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I have heard a lot of BS in this thread about how everybody EXCEPT a 960 owner will treat their car, the right way.
The bottomm line for the IL6 B6304 is that it is quite a bit more prone to cooling system problems than every other Volvo. The car needs religious cooling system treatmet flush an T-stat changeout every 2 yrs or 30k mi, even more frequent if you drive it hard. You can also include the radiator as a consumable item, every 100k or less.
It is important to maintain the electro-negative properties of the coolant to prevent ion transport of metal from one surface to another, i.e. 'eating' through walls of motor. This only takes place when the coolant collects ions from one surface (corrosion), ions combine with the coolant as dissolved metallic content, creates a conductive fluid, and electro-plates it to another surface, like the inside of the radiator, as scale.
The scale inhibitors in Volvo coolant keep this from happening, and even with that said, it's still not perfect. Just a simple mistake of using tap water with your precious fluid will negate all the benefits. Always use distilled water.
Prestone and Zerox sell a better grade of coolant with the scale inhibitors Volvo uses. They work, but the lack of very frequent changes on the B6304 will cause the system to self distruct, no matter what coolant you use. The trucking industry uses scale inhibitors like Nalcool from Nalco Chemical which is very good. Also the Nalprep cleaner is quite good.
The 960 uses a cooling system that is more suited to a smaller engine like the 4 cyl 940, and with the additional heat generated within the motor, and additional area within the head and block, the system is overtaxed and scale is produced at a much larger rate than other Volvo engines.
As far as drilling a hole in the radiator cap, that is ludicrous. LOL!!
Keeping the system under pressure prevents boilover at the engine operating temps which are higher than the boiling point at atmospheric pressure. Running at atmospheric pressure increases the ability to have coolant boil within the system at normal operating temps, and the boiling increases cavitation, which in-turn increses the electro-negative properties of the coolant which then of course turn into scale and corrosion, which is a quicker way to self-destruct your engine.
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'89 245 sportwagon, destroyed by hit & run driver, RIP. '04 V70 2.5 T Sportwagon, 12k mi and '91 245 5-speed, 209k mi, replaced the '89
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