Bought in AZ in Nov w/60k drove without issues for 23k miles using no oil and essentially no coolant. Started using a little coolant, but not a drop under the car and oil was still clean. Within a week of most recent oil change, coolant loss accelerated, but again no leak, and oil clean,then temp gauge went to max and engine died. Mechanic #1 halfway inspeted and pronounced dead but was nonspecific i terms of whether there is piston damage, or more-tells me instead- its not worth fixing. So now I have a gem of a rust free Arizona V70AWD that needs to either go away or be repaired. Where can I get a good engine?

Cant find a volvo engine source for this year, and wont put a junkyard engine in. Does anyone know of a competent rebuilder of this year engine? I Had another mech in my area whine about buckets and shims for the valve adjust. Dont want a whine, just a new or rebuilt engine.

I see on another community someonesaid you canstill get R-model crate engnes... Volvo just told me for my wagon $6,249 for a crate engine plus 25 hours of labor..... Has anyone PUT AN R Engine into the non-R car? I see I a not the only one who has chocked on his 1999 wagon. Is this just not a good year to consider for a rebuild? I am located in Vermont where you would thik therequisite wisdom for Volvo wold be forthcoming, but it just aint so.

 

Dealer will do swap dor 18 hours @75/hr and can get a used motor for 2300 - motor of unkmown salvage provenance but with 1 year warranty where fine primt really tells you how little the "parts only" warranty is. Further advises "not worth doing an engine rebuild due to cost of parts alone.

So tryng to find an engine rebuilder or an already rebuilt 2.4t engine. I'd like to go for an R motor but then there is a lot more to swap...

Looking for expertise on the 1999-2000 V70 engine swap/rebuild/upgrade topic. ANYONE????? And also, for an B5254t engine VIN 56- are there any gotchas to be aware of when sourcing a replacement....

 

I have located a B5234 engine from a giant parts recycler, which is supposedly from a 1999 car. Assuming its an entire assembly, with Turbo, intake, exhaust- should there be anything else besides ECU to swap? I assume it needs a different ECU than the B5254. Any feedback specific to 1999 or 2000 V70 XC AWD wagons would be VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!

 

Ok, I will update myself here...in case it is helpful to anone later.

Got car to Volvo dealer byflatbed. Dealer looked at same day. Overheated enough to not bother with bore scope.

I got a B5234 enginefrom LKQ Corp which seemsto bebuying up lots of other recylcers. VERY difficultto get anyone there with real knowledge of parts. In anycase got enginewith supposedly 76k miles and the 18Ti turboshipped to dealer for total of 1900 includingtoo much tax. Engine to arrive dealer today. Next will be adventure to see if it works as the replacement for the B5254 it is replacing.

Thanks to Jan Ellwoth in Sweeden for his helpfuk reply. All owe it to themselves to go check out his website. Google jan ellwoth and r-lineand Wow.

So there will be a further update as to the fit and compatibility of this motor, and I expect a few issues to arise with that, which hopefully can be surmkunted. There will be a software update needed, but....Volvo wont do that so I have to get for myself, once I recover from reading the cost of a RICA unit. Hope this works.

 

Got the engine from LKQ shipped to Volvo dealer. Initial disappoint was that it was a T-5 engine not an R, and turbo therefore was a 13T although I was expressly told 18T was coming. Sookay- I asked dealer to go forward anyway, and was subsequentky informed that rather than the 76k miles supposedly on the motor, in the opinion of the mechs looking at overall condition of the motor they felt it was more likely 177k, further had a bent pulley and collant pipe torn off in a way requiring expensive replacement. Based on that and other details, their rec was that I NOT use this motor. So back to LKQ on the phone I got a bunch of pushback, but in the end they do have a return policy. So we will see how that goes. Now contacting the shipper to send this piece of crap back at my expense. I will post the outcome when a credit is received. The condition of the engine assembly was not as advertised. Dealer mean while is trying to source an engine. I cannot believe how difficult it is to find a quality replacement.

 

So now, I am out 500 bucks for shipping back and forth on an unusable motor from LKQ Corp, I acquired an engine from a '99 R model through Erie. Turbo supplied with that motor had too much shaft play. Interestingly, Volvo dealer doing the engine swap can only supply me with a reman turbo, not OEM new, and they wont do a turbo rebuild. Makes no sense. So I went to Viva Performance and got a brand new 18T turbo for $1000. Viva unfortunately took more than two weeks to make the turbo appear, first, purportedly because "they" were at SEMA show and subsequently supposedly due to tropical storm Sandy. Ouch. Car sitting a dealer for a couple more weeks. As an aside I will say this - if your going to a trade show prevents you from shipping products,then maybe you should make alternate arrangements so that your business continues. I would be reluctant to take a chance on any more excuses there. 1st impressions are valuable and that was not a good one. Hey, I'm only spending a thousand dollars so I guess I shouldn't expct too much. Blah! Okay, so then an ECU remap is needed, and again, Volvo cannot or will not do this. So with the choice to go buy an R model ECU from who know where, or reflash it, I chose the rather expensive option to buy the iSoftloader tool and a map through IPD. They shipped same day he tools and currently I am waiting for the completion of the process where IPD uses MTEinSweeden to actually provide the Stage 1 map. Car should be ready in another week or so..... Beendown since July. I have avoided being cheap here on the repairs and if, despite using a Volvo dealer for the swap and all mechanical work, a new turbo, newseals, water pump timing belt kit, new oil/water sep, and lots of other new parts -if despite all of this the car does not run flawlessly for the next few years, you can all visit me on an Audi forum. I have been utterly amazed at the difficulty and expense getting this car fixed. I would abolutely NOT buy another '99 or '2000 V70 simply due to the headgasket weakness that now, based on lots of research, seems to be common. This was a 7000 dollar purchase a year ago, and by the time these repairs are done I will be into this ar for another 5000-6000 at least. Motor 1700, turbo 1050, ecu map $850, at least 17/20 hours of labor at $75, and so on... Been driving Volvo's for the last thirty years. Am a big fan, but enthusiasm is waning.....

Hey-if someone would only create a conversin kit to allow for the use of a different power plant, I think there might be a market.

 

Hey Chris, I'm sorry that you have not gotten any play on your thread here, not sure why I have not seen it before now.

We have a '98 and I did a head gasket on our's a few months ago. These head gaskets are very old but still do not fail without a cause. I believe our's failed due to the fact that someone did it right before we purchased it and maybe didn't do the best job. I have not had any issues since I changed it. I also have a '95 white block with over 220,000 miles on it with no head gasket issues.

Most mechanics do NOT want to do head jobs on cars older than 10 years of age because of the labor cost, many people don't follow through with the repairs and they mechanic has to deal with the carnage of the unsettled job. When a motor overheats it will cause the head to warp and blow the gasket, the heads are pretty soft. A simple compression test will tell which cylinder is blown or defective, rare for any physical damage to be done other than warping. The first mechanic deemed it DEAD because a blown head gasket is basically a blown motor. The cost of the repair is more than 50% of the value of the car. In most places around the US those cars sell between $2,500 and $5,000. Sorry to see that you paid more than that for your's and now have this nightmare behind it. I would almost bet that the car had a head job prior to you getting it, the easiest way to tell is to see how much carbon is behind the intake, how clean the head is inside (and out for that matter).

It is difficult to find a motor for the '99's sometimes. Just don't see them in jy's as often as the earlier 850's. The motor that you got with said 76k on it could have been neglected and thus showed the age of a motor with 176k. If someone misses a few oil changes it will cause the motor to age very quickly. The best way to determine if a motor should be used or not is a simple compression and bleed down test. The motor should NOT have been sent back without you knowing the compression numbers. My 850 with 220k on the clock has awesome compression numbers, they show very little motor wear. However, the valve stem seals are 18 years old and have finally started to leak so I'll need to have them replaced. Any major work in the motor should have them replaced just because they are so old and will leak soon reguardless of the mileage.

As for the turbo shaft play, I'm sure Erie would have been glad to send you another or give you some credit back. I have heard nothing but good things about them. Also, there are several places that rebuild turbo's that you could ship that to and have it rebuilt.

I'm kinda surprised that the Volvo dealer is helping you with this repair with after market parts, etc. They usually will not touch these kind of repairs without supplying all the parts, etc. I'm not to sold of them rejecting parts because of this, makes me wonder.

I'm surprised that you are committed to putting that much money into a car that old. These old Volvo's will alway have work to be done on them. If I were you, I would cut bait unless you plan to start doing your own repairs. The cost is simply not worth it. I own and keep these old Volvo's because I can work on them. Otherwise I would not.