I keep going back to changing out the engine and if you could have done anything to knock the neutral safety switch out of alignment so there is not a compatibility between the engine and tranny.

 

She started up today! Redlined immediately. Three times I started her and shut her down immediately as well. New throttle cable needs adjusting, plus maybe other things too.
So I pulled the harmonic balancer to see the crank timing mark to have no doubts, all three were on the money, the crank and both cams and the number 1 cylinder was up, checked the position of the rotor, still at about 9 o'clock, a little past the #3 tower, but not close enough to the #1 tower, which according to Haynes manual is in the 7 o'clock position.
However, in the Volvo service manual in the wiring diagrams the distributor is identified as 20/2 for the diagrams, it shows the #1 tower in about the 9 o'clock position. Anyway to make a shorter story I moved my wires one tower over and she fired right up. With the original ecu's from the 96 that came with the car. Special thanks to Tony1963 for his personal assistance! Any thoughts as to what might cause full acceleration besides the throttle cable? Oh, I might add, it helped to have ALL sensors in place and attached. I was under the impression that if they weren't starting issue sensors, like knock sensors, it would still start, which may be, but that obviously confused me and so I left off the mass air sensor. You know big turbo box in the way. Well it's needed.

 

The only thing that can make the engine run at high rpm is an open throttle. Engines need air to run. That is what I would say. You be the judge about whether the throttle is open and then why. Glad you got it started, though. Any idea what cured it?

 

It was mostly the timing, but also not having the maf installed and connected. Haynes put the #1 tower at 7 o'clock, while the Volvo wiring diagrams put it at 9 o'clock. When the cams were on point and the crank was on it's Mark, the rotor was at 9 o'clock, I readjusted the wires and away she goes.

Readjusted the throttle cable and got the idle to about 850 rpms and let her idle until she heated up enough to burn off any surface oils. It does have a collapsed lifter, hoping that will fix itself in time. This car was purchased inop, it never ran so who knows what we'll find. I knew we were close with it, and you all came through, I sure appreciate the help. This forum is essential for anyone who doesn't yet know Volvo's. Hat's off to you guys!