I purchased a 2008 C30 for my daughter .
ended up having bad head gasket and stop leak in it . Sent head to get worked and when reinstalling the engine holes stripped or were not able to torq them down .
after research I read that timeserts were best to use for this repair . Now I’m looking to see if anyone could point me in the direction of which set to order for the bloc would I order 1.25 or 1.5 ? Thanks in advance !

 

doing some googling I saw a site that listed the head bolts as M12s 156mm long with a 1,75mm thread pitch. (Elring and others sell bolt sets for Volvos - check eBay etc).

 

What were the symptoms of that bad head diagnosis...overheating only, or?

 

since the OP said the car had stop leak in it, I'd say they were getting oil in the coolant or the car was consuming coolant via the combustion chamber. Typical symptoms depend on where the gasket has failed but can include: loss of coolant with no visible leaks, slightly sweet smell to exhaust, HCs (ie blow by gases) in the coolant (there's test kits that cost about $40 that will measure HCs in the coolant, the coolant milkshake (when oil pushes into the coolant path), the oil milkshake, when coolant pushes into the oil, misfires, low compression, overheating, high pressure or gurgling in the coolant (Volvo's are closed systems so one sign of exhaust gas pushing into the coolant is a rock hard upper radiator hose).

 

Yeah you always take a chance when you buy a used car. I bought my 2009 C30 two years ago. Private sale. $8500, excellent condition, 58K on the clock. Honest owners. Guys wife only drove the kids to school and home a few days a week. They do a complete check by the Volvo Dealership he used for everything just before I bought it. I get it checked by my guy maybe 200 miles later and he tells me they (turns out it was the Volvo dealership tech) overfilled the oil in an oil change by a quart. Put in 7...supposed to be 6. We drained out a quart. I haven't had any problems since. I've put on about 4000 mi...but I drove it very carefully in those 200 or so miles after I bought it. My guy says it probably didn't hurt the car (unless you continued driving it that way of course). So I think I'm lucky there...but no matter how careful you are when your looking for a car...you know?

 

It had pressure in coolant over flow , when plugs were removed there was two cylinders that were carbon free … funny thing it sounds like good thing ! No water smoke from exhaust and car ran fine . Drove it 17 miles and started to overheat at that point I noticed the coolant was low . It was burning coolant .

 

you probably also noticed a sweetish exhaust smell and some white smoke/condensation coming out of the exhaust too... Any luck sorting out which timeserts to use?

 

I did receive the kit and inserts last night .
I had a quote to install them for 900 by a machinist and 325 if the engine’s out .
I’ve been watching videos on the install and it doesn’t look like it would be too difficult so Monday I’m going to do it myself . I have a few extra I’m goin to put on a old tranny for practice . The only step I’m really not sure about is recessing it when the hole in the block is already recessed so the insert and head really never have a chance to create contact . So I may skip that process of counter sinking the insert . Thanks 🙏🏼