My '85 240 appears to need a new head gasket. I have not done a compression check, but it has the classic symtoms such as blowing white smoke with a nasty smell, losing coolant (sometimes fast, somtimes slow), rust spots on the oil dipstick, and I also found some white colored fluid in the flame trap. The oil does not look milky yet, but I think the head gasket is slowly deteriorating.

I have both the Bently and Haynes manuals and was going to attempt replacing the gasket myself but two things are holding me back. First thing is, I've never been that deep into this engine before and I'm afraid I could get stuck once I get into the job. Second problem is lack of time to do the job.

I called a few shops to get price quotes. A local Volvo shop wants $1200-$1400 which is too much. But the Volvo dealer quoted me a price of $800-$850 and said they can usually have it done in one day if they don't have to send the head out to the machine shop. This sounds like a bargain to me.

So my questions are:

1) Does the dealer price sound like the "deal of the decade"?
2) For those of you who have done this job before, how hard is it for a person with average mechanical skills and a few tools to do this job and how much time would it take for a novice mechanic?

I have replaced an intake manifold on a GM engine before, but I've never had to pull the head off of an engine until now.

Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice...!

DeWayne