overheating issues
 

Well, really not overheating but its getting really close to the red.

First, Hi. I'm Joel. Live in Miami and I just bought a 92 Volvo 240 for my girlfriend. It's her third. I'm a vintage motorcycle mechanic so I'm pretty handy with a wrench, but seeing as everything I work on is air cooled, I might need some help diagnosing this problem.

The issue:
Drove the car for about 5 minutes on side streets and it got over 3/4 of the way up the temperature gauge. Pulled over, and popped the hood. Neither radiator hose was full and or hard. The overflow tank was still full, I slowly removed the cap (it was on tight) but had no pressure. Looked like the water pump was new so I figured it was the thermostat (talked the guy down another $200 because of it) Bought the car for pretty cheap and drove it to autozone. $15 later I have a new thrmostat and gaskets. Borrow some tools and replace it. (Oddly, someone had taken the guts outta the old thermostat so it would flow freely) Anyway, that didn't help the problem.
I drove the car from West Palm Beach to Miami. About 60 miles. If I stayed below 60MPH then the gauge stayed at about half way, if I went up to 65MPH the temp would jump up to just below the red. I also turned the heater fan on, and that seemed to help a little.
What should I look for? Looks pretty simple under the hood and the cooling system seems simple enough.

Joel

It could be something simple like a temp sensor (two under the intake manifold) or it could be something crazy like a head gasket. Analyze the coolant to check for exhaust gas as it may or may not build pressure.

I'd bet on a sensor, butcha never know! Check out brickboard.com for some great troubleshooting tips. I used to ride a Norton back in the day. Volvo's are easier to get running!

very odd, a hot engine SHOULD have boiled up into the overflow bottle when you released the pressure. if you remove the cap and start the engine, does the coolant squirt into the overflow bottle from the small hose that's connected to the top of the radiator?

a blown head gasket can do several things depending on where it blew, one of which is push exhaust gasses up into the coolant, if you run the engine without the coolant cap, this will be evident (its much more violent than the normal heat expansion of the coolant). (other head gasket symptoms are: coolant in the oil; oil in the coolant; knocking sounds from cylinders exchanging gases; coolant seepage between the head+block under the exhaust ports, especially ports 3+4). note a blown gasket can do more than one of these things simultaneously.

the lack of pressure makes me wonder if the cap on the overflow bottle is defective, or the water pump simply isn't working. or the radiator is completely plugged up. or something weird.

I'm really hoping its not the head gaskets but its possible. No real bubbling into the overflow (except after I changed the thermostat. I lost a lot of coolent when I pulled the old one out) No smoke, no oil in coolent, no obvious coolent in oil (but that's kinda harder to see) nothing dripping from round the head (although there does seem to be a bit of oil dripping from the valve cover) and the engine seems to pull hard with a lot of power. I guess there are a couple things that make me worry a little about the head gaskets. 1) a slight clicking sound but I'm guessing a valve is making the noise and 2) a sweet burning smell, but I mostly smelled it after I spilled about a half gallon of coolant over the engine (I was surprised how much coolant came out when I removed the thermostat)
I think, I'll replace the radiator cap first. Then the sensors, then water pump and flush the radiator. If its still happening I'll look more into the head gasket. I still think the fact that it ran at a normal temp range while driving under 60mph and at high temps at over 65mph (and at idle???) makes me think sensor, but what do I know.
I'm guessing its all stuff I can do myself. I replaced the water pump on my buddies BMW E30 a couple weeks ago and getting the fan off was a bit challenging. Any special tools I should have? Besides the Haynes.

I had the same exact issue
 

I had the same exact issue. 1988 volvo wagon a/t --Replaced the hoses, thermo, waterpump. Still no fix. I finally replaced the RADIATOR and so far so good. The Temp Gauge stays right @ 9 oclock. Running good now. Take a look at your radiator. Good Luck

I was at a "You Pull It" today and I saw the nicest 1988 240DL Wagon I've ever seen, The thing looked brand new. Even the white stripe on the vents where shiny white. The leather interior looked brand new and the motor had 104k miles on it. I took the front corner lens, radiator cap, grill and a few other pieces. I pulled the radiator but a) they wanted $70 for it almost the cost of anew one and b) in the trunk was a box with a used water pump, a thermostat, old radiator hoses. So I figured It might have been having the same problems as mine. $2 for a cap I can chance but $70 for an "iffy" radiator didn't seem wise.
I wanted the interior but it was more brown and less tan so I didn't end up taking it but I would have taken the whole thing if I thought the rear seat from a wagon would fit in the sedan.

water pumps, thermostats, and hoses are a regular wear item that gets changed very 5-10 years.

.... that said, if this is a car you wanna keep, I'd get the IPD brass radiator, if they still have it. I put one in our 240 and it cools great now even on the hottest days.

IPD Brass Radiator? Is that the one I put back today? Or one I might find online? I was thinking, being in Miami, I'd treat the old girl to a 2 or 3 row aluminum core deal. (But this is based on the idea that they seem to cost more so they must be better. Although I have no other reason to think that they actually are better)

thats this one
Heavy Duty 3-Row Radiator

the OEM radiators are nissen, have plastic tanks and aluminum fins, and the replacement ones seem prone to failure.

I see IPD says no backorders, stock on hand, so when that last 25 goes, that may be it for these.

Going once twice, Gone

Ok, I think I'm sold on the IPD radiator. But I'm just wondering what the deference is between the IPD one and some of the other 3 row aftermarket radiators. Like the one from performance radiators for $170

well, the IPD one is all brass, i'm unfamiliar with performance radiator product. the 'stock' volvo radiators and most of the after market ones have plastic tanks and aluminum tubes+fins.

I cleaned out and flushed the coolant system today, the radiator was so dirty it took over a full minute to get water to spray through the fins (back to front) and probably a good 20 minutes till it stopped running black and muddy. Then I ran water through the radiator. That seemed pretty clean but I thought I heard something clinking around in there but only for a couple seconds, then couldn't get the sound to come back so it either flushed through, got wedged in there or was imagined. Then I pulled the thermostat and ran water through the engine.
Put it back together and now it won't start. I can hear and feel the starter motor working, I can smell gas. I think it's electrical. Maybe the distributor got wet??? Maybe its a sensor? Battery seemed strong enough. Haven't pulled a plug yet to prove that its electrical cause most of my tools are at my shop (I own a vintage motorcycle shop and bartend on the weekends) and I can't look till tomorrow cause I'm bartending tonight. What else might it be?

well, its almost always spark or fuel :)

yeah, wet distributor cap could certainly do it, or getting the top of the coil soaking wet. after that all dries out, it shoudl be good to go.

didn't have any water near the coil but with the distributor cab placed right under the thermostat, it was a bit harder to avoid. oh well...
PS I'm still going to get the nicer radiator just want to be able to use the car till I get the new one. And the state of FL is worse then California when It comes to car fees. They want $523 to register the car and my insurance doubled from California as well. My Acura Legend cost me under $500 a year in L.A. and this Volvo is costing me over $600 for 6 months. (they said cause I went a year without insurance, But you don't need insurance to ride a motorcycle in FL and I'm so close to everything here a motorcycle was all I needed in my name, I have a truck insured in my business name but that didn't count) So saving a bit till next month and I'll buy what I need.

wow the whole Insurance deal is a crock of ( ) well you know. I thought Insurance was to be used for what you are driving to protect that investment and others but what its really about is money just like everything else. Pees me off. Sorry had to vent when I seen that.

yeah, it's costing me $1168 in fees to drive a car that cost me $1000 to buy. Big government is bad but big corporations are worse.

What's worse than that is when government tries to take over. I mean hell, imagine when going to see your doc is similar to a visit to the DMV

I dunno. DMV is a lot easier than dealing with health insurance.

wow, didn't mean for this to get political. Honestly I could care either way. Neither party effect my life that much but I'd have to agree with Pierce on this one. Mostly because I've never had health insurance so I've only been to a doctor 3 times in the last 22 years and each time has cost me thousands of dollars, while this trip to the DMV was probably the most expensive one I've ever had at $523. But on the plus side, it took less the 30 minutes out of my day and they were pretty helpful.
The thing I don't understand is how the ones that got us into the mess we are in (I hear about it but really I don't see it to much in my own life), The bankers, wall street, etc keep getting tax breaks and bailouts and when it comes to cutting the budget, everyone expects us to get rid of teachers pensions, sesame street, after school programs, cops, and planned parenthood. Can someone explain that to me???
Somethings are better under gov control anyway. There was a time in the USA that the fire dept was a private business and if you didn't have cash when they showed up to put out your house fire then they would let your house burn. My house burnt a few years ago and I'm glad they pulled me out of it. But the insurance that I'd been paying for years wouldn't cover anything in my garage because it wasn't attached to my house. So I lost a restored 71 Dodge Demon, 2 restored Vespa's, a '64 Honda Dream, a '66 Honda SuperHawk and a crap load of tools. The didn't compensate me for any of it.
So like I said, Big Gov bad but big corporations worse. IMHO