You may have a bad pvc valve or it could be excessive blowby caused by worn or camaged cylinder walls or rings. Even a good pvc valve can only handle so much pressure. I had an old slant six Duster with 240000 miles on it that had so much blowby when I got it that it would blow the dipstick out of the tube when it was started. It was a winter/work car so I just drilled a small hole in the oil filler cap to relieve some of the pressure.
One thing the old timers used to warn about was doing a valve job that would increase compression on a used engine and result in increased oil usage. Don’t know if that would have anything to do with the issues or not but its always something in the back of my mind,
@Bing, I was told that when I requested a valve job while doing a head gasket repair on my '90 Toyota pick-up. I told them to do it anyways, and the visual inspection of the valve seats indicated that they needed it. I could look at the cylinder walls with the head off and still see the cross-hatching from when the engine was first assembled and knew my rings were in good shape after 250,000 miles. After reassembly with a new timing chain set, I had no oil burning or leaking well past the next 75,000 miles, thanks to all new seals and gaskets.
I guess you got tinkeritis,now can that volvo engine and put either a good used engine or a small block Ford in there and burn rubber-Kevin
I can see at least one possibility that doesn’t involve redoing the head gasket.
Suppose that the head was originally removed without draining the coolant first. The coolant then has the opportunity to mix with the oil. The coolant gets to the bottom of the sump, not showing up on the dipstick.
Then, when the engine starts, the oil pump creates a nasty, homogenized mess of things.
It’s at least worth an oil change an monitoring the situation to see if the problem recurs, before tearing into the engine again.
Bing: Yes, I have heard this as well. Aside from the sludge on the dipstick, the engine is running better than it did before the timing belt broke.
BustedKnuckles: Me too. The cross-hatching was still evident on the sleeves in this Volvo.
kmccune: Now you’re talking! I saw David Letterman’s Volvo wagon that has a Ford V8 and rear wheel drive on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee web series. Man, is that ever cool!
meanjoe75fan: The radiator was drained before removing the head. I did change the oil again, and am monitoring it daily.
Thanks everybody, as always, for all the swell comments!
Did you have the head resurfaced to make sure it was flat?
texases: Yes, the head was flat and true.
One thing we were just looking at this morning that has never made any sense to us; there is an insulated pipe that runs parallel with the block under the intake manifold, presumably originating at the oil trap. It terminates just above the starter, and does not connect to anything.
We are in disagreement. My Father-in-Law wants it to connect somewhere while I maintain this is the vent pipe for the PCV system and shouldn’t have a connection. To further add to the mystery, at the end of this pipe are drippings of a very suspicious sludgy oil substance, much like what is on the dipstick.
Dunh dunh DUNH! The plot (and oil) thickens!
Any insight on this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for all the replies!
Modern engines have no vents because of pollution control. So FIL is probably right.