OK I found an engine with 88,000 miles on it for $1,050. The shop that has the car says 20 hours and $65/hour to put engine in plus approximately $500 in parts (timing belt, water pump, front and rear seals, etc. etc.). Total cost is in the ballpark of $3,000 +/- $200. Places here in Columbus that specialize in engine replacements will not touch the 850 engine replacement. Is this really that hard of a job?

I have a neighbor who is an auto body person by trade and he lives on a small farm. He will clear out a spot where we can pull the car in and work on it there. He's good at working on cars, tractors and most anything. I'm ok at doing this kind of stuff, but no way would I tackle this myself. My son in law to be just got out of the Army as a mechanic working on Humvee's and is now working at a local dealership on Range Rovers. I haven't talked to him about it yet, but I'm sure he would be willing to help.

After looking, I know I will not find a car anywhere near as nice as mine for under $8,000. It does have 206,000 miles on it. I have never changed the transmission fluid, exhaust, radiator, strut/shocks and stuff like that. Lots of things that could still go bad after spending $3,000, but any car I buy that is not brand new still could have these problems. It's a dilemma

I do have the old Honda Accord I can drive until I either find something else or fix mine.

What should I do?

This is my 850 with the dead engine:



[IMG]local://upfiles/1637/B90AFA2B02D54B2187F33A0C62BE5A65.jpg[/IMG]

 

My vote is take some time and replace the engine.It is time consuming.There are many ways to do it.Some will take the engine out and leave the trans hanging in the car.Some will drop the subframe with the engine and trans attached then pull apart out of the car.
It is not really all that bad just takes time to get it done.

 

That is a tough one. My thought would still be to buy another car and keep yours for parts. I think in the long run, you would save a lot, but then you got a parts car in your yard. Your car does look really nice. About not finding a decent car for under $8k, I think you could find many nice 850's for under $8000. I bought mine for $3100, given I have put about $1200 or so replacing little things and it's not perfect. It is really nice though. See what Tech says too. I think you could buy a really nice volvo for around $5000 or $6000. If you spend $3000 on an engine and your car has 200k like you said, you might run into trouble with other things soon. You said you havent replaced many things on the car, and I worry if the trans fluid has never been changed. Maybe it's time to flip a coin. Did you check out any of those R's from the links I sent? BTW you can see my car that I bought for $3100. I added a link in electronics titled HID lights. If you do replace the motor, make sure you check and clean everything you can while the motor is out. That extra step will save you time and money later and cleaning it up will make your car look like new under the hood when you drop in the new motor. The motor sounds like a pretty good price. Are they offering any kind of warranty? have they run a compression check? I think the compression is supposed to be 45, but check with tech on that.

 

Yes 90 day warranty for that price. Add 15% and they will make it a 1 year warranty.

Tech are saying go the "do it yourself" route?

The way they say they do it at the shop is to separate the engine and tranny, hold the engine up and take out the trans, lower the engine and then lift the car up and pull the engine out. That sounds tough to me.

 

The compression should be like 80-90 PSI.But it can be a little lower as long as all cylinders are close to each other.You don't want 4 cylinders with 85 PSI and 1 with 30 PSI.

 

Knight Ride, looked at pictures of you car and it looks real nice. I really don't want another wagon since I already have a V70. I sent e-mails to quite a few people on the IPD list of 850's for sale. I'll see what happens. I'm not spending too much on one that has over 140K on it though.

 

Oh, I'm not selling mine. I was when I couldn't find out what this little glitch was that I spent a ton on tryin to fix. It turned out that it was just the MAF plug. didn't cost anything to fix. I was just trying to show you that you can get lots of nice cars for well under $8000. I am definately never going to sell my car until it is a rust heep behind my house which will be a long time. But Tech's suggestion is good to replace the motor. I would probably spend a bit more to get the extended warranty. Although if the motor is going to F up it will probably do so in the 1st 90.

 

I knew you weren't selling yours, but there were several on that posting that was wagons. One of them looke pretty interesting so I sent them an e-mail and asked if it was still available. I only got one response so far. Most of those ads are a month old or older.

Did they make an S70 R in 98? I do still like the 98 S70 T5 and you can good prices on them. Better than the 850 R's.

 

OIC. I think they had the S70 R, but Tech will probably know whether they had it in 98. I know they had the V70R in 98 .I am sure that they will be pretty pricey compared to the T5 for the S70 if they did have them.

 

Yes they had the S70R in 98 but very few made.They are really hard to find.