I've owned Volvo's for almost 10 years...last year I sold my 850R and got into a 1999 V70R AWD. The car was meticulously cared for by a doctor who used a Volvo dealership for all work prior to the time I bought it.

SO I recently brought it in to have a few things done and to investigate a coolant leak. My Volvo guy just called to say that initially he thought it was a tube that runs through the middle of the engine (it's uncommon that these tubes crack), but then found a hairline crack in the water journal on the engine block. I don't even know what this means really?

He recommended a few things...(1) fudge it by cleaning it up and putting epoxy over the crack (2) take the block out and send it to a welder (3) replace the engine.

PLLLLLEASSSEEEE HELPPPP!!! I love this car and want it to stay in great shape.

What do I do? Anyone seen this before? Suggestions?!?!?!

Thank you for reading!

 

In short, it's a crack in the engine block on the exhaust manifold side behind the main water pump pipe. He said something more specifically about the "water journal".

If you were trying to find the vertical hairline crack, you would look below the exhaust manifold on the block side, adjacent to the water pump that runs around to the radiator eventually.

It does not leak at an idle...when the car is revved to 3000 RPM then the hairline crack begins leaking.

 

Hello, Man! I've never read anything like that before. If any crack can be fixed, fix it. If you have to really clean and dry the engine to properly apply an epoxy, that's one thing. If the crack is so bad it needs to be welded, then the price will be considerably higher. Try to find out how often this happens. Is it possible the "welder" has experience enough to do this? Are you bogged down with the details of an engine which needs to be "merely" rebuilt? How do you think this happened? Tough choices all around. Kira