Anybody know what I should be paying for parts and labor on a head gasket install? Car is at the shop, blew it last night. Crappy, but I need to know so I don't get ripped. Thanks

 

How did you blow the headgasket?
Did it overheat?
It will be quite expensive. I forget exactly but if I would have to guess I would say maybe $600.00 to $800.00.

 

Tech, I do not know. I am fairly competent mechanic of past. Building rock buggies etc. So I know cars. Anyway, my deal is that the temp gauge read right in the middle as usual. I was driving fairly hard, but no more than usual. I have been running more boost, but I wouldn't attribute that to the gasket blowing. I think my temp sensor is not correct, because I have blown head gaskets in numerous 4.0L I-6 mopar motors. All due to heat. So if in fact it was due to heat, my gauge is not working. But I do not know enough about turbo'd vehicles. much more Volvo's. I do not mind the cost too much of repair, but is it worth it? I feel dumb asking, but I need some advice. I was thinking almost 1000 for the parts and labor, but I was looking at the motor, easy access it looks like to me. Correct me if I am wrong. I have a Volvo mechanic I was going to tow it to, so hopefully he takes care of in the right way. If I order parts, that may save money. Thanks again.

 

I would say it is about a 50/50 call.
How many miles on your motor?
DId you just find coolant in the oil?
Lacking coolant?
Car smoking?

What exactly makes you think it blew?

Just asking quiestions because if you just see coolant in the oil the oil cooler might have burst in the radiator and it might be leaking coolant into the oil.

 

Welp, running rough all of the sudden on the highway, so when I got off at my exit, it was having a hard time running/idling. Pulled over, and got it home. Coming up a hill, it started smoking pretty bad, and sure enough, coolant all over the tarmac. There is coolant all over the heat shields around the intake, and it leaked out all over the place. It was dark, so I didn't dive too deep. I did check the oil, and it has the cream colored coolant mix/oil on the dip stick. So I am pretty sure it is a head gasket. The motor has roughly 100k on it.

 

That really sucks you must have blown a hose then since the coolant temp sensor wasn't in coolant the gauge didn't read properly.

Have you thought about doing it your self to save $$$?

 

I am pretty sure you will find the parts to be fairly expensive along with the cost of the machine shop to do the head. The labor is really not that hard to do yourself if you are into doing that kind of work. If you get stuck on anything there is always help here on this board. My son in law, who is a mechanic, and I did mine. After doing it with him I would not hesitate to do it myself and I am not a mechanic by any means. My guess for having somebody else do it would be in the ball park of $1500.

 

Well, again I can do the work but with my job, I do not have the time to do it. Access to the head looks pretty easy, am I correct? 1500, I think I could beat that if I order parts etc. I will see what it is going to take.

 

Keep us updated on how it goes.

 

ThatI will. Thanks.

 

I used all OEM parts when I did mine and it was very expensive. That was more than two years ago and I think I spent close to $400 in gaskets and new head bolts alone. The dealer does not sell a "Head Gasket Kit" so you have to buy each one separately. Machine shop was around $350 I think and it was around $150 to have the injectors recalibrated and cleaned. I had to replace two valves and used OEM there too, and they were way too expensive.

 

To the shop tomorrow for a 1400 dollar head gasket and head machining. Done by the weekend. Not too bad I don't think. I will take it. Hopefully they don't find other things wrong with it. I think I will turn down the boost for a while, eh?

 

I would still like to know what failed to make it blow.

 

I will try to find out.

 

Head gasket and head machine getting finished today. Pick it up tomorrow. I think it is time to run less boost. Let you know how it all went when I pick it up.

 

How much boost you running now?

 

Was running 13. After I pick it up tomorrow, I will turn it down to about 12 psi. Maybe a bit lower. The shop thought that the boost as well as the gasket combined is what made it fail. He thought that the 100k mile headgasket was weakened, and then topping it off with 13-14psi was where things went wrong. I do not know, but I think the gauge for temp was not working, because she was pretty hot when it went down. Motor was not happy.

 

Maybe check and make sure the guage is working correctly now.
My wifes white 850 is running 12PSI on a 200K motor and headgasket.
I don't think it was the boost.

 

Wow, that is a grip of miles/boost. I am jealous, anyway, we may never know. Picked it up today running stronger than before, as they ported the head. 1662 bucks later. Ouch, but it is a second car now. No big deal, again, I will try to figure out the cause. They ended up replacing a coolant hose to the fire wall that had an inch tearin it, and also the piece that it clamps to was cracked. I know the hose at the fire wall. Don't want coolant in the interior. So there we go, I will continue doing research on the head gasket. Oh yeah, cam position sensor was not hooked up.No joke, how could it have run without it? Then the coil went bad after they did the hoses. One thing after another.

 

Not sure how it ran without teh sensor hooked up.
If the hose had a tear in it that might have made it overheat fast and blow the gasket.