new head install..aftermath

[justkickin]

hello...first of all..i am a novice when it comes to swed. cars...this is my first volvo..I love it so far...but its been costly.
History: dec 12 2011 bought 1996 960 236.000 miles
dec 13, 2011 blew head gasket
dec 14, removed head took to machine shp
dec 15, learn of servere head warpage from mach shop
dec 16, ordered remanufactured head from an apparant crook in san bernardino.500.00
dec 17, reordered another head from replicable place out of florida..odessa heads...great guys..great heads..no pun int.. dec 24. lost item notification from ups(cylinder head makes it all the way from florida to Los angeles...then they lose it...I'm an hour out of l.a....merry xmas to me
dec 27, reorder head from florida
Jan 10 2012 my new head arrives!!

my friend and I...mostly my friend as he is the mechanic..install this remanufactured,resurfaced..cylinder head with new valves cams etc...it came complete...ready to install. i purchaed a complete head gasket kit...however what i didnt purchase and subsequently didnt install was valve cover gasket or blu goo as it is referred too.
I, nor my mechanic were aware if this seal was absolutely nessesary....its been 24 hours since install...no leaks of any kind..
however.....I did notice that immediately after the install and replinishing of all the fluids...i did take it for a test ride and did notice rather light colored billowy exhaust coming out the tail pipe from my rear view window when i gave it a little gas going up a rather steep incline...is this normal?...and today I changed to oil again and plan to flush radiator again tomorrow befroe going on another test dr....should I expect more of the same....residual. white.exhaust?...my oil btw was not milky.. today when i changed it..and finally,..how critical is it to seal valve cover to head..? thanks in advance for reading my ramble and giving me ur much appreciated replys

[precopster]

I, nor my mechanic were aware if this seal was absolutely nessesary....its been 24 hours since install...no leaks of any kind..
however what i didnt purchase and subsequently didnt install was valve cover gasket or blu goo as it as it is referred to. How critical is it to seal valve cover to head..?

Firstly welcome to MVS. If your ill fated 960 doesn't drive you broke you will find a lot of really good resorces to fix her with.

I don't mean they are not a good car, just that you've had a poor start with yours.

The valve cover is actually part of the head and the seal is absolutely critical on these 960 white motors as we call them because of the all-alloy build, which incidentally is basically shared with all 5 and 4 cylinder variants as well.

Pretty soon you'll have leaks coming through many of the 46 bolt holes and possibly around the sides of the cover. Many of the oil galleyways feeding oil to your hydraulic lifters will begin to lose pressure as they leak to the surrounding area and when this happens you'll hear the tappets complaining LOUDLY. Also the spark plugs will become covered in oil as the oil works its way to each spark hole (did you fit the o rings at each spark hole?).

I would tear into it pretty much straight away before the leaks occur as there will be far less to clean if you do. The cam belt will need to come off and you'll need to coat one of the surfaces with the Volvo blue sealer or a good hi-temp anaerobic sealer which is O2 sensor safe. Have a look at the 940/960 repair database or even the S80 database for timing mark locations and the tools needed to so this right.

Good luck and keep us posted.