What's going on now with this heap!!?? 98 XC

[scot850]

Having spent a small fortune over the last 8 months virtually rebuilding the car from the ground up, it has developed another potentially life (of car) ending problem.

I took my son to a class a couple of nights ago, and noticed the car seemed to be putting out more 'steam' from the muffler than normal (even though it has been below -20C for the last week or so). On the return trip (it was dark) the 'smoke' almost hid the cars behind me. Otherwise the car ran fine with no codes shown. When I got home I checked under the hood and noticed the anti-freeze/coolant level was up at max (it has run about 3/4" low for about 6 months and stayed there).

My thoughts ran to, here we go it is a head gasket problem. I slammed the hood shut and resolved again to set the car on fire the next day!!

Next day, the coolant was back to normal level (3/4" low), it appears normal color (as best I can tell) and there does not appear to be any brown sludge in the oil or on the dip stick shaft.

Spoke to the local repair shop and they suggested running some head gasket sealer through the coolant system based on the age of the car and the cost for a head gasket repair.

So today, I decided to pull the car into the garage and give the suggestion a try with Bars head gasket fix solution. I'd had the cars' block heater connected for about an hour or so, the car fired up the engine appeared to run fine.

Put the car in reverse to move it into a spare garage space, and the car barely moved, but eventually moved it's sorry a** back far enough to allow a turn into the garage. Put the tranny (Auto by the way) into 'D' and again the car barely dragged itself into the garage. Freekin' tranny I thought! Surely it can't have blown as well!!

Phoned the ever helpful Service manager at the local Volvo dealer (my views of the dealer are improving thanks to him!) to see if he had any ideas.

After a thought he said up here in Canada, they had problems with the turbo inter-coolers building up condensation on the older cars when there are sustained cold weather and it stops the air flow and collapses the inter-cooler pipes. He suggested letting the car defrost with a heater and see if that worked, and then checking the inter-cooler drain hole was not blocked.
also, with the engine running check to see if the inter-cooler pipe were collapsing.

I have left the heater running for a couple of hours and just went out and started it and put the car in reverse and in seems to be running again.

Still does not answer the original problem or if these are unrelated or connected issues.

I appreciate that not many out there may have the temperatures we get here, but any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Oh, I did pull the tranny dip stick and the level seems high. The fluid does have a slight burnt smell but still looks red but was high of the hot level. I have just received my IPD tranny flush kit and that was on my radar to do once we get some warmer weather. One thing I did feel is that the fluid on the tranny dipstick looked like it had possibly seperated. Could this be where the coolant has gone?

I do however, fail to see how the white smoke and the tranny issue are connected, unless somehow the radiator or tranny cooler have failed, but that would not explain the white smoke from the tailpipe.

Thoughts? Thanks. 1998 Volvo V70XC and approx 150k miles (240k km)

[IVIUSTANG]

I can confirm the dealer is 100% right on the intercooler freezing up. Around here my buddies freezes on a weekly basis, and mine does it whenever it hits below -30. The power loss from this is massive. It can have varying degrees of freezing up to.

- Jesse

[precopster]

With regard to the coolant running high in the bottle, swap the thermostat.

I just had a nightmarish diagnostic session with my project car with all new seals and gaskets and it turned out to be an out of range thermostat. It wasn't blocked; it just opened at the wrong (too high) temperature. It was a 92 degree Colorstat brand.

Surprised the garage didn't suggest you do the above first and then perform a hydrocarbon test.
That Bar's Leaks may block small diameter radiator and heater core pipes if they already have some corrosive coating. I would put a flush through and new coolant of the correct grade.

[scot850]

Thanks guys for the replies!

I have only done 3000km on new 50/50 Volvo coolant and system was flushed at that time. When I run the fluid down to put the bars leak in, I'll take the thermostat out and check it for the correct temp range. Great suggestion, didn't think of that one! My 93 850 runs a 87 thermostat so I'll check the XC matches that. I do hear the comment regularly about putting this type of additive in the system, but then why is it a sponsor on this website if it is not recommended as safe to use?

Keep coming with the ideas! I'll let you know how it goes!

By the way, I replaced the radio bulbs in both the SC-815 and SC-816 units in our 2 Volvos. Info was helpful. The Honda bulbs were nearly $7.00 CDN each!! I've now seen blue Neo3 wedge LED's on ebay in the UK for approx. $1.60 CDN. I'll get one of my family to pick some up for me and bring on their next visit! Also replaced the LCD bulb on the SC-815. Not too difficult. but a little fiddly.
I'll update the Replacement info with the additional info I learned from the experience when I get more time. I made notes and will promise now to do this soon!

[jblackburn]

If there was antifreeze mixed in with your ATF, your transmission likely would have exploded already, and you'd see evidence of it in the overflow bottle.

The expansion tank is just that - it gives the coolant room to build up under pressure when the engine's hot. The level in the tank will go up on a hot engine.

When you get a chance, for the intercooler, you can pull it in the garage and put it by the heater, unhook the bottom hose from it, let any crap inside drain out, and flush it out with soapy dish water (Cascade dishwasher detergent works quite well). That should keep stuff from building up inside it.

[IVIUSTANG]

Another possible cause of excess fluid in the reservoir would be a coolant reservoir cap that is bad. They are designed to hold a certain pressure and if they don't hold enough, they will cause the fluid level to rise in the tank.

- Jesse

[precopster]

In your first post you said you already put the Bars Leaks in, now are you again about to put it in?

Bar's Leaks should be used when there is a definite compromise in the cooling system. It closes small holes by adding a thick layer of brown substance to the cooling system's surfaces. The jury is out with regard to alloy corrosion when long term use is concerned.

It should only be used when:
a) You have a near new radiator or one that has almost no corrosion
b) You have performed a leak down test and pressure in the cooling system has escaped (of course all hose clamps, water pump gasket, heater core & internal radiator baffle b/w ATF and coolant are eliminated)
c) The car's value is less than the cost of the impending repair
d)You can't be bothered doing all of the above and just want a quick fix

I'm not against its use, just be judicious when you use it.

[scot850]

Thanks again for all your replies. Precopster, I said I was 'planning' to put the Bars stuff in, but at -30C outside, I will now wait until the weather heats up a bit (early next week now if you believe the weather gods). Also, now I've had several very good tips to follow up on first, it will wait further!

Another good suggestion is the header cap check (second on replacement list after checking the thermostat for correct temp range) and I'll definitely do the inter-cooler cleanse 'BEFORE' trying the Bars Gasket leak.

I understand how it works as it has been around for as long as I can remember (35 years or more) and I am reluctant to use it for all the reasons you all say. The only reason I would use it its the cost of the cylinder head gasket replacement. Like I said this car has been a major pain in the a** and by far the worst Volvo I've ever had. I have been working on this pretty much for the last eight months! This has reached almost the point where I will part the car out rather than put any more money into it to try to recoup some of my costs. The cost of a cylinder head gasket and all the parts, head skim, valve grind, time to build the special tools to hold the cams gets to the point of where do you call a halt on a 150k car. I have already spent more than the value of the car on repairs on parts alone, let alone my time. I've had 120's, 140's, 240's, 760 turbo, 940 turbo, 850, a 98 V70 T5 (some of the older ones with way more than 200k miles on them and driven hard in my younger days) and none with the problems of this car!

I will take your suggestions to heart and try all those things first (and the leak down test), before considering the Bars treatment as a last resort. Still doesn't explain the dense white smoke out the tail-pipe though! Maybe there is a slight head-gasket leak and with the turbo sucking hard with the frozen inter-cooler it pulled coolant through? Who knows!?

Finally, thanks to those fine fellows from Saskatchewan! It's good to know that Volvo weren't pulling my chain on this drive problem. I've got to ask why Volvo (I've owned them for over 35 years) can build a car in a country where the temperatures fall to -30C and they didn't find the problem with the inter-cooler? Maybe it is the same reason they put a sensitive electronic circuit board directly about the hottest part of a turbo engine (the turbo!) with the ABS module. My car is on its' second which is a refurbished unit from the wonderful Matty Moo! (Thanks Matt, it is still working great!).

Again, many thanks guys for all the support!

[instarx]

I had a little experience with the additives for head gasket repair a couple of years ago with my diesel truck. With the repair at $3,000 (for ONE side!) I thought the additives were at least worth a try. None of the stuff like Barrs you can get at local stores worked, but a product called Thermagasket worked great, at least temporarily. The gasket was so bad all the coolant would be blown out of the system within five miles of driving, but the Thermagasket stopped it completely. It seemed nearly miraculous at the time. You need to order it from the internet, so google it. It is expensive at about $120, but at that time I was unemployed and desperate to save the $3k dollars.

The "repair" only lasted three months, but it was a diesel truck engine and a hard test for it. It might last longer in a gas engine. Using it involves draining and refilling the coolant system with water several times, so it is definitely not a cold weather project. All the antifreeze has to be out of the system when you use it because it is not compatible with ethylene glycol. After the treatment is over you refill with antifreeze. I'm not recommending the Thermagasket - just relating my experience with it.

After I used it I had the opportunity to replace the water pump for an unrelated problem, and the internal parts of the coolant system were clean and bright, so it did not coat everything as I had feared it would. It might make a pretty good temporary fix until you get around to doing a real head gasket job, but it might also be permanent (as claimed) on a light-duty gas engine.

If you use any of the store brands like Barrs be sure to block your heater core off, because they DO block the small channels of the heater making it useless.

In the end I bit the bullet and tore into the engine and replaced my own head gasket. It took three days but was very rewarding... and permanent.

[Pauloil]

maybe the white smoke is water vapor condensing out in very cold temperature.
recall water is normal byproduct of combustion. are you actually loosing coolant?
have you found combustion gases in the coolant?
you said "Otherwise the car ran fine with no codes shown"
so until you find evidence of a broken HG, don't worry about it