Hi all,

Last time I posted here, I was comfy in my european life, about to leave for 2 years in Africa. Now here I am, sitting in the chadian bush, but things won't turn out as I expected and the 2 years will become less... Anyway, this means I'll have to take my volvo out of storage earlier than I thought and there WILL be some work to do before it hits the road: solve my noisy rebuilt engine issue.

To make it short, just before leaving, the car got a completely rebuilt B20E with Megasquirt. It runs great. The only thing that has worried me for the 2'000 miles I drove it since the new engine install is this persistent noise I first thought was a bad big end journal but then tracked down to insufficient rockers lubrication. It sounds as if I had a badly adjusted rocker but they are just fine. There is also oil consumption although no suspicious smoke can be seen except on startup. On the final check before storage, I noticed sth that I think points to the solution. On the upper surface of the block, on the two small tabs that are above the engine number, there was oil. I think what I'm experiencing is a clogged oilway in the head, as this would explain why the rockers only get so much oil as well as why I've seen oil on these tabs and why some goes into the cylinders (only some of the oil injected into the head goes through, th rest is forced past the head gasket into the cylinders and out of the engine).

Of course the head had been machined but it looks to me that the shop didn't know much about old volvos. So I wouldn't be surprised they left the oilways clogged (the engine had sat for many years in bad storage conditions).

Now, after this long introduction:
1) what do you think of my diagnose?
2) can anyone explain to me exactly where the oil goes inside the head after entering between cyl 2 and 3, so I can make sure the next headwork produces the expected results?

Thanks in advance!! And best wishes for 2006 to all from the a**hole of Africa, Chad!!