Second leaving it alone. Do the oil pan o rings though and avoid being tempted to do more "while you're in there." Did you mention anything about oil consumption, might have missed that. Not sure why compression of 120-150 in one cylinder would cause a misfire? The vertical line does indee...

Blanks should still be around. Any decent locksmith that does auto keys should be ok? I had to make a couple of calls to be sure the blanks were around and found someone who had them, cut two keys 40 bucks. But maybe you've done the basic inquiries already. IIRC it gets more complicated 98 and later.

This is a 3$ item at a salvage yard there are zillions of them. If you can hang on a bit I can locate a few easily. I have 3 or so of my own. Save the 40 $ difference just get a new gasket, OEM Volvo or maybe the HD one from IPD. Yes, I wouldn't go aftermarket on this item myself.

I have spent quite a bit of time there. Their P80 stock is running low as they are constantly cleaning up the yard. That said, there are still a handful of 99+ V70's there. Even a few 850's with decent body parts. They are very busy, though and generally won't chase down P80 parts for you so you got...

Machine shop with the head, inspect valves, new seals, etc. as you almost certainly would. If head is good (likely) go for it and do all the little stuff needed while the head is off and you can poke around the engine at will.

You will want to soak the daylights out of all those corroded bolts and connections.

Found.

Not to start a coolant thread but I didn't switch over to Volvo coolant because I felt uncomfortable doing so without flushing out all the old coolant, which seemed labor intensive to me. Don't know if "compatibility" is really an issue but like most of us I keep clean "yellow" s...

I'll put a used one in, thanks. The ignition switch is oem and only about 5 years old.

You'll notice the difference when it's timed properly. Mine was off a tooth for years also, then when the interval for replacement was up, voila, ran smoother and a bit more peppy.