98 V70 rebuild\project

[Dakotaawd98]

Hi I'm new to the forums and such but I have a few question regarding rebuilding my Volvo. First off is it worth it? Its got 190,xxx on it and has a blown engine. Should I rebuild the engine? Buy a new one and swap it in? Or just sell the car? Also if anyone knows of a place to purchase donor cars or parts cars from that would be much aperciated as well. Another thing is the front struts are very loud. They sound like they're shot but they have no more than 10,000 miles on them. Is it a common thing that happens? Your help is greatly appreciated.

[Ozark Lee]

The worth it part is a tough call and a lot of that depends on if you like the car. If you like it then you can drop another engine in it (or repair the existing engine), fix the suspension issues, and have a decent car for not a ton of money. This is assuming that you can do most if not all of the work yourself.

What is wrong with the existing engine? If there are problems in the "bottom end", the part below the head, then just getting another used engine would be the way to go. The rebuild cost to completely tear down a 5 cylinder and replace rod bearings and have crankshaft work done is staggering. You can usually pick up a used engine in the $300 to $500 range if you shop around. Is this a high pressure turbo, a low pressure turbo, or a normally aspirated engine? The high pressure turbos and the NA engines are plentiful and you can cross many years (94-98) in looking for a replacement. The low pressure turbo engines aren't as plentiful but they are out there.

If you have a blown head gasket or a burned valve then reworking the head is the cheapest alternative and it leaves you with an engine that you have some of the history on.

The front suspension noise is usually bad spring seats. There are many cheap aftermarket versions that have a life span in the 5,000 to 10,000 mile range that you describe. The OEM spring seats now have all been superseded to the beefier XC90 spring seats and they will pretty much last forever. The test for the spring seats is to take a wrench and turn the nut on the top of the strut under the hood. If it turns easily then the spring seat on that strut is bad. If they put up good resistance and won't turn more than a few degrees with moderate force then the seats are usually good and the problem is elsewhere.

Describe the car a bit more and we can try to give you some more specific budgetary numbers to work with.

...Lee