[lmwatbullrun]

Well, it's not the cam seal, and it's not the valve cover gasket, and it is not the leetle bolts on the front. The cam seal was worn, but didn't look fried. I was surprised that there was no bearing insert on the front cam bearing, but I guess that bearing is really only taking one cylinder's worth of load, and it's good and wide.

I ran the beast for a while after I replaced the cam seal, (which was surprisingly painless once I welded up a copy of the Volvo 9995199 wrench out of a large pipe hanger I scrounged from the dumpster; that tool helps.... ) and it appears that oil is still being deposited on the *leading* edge of the timing belt somewhere below the idler and the water pump, being carried around the belt and past the idler pulley. I know this because I ran it for a while with the upper belt cover off, and carefully wiped the belt clean as it came around. The oil came up from the idler pulley on the outboard side of the belt from the block. This is puzzling.

At any rate, I can think of no other oil source except for the front main shaft seal. How big a pain is that to change? I have the books and the only three things I have not done are removing the alternator/fan bracket, which does not look too tough to do, removing the crankshaft pulley (??? hard/easy, what?) and pulling the old shaft seal (again, how hard is this?) Volvo book mentions special tools, but I have managed pretty well without any so far.

Any comments or responses?