Hello i own a 1998 c70 20v T5. and i have this problem ... dunno why the engin seems like owerheating but on dash bord engine temperature seems normal . when i open hood a and look at cooling liquid tank its boiling and all cooling liqiod is coming out seems like presure is to big or what ever . and there seems som oil to mixed with cooling liquid ! have anyone faced this issue ?

thax for your responses ...

send me and email or whatever at gatisp09@gmail.com

thank you

 

Hi and welcome to the site.

We are going throught that now with our S70 but don't have any oil mix that we can see.

When a head gasket seal leaks it allows transfer of fluids or GASES to transfer from one system to another. In the early stages the car will NOT over heat but after it gets away from the owner/care giver, it does a lot of damage and the seal gets worse then you'll have overheating. Just my opinion but I think it would be best to get the head gasket repaired when it is leaking a little than when it's leaking a lot (after it gets bad and does head damage, cat damage, etc.).

There is a couple of things people have told me to check before assuming I have a bad head gasket...

1. Make sure the fan in the engine compartment is working. It should come on when you turn on the AC and when the motor gets a little on the hot side.

2. Make sure you have a good cap on the coolant tank.

Other than that, make sure you keep the system filled until you get it fixed so you don't overheat the car. You may go through a gallon of coolant per 2 weeks or so, depending on how much you drive daily. We have been dealing with this for about 6 months, still driving the car daily.

I believe that the total job will be less if you get it fixed while you have a small leak in the gasket. There is a good chance that only normal wear has gone on in the head and when it's sent to the shop for testing and surface check they may not find much wrong with it. Here they check and test the head for $40 and resurface it for $100. When they check it they will let you know if anything else needs to be done to the head, like a valve job or replace old/damaged/worn out lifters. A head job (shop portion) can range from $140 to $600. If you let the car overheat and warp the head it will likely destroy the valve guide seals and then it will need a $250 valve stem job (pre parts) which run the cost up. Intake valves cost $70 each and exhaust valves cost $40 each, so if you have a burnt or cracked valve from overheating the car, it can run the cost up pretty quick. The car has 20 valves (10 intake and 10 exhaust). Yikes!!! A lot of shops won't even do a head gasket job on an older Volvo because the cost to fix the head can get high and the shop that pulled the head don't like the hastle of dealing with the customer who doesn't want to pay $2,800 for the entire job. Cost can exceed the value of the car. But, if you get it fixed when in the early leaking stages the cost will likely be under $2,000.

The thing about it is that most people don't catch it when it's in this stage, they slowly loose their coolant then the car overheats one day and it's to late. Then they have a warped head and all the "normal" evidance of a blown head gasket. The white smoke, the knocking motor, etc. So talking to someone about it is kinda of a waste of time because they only know about BLOWN head gaskets and not small leaks like we have.

 

This is what we are doing to milk the situation.

When the coolant low light comes on (after loosing coolant over the past few days) we add coolant the next time the car is cold. It's not good to remove the coolant tank cap when the car is warm or hot.

Then we drive around until it looses coolant again and causes the light to come back on. Then we refill again when it's cold. We add coolant to show between the min and max mark. We don't fill it to the max mark, to much pressure.

I think we have combustion gases getting into our coolant passages causing the build up of hot gases in the coolant system, thus causing the boil overs in the coolant tank.

 

Here is a link about a blown head gasket symptoms:
Blown Head Gasket Symptoms

The guy also has a page that talks about fixes. He mentions a "quick fix" with some sodium silicate. Isn't that the stuff they used to destroy the motors of cars in the "Cash for Clunkers" program? The thing that gets me about this quick fix is that it appears that it is designed to work when you have coolant leaking into another part of the motor. I think our problem is the combustion gases getting into the coolant which will make the quick fix NOT work.

I would like other's to add their comments, experiences and suggest on this topic.

 

To anyone else reading this post... These 5 cylinder motors are also know to have problems with the coolant reservior tank caps. If the cap is bad, allowing air in or pressure to relieve prematurely, it can cause the coolant to boil over. So, the first thing you should to is replace the coolant tank cap with a green one.

 

i have a green one but it dosent work for me .. :/ i think its all because of hot oil getting miksed with coolant liquid so it cant bet chilled down so it boils up .. thats my opinion ... i think i realy soon shuld get that gasket fixed ... and i hope it is gasket , if not then i think i need to replace all HEAD

 

just readed this .. and i think tihs one will not work for me .. how i already sayd i have a oil getting into coolant tank :/
so thats what makes my problems i think ...

this is how it looks

u can see that there is som oil on the top of the tank ... i can bet u dont want to see what is going on inside of the tank ^_^


thanks for your replays