Greetings Volvonistas!

I'm an experienced wrencher, having rebuilt Saab engines a few times, and am interested in your opinions on a possible project car. It's (if I remember right) a '94 Turbo 850 wagon, with just over 100,000 miles. It's advertised as "needs valve job." Sure enough, on querying the seller, turns out that the timing belt broke. Sounds like the water pump may have seized as a precursor to that, but I didn't think to ask if the car had overheated as a consequence.

My gut is, this engine is toast, what with the possibility of cracked or damaged pistons and/or scoring of the cylinder walls. But, maybe some of you have experience with similarly broken engines, and would say "hey, just throw a head on the thing and you'll be fine!" That would be nice, but unlikely.

Not being a big fan of engine replacements (I like to rebuild what I've got), unless I hear you say "why, all Volvo 850s survive broken timing belts without piston damage," I'll walk away from this one.

What say you?

Hello,

I will echo all the concerns below with obvious maintenance that has has not been done. If the timing belt let go, the engine probably did a pretty good job of munching itself to bits, so you're probably better off getting a used engine from the wreckers for 1500 to 2000 rather than trying to rebuild the busted one for 3 to 4k.

The last time a non-running 855T was up for grabs up here it sold for less than $1000.

--
Happy Bricking!!! - Richard - '95 855T 312k, '87 245 DL 406k, '82 242 GLT 121k

You really take a chance on buying cars you can't drive. Could be "just a valve job" or could be new cylinder head, transmission and brake work also. Not to mention tearing the dash out to replace the ac evap. Looks like you have the talent. The only question is time and $$$$$. These cars can be very good but they're not holding their value very well. Maybe you can get it for a few hundred?? If the owner neglected to replace the timing belt when recommended then it's likely other things were neglected also.

The lower end will be OK so if you're able to do the work yourself, take the cyl head off and to a machine shop. They'll be able to replace its bent valves and related items like guides if need be.
If you need to pay someone, it'll go over $3K. Guess it depends on how cheaply you can buy the car and if you can do the work yourself or not.