Diary of a 17 y/o with an 850

[RickHaleParker]

I'll second Misha and Abscate on the sealant that stuff can F*** it up.

If you insist on trying a chemical fix, I'll tell you how to seal a head gasket with Sodium silicate (Water glass) but understand this, it has to done the right way, no half measures, or the chemistry does not work and you can gunk up the cooling system with the wrong chemical reaction. Do not attempt until you been versed on the correct way to proceed.

Even if you do it right it may not seal the leak. Sodium silicate works pretty good on head gaskets but not to good on cracked heads. Sodium silicate is soluble in water, so you don't need to worry about it messing up the water pump or clogging channels ... as long as you do it right with no half measures.

A Water glass seal should not be considered a permanent fix.

[shihabafi]

How many miles are you daily driving??

Urm... ~50 miles on a regular day... ...Yeaaaa I'm doing a LOT of driving.

Alright but I think for right now my head gasket can take a bit of a back seat. We've got a more pressing issue...

I have this electric gauge plugged into my cigar lighter, and when I went to turn on my car this morning, it read the battery was at 13.9v. Then, when I was leaving college this afternoon, it again showed 13.7v. I did turn it on a few times here and there but it was regular numbers (~12.6) (which is still a bit high if I'm not mistaken?)

Also, the radiator fan spins from as soon as I turn my key to II (before cranking), all the way until a good 3-4 mins after I shut the engine off... And ideas why?

[RickHaleParker]

Urm... ~50 miles on a regular day... ...Yeaaaa I'm doing a LOT of driving.

Keep a log of coolant consumption. Measure how much you add and record the mileage. Then calculate miles per volume of coolant. The miles per volume will help the people here quantify how bad the gasket leak is.

[abscate]

Don’t sweat that battery voltage. Just because a gauge is digital doesn’t mean it’s good.

With engine off, a 100% battery will be up at 12.5 Volts

Voltage is a lousy diagnostic For charge state due to confounding factors

[FLXC90]

WARNING-controversial statement ahead: On this engine, you can have a minor head gasket leak that you can drive on for months. The critical factors are fluid consumption for oil and coolant, and temperature. If your car is not mixing fluids, and not losing much, then keep up on them, and if the engine does not overheat, press on until it is practical to fix it. Try compression test, but also do coolant exhaust gas test.

[abscate]

250 miles a week....beg borrow or wellsFargo the money to get this done sooner rather than later. You are tasking your speed to be a reliable daily driver when it askingyou for love to bring it back to Volvohalla.

Stay off the boost if it’s a turbo, keep it at 55,I’m even wondering if you should run it with the cooling system depressurized if possible?

12000 miles INC a year is going to run You $1200 in maintenance parts , doing work yourself.

[shihabafi]

I'll do some thorough thinking and make a decision then.

In the meantime, is there any way to check what kind of engine I have and if it is original or not?

[misha]

It's NOT original.
There is engine mark and serial number back behind the timing belt cover on the block....the numbers are in little dots.
Also post a picture of timing belt cover original sticker(volvo sticker)...the same numbers are on it if it wasn't replaced.

[erikv11]

Check the VIN, maybe the car is a actually a 96 with original engine, we never solved that did we? Look at the 10th character: S = 1995, T = 1996, V = 1997.

[misha]

It can't be a '96 with diagnostic connectors under the hood(OBDI) and with abs module(check the pictures) from 91-'95.
Also...after '95 MAF and pre-'96 abs module and diagnostic ports under the hood doesn't fit this story.