I have recently purchased a 95' 850 GLT. I drove the car locally for a week and then went on a 1hr 30min drive on the weekend. On this trip I thought I could smell a bit of hot coolant towards the end of the trip but did not take notice to any leaks when I arrived at my destination. On the trip home (about 1hr into the trip) I noticed all the dash lights came on for a second and then went off. All gauges looked good. 15 mins later I noticed the A/C stopped blowing cold air, came to a red light a few mins later and noticed steam coming out from under the hood. I pulled over and found the coolant reservoir was empty but did not pin point the leak. Had to get home, so I found a gas station with coolant. I filled the reservoir with coolant and water and took extra with me. When I started the car the temp gauge was high but soon went down. I tried to milk the car home so I would throw it in neutral to keep the load off the engine when possible and the engine shut off at one point. Pulled into a lot and tried to restart the engine but it would not start. At this point I found a hole in the plastic side of the radiator. I let the car sit and figured I would come back later to see if the car would start and when I came back it did (was only a few mins from home at this point) so I drove the car home and figured hopefully I just needed to replace the radiator. Purchased a new radiator (large crack in the plastic end) and installed it. Refilled the cooling system and let the coolant flow to purge the air from the system. Threw the cap on and took it for a drive. On a 5 min ride I came to a red light and noticed steam coming out from under the hood again (temp gauge is at the 3 o'clock position) so I pulled over and found coolant pushing out past the reservoir cap. I went to tighten the cap and a second later it popped off from the pressure. I got the car back home and tried everything to purge the air from the system even though I hear there is nothing to it. After doing this the car ran for about 10-15 mins fine (temp gauge at 3 o'clock) and then the water started pushing out of the reservoir like a geyser. I'm 95% sure I have over heated the engine and blew the head gasket but I'm just looking for a little feed back to ease my feelings before I buy the parts and tear into this project. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

You are correct.
Head Removal and Installation, Volvo 850 / S70 Turbo B5234T, B5254T, Head gasket replacement, valve replacement.


When our head gasket was bad we still had good compression.