My number one son toasted the engine and turbo in my 850 at 33K. Volvo installed a rebuilt--not new--engine in it, saying that was the only one available. New engines I guess they save for the assembly line. I was not there when it was done, but now the car has 61K on it and I'm doing all the major servicing myself. I do not know what they stripped off the ruined engine and put on the rebuilt besides the obvious, such as A/C pump, starter(?) and alternator. Can a Volvo tech or someone tell me whether the rebuilt engines come with a new timing belt, serpentine belt, distributor cap, rotor and plugs? I replaced the rotor cap and the points were furred and there was a lot of carbon, leading me to believe it had come from the first engine and had 61K on it. The serpentine belt had one or two minor cracks in it, was the old style installation, and had no numbers on it, making me wonder if the company that got the contract to rebuild the Volvo engines, had used some aftermarket one. Was worn but I couldn't tell whether it was new with the rebuilt engine or taken from the old one. I went ahead and installed a new one, which is a bit longer than the older one because of the different threading, but not the timing belt, which is making me slightly paranoid. I need to know whether this engine (B5254T) came with a new timing belt or not. I never did get a satisfactory explanation from Volvo why they wouldn't install a new, rather than rebuilt, engine in the car. Nor would they tell me who was rebuilding their engines for them. Proprietary info, wouldn't you know. Any help appreciated. Richard

Was this work "sanctioned" by Volvo or was it at the discretion of the dealer? I'd bet that if it was the latter, the dealer just gave you a used engine as it sat. That is with belts, ignition bits, etc. that where on the motor as it came out of where ever it came from. You might not have even gotten your original ancillaries either if they thought that the replacement motor's bits were adequate.

So how many miles were claimed to be on this replacement motor?

A reman engine should be just as good as new but no, you can't buy a new engine or trans from Volvo and if you could, it'd be alot more expensive. I believe that they're rebuilt by a place in the US but the name and location of that place is unknown to me.
The engine is just that, a complete engine BUT w/o any bolt-ons like accessories (serp belt, alternator, PS pump, brackets, starter, starter ring gear (flexplate), dist cap, rotor, wires) BUT does come with new spark plugs and a new timing belt.