Thanks everyone for all your help last week – I truly appreciate it and hope I can return the favor on this board some day. I finished the job on Saturday and let the car idle in the driveway for about 30 minutes. I drove to church on Sunday – and everything seemed fine. Today is the real test, of course. I made it my 25+ mile drive to work this morning, with no issues whatsoever. The coolant has not dropped, nor have I lost any. When I drive home tonight in the 95 degree temps, I’ll know for sure!

I just wanted to provide a few observations around replacing a head gasket on my ‘94 945T, or dealing with a warped cylinder head. I hope this helps – (in no particular order) – these are items I don’t think I read in the faq (at least all in one place) – and from a layman’s perspective like mine, should be able to help you in your first-time repair:

1) Replacing the head gasket is very time consuming – and I consider myself a pretty good mechanic. I don’t know how many hours I have in this repair, but I would estimate at least 15 – which includes trips to and from the machine shop across town. However, now that I’ve done it once on a turbo car, I think I could replace one on a non turbo car in less than half the time – possibly six hours. The turbo is much tougher to deal with – cooked exhaust fasteners, limited access to the exhaust manifold – my primary difficulties.

2) Pulling the exhaust manifold was the hardest part – YES. But, not for the reasons outlined in the faq. As stated, go nuts with the PB blaster, and you should have no problem with the manifold-to-head nuts. Mine all came off very easily – and this is on a 110k brick. I believe the PB blaster was what saved me from any broken studs etc… The TOUGHEST part about the exhaust manifold – pulling it away from the head – was figuring out how to do it. This is what worked for me: (a) removed the three nuts from the manifold to downpipe flange (right behind the exhaust manifold) – BTW – all studs are 13mm. Six point sockets/wrenches are key. I rounded off one of these, and had to use a sawzall to remove it….. took forever (limited access) and a big holdup. Once this was free, I realized the exhaust manifold was still attached. I then (b) unbolted the cat. Converter (three nuts). And (c) two exhaust pipe fastening points (manifold downpipe – one is to the bellhousing, the other just in front of the cat). This allowed me to slide the pipe out of the way. At this point, I realized the manifold was attached to the block, with a ‘T’ bracket just below the manifold. I (d) removed the oil filter to gain better access to this attaching nut (which faces the bottom of the car). After climbing under the car probably 10 times, I just couldn’t get the leverage to remove this nut. So I spent the next hour trying dozens of 3/8” drive extension combinations to remove this ‘T’ bracket from the block, which I eventually did – and the manifold then moved away from the head/block. (e) – mistake I made next was to remove the nut on this T-bracket I couldn’t remove earlier.

3) T-bracket holding the exhaust manifold in place. When bolting the exhaust manifold back in place, I reattached this ‘T’ bracket (two fastening points to the block) FIRST, and then attempted attach the manifold to this ‘T’ bracket. But the problem I had is the manifold has to slide horizontally on the head studs, yet VERTICALLY Upward on this third attaching point on the ‘T’ bracket – I found this an impossibility. So after much struggling, I unbolted the ‘T’ bracket from the block, bolted it to the manifold – and then bolted it back to the block. Remember, I spent an hour trying to remove this ‘T’ bracket from the block originally – getting it back on probably took 30 minutes 

4) Pull the front RH wheel – and get the car on jackstands in the front. Your back will thank you, and you’ll need to spend a lot of time under the car.

5) Be careful breaking loose the head bolts – mine were very seized up – and broke free with a ‘SNAP’ – Be really careful here. I was quite worried at how tight these were.

6) Replacing exhaust studs/nuts/fasteners – Unfortunately, my local volvo parts supplier only had three exhaust nuts – so that’s all I replaced. And they came in handy (as I lost a few). But IMO, I don’t think I needed to replace my manifold to head studs/nuts. They were all in fine shape. And I was out of time, so didn’t want to make the trip to the dealer.

7) Use anti seize on all fasteners going back on – liberally.

8) Be prepared to buy a back timing cover. These are three pieces. The backing portion, or what attaches to the block/head, was melted on my car – due to the overheating. About $40 from the dealer.

9) Big steps – involved with this repair: (1) remove intake manifold bolts and other attaching vacuum lines etc. and tie out of the way (2) remove exhaust manifold studs, manifold downpipe and T bracket under manifold – pull out of the way (3) remove timing belt cover, pulleys and tensioner – but before, break loose the cam pulley gear (with the belt on, as too keep it from spinning (4) pull the valve cover, break the head bolts loose and pull the head. First you’ll need to remove three things from the LH side of the head – two sensor plugs and a water hose at the back – and pull the plug wires from the spark plugs/distributor cap. (5) pull the head. It’s really not that difficult – but it is time consuming.

10) Buy a ‘head gasket’ KIT from fcpgroton or elsewhere – I think mine was Erling. It included all the gaskets etc for my exhaust, intake, head and several other areas. It also included all the seals etc.. for the machine shop. I still have a handful of o rings and things left – probably fuel injection related (for another day!)

11) Make sure you have the proper torque numbers / order for the cylinder head. I was a bit confused about he instructions in my chiltons/faq – regarding the final torque setting. Which said: 14 ft lbs, 44 ft lbs, 90 degrees final…. WHAT? Does this mean an additional ¼ turn? My best guess: So after my 44 foot lbs, I set the torque wrench to 50 ft lbs, and moved each one probably 1/8 turn. My thinking – I can always retorque – but won’t be able to Untorque….

12) Shaving the cylinder head – OK – I know now the max you want to have machined off is .019”. Mine, they went .020. I was worried, but after talking to my local indy shop who did the initial troubleshooting test, they said I’d be fine. And I seem to be fine. One guy on this board said he’s gone .035 before…. I don’t know about that much on a turbo car.

13) Total cost: about $450 – includes gasket kit, timing belt, machine work on head, cost of indy shop to diagnose, coolant, timing cover and nuts, thermostat, timing belt tensioner.

14) The car is idling much more smoothly today than ever before. And on a hill that I normally take at 60 mph on cruise – I have to take the cruise control off or the tranny will downshift out of overdrive. Today I tried it with the cruise on – no problems. Didn’t labor at all.

15) There were telltale signs of my failing head gasket – I didn’t realize them at the time. (1) coolant was getting discolored from the leaky/failing head gasket – lost it’s green tint and turned brownish yellow. That had been something I noticed for several months. (2) excessive cooling hose pressure – under normal operating temp, you should be able to somewhat squeeze your upper radiator hose – mine, before the repair, were unsqueezable! Now, normal squishy, hot hoses. Also, the excessive pressure was pushing coolant up through the coolant fill tank, and out. Lot’s of pressure/activity in the tank there.

I’m sure I’ll think of more later. Hope this helps. Again, I certainly appreciate all the great advice! Best regards, Chris W from Texas.