Volvo Repair: Volvo 850 Oil Leak, crankcase pressure, backyard mechanic

Question
QUESTION: Hi Roger,
I have a terrible oil leak in my 94 850 (5 cyl).  I thought it was coming from the rear main, but yesterday I finally located the true source.  It's pouring out (about one drop every five seconds, at idle) at the point where the distributor goes into the head.  It was just hard to spot, but I borrowed a friend's UV dye tester - big help.  Anyway, my question is - how hard of a repair is this?  I'm a pretty good backyard mechanic, I've rebuilt several engines, done some hot-rodding in my day, even rebuilt an automatic trans or two.  But I have no experience with a shoebox, and only a little experience with European cars in general.  When I have worked on European cars, I've found them to be very frustrating.  Is this leak usually repairable by replacing seals, or is it likely there's something more sinister lurking in there, like a crack in the housing or something?  I've heard the cam cover is just an RTV seal, but I assume there's a rubber seal of some sort associated with the distro shaft/housing.  Do I need to pull the cam cover to get to the seal?  Also, I'm having a hard time finding a good service manual for this thing (that I don't have to mortgage my house to get).  Any suggestions?  Is there anything available online for free/cheap?
Thanks,
Keith


ANSWER: Keith, relax.  These are really simple.  Take the dist cap off and rotor.  Now remove the plate.  The seal is behind it.  Note the position when you take the plate off.  If you put it on wrong, it wont fire.  Pop the seal out and put a new one in.  Problem solved.  Roger

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the quick answer Roger.  I wanted to follow up with a question about possibly the root cause of the leak.  I've heard a lot about the crankcase pressure in these things.  I have changed out the little insert in the "pcv" gadget - the one that's in the hose.  After I did that, a guy at the local dealer said I should have just left it out.  I've heard about a breather box that gets clogged.  My main question is this - is there a way I can test the crankcase pressure to see if it's too high?  I've heard these things tend to run high normally, but how high is too high?  If I take off the oil filler cap when running, I get a pretty good little puff of pressure.  Is it just good insurance to change out all the pcv stuff anyway?  If so, can you give me the run down on which parts are needed?
Thanks.

Answer
Keith, yeah that flame trap box can get clogged but on the older EGR 850's, we have seen the actual intake get clogged with carbon not allowing flow through.  The box isnt too bad but taking the intake off with the egr valve is a bit tricky.  Hopefully you got lucky and didnt get a 94 with the valve.  The flame trap filter is a good thing to have in there but I agree with the guy, 97 and up cars elimated that filter.  Not really a way to test it other than taking the box off and blowing air through it.  I still would inpect the intake.  Roger