blue devil... 96 850 glt head gasket

rogreact · Post by **rogreact** » 29 Mar 2009, 10:13

Has anyone on this site used Blue Devil? Its expensive and I believe I have a seeping head gasket. Anybody have good results from this product? If so, could someone give me their experience?

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 29 Mar 2009, 18:44

Not sure what you are talking about...do you mean the liquid stuff? If so, Volvo recommends you use an Anaerobic liquid gasket that you roll on. RTV and other similar products won't work on ours. If you are speaking of something else, my apologies.

rogreact · Post by **rogreact** » 29 Mar 2009, 19:33

Blue Devil is an aftermarket quick fix for leaky headgaskets
That you pour into the radiator. Costs 60.00 a bottle. I don't like fix it in a can but worth a try as opposed to 2500.00 rebuild.
Its not like Barrs stop leak but does the same think except much better. Still I am reluctant to try this stuff.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 29 Mar 2009, 19:34

Yes, I would be too.

Post by **mrreilly** » 29 Mar 2009, 21:55

I've head blue devil is a load of junk.. I personally used cheaper $10 stuff, i think it was Barrs. I can't say for sure if the stuff actually works.. I was still getting smoke after trying the stuff twice, but it may very well have been the left over residue in my cat. I ended up doing the head gasket myself anyway.. It's a lot of work and time, but with the right tools and careful instruction it's possible. (It was the first time I've ever done anything like this and it works!) I've put over 4000 miles on my car after having done it and it runs great!
But anyway. Enough of my rambling... I'd go ahead and buy the cheaper stuff. Why spend $60 when you can get a bottle for $10 of something similar?

EDIT
One thing to add. I think the gasket seal/leak stop stuff I used may have cause some my heater core to get clogged up. After everything was put back together I was no longer getting heat. So I replaced the heater core (which did have liquid still trapped inside) and all is well. I'm not sure if that's for sure, but to me I think it's possible. Just something to think about!

rogreact · Post by **rogreact** » 30 Mar 2009, 00:22

NOt ready to pour anything just yet. I started losing coolant and found I had a leak in the radiator. I used Barrs twice in the Rad. but the hole was at the seam and shot that barrs stuff all over my engine. I just replaced the Rad today and and will see if I have any head gasket symptons. I thought pressure was building in the Rad causing it to blow. Maybe it was just worn out. I still have that white stuff on the end of the dip stick and sometimes it comes up the stick a little.

instarx · Post by **instarx** » 30 Mar 2009, 04:42

I know nothing about Blue Devil, but I do have some experience with another product called Thermagasket. If you have any DIY skills I would strongly recommend changing the head gasket yourself for a proper fix, but if that isn't possible there is an alternate that can work for head gaskets. If it is just a radiator leak then replace the radiator and forget the quick fixes.

Two years ago I tried a product called Thermagasket to try and seal a blown head gasket in my 6.5L diesel truck. Like you I was trying to avoid the huge repair bill ($3,500+ for my diesel). Also like you, I could find no information on whether these things actually worked or not, so I decided to try the Thermagasket to find out for myself. I followed the directions exactly and wrote a series of threads describing the process and results on a 6.5L diesel board. The results were interesting.

It worked great - for six months. There were no detrimental effects on the engine or coolant system. I know because I replaced a water pump and head gasket later and all the coolant passages were clean. There was no hint of any residue or coating.

My leak was a huge one - all the coolant would be blown out of the system within 7 miles so it was a hard test. After I added the Thermogasket it took five minutes of driving for the gasket leak to be sealed. I thought that was pretty amazing given the high compression of diesel engines and the size of the leak. I had zero expectation that it would do anything, but it did. Using Thermagasket isn't as simple as pouring stuff in your radiator - there are many steps and several coolant system flushes, but it is more repetitive than difficult.

I suspect the Thermagasket will last much longer in a lower compression gas engine - even permanent. In any event it gave me time to decide to replace the gasket on the diesel and six months of breathing room for about $100. I make no claims about any other gasket-sealing product like Bar's or anything you get at the autoparts store - I don't know anything about how well they do or don't work. In fact I make no claims about Thermagasket - only that it worked for me for six months in a diesel engine and did no harm.

If my head gasket blew on my truck or Volvo would I use Thermagasket again? No, but just because I know I can replace the gaskets myself for $250 and two days of labor. But if I had to pay someone huge bucks to do it - yes, I would try it again. Would I feel comfortable using it in my Volvo - yes.

One other thing - if you are planning to sell the car please don't do any of these additive repairs - you really don't know if it will be permanent or not. Only use them if you are planning on keeping the car for at least a year.

Javasailor · Post by **Javasailor** » 20 Jun 2009, 11:44

I tried AlumaWeld and then Bars Leak on my '93 960. It was leaking coolant into the #3 cylinder and blowing huge clouds of white vapor at startup and for about 20 minutes (long after warm up). The Bars leak worked-even helped pass CA smog. It lasted for about 9 months (including a trip from SF to Las Vegas). Didn't work after that. I wouldn't recommend using on a car that wasn't otherwise going to the scrapper (Ol' Blue had paint cancer).

850TurboTurtle · Post by **850TurboTurtle** » 24 Sep 2013, 12:47

For anyone new checking out this thread: I did use (smaller bottle of) blue devil in my 96 850T and it held for two years, which was good because we didn't have money for the head gasket job then. Now we do and I'm installing the head today. A few notes on this stuff:

First, I flushed the engine obsessively and ran it with water for a few miles and flushed it again a few times with heater open all the time to be sure there was no coolant in the system. Coolant prevents it from attaching to the metal. Even so, it didn't seal ours quickly - it took a few days of driving to seal it almost entirely. It still leaked a little, but after one long drive (over an hour) it sealed totally. It lasted nearly two years of city and highway driving. Then it began to slowly leak coolant on trips over 30 minutes. A second attempt did not seal it at all. So then I began the gasket replacement.

When I opened the head there was a lot of hardened brown discoloration on the block and head. It wouldn't clean with anything and I ended up removing it carefully with 400 grit emery paper on a 1"x1/4" strip of wood as a straight edge. I never got it all off but didn't want to risk chewing up the aluminum block.

Also, it filled in the thin expansion gaps between the tops of the 5 cylinders with the same hard residue, which could barely be removed with a utility knife point. That bothers me a lot - because it might make the new gasket fail if it expands unevenly.

However, we would have been lost without a car for a year without the $40 fix, so I'd call it a win.

Post by **deepsouth** » 24 Sep 2013, 13:03

Don't have any experience with Blue Devil but I did use Fiberlock on an S70 with a leaky head gasket (combustion gases in coolant, mayo in oil, and white smoke out the back). The motor had over 225,000 miles on it and the Fiberlock actually worked. It gave me another 18,000 miles until the head gasket finally blew for good. Since I ended up parting out the car I wasn't worried about blowing the motor. Fiberlock is a pour and go and I think it cost me around $30 bucks (but this was several years ago). Overall, it was the best $30 I could have spent!