I drive an 850 turbo wagon, but I have an 850 glt parts car that I'm getting rid of shortly. Can someone tell me if the cylinder heads are the same on these vehicles? Just the head it's self, not the cams or the valves. If so, I'd like to pull the one from the glt and rebuild it for the turbo while still driving it. Thank you.

 

To the best of my knowledge they are but you might want to post that question on swedespeed too.

Swedespeed.com

 

I apologize for the delay in my response to your reply. Thanks for the help

 

I have heard that the valve material is different between the two.

 

From what I've found, it seems that the turbo uses a thicker head gasket, and the exhaust valves are sodium filled. The cams may be different as well, but no big deal there, I can switch those over, when I decide to rebuild the head. the wagon is my daily driver, but it's also been a project of mine a little at a time. Thanks again for the help.

 

find a turbo head at junk yard. the sodium filled valves are important - they do a lot for keeping the head cool. And yes, cams are different - swapping to N/A cams is considered a performance upgrade - I've got N/A cams in my car, and i definitely feel a difference in power, especially on the top end.

 

I'm still pretty new to the volvo world, but I love this car because it seems that the swedes actually put thought into being able to work on it. I also like it because it's different, you don't see a lot of them. The car has been a learning experience for me, when I first bought it, I had to tow it home, because the transmission was shot. I had to switch it out with the one in my parts car. If I choose to keep the glt head, I know that the valves have to be replaced, but that was my plan. I've never done any kind of head work, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to learn. I'm also planning on trying a rebuild on the bad tranny. I found a kit for about $350. Rockauto.com sells the replacement valves for the head. I'm eager to learn how to do these things. If there is some reason why the glt head won't work, please somebody let me know. Thanks.

 

You may want to look into the compression ratio between the two. You know there is a displacement difference between the engines.