B230FD w/ 270k on an original engine.

After a front seal failure, a loose water pump, oily timing belt, and general leakage, I opted to put on a new refreshed head, oem pump, and gates kevlar belt.

I ordered a head gasket from VLVWorld, which was a german Reinz gasket.

The repair/replacement went well on Saturday and I've been driving the car since the repair. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to shake the oily stink from the engine.

Today I realized why.

The new gasket is leaking. I'm getting oily seepage along the exhaust side, and coolant seepage along the intake side. There hasn't been a blow out, yet.

Two Questions:

(1) Why didn't this thing seal up?
I followed the guidelines for this gasket: No grease, torqued the bolts to 20nm, 60nm, +90 degrees. I've always greased the block before installing a new gasket is that why this thing didn't work? Is Reinz a junk brand? Are the torque values wrong?


(2) Is it too far gone to save with another round of bolt torquing?

The last few times I've done a gasket, the bolts never really start groaning, but the torque values check out. The torques are even, but maybe they need another round?

Hello,

I would suggest using a new set of head bolts. The head bolts for 940 is torque-to-yield (TTY) type. TTY bolts uses the natural tension in the bolts to further tighten the head gasket. Overheated condition may have stretched the bolts beyond its elastic limits. Although Volvo recommends its re-use a few times I think this might have been the case in your situation. Also its preferable to use the click type of torque wrench when tightening.

Just a thought. Hope this helps.

Amarin.

Time for some new head bolts. Torque to yield are really only good for one time. Saabs and Volvo owners have had good luck in the reuse of head bolts. I too, have a Saab 900t that I have to redo because I reused the head bolts instead of replacement. Keep Pushing Forwards...

Unfortunately, I did use new bolts.

I had a near-overheat in 2011, which resulted in a minor gasket failure in very early 2012 (coolant leak on the side) which led me to replace the gasket in march 2012, which had no problems at all for the last 18 months.

However, the new water pump started failing, and timing belt got oily when a seal failed... so I opted to put on the new head when I was replacing the other two problems.

I re-used the bolts last time, but went with a new bolts this time.

No good reason that the new gasket didn't seal... except that the head isn't as good as I was led to believe...

I plan to re-torque and check condition. If it still won't seal, and looks satisfactory after removal (straight-edge check), I'll have to put the old head back on.

Hello,

This reminded me of a similar experience before. Had used Victor-Reinz gasket with old head bolts for my NA 940. After 3 months it somehow leaked. Had to top-up coolant once a week and finally saw engine oil dripping from exhaust side. Wanted to use original Volvo but dealer had no stock. I chose Elring and used new head bolts. Thankfully it remains trouble-free till today…thats 2 years plus.

Hope this helps.

Amarin.

That is very encouraging. I have an elring on hand. If the head checks-out true, I'll give it another go.


Thing is... I would have used an Elring gasket the first time. However.. it seems that ordering on Tuesday at 1:39 from IPD and paying for 3-day shipping means that you won't see anything until Monday the following week.

1:39 is nine minutes after daily shipping cut-off and unless you know to call and ask them to push your order through, your item doesn't ship until the next day. Added to that... apparently, 3-day shipping doesn't actually include the day that it ships.

If you order a nice Elring gasket that ships on Wednesday, FedEx thinks that the 3-days you paid for are Thursday-Friday-Monday.

So order on Tuesday, shipping clock doesn't start until Thursday and it takes 6 days to get something with 3-day shipping. Some times, living in the Midwest sucks.

I've only done two headgasket jobs - one on my now departed 940 n/a and one on my 940 turbo, so I can't say I'm really that qualified to make statements about gasket quality, BUT:

-I used Elring on the n/a and was impressed by the quality of its material, its thickness and metallic reinforcements. It was not something that could bend easily.

-I used Reinz on the turbo and was not as impressed. It seemed a little flimsier: still reinforced but I felt I had to be a lot more gentle with it to avoid damage when putting the head back on. It was much 'bendier' than the Elring.

The Elring held until I junked the car, and the Reinz has held for almost 2 years so far, so we'll see.

I did get a substantial oil leak from the n/a after a few months by the headbolt that goes into what I think is an oil delivery channel (on the right front of the engine). I didn't drain the oil when I did the job and this hole was basically full of crankcase oil when I put the bolt in - so it must not have been torqued enough. Re-torquing solved the problem.

Peetz has it right, your surface finish is suspect and greasing the mating hardware is a big no no. I retired from Victor Reinz and used a profilometer on returned so called defective gaskets, service engineering joked that some reminded us of plowed fields. The profilometer went off the scale.
I just replaced my HG using a graphite VR and so far I've been impressed with the no re-torque characteristics, my original Goetz required two retorgues but it lasted over 450K. My 745 TIC now sits on 603K and that's not kilometers.
If you have it resurfaced be aware that the machinist not exceed RA specs.
Good luck!

Recently I successfully installed a decked head with new head bolts,tightening to volvo procedure, As a precaution I double checked torque with a flex. I took each bolt just up to the point where I felt that they were about to move then. I compared that reading to the corresponding bolt on the opposite side. I found one bolt that required turning an additional 45 degrees,though there were a couple of bolts that I did give a small nudge to during this check. I just don't trust the accuracy of the last torque being dependent on a 90 degree turn considering the potential for inconsistencies in tensile strength between head bolts.

You know, I've done 4-5 head gaskets, on B18s, B20s, B230, and a whiteblock B5234T3. With the exception of the 18/20, I've never gotten that groaning stretching noise from any of my TTY bolts. Although both my click-wrench and my flex-bar wrench give me the same torque readings, I'm never fully confident that things are at the right level of torque.

The B5234 has been great, and the B230 was fine until I swapped heads. But I can't shake the feeling that the tools are lying to me...

Dear repairmanjack,

Hope you're well. An automotive machine shop can ensure that the head's underside is perfectly flat and smooth. If the head is within specification, they'll tell you. If not, an automotive machine shop has the tools to true the head, presuming that doing so will leave it within specification. They can also tell you what is the correct thickness of the headgasket, required to keep the compression ratio within specification.

The cost is high - in time, energy, and wasted parts - of trusting a straight-edge. Paying an automotive machine shop to ensure the head is in specification - and that there are no internal problems (e.g., cracks, etc.), seems to me to be money well spent.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Torque wrenches don't last forever and the wire ones are somewhat temperature dependent. Get your clicky one calibrated, remember to always leave it stored without any tension on it.

I haven't played with red blocks for a long time, but I would back off the head bolts 90 degrees, retorque them to 60nm and then add the 90 degrees. Then, I am not a mechanic AND it's not my car!

heh... I'm not a mechanic either.

Long ago I purchased what turned out to be a bogus gasket. Of course, at the time, I was extremely inexperienced. The same thing couldnt happen now. At least not as easily.
What was in the box was cut like a gasket, looked like one(I thought), fit like one, but was not a real head gasket.

Im just saying.

For the composition gasket, the head and block should be absolutely clean and dry. I use acetone to make sure there is no grease, gasket material, etc. on either surface, so the gasket can "bite" the metal.

Your torquing procedure and values are not the problem.

The seller certainly cleaned the head nicely and probably sold it in good faith, but was he/are you certain about deck flatness?
--
Bob: Son's XC70, daughter's 940, my 83 240, 89 745 (V8) and S90. Also '77 MGB and some old motorcycles

So you have oil and coolant seeping from the head joint. You've torqued the head close enough that it doesn't matter. You used an OK gasket ( I don't like Victor Reinz myself but that's me).
Was the replacement head re-surfaced? I've seen machine shops do crappy broach jobs that grab a finger nail when dragged. The gaskets will not conform into the grooves and oil and coolant move across through the valleys.
By the way only steel embossed head gaskets are greased, or painted. Composite type are installed dry.
When you lift the head off don't disturb anything too much and take photos. That will help.

The head was from a <100k 940. Seller is a respected Turbobricks member. The head was steam cleaned or something that brought back the "new aluminum" shine. Valves were not new, but the condition was extremely good - MUCH better than my old one.

Here's the new head, with the old head in the background.

Looks like a caustic solution was used on the head. That's fine.
The question is what is the head gasket surface like for Ra ( roughness average or some such). If the broach machining lines are easily caught by a fingernail, then they are too rough. If the lines are from an abrasive pad, and don't have an even radius to them, then the gasket surface was cleaned to make it look nice, but it may not be flat enough. I can't tell from the photo.
If the bolts were tightened by angle you could add a few degrees, but I don't think that's worthwhile.

Could the replacement head have become warped if it wasn't unbolted from the old engine in a certain manner?

It's possible. When compressing a new gasket sequence and stage are more important. Old gaskets are already hard and flat. But if two end bolts were left tight and the others removed, yeah it could happen.
The head has come off to check for flat ( straight) and surface finish, which are both important and unrelated somewhat.

Yeah, it seems like that's where this is headed. fortunately, I've got a spare elring gasket on hand.

this job is straight forward and almost never causes problems when done right.

the fact your leakage is from both sides and not spot specific leads me to wonder if the torque values are correct

imo you are looking at redoing this job.

reinz gaskets are quality.

this presumes you know from your own eyes the head is flat within factory limits.

also did you torque your bolts in the correct order?

Is your torque wrench correct?
--
Post Back. That's whats makes this forum work.

I presume so. I used to use a clicky torque wrench, but I never felt like it was correct, however, i also have a bendy-rod type which I've used to confirm the clicky-wrench. I just used the bendy rod this time.

Bolts were torqued in three stages working from center bolts, clockwise around the head to the outer bolts.

I did this same job last march, after a failure in the original gasket (about a year after a near-overheat from a failed heater valve).


This is my first time with a gasket not sealing. The only thing I did different was not greasing the block.

The new head was purchased from another volvo owner. It checked out with a straight-edge, but I didn't put a micrometer on it.

the good news is fixing won't be mysterious.

the torque values
the head itself
or the gasket

i have never seen or heard of one of the iron blocks need decking for flatness.

stupid question. you did clean off 100% of debris from both surfaces before bolting it down?

Good question. Yes, I did. I used a razor to scrape the block surface and went over the head very carefully to avoid gouging it. Check my posted picture for the head surface condition.

Here's my stupid question... can;t I just torque the head bolts down a little bit more?

The bolts are new, they were lightly oiled.

speaking of bolts.

this is commonly overlooked doing head gasket jobs.

it is necessary to ALWAYs ensure no fluid of any sort is in the block bolts holes.

otherwise hydraulic pressure will cancel any torque you apply IF the fluid is higher than the lowest bolt thread point.

did you make sure no fluid was within these bolt holes?

Yeah, I made that mistake when I did the gasket on my C70 a couple years ago. Wasted gasket and wasted headbolts.

This was a dry situation. All fluids were drained before anything came off.