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As Art says, I can't agree that these cars "commonly" need head gaskets.
What might be at issue here is that the newest of these cars just clicked over 21 model years old, and at the same time with their long-lived reputation, even a car with average annual mileage is approaching 300k miles.
I worked in a Volvo shop at a time when they were just everyday used cars. They were always getting towed in for simple fuel-pump-relay and crank sensor failures. They'd come in for accidents of course, and the very common brakes, tires, suspension, exhaust, and timing belt sort of work. The stuff you replace on a schedule or as it wears.
The engines were the strongest parts. A friend's dad at the time had a 360K miles 242 GT which had been through the body shop twice for rust issues- and had never been apart.
What could happen is belt and hose failures, and more commonly in 700 than 200 cars, heater valve failures, causing sudden dumps of coolant. Then the motor overheats, and then the head has to come off if it's bad. Typically the head needs to be planed, and it can be found to have cracks or erosion.
I had my head off my 92 240 for a persistent water leak, and was sure I had a head gasket issue, about 3 year ago. (Art, this is my first confession of this.) Yeah, I didn't look close enough. It was the heater hose that connects to the spigot on the back of the head. Leaking inside a bend, that only opened up when the car accelerated. Anyway I didn't plane the head, I just cleaned everything and put it back together and used the FCP gasket kit and the torque specs found in Haynes... and yeah got new heater hoses, which are awful to get at.
I give Volvo a lot of credit for designing a powerplant which will hold together for roughly twice as long as "normal" cars. The B230 is just a great motor.
--Rob
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89 244GL Turbo // 92 244 M47 \\ 90 745T // 76 242 Convertible
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