Hello,

I hope someone can give me advice, or direct me to a link, to help me with my problem. I decided to replace my head gasket when I had my engine on the stand and I am glad that I did. After examining the gasket and the surface of the head, I discovered some discoloration between #2 & #3 combustion chambers on the gasket and excessive corrosion around the rear coolant jacket holes (the ones with no corresponding jack in the head). In my search for information, I found one webpage diagnosing a Volvo head gasket failure resulting from a "half-@$$ed" (quoted from the webpage) repair where the head was surfaced without checking the camshaft saddles, and it was determined that the camshaft had pulled the resurfaced head thereby causing a failure of the gasket after a few thousand miles (I cannot find this webpage again). When I took the head to the machine shop, it measured .006" out of flat. We were going to measure the cam saddles, but with the spring buckets removed and the cam placed in the saddles, the camshaft "rocked". The machine shop did not have the ability to align hone the saddles, so I took it home to make more calls. I could not find a shop within 50 miles that could either straighten the head, or align the cam saddles. Also, since the erosion encroached the fire-ring on one chamber, I knew that the head would need welding to repair, epoxy or aluminum brazing would be iffy at best. I decided to just get a replacement rebuilt head for expediency. I am looking for information on minimum cylinder head height to measure the amount of material that has been removed from the replacement head. I don't want to bolt on the head blindly trusting it is good. Thank you for your time.

1994 940 Wagon Base.
Cylinder Head casting 1000530

*UPDATE*
The mail order machine shop sent me a 531... Lucky me! It definitely is from a boat, casting date 1986, is the cam different? Now what do I do???

*UPDATE #2*

After indepth inspection of the replacement head, I found some surprises and some problems.:

1) 531 casting, not 530
2) "A" cam profile, not "T"
..( sounds good so far)
3) Has a ring insert repair on #4 exhaust (sounds like marine head...)
4) Does NOT have the drilled hole for the ECU Temp sensor (GRRR, definitely a marine head...)
and the most annoying thing...
5) Chock full o' Junk! Lots of Aluminum chips and blasting medium everywhere. (another example of "Ready!, Fire!,...aim?")

I was offered a $50 refund if I was willing to do the disassembly and clean it myself, I paid $400+tax free S&H. I have no problem with the cleaning, I probably would have disassembled it anyway for verification, but I cannot find any shop who will drill the temp sensor, it is not a pipe thread, it needs to drilled and the mounting surface need to be cut flat for a sealing washer. It would require a special cutting bit (similar to cutting for a new valve seat). Is the 531 head with the "A" Camshaft worth the hassle of machining the hole myself? I was not building a mod, this is my only car and I need reliability. I drive more than 25K a year, so fuel mileage is a big concern, not to mention California Emissions Inspection. Everything else on the head looks good, I don;t know if I should consider myself lucky to get this head, or wait for them to find another casting. Any & all opinions are welcome, and I thank you for your time.