I'll take pictures of the process.

I spent some time last night going through the procedure in the manual, making a list of parts and checking my tool inventory. I'm going by the dealer at lunch time today to place my order. I have all the tools needed except for the front cam holder which I plan to fabricate by drilling holes is some angle Iron stock and the cam cover presses that I plan to fabricate using some threaded rod adapted into some salvaged spark plug shells. (I had been planning to replace the cams anyway and have been accululating those tools.) The dealer gave me the name of a good machine shop to get the head checked. I talked to them and they seem to be doing all the local Volvo work. He expected to only skim the gasket surface based on my description of the leak. They will check the valves for sealing and the head for any cracks etc. The dealer told me horror stories of a shop that machined the cam shaft surface! The only part of the job that seems nasty is the cleaning of the cam shaft cover joint of all the old glue!

I have the time between Xmas and 1/1/05 off from work and had planned to make progress on my workshop but the car takes priority. My garage is under the house so it is warmer than a detached one would be. If I open the door to the basement it keeps reasonably cumfortable.

I'm planning to keep the existing lifters as the ones I can now see show no wear thanks to Mobil 1. The parts guy says the part numbers for the lifters, springs etc. have been the same forever. I'm only 20K from a scheduled T belt replacement so the belt, tensioner, idlers etc. will get replaced. I am also going to replace the oil trap and associated seals.

The manual seems to imply the the head bolts can be reused but I was thinking they shoud be replaced. Any advice from the experienced?
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'96 965 with 16' wheels at 121K. Had '85 745 Turbo Diesel for 200K.

I too would be interested in any photos or other information about the procedure/parts replaced etc., as mine is losing about 8 oz per week somewhere. It only has 95K on the engine, just wondered if that was typical for this series engine? This vehicle sure takes alot more work than the 740 ever did. Thanks, and good luck.

96 960 @ 95K and 86 740 @ 265K

Yeah, the front ones are easy. Since you have cams that are out of the engine, you will need to be able to get over the shoulder of the cam that attaches to the timing gear. I used a inner part of a large bearing and that worked perfectly.

Hopefully it is just the head gasket and not any erosion of metal between surfaces. Maybe think of some new lifters too, the price is not bad since Volvo started packing them in quantites of 24. When I did my head gasket Volvo wanted nearly 60.00 each. I think on my rebuild last year I paid about 350.00 for the set.

Have a set of heater hoses too.

Good luck, have fun.

DanR 94 964 271,000 miles (37,000 on the new engine)
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DanR

Im sorry to hear about the leak. All I can offer is my moral support. Please take lots of pictures of you can. I will host them if need be. Im also interested to see the different cams side by side for a comparison. Good luck.