Looks like a headgasket failure, - repair cost?

[Skyedriver]

After a long period of slightly pressurising the cooling system, the ol' silver brick got a hydaulic lock yesterday, and again today and is losing water and there is emulsion on the oil filler cap.
What is the likelyhood of head damage on these cars or is it likely to be just a gasket? Any ideas on garage repair costs. I have a spare head but its 350 mile way, along with all my spanners etc.
Any advice appreciated

[heyskull]

The last time I did my own headgasket I think it cost me about a £110.
That includes a new socket set, a new torque wrench a head gasket and a new timing belt.
I could do this job myself in under 2 hours now.
Sounds like you may need a skim of the head though as my car just started to blow the water out of the header tank and the job was done straight away.
It was checked and was still straight.
If you want a garage to do it some of them will quote silly money for such an easy job.
I have even heard of people being quoted such a daft price they scrapped the car!

DIY is the answer....

SC

[barkster1971]

If the car is turboed the job is slightly more of a pain. If the head is warped you can pick up a new one for 30-40 quid. Get it skimmed = 40 quid. You can clean up the head with oven cleaner to get all all the gunk off. A full gasket set with head gasket and inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets is about 35 quid. You'll need a torque wrench . You can use the old bolts if they have not been stretched. Ask Rufe for the bits.

[Skyedriver]

Thanks Guys
I actually have the tools and a spare head (actually a spare car) but about 8 hours/350 mile away and so much work on with a house renovation project...
Been quoted £600 for a full remove/pressure test/refit/belts etc.
Looks like I'll be putting it aside for a short while until I next get up to Scotland for the spare head and starting from there.
Anyone got a spare car they don't want, that I can use as a run around......?

[StanC]

For what it's worth, I had 'head' work done on my B6304 about eighteen months ago - it had an oil leak from the rear right hand corner of the head gasket that just became too bad. The guy who did the work was an experienced Volvo-trained technician and he seemed to know his onions, having done many head-gasket jobs on B6304's over the years.

He told me before he started the job that, in his experience, most of the heads (about 80%) that he had removed were found to be out of tolerance on flatness and needed skimming before he could re-assemble them with confidence. Head-warp is usually why problems start in the first place.

So, as the others have said, be ready to get it skimmed before you re-assemble. Incidentally, I was quoted £550 for the work, including skimming, so the £600 figure is about right, if you don't want to do it yourself.

Stan.

[Profpriv]

The bolts alone cost me £70.00 last year . I wouldnt advise reusing them because they stretch. That is what they are designed to do.If you take the head off replace the dizzy cap and rotor too, they are a devil afterwards....

I replaced plugs,too and anything that looked like it needed some attention.


Its worth it Its saves in the long run





Shaun

[Skyedriver]

If I was to remove the head from my spares car I assume the head won't need work as that car ran ok.
Still need new bolts, gasket, belts etc

[StanC]

Originally Posted by Skyedriver

If I was to remove the head from my spares car I assume the head won't need work as that car ran ok.
Still need new bolts, gasket, belts etc

In theory - yes! I would still check the head for flatness, though, because (in theory - but unlikely) simply unbolting and removing it from the block could relieve stress in the head and cause it to warp.

Stan.

[Oilydad]

I wonder if it could be the same problem that I had on my first 940. When I removed the head, the last two water channels at the rear of the block (looking at the car from the front) had corroded the block itself quite badly. There was substantial nasty pitting, almost to the point of joining the two channels in one area to a depth of a 3 or 4 mm. and the head gasket had clearly been deteriorating there for quite a while.

I had to have the block welded, re-machined, skimmed and then I assembled it all back again with a skimmed head. I never had any more problems with it, and the skimming actually increased the compression ever so slightly.

I seem to remember paying about £200 for the machining work, and did the rest myself, so it wasn't too bad.

Not easy to diagnose these sort of problems without stripping the top half to find the problem. Everything is just guesswork.

One thing is for sure though....it won't get better left to deteriorate. Time to get the spanners out!!

[Daleman]

Having ascertained that all the symptoms I had on my car where pointing toward the cylinder head gasket leaking .Namely slight misfire on start up (while the spark plug dried out) slightly rough running on tick over that that was slowly getting progressively worse. Pressure build up in the radiator with excess pressure blowing water out of the expansion pipe.

First of all I tried K SEAL and one container didn’t do it, so I tried two and things did improve temporarily. Then they got considerably worse with constant rough running ,loads of pressure in the header tank consuming litres of water on every trip and blowing it out of the exhaust as steam. I stopped using the vehicle because the engine was so rough the auto gearbox grabbed and seemed out of balance for smooth take up in traffic almost juddering to a halt on many occasions.

I have sold the car for scrappage because although its immaculate (one owner for fifteen years) its worth more as scrappage than it is to sell it (especially with the head gasket problem) but I need something to run a couple of months while my new car turns up.

As a final attempt for an easy “temporary” cure I bought a bottle of STEEL SEAL, and followed the comprehensive heating and cooling instructions using Holts two year Ethel Glycol antifreeze as the binding agent that MUST be used to make the chemical reaction with the STEEL SEAL .

I must admit I was sceptical but to my amazement it does appear to have worked The pressure build up in the radiator has stopped the engine starts and runs faultlessly and the cooling system appears to be perfect.

NO WATER IS BEING USED . So an amazing result for STEEL SEAL and my gasket problems where not mild by the time I used it.

So anyone contemplating using this product should certainly give it a try as it definitely does seem to work and I have now done a thousand miles with this repair and it looks to be a permanent cure .I am amazed, I must point out I was very sceptical but desperately needed to get the car away transporting me while my new car turned up. I had had a quote for £600 for a head rebuild which this has avoided .I have absolutely no connection with steel seal.