Hi everyone,

My car is not running at the moment. I am continuing to read the FAQ, look through the postings and would also very much appreciate any ideas from any of you.

The car is a 1990 Volvo 745T with automatic transmission and about 202,000 mi. Most recent tracked and successful driving before the car slowly, over a span of about 100 miles, broke down soon thereafter last month was on a trip from Wisconsin to Connecticut. Car drove fine and even returned great mileage of 28, 30 and then 31 mpg on that trip out there. Car broke down in northern New Jersey on the return trip towing a ca. 3,500 lb load. The engine has not wanted to restart since then. Timing belt is 3 years old and has 30k miles on it. Engine sounds normal when cranking. Plugs are clean. Oil is not low and was not low at breakdown and has no coolant in it. Coolant is not low and was not low at breakdown.

Initial consensus - no compression test had yet been done - (from both a truck mechanic in New Jersey, when the car broke down out there last month and the accomplished shade tree mechanic here in Wisconsin) was a possible blown head gasket. NJ mechanic saw coolant bubbling up in the reservoir when cranking the engine without the res. cap on. I have not been able to repeat that, i.e. there is no coolant bubbling up when I crank. Wisc. mechanic confirmed lack of bubbling coolant when cranking.

Cylinder compression test numbers from late yesterday may suggest a head gasket leak and, or more. If anyone out there could have a look at these figures and suggest any ideas, I would appreciate it. My shade tree mechanic here knows and approves that I am posting to the brickboard.

The current compression test on the cold engine reports 120, 145, 150, and 130 psi in cylinders one through four, in that order, reading from the front of the engine to the back of the engine . With oil added through the spark plug hole, compression in the number one cylinder increases from 120 to 145 psi. The back cylinder, number four, does not change with added oil, that is, still shows 130 psi, even with oil squirted in . We did not add any oil to the middle two cylinders because their dry compression readings seemed to be in the ballpark*.

Mechanic here suspects that the head gasket may be leaking at the rear and or at the front of the engine and that the number one cylinder also may have worn or damaged compression rings. I am going about acquiring the right adapter for fitting a pressure test kit to the coolant reservoir today. Would any of you be willing to comment so far? My mechanic here says that if a cylinder has bad compression rings, installing a new head gasket will not bring the car back to life. I am wondering if it may be best to push this car into my garage , buy a replacement Volvo for transportation and then go about starting what may be the extensive repairs that may be indicated on my 1990 745T.

* Only other compression test readings that I have stem from about 75,000 mi. and several years ago on the engine when warm. Those readings were all about from 158 psi to 160 psi back then.

Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Paul S.