My sister owned a 2002 75th Anniversary S80 T6. The coolant reservoir cap failed some how, probably her fault and she overheated it. Not sure how hot she got it but I know there is oil in the coolant. She planned to scrap it so I paid her scrap price for it and am arranging transport to my house.

So my first plan is to get the head off and see the damage. I figured worst case, I part it out and then scrap the rest. I have strong mechanical skills, like F-15 flight line mechanic skills, grew up in heavy equipment shop, dad was a great mechanic and teacher. I also do all my own work on personal vehicles and have always been a mechanic in some sort. But never a Volvo. I have started watching some Volvo stuff on Youtube but see little on the 6 cylinder. Is it comparable with the 5s?

Would like to hear, what people with experience working on Volvo's would do? Thanks in advance for your hopefully positive thoughts. Jeremy

 

Well, I came into it about the same as you. I came into a very very cheap volvo and decided to see if I could get it running. I do that with all sorts of machines for fun. Unfortunately, I quickly bought 7 more for $400 each and kind of lost control of the situation. I have found them easy to work on, but of course rarely will you run into anyone in person who knows much about them. There are some guys around who quietly fix them and sell them and make a living that way. The T6 is like a T5 in the sense of a family resemblance.

I would be out of my league advising you about fixing it, but I think the engine itself is pretty reliable when it's not overheated. It probably would not be too tough to find a second S80 with the transmission bad for scrap value and make one good one out of two.

 

Go crazy then scrap . Volvo are very specific cars and also quite rare compared to other giants like mercedes bmw and so on. I assure you though that I have never seen a safer car than the ones their are making at volvo. The mechanical part is also great. Fun fact - Volvo was the first motor company to invent and use safety belts. Even more they didn't reserve the copyright to themselves and gave it out for free so other companies use it. As for the car, if you decide to scrap it then the guys from https://www.scrapi.com/blog/how-do-i-scrap-a-car will be happy to take it off your hands for a good price btw.

 

if you suspect an overheat, then you could have a head gasket issue or a warped/cracked head. If you are inclined to pull the head as project you can get a good look at the head gasket then take the head to a machine shop who can check for flatness and whether or not the head can be salvaged. You can also price a replacement head by going to car-part.com which would be your next option if you decide to reassemble the engine. Problem with the overheat is you don't know the root cause - ie bad water pump? stuck thermostat? bad head gasket to begin with? old reservoir cap? with the head off changing the water pump is a natural so you'd probably want to add that to the parts list

 

It's a 4 1/2 year old post guys. Willing to bet money he's sold it and likely for scrap since he never posted again.