How to identify correct cylinder head 1998 V70R B5234T Topic is solved

Colomonza · Post by **Colomonza** » 16 Oct 2020, 16:44

Good afternoon,

I am new to this forum and just learned how important it is to save draft messages before previewing.

I am working to get my daughter's 1998 V70R back on the road after a couple years. The suspected head gasket turned into a cracked head during part cleaning. Previous owner probably used head gasket sealer which completely blocked the intake side cooling passages in the middle of the head, and as a result we have two visible cracks from #3 intake valves out to cooling passage. It showed up due to difficult starting with plug fouled, and the car was parked immediately after discovery of very little coolant has made it to oil, so bottom end is probably ok.

The head I pulled has casting number 1001716 on the exhaust side. I have spoken to a local shop that does a lot of Volvo work and also to their recommended machine shop, and neither had a lead on a replacement head. I learned that the 1998 Turbo head is a 1 year part, so I need something pretty specific. However I learned that the casting number may not be the only possible one.

At this point I am trying to locate a replacement usable head to rebuild, but not entirely clear what I need to find.

Is the casting number THE number to identify it?
Is there a database of possible casting numbers to applications?
Are the Turbo and non-turbo heads interchangeable? I suspect not. I have heard exhaust valve material is different, but not sure if my valves could be swapped to a suitable head from a non-turbo car.
How can I conduct this search with parts I can't see firsthand if out of state? What features / numbers / etc do I need to confirm with a seller?

Thanks for your help, I look forward to reviving this fun wagon, and redeeming my garage for other projects as well. Please bear with me as I learn how your forum works.

If you have the cylinder head I am looking for available for sale I would love to hear from you privately as well.

Thanks,
Rob

Post by **erikv11** » 16 Oct 2020, 18:27

The shop is wrong, you have many, many options. Consider finding another shop.

For a direct swap, any turbo head from 94-98 850 or S/V/C70. So that means either HPT (high pressure turbo, 2.3 L) or LPT (low pressure turbo, 2.5 L) engines, they all use the same head. The intake manifold ports are a different shape on the 94 cars, avoid those unless you want to also swap the manifold. Those are hard to find anyway.

You can also use a later model head (99+) with some adjustments, but 95-98 is the easy way to go. Non-turbo heads will not work because the turbo head has sodium filled exhaust valves, you have that correct.

There is nothing extra special about the 98 R engine, it is just an HPT engine.

Colomonza · Post by **Colomonza** » 16 Oct 2020, 20:59

Thanks erikv11.

I think I will stick with fewer modifications and aim for 95-98. Now to identify the 95-98 head I need. Would it be sufficient to verify that it has the correct exhaust valve? Are they a different size or just different construction, same size? Are there markings on the correct valve ? I note in my pictures that the exhaust valve has no markings. Are there head casting numbers to look for that fit the 95-98 turbo car I should look for?

I could use any clues like that to screen out incorrect heads before I order one since I can't necessarily see the part in advance, or confirm the car it came from if it's already been pulled.

Your help is appreciated. Thanks,
Rob

Post by **erikv11** » 16 Oct 2020, 23:23

"The head you need" is from any 95-98 turbo 850 or V70 or S70 or C70. So apologies but I'm not following your first statement there. The turbo engines were 2.3 L and 2.5 L. These will all have the correct exhaust valves. The non-turbo is 2.4 L avoid it.

Used heads for sale are usually listed by the car and engine they were removed from. So a host of B5234T or B5254T engines from the North American market will have the proper head, but the safest thing IMO is to know what car/engine it as pulled from. Pulling one yourself from a junkyard car junkyard is another option.

If you want the part number, according to this post (viewtopic.php?t=85959) from RickHaleParker, who excels at looking things up in the parts database, "The head is Volvo part number 8111178. Part number 5003932 with valves included." But frankly I would try first to shop based on year/model and engine number if that is available. For example I just looked at the head from a 95 turbo I have in the garage and I didn't find those part numbers on it; not sure how useful the numbers are.

If you get a used head I would highly recommend getting it reworked at a machine shop prior to install and putting in new valve stem seals during that process. The valve stem seals should only be Volvo branded, that will run you about $80 for the set of valve stem seals then have the machine shop install them when they clean up the valves on the used head. If any valves look bad on the used head the machine shop can use the valves from your cracked head.

Are you in Centennial CO? If so I would expect there are some used heads available in your local area, but not sure these cars are getting older and less common.

If you find a head online feel free to post it up here and we can probably help you determine if it is right.

Colomonza · Post by **Colomonza** » 19 Oct 2020, 14:37

Thanks again.

I keep losing my drafts on here. I'll figure it out eventually.

I think you got to the gist of my message when you suggested I post pictures of heads I am considering getting. I was asking the other way around, about what I should look for to screen out incorrect ones. If it's in a car the car is a big clue. If it's on a shelf, it could be accidentally misrepresented as a turbo head when it isn't.

Comparison pictures of a turbo 95-98 head vs non-turbo would be helpful. Or a description of what is different. I know the exhaust valve is different but I don't know what the visible cues or dimensional differences are if there are any.

I was looking at the head in the pictures below out of KC, they say sent me pictures but were focused on the overall assy and the casting number that I had asked about, which may not be such a great clue, or is too limited a clue. I'll post them anyway and if you can tell me the views that would distinguish between a turbo and non-turbo head, I can ask them to give me those views. The tag appears to say V70 and 1998 but I don't think that's enough to figure it out.

Thanks for the help and patience with my questions.
--Rob

1998 V70R black wagon (daughter's car project)
2005 S80 (daughter and son in law's car, / occasional project)
1965 and 1962 Corvairs
96 Tahoe and 95 S10 Truck
01 Mazda Protege

Post by **erikv11** » 19 Oct 2020, 17:48

OK fully getting your point now on asking about what to avoid, makes sense to ask - short answer is you can not tell apart to non-turbo and turbo heads by just looking, unfortunately. So I'm not seeing much in the pics except the plug holes look oddly crusty. Did they give you mileage on this head?

Getting the head with the cam cover (as in the pic) is a plus, in theory the cam cover is matched to the head and some user experiences have backed that up, where swapping over the cam cover caused problems.

I really suspect the casting number on the head is not useful because the two variants used the same heads - Volvo wouldn't cast NA heads and then go cast turbo heads when in fact they are the same thing.

I would try to follow up with the KC place, ask for the VIN of the car it came from, or what engine it was mounted on, see if you can trust their tracking. Oh, ALSO you could ask them for the part numbers from those camshafts, these are stamped on the back end (non-sprocket side) so should be easy for them to get. Since the NA and turbo cars have different cams, this may help settle it, hopefully one can look up the part numbers. Oh shoot - I do see there is still a rotor mounted on the intake came and a mounting bracket on the rear of the exhaust cam, not sure they will hassle to take those off and get the cam part numbers for you.

If you really want to be sure you could swap all 10 exhaust valves from your current head into whatever replacement you get. No reason to oppose that other than the labor involved.

Colomonza · Post by **Colomonza** » 20 Oct 2020, 10:45

All right. That helps a lot.

I was thinking about the head differences like different combustion chamber shapes or different connections etc. But if I read what you are telling me, the cast and machined head (absent all the assembled valves, etc) are the same for NA and turbo. The differences are in the assembled head with different exhaust valves (which seems to be a material, not size difference since they fit the same cast and machined head) and outside of the head itself, the camshafts are different.

I learned the importance of getting the cam cover with the head from this forum, glad I read that and this one is present.

Are there other subtle differences like valve seat material? Valve springs? Seats would be a problem, springs no biggy since I have the cracked head full of all the other parts. I am not used to so much stuff being the same between an NA and turbo engine! The combustion chamber shape and even the crank material is different for our Corvairs.

The seller did not list a mileage or VIN or engine #. I will call and ask about that, maybe they traced it but did not report on Parts Hotline.

They said if I wanted to pursue it, they would check flatness and check for bent valves with a leak test. So I don't think it's asking too much to ask for a couple camshaft part numbers. They didn't have a lot of data immediately at hand like why it was in the yard. I called on another one that died of overheating so I passed on it. This one's more of a mystery so far.

Thanks again,
Rob

1998 V70R black wagon (daughter's car project)
2005 S80 (daughter and son in law's car, / occasional project)
1965 and 1962 Corvairs
96 Tahoe and 95 S10 Truck
01 Mazda Protege

Colomonza · Post by **Colomonza** » 21 Oct 2020, 16:19

Hi again,

I got more info but it's not a complete picture. No mileage or VIN for this head are recorded, because this was from the core engine back on a used engine sold at least 4.5 years ago, before the new parts system they are using. To me, the long shelf time mitigates some of the potential miles it could have seen. So the yard didn't have the car that went with this head, they had this head back from the buyer of the engine. The engine they sold was from a 1998 S70 2.4 turbo car. I presume the bottom end or block had some failure since this head is already off the engine, or maybe the customer had already pulled the head before looking for an engine.

There is some surface corrosion in the plug bores as you noted, and the yard says it was out in the elements some of that time based on a bit of rust on the cam gear also noted. It seems to have sat upright as the combustion chambers were free of corrosion. They checked flatness and found it very good, and checked for valve leaks which it again passed. I had them check for cracks at the cam thrust area, and none were found. I asked for cam numbers, and here is what was found:

Our head has cam numbers 6842281 IC (intake) and 6842282 EA (exhaust) (this is the cracked head on the 98V70R I need to replace)
Head at KC has numbers 6842281 19 (intake) and 6842282 EA (exhaust)

Looking around some other discussions, it looks like the IC and EA and so on are not part of the cam part number, so this should be the right head.

Any other input before I pull the trigger and buy it?

Thanks a lot!

Post by **erikv11** » 21 Oct 2020, 18:09

That head sounds like a good match, I agree with that. Good find.

I don't know what else to watch out for with a head that has been sitting, but probably nothing that new valve stem seals and the machine shop wouldn't clean up. I would probably pull the trigger on this one.

Colomonza · Post by **Colomonza** » 21 Oct 2020, 20:58

I have asked for the shipping cost. It was listed around $150 so it seems like a good deal. They seem to have bent over backward to check it out for me.
Ordered new Volvo valve seals this am too.

Thanks,
Rob