After milling the head of a Turbo 850, should I replace the head gasket with a OEM or find a steel replacement that compensates for the missing metal?

 

No insight from anyone???

 

unless you are shaving the head to change compression, it generally does not matter/make enough difference.

 

Am pretty much in the same boat with 2.0 T3 (high compression) C70 and wondering where and how to get oversized head gasket...
History :
- Milled the head to compensate for the warp (long story which started some 500 km after the brain surgeons changed the timing belt without minding the seized bearing) about 75000 km
- Replaced the complete head when it kept overheating and leaking both coolant and oil around 115000 km
- Replaced seized turbo around 130000 km
- Ultimately, following my mechanics advice, milled the engine short block itself to compensate for his suspicion that the block itself was warped and causing the leaks. He claims machine shop only shaved about 2-4 thousandth so that no it wouldn't affect the car in any way... used the only available size (standard) head gasket available to complete... not oversized gaskets locally to compensate for the milled metal.
Sadly the problem remains unsolved. Still sips more coolant than gasoline // 1 liter every 3 - 4 days with no visible leaks (before radiator started leaking under pressure) // and oil (1 quart, seen around the turbo and under the the top plastic spark plug cover, although it doesn't seem to get worse with time).
Temperature does not go much higher above middle, and cylinder pressure a bit low but seems to be OK (reads about 11 to 12.5 for all 5 cylinders)... However smoke still comes out of dipstick and oil cap even after mechanic the crank oil trap was cleaned and serviced...
Any recommendations short of replacing the engine with another one which may turn out to be just as bad?

 

Assuming you got the replacement head out of a running engine (and its is not cracked or warped) the head was not properly installed or you have a crack in the block or even in the new head. I'm not sure how an oversized head gasket will buy you anything. I'd say the next step is to have a pressure test done to rule out any other leaks and start looking for a replacement engine from a running car (where you can do a compression test on the new engine). PS - best to start new thread in the appropriate board.

 

Holy Cow this is old.

 

LOL; I was wondering why you were asking that question..!
Then i looked at the post date..

 

Touche... Old posts for "revolving" problems.

Pressure test showed no leaks according to mechanic, but in our nick of the woods I take the word of mechanic & machine shop with a "grain of salt"...

Concern noted about all possible reasons (cracked block, PCV, seals... etc...) but question remains though, do volvo or others manufacturer thicker "over-size" gasket which compensates for some 4 thousands of lost surface for my 1998 B5204T high pressure 2 liter high pressure turbo (T3)???