Overheating volvo 850t5 new head gasket

[Rubenrodri126]

The water I use after the head gasket replace is just plain water from my water hose because I put a little bit of coolant and I saw I had some leaks so I put water to look for leaks and then I have the gallons of antifreeze right here I did a little bit of research and I had a few people that told me that Victor rains it's a really good brand on head gaskets same as Fel-Pro

[abscate]

We need to find people who have used the Volvo gasket for useful feedback.

[RickHaleParker]

Fel-Pro is top of the class, unless you get into high performance gaskets it is hard to beat Fel-Pro.
However Victor-Reinz is considered to be in the top three. Top three are: Fel-pro, Apex & Victor-Reinz.

My dad used Fel-Pro for 50+ years. Only one bad one in 50+ years, it was cut wrong and did not fit. Never a premature failure due to workmanship or quality. For a short time he tried useing lower cost gaskets and ended up losing money when he had to do rework due to gasket failure. Fel-Pro is kind of like FCP Euro, you cry once and its over.

You should use distilled water, the kind your grandma would use in a iron, not distilled drinking water. The minerals in tap water can leach out and contaminate the coolant system. Clog the radiator, stick to the water jackets in the block .. ect. The chemistry of hot water is way more active then most people realize. There is a reason your hot water tank has a Sacrificial Anode.

The Antifreeze should be a phosphate free, Hybrid Organic Acid Technology (HOAT). Look for Europe G-05 compliant, such as Zerex G-05. The old glycol based antifreeze can leave a coating that causes problems.

If your going to take the thermostat out, you just as well drop a new one in when you got it open and be done with it.

[erikv11]

Pulling the thermostat is a good idea. Do you know for sure the radiator is not clogged?

(1)

... I did block test with some liquid that it should tell you if you have exhaust gases in your cooling system and it never change colors before

If the liquid never changed colors, then you got a negative test result and I don't see a good reason to change the head gasket. With the block gas tester, a negative test result does not rule out some other problem with the head gasket, but a negative test result does totally out that there is a leak from the combustion chambers into the cooling system. It doesn't sound like the engine had one before.

(2)

... if I have the car running without the cap should the coolant up and start coming out of the reservoir?

Yes. The coolant tank will boil over if it is not capped and the engine is running and gets hot. Same thing if the cap is bad, which is pretty common.

What I'd do:
- pull the thermostat, check the radiator
- Fill the cooling system with 50/50 [Zerex G-05/distilled water], run the engine with the cap on, park it let it cool and the level will drop due to "burping." Then while it is cool top it off to full and cap it again. It should stay level.

- If it bubbles over when capped (are you sure the cap is good???) then I'd do the block tester again, for combustion gases in the coolant. Sounds like you didn't have them before but it's pretty easy to mess up a head gasket job. I'd much rather swap an engine than do a head gasket. Good engines are getting harder to find though ...

It's not worth screwing around, only buy Volvo branded for the head gasket and spark plug tube seals. No sets from Elwis, Victor Reinz or Fel-Pro etc. A head gasket and 20 valve stem seals for $100? You'll get exactly what you pay for, this one has been proven too many times. Ask someone like Robert who does heads often on P80 cars, he's saying the same thing now.

Similarly, if your head gasket set included cam seals, they will probably fail soon. Corteco or Volvo only on the cam seals.

[abscate]

$80 for the Volvo part, $40 for the aftermarket. A savings truly not worth it

Must use new cylinder head bolts, which cost more than the gasket, too

12 bolts at $8 per, to avoid doing the job twice and crying twice... the next guy will thank you when they don’t snap off. That karma will pay backward to you

New bolts listed at 157mm length, to gauge stretch, elastic limit is probably 1-2% at most

[erikv11]

The Victor Reinz head gasket is $18, https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... 70-9135513, what do you think you're getting there?

I use aftermarket on the head bolts, though.

[Rubenrodri126]

okay here's what I have done to the car in 2 years I had it I put a radiator like 6 months ago cap it's 2 months old I bought it from Pep Boys Reservoir it's brand new I got all the kit for the head gasket and all kinds of seals for around 120 PCV valve it's brand new rear main crankshaft seal did it like 4 months ago I have never change the thermostat and the two years and I have always use the white 50 50 gallon of antifreeze from Walmart no water straight 50/50 around one and a half gallons

[wizechatmgr]

Double check that pressure cap, I had one go bad in a year and it decided to vent something like 1/3 of the system's water mix throughout my engine bay when I stopped for gas (out of town of course...)

I'd suggest an engine leakdown test at this point for giggles. You've already verified that you have no combustion gas in the coolant, now it's time to double check the bottom end.

[erikv11]

... You've already verified that you have no combustion gas in the coolant, ...

Actually I thought OP did checked the combustion gases *before* he did the head gasket, not after.

If most of the seals have now been replaced with low quality parts, that's not good news for the engine in the near to long term. Time to pick your battles.

[Rubenrodri126]

Problem solved took the thermostat off run for 1 hour refill with coolant after burping run another hour let cool down check coolant level all ok drive 2 hours and work all perfect new thermostat already order from the dealer