Hello everyone! My name is Jooseppi, and I am a life-long aut enthsuiast who is debating buying his first Volvo. Without further ado, here's the ad:

1995 Volvo 850 GLT body/interior near perfect...

The scoop on it is that the car is cosmetically in very nice shape (the interior looks super, the body decent), and it has 90,000 miles on it, but an overheating issue. The owner replied to my e-mail and elaborated on the overheating, saying that it had begun to overheat a bit during local driving but seemed good on the highway. He had stopped driving it much, but thought that maybe it could make it for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, on Thanksgiving, it started to lose power and blow white smoke, so he stopped driving it and thinks that the HG is blown.

He wants $600. He's offering to cut a generous deal on a timing belt, WP, and tstat that he bought for the car. I can get a Fel-Pro gasket HG kit from NAPA for $150 (sales tax included), and although I'd hope that the head isn't cracked, if it is, I can get a Clearwater rebuilt head for $500. That means that with a good head, I can get a very nice, low-mileage 850 for ~$800 + sales tax, and if the head is blown, for ~$1300 + sales tax.

My thinking would be to drive it for a few weeks, see how I like it compared to my 1994 Buick Century (51,000 grandpa miles), and then sell one of the two. I figure, even if I don't keep it, I should be able to make a little bit of money on it and have fun with an 850 at the same time. Volvo is a brand that is close to my heart, which is why I was searching Volvos on CL in the first place... . CL is not good for me.

Here's a pic of the interior:

 

Fun without a turbo is an oxymoron statement. Together with other things fixed (and I do mean other things, the car is 20 years old), might bring $2,500. So with that in mind, I might pay $450 if they threw in the timing belt stuff.

Head is likely NOT CRACKED, that is hard to do with these soft heads.

 

I say go for it. I assume here you want transportation. That is an unusually nice car. I get about 25 mpg; not stellar, but overall I don't feel like I should try to best the economics of it.

There are a lot of these cars for sale with a blown head gasket. If the car has been hot, the head may be warped, and you may find that good unwarped heads are scarce. But I would not let that stop me. I always say doing nothing is overrated. Heads can be straightened, but I have never had one done.

I figured out that if the head warps, the cam bearings are no longer straight. That is why you have a 0.01" limit on cutting the heads. You can have the warped head surface cut flat at a machine shop, but you shouldn't. You should straighten it back out.

 

I have done several heads on these cars. They do NOT have cam bearings.