emulsified gloop in the oil: head gasket time?

[Colin 850 T5]

'95 850 T5

Have the tell tale emulsified gloop in the oil. Its not using/losing water but finding a screen wash bottle with antifreeze in the spare wheel well made me become more suspicious of my recent purchase. I am guilty of shortish journeys on the whole (7 miles to work) but its recently had a few long outings.

The performance on boost is lacklustre, admittedly I don't have experience of another T5 to make a comparison. Its not 225bhp though. The engine has 156k miles on it. Not sure if thats old for a Volvo or just run in?

I have to take the inlet manifold off to sort the breather issue anyway so its going to be head off at the same time, that is unless someone has an alternative explanantion which is worth investigating before going that far.

I will do a leak down test when I get back to work but it does seem to provide a suitable explanation to its apparent lack of go.

Sometimes it does get up and go, other times its very sluggish. The boost pressure must be going somewhere.

[jross]

'95 850 T5

Have the tell tale emulsified gloop in the oil. Its not using/losing water but finding a screen wash bottle with antifreeze in the spare wheel well made me become more suspicious of my recent purchase. I am guilty of shortish journeys on the whole (7 miles to work) but its recently had a few long outings.

The performance on boost is lacklustre, admittedly I don't have experience of another T5 to make a comparison. Its not 225bhp though. The engine has 156k miles on it. Not sure if thats old for a Volvo or just run in?

I have to take the inlet manifold off to sort the breather issue anyway so its going to be head off at the same time, that is unless someone has an alternative explanantion which is worth investigating before going that far.

I will do a leak down test when I get back to work but it does seem to provide a suitable explanation to its apparent lack of go.

Sometimes it does get up and go, other times its very sluggish. The boost pressure must be going somewhere.

1) Yeah, sounds like a headgasket.. sorry! Get the head checked for warping
2) You probably also have vaccum leaks. Start replacing the various vac hoses.

[S60D5]

Shortish journies in these temps do tend to allow mayo buildup! Don't panic if you're not using any water.

Performance issue is probably completely unrelated. Stage 0 tune up.

[Kent Canary]

Could just be build up / condensation on the stick. I had that on mine recently, no problems at all.

[T5R+]

Found "gloop" on the dipstick over last couple of winters.
No use of water. No "mush" on underside of oil filler cap.
Variance in performance/boost is probably unrelated.

[Colin 850 T5]

I am reluctant to pull the head off and will investigate around this (just don't need another job to do). As much as I want to see what its like inside. A leak down test will tell me some of what I need to know. Its just odd finding the coolant in the boot in the screenwash bottle.

As Darren said, a stage 0 checkover is what it probably needs.

Still love the car to bits, having roof rails and the potential to put a kayak on top is a nice novelty, plus a boot that swallows all is great.

[weasel]

can't you get the cooling system pressure tested or compression test?

[craig]

whatever you do ,dont take the head off unless it deffo the gasket ,ive heard they keep on going once theyve gone once.and in imo a head gasket wouldnt cause boost problems

[JUDGENINJA]

When did you oil change last....? if longer than a year then do one before you investigate further...

[madness]

i would suspect radiator/oil cooler cross contamination as a likely suspect.

[BigJC]

I agree with madness on this. My old 854 T5 (ex-plod) had this problem, the partition betweeen the oil cooler in the radiator and the water part had split due to corrosion and the oil and water mixed. A new radiator and flush sorted it out, the vac pipes were also knackered and new ones made it fly!

The engine warning code was something like lean air fuel mix due to leak.

[Colin 850 T5]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

The more I read there is less to suggest head gasket and more to suggest the poor old girl just needs a bit of TLC, after all she has been round the globe 6 times.
I need to do the oil breather at some stage (parts here and waiting for me to get started) so at this time the rest of the sort out can be done.