I'm prepping for my 2nd head gasket repair on my 1992 Volvo 240. I'm going to purchase a Volvo head gasket kit, but wondering what other parts I should order and/or replace while I'm doing the job?

I plan to take the head to a shop to have it inspected, cleaned, checked for level/ground flat, and have new oil seals and valve hushers installed.

For some added fun I'm installing a "T" cam into my normally aspirated engine to gain some low rpm pull.

The water pump is a month old.
I'm planning to go ahead and install a new timing belt and tensioner.
I'm thinking about purchasing new head bolts.
Radiator is in good shape as well as accessory belts.

Thanks,

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Dan, For what its worth and not to suggest this as a permanent fix but if you want to buy yourself an undetermined amount of time, you may wish to apply an RTV bandaid. Once while traveling I started loosing oil in the same area, concerned that it may catch fire i stopped, got a hotel room and went to work in the parking lot with a tooth brush and some denatured alcohol I made sure it was clean and dry, I then applied a generous bead of "ultra copper RTV" sealant and allowed it to dry overnight. I only chose that route as a last ditch effort to save a family vacation, that was about 8 yrs ago and still no leak.
good luck, as much time as you have put into this , you deserve to have a motor that does not leak!

Dan, one last thought, Keep an eye on the rt. motor mount and tranny mount, they do not respond well to being saturated in oil and can cause future problems.
Good luck

After reading "The Rod" post with the web site on heads I learned some good information.

After dissolving the text into my brain I think I can suggest something to do prior to removing the head.

Take a torque wrench, preferably an inch pound one and turn the cam shaft. Record the resistance reading after off and on each cycle of the lobes over each set of the valves. High and lowest readings averaged might work.

After removing the head, clamp it down over some wood blocks to raise the head up. Now taking the torque wrench run through the same sequence to see if you gained any appreciable resistance.

This might give you a heads up on how much the head bolts released the heads internal stresses that developed after its repeated "normal" operations. The authors head must have been overheated to get the total .020+.012 on the deck.

If you install a different cam you will have a readings for a comparison upon assembly. Something to mull over with each setup. Trying each cam with no valves might assure straightness too.

This could be called tinkering or science, if one keeps notes! (:)




It has been my experience that "final" machining is always done after the material is first heat treated, annealed and normalized by the heat or shot peening, if necessary, to relax stresses. This goes for the cams core too. A surface hardening treatment also gets done, just so deep, just before grinding.
All heat treating shrinks and aligns the grains in the metal.
Holes in tool steel parts get tapped with oversize taps because the holes will shrink too! It is very hard to make a small harden hole larger and just forget about threading it when its almost as hard as a tap.

The point the author brings up is that many shops do do have heat treating skills. They take the head with its stresses relaxed and re machine the Deck only. His example shows how it would be a big no-no!

To fix this, it has to be done with some careful clamping with dial indicators placed at the clamping points. You put enough shims under the decks high spots to stop indicator movement while clamping down.
This keeps the head from twisting or bending. Lock it down in its free state position.
I treat all metals as if it was like rubber, as it squirms under pressure.

Machining the cam journals back in line requires removing no metal from the good journals on the block side to maintain a shimming range to the valves and taking metal on the caps only as needed or off the highest journal.

Sounds straight forward and it is, if you have the tooling to line bore it first!

The easy part is broaching (automotive term) or milling (my term) the deck after that!

So if the head was out enough to machine it you just lower the combustion chambers and lost that space with the head still bent. You gain the right, to run the cam stressed.
The authors point was, the cam does not bend nicely when held up against a hollow aluminum casting so the head becomes stressed again. Thats when you find out how many forgiving(s) your gasket has in it.

Heads actually expand, contract and vibrate under the head bolts and that is the main purpose of a gasket... is to fill in parallel surfaces only for a few thousandths of irregularities.

I was amazed out how close the oil hole in the block is to the outside too! Is that where the head bolt goes too? I am missing the oil hole location in the picture?

I can understand why he made such a good site with pictures as he brought up the cracks of which I learned a whole lot about and to watch out for!
Never had an engine with inserts for spark plug and I hope I never end up with one, good information though!

I might have to look for a head myself in the future.
I have a spare PNP engine hanging on an engine stand with a bad exhaust valve only in number four cylinder.
I have yet to pull the head to find why, or how, but I know what my eyes are going to be looking for now! I am suspicious of the valves seat as the author was!
I blowed compressed air into the spark plug hole and got air up all around the area above the tulip, when looking into the exhaust port.

Just might get to this tomorrow as I have several more incentives now! I think I will do the torque wrench experiment too.

Thanks for starting the thread and bringing this up. I placed a thumbs up for "The Rods" interesting link!
Phil

Thanks Machine Man,

I'm thinking all of that is headed beyond my abilities. Taking the engine apart and pulling the head and putting it back on is about as complex as I can handle.

So I guess my plan will be to have the machine shop check out the head after I pull it. I'll tell them about the problem and about where it is leaking oil and see what they say.

If I need a new head I'll try to pull a decent "virgin" one from a junk yard I guess.

It would be great to get this thing put back together so it can handle another 100,000 miles. But if I only get another 4 or 5 years out of it I guess that will have to do.

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I'll add that I like my Volvo because it has been reasonable to work on. I've learned a lot about automobiles from working on this car and the Brickboard has been a wonderful resource to help me fix all the problems that have developed in the 12 years I've owned the vehicle.

The car is testing my patience at this point. I've enjoyed working on it and it has been cheaper than having a new car payment. However, it is starting to near the point of being no fun and expensive to fix.

I'll give it a go with another head gasket job, but down the road if problems persist it will be time to part ways.

the oil travels through the headbolt channel, on testing cam drag be sure to use assembly lube.

My thoughts about grinding the head flat.
If the head has warped to the point of needing the bottom ground flat, then so have the cam journals. Grinding the bottom flat will leave the cam journals untrue therefore putting your new cam in somewhat of a bind. Line boring the cam journals presents a problem due to Volvo not using cam bearings. Slight warpage can be drawn down with head bolts leaving the cam journals "true". Excessive warpage can be straightened with skilled use of a press (not uncommon) but more common would be to replace the head with excessive warpage. Some may argue that grinding the head flat would result in very little cam binding and probably never present a problem. I just throw this out as something to consider.

So you're saying get a new head and don't install the "T" cam?

I have no idea if the head is warped. I'm going to take the head to a shop to have it checked out. I had the head checked out 40,000 miles ago in 2009 when I did the first head gasket job. The car has not overheated since then.

What I'm saying is "if "the head is warped to the point of needing shaved, then shaving the bottom will not take the warpage out of the cam journals, meaning that your cam will be forced to a slight bow when installed (this would be any cam you choose to install). You can easily check for yourself to see if your your head is warped beyond tolerance or not.

Ok, so how do I easily check the head to see if it is warped?

Here is an in depth discussion of the issue he is describing and if you look at the next pages(hit next at bottom) it details the remedy.
http://www.pbase.com/stealthfti/image/25123315

Thanks for aiding the discussion with that great coverage.

If the thing never overheated, the head is almost surely fine. I usually get them planed just to make sure that I have a perfectly smooth surface for my new gasket. The cam journals should be just fine.

Just out of curiosity, what happened that you only got five-ish years out of a headgasket? Do you drive like 40,000 miles per year?

Nate

Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened. I must have done something wrong on installation. Oil is leaking from the main oil passage on the passenger side of the engine that runs up into the head near the exhaust manifold bolts for cylinder #2. Leaking right out from the head gasket and running down to the oil filter and motor mount.

Not to doubt your diagnosis but could it possibly be a front cam seal leak being pushed back along the seam between the head and block and then running down along #2 cly.? often if you have a clogged vent tube or flame trap the cam seal is quick to start leaking ( I have never seen a cam seal leak without leaving a mess on the water pump). if it is in fact the H.G. then I would be concerned with oil supply to the cam, it flows upward in the area you describe.

Figuring you have oil leaking from the side, I would definitely have the mating surface redone. You should be able to see if the head gasket blew out there upon disassembly. If the gasket looks fine, you have some warpage somewhere or else the head wasn't bolted down correctly. If the block is warped you are in trouble, of course.

Best wishes!

Nate

It's a long story....
http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/1558284/220/240/260/280/lots_oil_leaking_probably_multiple_sources_need_help.html

http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/1560448/220/240/260/280/oil_leak_tracking_continued_rear_main_seal_area_photos.html

Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened. I must have done something wrong on installation. Oil is leaking from the main oil passage on the passenger side of the engine that runs up into the head near the exhaust manifold bolts for cylinder #2. Leaking right out from the head gasket and running down to the oil filter and motor mount.

Hi Dan,

You'll want to get new exhaust manifold nuts and studs.

New header pipe to exhaust manifold connection nuts and studs.

A can of Pblaster or other penetrant.

Some degreaser to clean up things.

Make sure you have new o rings for the water pump-not sure if the headgasket kit includes them.

Is your flame trap system in good shape-now would be a good time to replace that stuff.

I also don't think that the kit comes with the rear cam plug-though I can't say for sure as I have never seen the Volvo head gasket kit.

That's all I can think of.

Oh-probably a new bolt for the header pipe connection to the transmission clamp.

Travis