I have had nothing back terrible luck with my 90' 240 Wagon in the month in which I have had it.

First, the AW70 dumped all of the fluid out of it for some reason unbeknownst to me, making the transmission shudder (not slip though) causing me to check the fluid daily to keep it at level. I have it under control now, although a transmission swap is in my near future plans.

I bought the car in December knowing (and having documentation) that the head gasket had blown in Feb. 2014 and the previous owner had all of the components of the cooling system replaced - head gasket, head re-machined, new seals, new timing belt, water pump, thermostat, hoses, everything... EXCEPT for the heater hoses running to the firewall.

Just my luck, I get a call around lunch yesterday from the Ms. saying that the car was running hotter than normal. The car was driven maybe three miles that way - not in the red on the gauge.

After wasting $15 on antifreeze at the gas station, I diagnosed that the leak was coming from the top heater hose on the back on of engine. It is the one that runs under the intake manifold and is a BEAR to get to. After a few attempts to fix it I had it towed as no one in Charlotte, NC had the correct hose.

I was checking fluids in my other car today when I decided to look at the oil on the Volvo. Sure enough, it was chocolate milkshake. Perfect.

My question is what gasket set is the best, what sort of money should I expect to pay to have the job done, and seeing that the head gasket on this particular motor has been done once before, should I look into getting a different head to have machined to put back on? I don't believe the top end of the motor is damaged as it was not ran long at all after running hot and showed no signs of trouble when running afterwards.

Any advice is appreciated. I just want a good running 240 wagon and so far it has been nothing but!

Thanks!

 

Sounds like the head may be cracked. The head was milled,and with a new gasket, it should not fail that quickly. Pull the spark plugs and check them to see what cylinder is leaking. A cylinder leak down test will verify the location of the leak,when air bubbles escape into the coolant reservoir ( with cap off ).
Does the engine misfire or run rough ? It's also possible that the previous head gasket problem was misdiagnosed, and the coolant could be leaking into the crankcase from as an example, the water pump housing area ?

 

Your car blew a hose, overheated and damaged the HG again. This is the most likely scenario. You can speculate and look for mysterious reasons, and under the "anything is possible" theory, well, OK... You overheat a car, any car, new HG or not, it will blow, physics! What will it cost? Depends on many things, like who does it and how much they decide to do and how much you damaged the head, etc. It's not very hard, the easiest HG out there probably, DIY is the cheapest way to go if you are so inclined, up to, who knows?

Busdude, coolant cannot be leaking into the crankcase from the WP housing, it just doesn't happen. And under the circumstances given, a blown HG is a pretty good bet.