Brother in law has this car. It is a non turbo.

The belt broke and his mechanic wants $650 to install a new one and do a compression test. He says more likely than not the valves are bent and it means more money.

The whole car is worth less than 3 grand so it is insanity to put that kind of money into it.

I was thinking of buying an Autozone belt and installing it myself to them rotate the engine by hand a see what it does. If I can rotate it through all cylinder cycles I would just start it and see what happens. I do not have a compression test kit.

A few options here are:
1. Buy a used engine for about $500, add $250 of OEM parts to it and install it.
2. Buy a mint 99 S70 for sale in town with a bad transmission and swap the transmission into the new car if 98 and 99 transmissions are interchange OK.
3. Junk the 98 and buy some other kind of car if not another Volvo.

He does not have a ton of money in this car but within the last year I helped him install new OEM suspension with control arms, rebuilt ABS computer, professional tint, etc....

It is not a money problem at all.....my sister and him make well over $100K a year combined so they could just buy another car but he likes the S70.

Anyone know if the gearbox is the same on 98 and 99 cars?

 

They might be but you can get a good head for four hundred thirty dollars.