Overheat/headgasket

[chrisjbrooks]

Hey I am looking at getting a really clean 240 sedan. The owner said that a coolant line broke and he lost coolant while driving, overheated the car and now the headgasket is bad. There is coolant in the oil and such.
I was wondering if it is worth it to grab the car and try to fix it. Would chaning the headgasket so the trick, or is there more to be wary of, like bad valves or damage to the bottom end?
It still starts and can drive if needed. I am just wondering if it might be worth to try or if i shouldn't bother at all, I heard the headgasket isnt that bad to do on these. Also if there is something like a warped head, is it better to replace it or is getting it milled fine?
Thanks for the help guys.

[dl242gt]

I bought my 93 245 with a bad head gasket. It's worth it if the car is in decent condition otherwise. Buy only the Elring gasket kit. Others may suck. If the head is warped you can have it machined. But no more than is necessary. If too much is milled you'll need an adjustable cam gear to correct the cam timing change. IIRC, the limit is .020" but less is better.

[BrickBaller]

I wouldn't run it at all with water in the oil, even for a short trip back home. Head gaskets are dead easy to replace, but spun bearings are a lot more work.

Should be easy to fix - new hoses, new HG, and a couple oil changes (it will take several to get all the water out) and a thorough coolant flush.

Here's what I usually do with water/oil mix: (after fixing HG)

1) drain oil and replace with fresh oil - leave old filter on for now. If you have a seperate oil cooler, disconnect the lines and drain the cooler too.
2) drain coolant, remove thermostat, open heater valve 100% and flush thoroughly with water in both directions. Don't forget to wash out the resevoir as well. It might be worth removing the radiator - leave some water in it and shake it like a Brittish nanny to remove as much sediment as possible. As far as the block goes, just wrap a rag around the hose and shove it up one of the radiator hoses on full blast until it runs clear, then run it the other way. If you like, you can also remove the hoses going into the heater core and flush the heater core seperately. Refill the car with water only, no coolant.
3) Start car and let it idle just long enough to get oil circulating around.
4) Drain and replace oil, change filter.
5) start car and bring it up to temperature. A quick romp around the block should be fine - don't put too much heat into the engine as there is water only in the cooling system.
6) Drain and replace oil, change filter.
7) Flush coolant again, and replace with appropriate coolant/water mix.
8) You're good to go! Take her for a good 30min+ drive to remove the last of any moisture in the oil.

It might be a bit excessive, but it definitely does a good job of cleaning stuff up.

[chrisjbrooks]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Is there any way to tell if there are spun bearings? What does that mean exactly. I think the PO drove it from the shop to his house like it is. Do you think I should be ok?
I will definitely try to do as you say. Should I replace the water pump and thermostat at the same time?

[BrickBaller]

Once water gets in the oil, it loses nearly all of its lubrication abilities. If you run high boost and/or high RPM with oil in the water, you can damage the crankshaft bearings as happened with an old Saab I used to own.

There's really no way to tell for sure without pulling the crank and looking at the bearings, but if you get a sound somewhere between a squeak and a groan there might be bearing damage. Usually it's most noticeable if you briefly go to wide open throttle from idle (just go wide open for a second or less be sure to keep the revs low).

Even then, it doesn't mean that the motor is completely toast. I ran thicker oil in it (20W50) and the symptoms went away.

Volvo engines are built a bit tougher than Saab too - it might not be as much of a problem with Volvo engines but I wouldn't run it with watery oil if you can avoid it.

[Gabe244]

I ran mine with a dud hg for awhile before i twigged to it. Swapped it out, and its still going strong 3 weeks later . Cyl 4 was rusted to hell too. These motors are damn near bulletproof.

[chrisjbrooks]

So I took it all apart and now have the head gasket out in front of me. I cannot see anywhere where it was blown out or broken. Does this mean that the head warped? I am worried that it could be something worse, like to do with the block, please correct me if that sounds stupid.
I am going to take the head down to a shop to see if it needs a resurface and hopefully get it back together soon. How much should I expect to pay to resurface the head and does anyone have any tricks on how to remove the crank pulley without the special tool from IPD?

[BricksNBlocks]

Head should cost about $40 to shave, more if you have them test for cracks.
Search for "rope trick" to remove pulley. Basically you put rope in the cylinder to keep it from passing fdc.

[BrickBaller]

You can also remove the starter and jam the flywheel to keep the engine from turning. You can also remove the bracket at the bottom that holds the trans/engine together to get access to the flywheel and jam it there.