Dont know if this will work for you, but i did this based off what a friend of mine did. When I went in to buy the liquid gasket, I told them I worked for Advance auto parts and asked if i could buy it at our discount. It wound up being less than half what retail price was.

 

Wow, that's nuts. I used the stuff from NAPA for about $15. I simply could not afford the $65 Volvo stuff. No problems after 6 months and 5,000 miles.

 

$65 for a tube of gasket is indeed ridiculous (this reminds me of Toyota's genuine coolant), but I wonder if over-the-counter gasket stands up as long as the original gasket used at the assembly line. I'd like to compare the ingredients.

JPN

 

If it fails I'll let you know.

 

Will look forward to your analysis

JPN

 

So far it's good at 6 months and 5,000 miles.

 

Alright. Turns out I'm a certifyable moron. Was in such a hurry to get new head on that I failed to check it for leftover gasket crap. Got it back off and spent the afternoon wondering where one finds this much stupidity in one place. Straight bladed the head and it's nice and flat now. Sometimes I wonder about myself. New gasket underway. Should be here monday. Pretty sure nothing will weep through this time. Really. Really? Really.

 

That's good, I guess. Not sure how you could miss scraping the old gasket but, oh well. Keeping my fingers crossed for this go-around. Third time's the charm, they say. Good luck!

 

Youknow? Just got excited about finally knowing how to set the time right and having figured out why it went wrong twice before. Got ahead of myself. Hey. I know one thing for sure. Car will be back to running like a Swiss watch when put back together... one thing. What makes it start hard when it's warm? Fires right up when it is cold but complete &$@!? To start after it's warmed up?

 

1) Idle Air Control (IAC) Valve? Can be fixed by cleaning.
2) Bad coolant temperature sensor?
3) Flaky fuel pump relay?

 

I vote for #1 and #2 above.

 

Where's the iac?

 

Forgetting to scrape off the old gasket is probably due to human factor.

JPN

 

Idle air control motor is between the throttle body and the radiator. I think you need to pull the black plastic cover off the throttle cable to see it.


Instructions and pictures on how to clean:
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...ic.php?t=47533

 

When you say "hard to start" what does it do?? Is it excessive cranking, do you need to give it gas to get it going??

Rspi's guess of the IAC or coolant temp sensor sound good. Cheaning the IAC is free just remember when you're spraying it with cleaner hold it so the motors body is UP. You don't want the cleaning fluid running down into the motor or you'll cause more problems than you cure.

The coolant temp sensor can easily cause this and will either lean the engine out or cause it to be too rich. Either way you end up doing a lot of cranking but if it's reading low and sending in too much fuel you'd need to floor it to unload the extra fuel.

#4 is not as likely but you might have a leaking/seeping injector(s) that is dumping fuel into the engine after shut down and when you go to start it up it's too rich. Just a thought.

 

Worn and poorly gaped spark plugs can cause hard starts but I think it would be hard cold or hot.

 

Wow. Thanks again for all the replies guys. Will check into it. I even think that control motor may be on it's way out because every now and then the car is singing to me. That's what my friend Melinda calls it anyway. High pitched motor noise. Like motor losing it's bearings. Weather permitted, head goes back on this evening. Hopefully for the last time. Clean as a whistle and sharp as a thistle. New gasket and all. One more question. Is there any way to get all the bad oil out? Besides draining it (duh) I mean some sort of method to flush it? Vinegar? Gardenhose? Chardonnay? Anything? Or just drain it, refill it and drain / refill it again after a few days?

 

You got it. Nothing but oil. I run full synthetic in my cars. When I did that head gasket, I put in some good dyno that was on sale, drove it for 50 miles, then changes the oil and filter. Find the cheapest 10W-30 you can find.

As for the singing, they may have been the bearing that failed in the first place. Unless you mean it's making the noise now.

 

Thanks rspi. No. It only makes the sound every now and then and when driving, it seems to come from the passenger side of the engine. Once it did it when we had the hood open and it almost seemed to come from under the passenger side headlight?? It is the distinct sound of an electric motor failing. You know? High pitched motor whine. I kinda think to recognize that sound because I've been in electrics/electronics all my life.

 

If/when it starts to do it daily, you can take the serpentine belt loose and see if it stops. It's probably the alternator or ac compressor.