1999 XC70 Won't Start - Might Turnover?

[lebaowth]

My wife swears the temp gauge never flinched above dead normal.

I have maybe $1k to work with. Our budget is ultra right at the moment so my next thought is what is my car worth with a blow head gasket? Could I get 2k out of it and take my 1k and buy something closer to maintenance free? Like a very dull Japanese minivan?

I love the car but my wife hates how much of my time and our money it's consumed. In three years, we've done the starter, alternator, rebuilt the transmission, rear main seal, water pump, thermostat, heater hose coupling, timing belt, PCV system, and now potentially head gasket.

We only paid $5k for it at 130k miles and have put 50k more on it. It's still in phenomenal exterior condition and I keep thinking, one last major repair and we'll be out of the woods. I can never track down every minor leak and bump. Before this happened, I had noticed a bit of power steering fluid on the drivers side of the steering rack and a light coolant smell with the heat on.

This is a tough decision. At minimum, I'll see if I can borrow the compression kit from a friend and post the results, probably Sunday? Thanks for all your input everyone.

[abscate]

500 USD rough value for a non-working engine P80 car.

3kUSD will not buy you a trouble free car, IMHO

[rspi]

I purchased a NON running R for $280. I doubt anyone would give more than $400 for it. Someone tried to sell me a nice clean '97 R wagon for $800 and I walked. Last I checked he was at $500. I might have done the $500 but I was about to move.

Wish I was still in Cincy, I would stop by and check it out. I was there just last month.

Really sounds like it ran low on coolant, blew a hose, and over heated. There is a chance that the gauge never registered the overheat.

You can do a head gasket yourself for $800 but a shop won't touch it for less than $1,800 is my guess (that would include the machine shop cost).

My daughter's S70 GLT has been a lot of work, all the stuff you listed and some (including a head gasket). My '95 on the other hand has been pretty good to me. I got it with 188,000 and now have 240,000 and total cost including the purchase price is likely less than (new tires and all) $3,000. I have done everything myself short of the tranny swap and RMS.

[rspi]

Coolant leak - motor roulette...

[MoVolvos]

slow coolant leak and it appears the leak increased dramatically...
was certainly low on coolant...
I'm also concerned about the low coolant...

Thanks

**

Perhaps I am reading too quickly, which I do most of the time but can you elaborate on the low Coolant and where was it spraying from. Low or empty Coolant in the Expansion tank or very low in the radiator and how much to bring it back to the Full mark in the Expansion tank?

Perhaps the Timing went off and the car overheated and stopped but no damage to the internals of the engine yet?

Blessings,

BKM

**

[lebaowth]

About to run compression test - very disappointed with state of plugs - they were new in the spring... Volvo OE

They are black, covered in soot, one is quite oily, and they all seem to have a small amount of "grit" on them? Looks like tiny debris, almost sand like? A little larger than sand though.

I can't imagine any of those are good signs?

[lebaowth]

The coolant was leaking somewhere very close to the firewall. If we left the AC on in the car when turning off the ignition, things seemed ok. If we turned off the AC in the car right as we got home and turned off the ignition, a ton of water would come pouring out... as in, you could hear it.

I could only assume something very badly about my heater core or my heater hoses.

This is one of the foolish things I did that led to our car's demise, but we drove it about 300 miles with no obvious averse effects topping off the water every 35-60 miles as needed. We were waiting until we had a spare $200 to have, what I assumed was a hose job, done. Every time I wait for money to do something on this car, it bites me in the @ss. I am the wrong kind of owner. I'm great with oil changes and checking on trans fluid and flushes, but when it becomes something I don't know how to do myself, I simply don't have the disposable income to drop in every 6 months.

Enough whining... results to follow

[lebaowth]

I think this is worst case scenario, gentlemen:

Starting from crank over toward battery

65 - 0 - 0 - 20 - 20

Head gasket or worse?

[Ozark Lee]

Head gasket or worse?

Yes.

It could just be the head gasket or it could be worse. You really won't know until the head comes off. But the head will need to come off to fix it regardless.

If the car is otherwise in good shape you might be able to sell it as is on Craigslist and get upwards toward $750.00 to $1000.00 for it depending on the mileage and how good the tires are. If you plan on going that direction I wouldn't even start to disassemble things, just put the spark plugs back in and put the spark plug cover back on.

Unless it got really hot there likely isn't any damage to the cylinders or pistons and everything can likely be fixed by getting the head reworked, if necessary, and installing a new head gasket. Even if the head and the valves look OK I would still get a machine shop to skim the head and pressure test it.

...Lee

[lebaowth]

Those are all good tips - called my local euro specialist and he talked around the possibility of $2500 if they did an entire head job, looked at timing belt, water pump... etc...

Said he'd almost suggest another engine but that puts me at roughly that same $2500

If you were looking to list this car for sale then, how would you word it?

I've never sold a parts car before. I really need to get every penny out I can.

Thanks for your help