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Bad head gasket or what?

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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jireland90
Posts: 3
Joined: 27 February 2013
Year and Model: 850, 1997
Location: United States

Bad head gasket or what?

Post by jireland90 »

Hey Everyone,
I'm new to the site but have come on here to figure some things out and its been very helpful in the past. This is one thing I haven't been able to find info on though.
I've been seeing a build up of water/oil on my dipstick. I checked my coolant and it looked like there might have been some oil that got into that too. Now my first thought was that it was a blown head gasket but just today I noticed that one of my vacuum lines was disconnected, the one top one going to the airbox. I bought a new elbow and reconnected it. After some research i began to think maybe that could be the reason for the water on the dipstick, the pcv wasn't sucking out the moisture in the crankcase. Is this possible, wouldn't explain the oil in coolant but that could be mistake in my observation.
I plan on trying one of those bulbs to check the fumes entering the coolant system. Is what i'm thinking possible? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
P.s.
does anyone have a good write-up on how to check the whole pcv system, the haynes manual doesn't cover it very well.

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rspi
Posts: 7303
Joined: 5 November 2011
Year and Model: 850 T-5R Wagon
Location: Cincinnati OH
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Post by rspi »

The best way to check your PCV system is to warm the car up, then take the oil cap off. Then put a rubber glove over the oil filler neck and trap the air. If the glove blows up, the system is likely clogged. If the glove sucks in a little, it's likely fine.

As for the dip stick sludge, don't worry about it. That is normal for these cars.
'95 855 T-5R M, Panther - 22/28 mpg, 546,000 miles
'95 955 T-5R Yellow Wagon, Lemonade, 180,000 miles
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