Yep, you read right, my recently acquired 850 has developed a blown headgasket! When I test drove the car, there was a severely clogged PCV system, and the previous owner had removed the exhaust donut for some reason. As such, the little bit of steam that I had was mixing with the PCV smoke in the engine bay and I didn't see it when checking the car out.

Got the donut in and the PCV system replaced a few weeks back, and noticed a bit of steam out of the tailpipe when the car was cold. Figured it was just condensation in the exhaust, and the car ran smooth as butter. A week later, it turned to a slight misfire with a bit more steam when cold so I began to worry a tad. A day or two later, this developed into a completely dead #1 cylinder when cold, with a slight misfire when warmed up.

Decided to try out Blue Devil yellow label head gasket sealer due to lack of any more time to put into the car at this moment (think engineering school + 2 jobs = 0 free time), and all the positive reviews I had found. The idea was to get the car through the winter, or at least until winter break when I'd have more time and be able to fanagle a propane heater in a friend's garage while I did the head gasket. Anyways, did the flush cycles per the instructions, and then some. Following the instructions to a tee, applied the sealer.

Lo and behold, it worked! The car was now back to steaming only a tiny bit when cold, with a very slight misfire in the #1 cylinder. Heat worked great, and temperature was stable dead center of the gauge. Drained the sealant/water, re-added proper coolant and went on my merry way. Well, a few days later and the misfire became more noticeable. Contacted the friendly folks at Blue Devil who advised me to try a second application with the second half of the bottle of sealant I had left. Since I had flushed the cooling system for the first application, they advised me to do the second application with coolant in the system. Great, thought I, now I don't have to spend all that time flushing stuff out again! Did the second application, and left the car to cool.

When I returned to it the next day, the overflow tank was full of a immiscible gel-antifreeze mess that wasn't there the first time. Start the car, and it became apparent that the headgasket issue was now worse than before. Not horrific, but a dead cylinder and constant (though not very thick) steam even when the motor was hot. #1 plug very fouled and piston wet, all others nice and clean/dry. What's more, my heat no longer worked and I had cold spots on the radiator! That's what I get for trying the "easy" fix!

Entertained the idea of paying someone else to do it, until the lowest quote I got was $1100 labor plus parts. Got the motor torn down to the head currently, set to resume after I return from a work-related trip on Sunday. With the headgasket set, bolts and getting the head checked/decked, I'm looking at another $250 into the car. To their credit, the folks at Blue Devil seemed legitimately concerned when I called. Assured me that they were confident the sealant was compatible with the Zerex G-05 coolant I had put in the car, and are going to refund my money, foot the bill for a cooling system backflush and, if necessary, having the radiator rodded out. I guess I should be grateful for the little things.

Thanks for letting me vent. Now, where's that forehead smacking a brick wall emoticon at? I need about 50.

 

NEVER use BlueDevil with ANY coolant. I work at O'Reilly's and I know all the tales about HG repairs and coolant. No fun. Sorry about the car man. Try to get by until you can properly fix it.

 

Yeah, I figured the manufacturer's recommendation would be ok though. Maybe they were so willing to cover the cost of the backflush/radiator cleaning because I have said recommendation in writing. Either way, I'll have to do the gasket job a bit at a time in between work and classes. At least it'll be warm enough to bike places for a while yet.

 

Bummer.

Don't want to kick you when you're down but better add a radiator and heater core to your shopping list; you'll never get that glop outa there.

 

I hope not, gdog. Was hoping a liberal amount of compressed air would clear the heater core, and the shop I'm taking the head to rods out radiators. Don't think I could swing paying for a rad and heater core right now, and I'm not sure the Blue Devil folks would replace em for me

 

There is a good heater core on eBay for about $45. You can likely get a good used rad for about $40 from a salvage yard.

Which head gasket instructions are you using? It cost us $850 for me to do our head gasket, about $40 of that was gas running back and forth to the head shop, don't see how you'll do much less than that. With the head off, do have the valve stem sealed done, that should help the car last several years.

How is the compression numbers on the other cylinders?

 

rspi:

I'm using the instructions found on tracystruesoaps.com, as it seems to be the most comprehensive one. I'm not doing all that the author did, as some of it appears to be extra. I've also got a few of the parts covered from when I did the PCV/timing, such as all the injector seals and plugs and wires. I'm looking at $150 for the gasket kit and bolts, and $75 for the machine shop to boil the head and check it for straightness, check the valves, and install new valve seals. $100 if they have to grind it flat. What all did you replace to account for $850?

Compression check was done when I did the first round of work, and was as follows: 165, 172, 173, 175, 171. From what I understand, that's not all that bad for a motor with 267xxx on it.

 

Glad you did the compression test. The numbers are good if the car is turbo. These motors can last a real long time. I just don't want to see anyone replace a head gasket on a bad motor.

This link explains what all of our cost went to:
Head Removal and Installation, Volvo 850 / S70 Turbo B5234T, B5254T, Head gasket replacement, valve replacement.

 

The motor is naturally aspirated, which I thought was supposed to be somewhere between 180-190 new. Given the mileage, I didn't think my numbers were too bad. At the end of the day, I need this car and round of repairs to last me at least until the summer, when I'll have way more free time since I'll only be working and not going to school.

Looking at your how-to (and it's a good one, I might add), it seems that the greatest contributor to your cost that I'm avoiding was the machine shop fee. The fellas I'm taking the head to have been in business since the 40s, and they earned my trust doing up pair of chevy 350 heads for me a few years back.

It also appears that you replaced the valves, which I don't intend on doing unless any show wear when the shop does the leakdown test.

I think I feel a bit better about this now that I've had some time to think it out and got the ball rolling. Optimistically hoping to get it done by the end of next week, it's been a little nippy commuting 10 miles each way by bicycle :/ Also been eying up one of your serpentine belt tensioner tools, getting a little sick of duct taping pennies to my breaker bar.