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My Volvo is sick.... Blown Head Gasket? 200 1985

posted by  someone claiming to be DeWayne on  Mon May 6 15:22 CST 2002 [RELATED]

This past weekend I finally finished all the brake work on my brick. The pedal feels better than before and the brakes seem to work ok. Now I have discovered yet another problem. I had been topping off the coolant tank on a regular basis but never saw any coolant leaks. The car started blowing white smoke about a month ago but it would quit after driving for about 5-10 minutes. I first thought it was brake fluid getting into the brake booster and being sucked into the engine through the vacuum hose. But while I was test driving the car after the brake job, it was blowing white smoke again. I checked the coolant tank today and it was bone dry.

With the engine cold, I pulled the oil dipstick and checked the oil. It does not look milky but there was what appeared to be rust on the dipstick. I opened the oil cap and looked inside the valve cover and again, it does not look milky and the oil cap was clean with just oil on the inside cap and seal area. The car runs great and doesn't appear to be having any problems. I'm the original owner and the car has never over heated. I can see no obvious signs of a coolant leak any where. I have read the archives and everything points to the head gasket.
The car has just over 101k on the clock.

So my questions are:

1) Is it probable that the head gasket is leaking (blown or about to blow)?

2) Is there anything else that could cause these symptoms?

3) I have read the Bently manual and it looks like a straight forward
job pulling off the head. What about the Volvo special tool to hold the camshaft in place? Is it really needed and if so where do I find one?

Even though I have just sank a small fortune into this car on the brake work,
I'm weighing my options and considering selling the car. I spent close to $800 on the brake work plus the car also needs new struts, bushings, and new fuel pumps on top of the now possible blown head gasket. My wife loves the car and we are the original and only owner, but it's getting very expensive to keep the old girl on the road. I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet until I hear your thoughts and input and check with the local shops about the possible head gasket job.

As always, thanks in advance.

DeWayne





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