hi sages- as an apprentice on volvos with the board being my tutors, i have noticed in the last 2 1/2 years certain common complaints. the one here is head gaskets seem to be a common weakness on the 240 engine. this is strange because the durability otherwise of this engine is legendary and in the slant six class of good engineering. never had to do a head job on a slant six or a 318 v8 in my dodges/plymouths where most of my experience is. what is it about the 240 engine that makes it prone to weak head gaskets. my experience with tanks going back to 64 also tells me there is no special problem with 4 cyl engines. uncle moe told me the general problem with 4 cyl. engines is they wear out earlier than 6s and 8s because they are always running with their tongues hanging out. had a 62 chevy ll with an inline 4 and while not a doll of an engine , never blew a head gasket. if the gasket design itself is prone to failure, cant a more durable one be designed? would appreciate you sage folks giving me the skinny on this. thanks tons oldduke ps- my hunch is that a weak gasket design plus an aluminum head and block is a bad combination.

Working on your own vehicles won't give you the depth of experience needed to judge just what a long lived head gasket is. Back in the 60's domestic engines used a lot of embossed steel head gaskets and the 273 Chryslers rotted them out sometimes. Even Chev small blocks blew head gaskets, and the Gen11 smallblocks (LT1's) with aluminum heads are famous for it - number 7 and 8 cylinders in fact. Just about every Neon, and every Cavalier has had it's head gasket replaced. And I mean every. Alfa Romeos with aluminum block and head blew their gaskets. BMW's little 318 series popped nearly every head gasket in the early 80's.
I think Volvo got away with it so well because of the huge clamping forces (torque values) used. Even then they'll blow gaskets. I've seen split fire rings, corrosion, warping, the works. It's what engines do.
The most durable HG is the multi-layer steel one, invented by Toyota and now used by just about all. Requires a really flat low Ra surface for sure.
So by comparison red block Volvos are good in the HG department. Too bad about the 230's lousy pistons, lousy rods, lousy main bearing thrust washers, lousy water pumps, and noisy camshafts and weak valve springs. Other than those little nigglies, a fine engine.

The B23F in my '84 245 has 350,000 miles on it and is completely original save for the waterpump, alternator and starter.

The engine does leak oil from between the head and the block, and has for several years. Cheaper to top up the oil than to go to the expense of replacing the HG. I still have good compression (140 psi) and there is no evidence of oil in the coolant.

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
--
89 244GL Turbo // 92 244 M47 \\ 90 745T // 76 242 Convertible

You can be sure that anyone who thinks head gaskets are a "common" problem to the red block motors has no experience with the earliest commonly available aluminum headed motors---take your Renaults, Peugeots, Fiats, etc.--those cars had head gasket problems. As often as every 40k miles. Take a look at the head bolt torque for those old motors--you'll see numbers like 50 or 60 or 65 ft lbs. Modern motors call for some specific torque and then twist another X degrees--torque to yield. A fancy way of saying torque the **** out of it--evenly. -- Dave

not mentioned as yet is the serious damage a tiny positive electrical charge in the coolant will do to aluminum cylinder heads over time.

i have worked on several AL heads which once removed required welding and resurfacing to fill in and grind down potholes caused by a voltage less than 1 volt.

My two cents: It depends so much on the previous owner. I've had three of mine over 300K without HG failure, which I attribute not so much to my care, but that of the first owners who put on the first 150K or so and maintained them as a primary vehicle.

Eventually the gasket will wear out, I hear, as the differential expansion between steel and aluminum alloy stress the gasket material, but so far the only one I've replaced was not for any leak or gasket fault.

What sort of longevity did you get with the iron block 225's and 318's you've maintained? My 318 experience concluded with the rings and valve guides turning the car into a mosquito fogger. Well under 100K. But then again, I was not the original owner. I am the original owner of a Maytag A608, although I've just taken them to the cleaners instead of vice versa by doing the overhaul instead of buying new.

How long did those Mopar gaskets last?
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Captcha be gone.

And just to add a bit to this, I have had 3 B21's, 2 B230F's and one B230FT. the lowest mileage of all of them are the two I have not...both B230f's.

None of my cars have every had the head off and the mileage range has been from 118K miles to an estimated 375K miles. A couple of my cars led lives as the village bicycle with more owners than oil changes.

I personally think this is potentially another one of those issues where these cars are come of an age...the high sales years of 88-92 are seeing the problems the 78-83 years had but those early years the wiring harness issues eclipsed almost everything else.

hi art- had to laugh at your comments because they were true. never replaced a head gasket on a 318 or slant six. had 3 slant sixes which went 250- 300k and 2 318s that went 200k. all 5 were mosquito foggers by those mileages due to worn valve guides. piston and ring integrities were good in all 5. they succumbed to the same thing- severe rustouts from new jersey snow and salt. i would agree with the above posters now that different creeping rates of the head and block wear out the gasket. the car has green anti freeze in it which appears is a good thing. perhaps i should drain a gallon of coolant every 18 mos. and put in a gallon of green antifreeze. have a gallon of the go5 ready to go but hear that causes leaks. maybe that is just for the new volvos. bought the car 2 1/2 years ago from the original owner who took good care of it and it has run very well. he told me he had just replaced the head and gasket and replaced the coolant with the green stuff. said that the head had corroded causing the gasket to blow. never heard of that in my old american tanks. what do you think of my idea of draining a gallon of coolant and replacing it with new green antifreeze periodically? the current coolant is from feb 2011 and still looks clean. by the way you may not remember our conversation but i may be065y the irv gordon of maytag washers. my a108 from 77 is still running 4 times a week with nothing having worn out . i did replace the sliding motor in 80 after a hurricane flood which submerged part of the washer. think its approaching 3 million miles like the gordon 1800 volvo. if and when i have to pull off the surgilator i plan to try your inflated tube trick. very interested in your comments as well as other posters. phat regards and thanks tons oldduke

Aluminum head and iron cast block = heat disparity between the 2 metals and the potential for failing head gaskets...

FWIW - My 90 240's original head gasket was still going at 300k when I sold the car.

This is not just a Volvo problem. Any aluminum head and iron cast block engine design can be prone to this.

Agreed. The aluminum head warms up more quickly, and expands and contracts at different rates than does the iron block. This leads to some movement between the two surfaces on every cold start up. This (slight) physical movement will eventually wear out the gasket, and cause it to leak.

One thing that could help is using a metal head gasket - like a Cometic MLS. It's more impervious to wear as the surfaces it's pinned between move around slightly.

Also, as mentioned in another post - failure to maintain the cooling system is an issue. Regular green coolant initially has various chemical buffers in it designed to keep the coolant at a particular PH level. It's a little tricky to have a mild solvent circulating through a mixture of different metals at a high temp without it getting hungry and corroding something. These buffers are designed to combat that. Eventually they get depleted, used up, and then the coolant becomes more and more acidic and starts to cause corrosion, which can include corrosion of the HG itself.

And last but not least, if a hose breaks, a thermostat sticks, or a plastic radiator end tank leaks and the engine gets run for a bit with low coolant, the head can get really hot and warp, it's a lot easier to damage than the older B18/20 steel heads are. Sometimes an engine will get overheated, cause some damage, and even though it seems back to normal after the main issue is fixed, the HG is jsut a ticking time bomb that will go off a month or few later.
--
'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic #1141 245 (now w/16V turbo)

I don't think they are any more prone to HG problems as any other engine that goes 200 - 300K miles. My guess is most of them are related to poor maintenance of the cooling system and overheating due to cooling system failures both being related.
Dan