The rear is in 2 pieces. The rear main bearing caps are bolted in with the 2 halves aligned together with locating pins. There are 2 small gaskets between each face. When fitted there should be a small recess that allows excess oil to return to the oil pan. Early B16 did not have this recess. Soak felt seals with clean engine oil overnight before fitting. If not overnight at least make sure they are fully soaked with oil. Lightly squeeze out any excess. This may be little or no help but I hope you get it sorted.