1998 GLT wagon "Volvie" with 212k miles. Parents bought new so this is the car that took me to preschool, the car I drove to prom, and the car I drove across the country a couple times. Currently working on stage 0 items.

Transmission had regular fluid changes since 150k and shifts like new. Installed extra transmission cooler and temp gauge a couple years ago.

Installed oil pressure and temp gauges. Pressure looks good. 21 psi at 840rpm idle and 212F/ 100C oil temp. 50 psi at 2400 rpm cruise and 200F/93C oil temp.

Turbo spools fast to 5.7 psi with no odd sounds. Manifold vacuum hovers around 21 inHg at idle in neutral, 17 inHg in gear.

New timing belt a few thousand miles ago, and new plugs a couple hundred miles ago.

Car sees a fairly easy commute. 5 min town driving, half hour cruise on a clear freeway, and another 5 minutes in town. I don't thrash it but I do put my foot down on the entrance ramp and there's one hill where the torque converter unlocks and revs hang around 3k for a few seconds before it goes right back to cruising.

I change oil every 7500 miles with Valvoline synthetic and a Mann filter. I've narrowed this down using UOA and got good wear numbers so far.

The big " but" is it's starting to smoke. Small blue puff on startup. Small puff on throttle snap after a couple minutes of hot idle. But the 20+ min of hot idle while waiting for a smog test does not play nice with it. Then I have a five cylinder swedish mosquito fogger. It'll make a single big cloud then continue with light blue haze for the next few minutes, earning an instant fail despite burning very clean at idle. Continuous rev or multiple agressive throttle snaps clear it up and it stays clean until more long idle time.

Was starting to get steam/smoke out dipstick tube and oil from intercooler weep hose, and failed the glove test so did a pcv clean and replaced hoses. Ports in block and oil trap were clear but the orifice for the idle PCV section had a glob of slime and carbon wedged in it. System was done by a shop back at 165k miles. No other slime in rest of hoses but lots of crud in that area , so maybe leftovers from before if just hoses were changed by shop? No more dipstick puffing and tries to suck the glove down into the cams now. No more oil in boost piping either.

I'll be buying a compression tester later today (I hope) and getting those numbers. Engine idles really smooth and pulls like a train as much as a stock GLT can so not super concerned (yet).

Looks like time for valve stem seals. But also crossed my mind to buy a used head, rebuild that, and swap in. I see all these horror stories about engines burning valves, especially correlated with valve stem seal leaks. Any sense in doing a preemptive valve clean and lapping along with new seals? With a second head I can do that time consuming rebuild work while car is still drivable, then swap it over a weekend.

 

once you get the wet/dry compression test done you can decide on what to do with the head. I agree that buying a replacement that is in good shape is a good way to go - you can have a machine shop check for flatness, consider doing the valve seals/guides etc and clean out any carbon build up if needed then swap in. You can then rebuild the old head and sell to offset some costs (assuming you are doing the rebuild short of the milling)

 

Update: Compression looks ok I think. Some ring wear but servicable?

Did 10 cranks each test. Pressure built fast for first 4 cranks and stabilized for remainder. For wet test
I added a 1qt bottle cap full of 10-30 conventional oil, bumped starter a couple times, then did test.

Vacuum steady at 20 to 21 inHg at warm idle. Spikes to 25 inHg on coastdown after a holding at 2500 rpm for a few seconds.


#1
184 dry / 196 wet

#2
186 dry / 192 wet

#3
190 dry / 199 wet

#4
187 dry / 200 wet

#5
185 dry / 197 wet