Timmastertech,
You advice is to stay w/ OEM Volvo parts, what brand of spark plug seals and valve guides seals do you recommend???
What is a good brand for the Angle Gauge??
The car is getting old and in some cases Volvo no longer makes certain replacement parts, last time a look at the prices the head gasket only was close 100 dollars not sure what the cost is today.
The plug tube seals I usually use are Reinz, I usually use Corteco valve seals.
Yeah, the OE head gasket and bolts are not cheap but there is a huge difference in quality. The most common 5 cylinder gasket is a hair over 100 bucks and the bolts are 9 bucks a piece IIRC. Your engine being a 6 cylinder needs 14 of them.
As far as an angle gauge, they all measure 360 degrees. You are going to need one in half inch drive and a good size half inch drive bar to turn the bolts. I use a Snapon TechAngle torque wrench to do the torque and the angle, saves a massive amount of time which matters in a production environment. Before I had that I used a regular click type torque wrench and an old mac tools angle gauge.
If the OE gasket is obsolete I would use an elring gasket, the ones we had issues with were Elwis and Reinz. I havent tried elring head gaskets for a Volvo because the OE gaskets fixed the issues we were having and ya dont mess with what works. I would at least go with OE bolts, those I know are still available
I also prefer the genuine volvo chemical gasket for the valve cover to the aftermarket alternatives. Part number used to be 1161059, number recently changed and I dont know it off the top of my head. Permatex 51813 is okay but not the same. The other common sealant is reinzoplast which I dont like.
With the head apart its a great time to have a valve job done as well but if you do anything with the valves you will need to set valve clearance. All of the tappets between the cam and the valves are a different thickness, they are available in various thicknesses from 15.84 mm to 16.34 mm in .02mm increments. It is important that if you arent doing any valve work that you keep the tappets in their original order so you dont have any issues on reassembly.
Good luck, this isnt the easiest engine to do a head job on if you have not done one before but its not too tough and after ya do 40-50 of them you can do them with your eyes closed lol.