Am looking at buying a 1998 S90 Volvo with a blown engine. Are any of the S60 Engines compatible, and if so, which years? (The S90 name was introduced in 1997 but the S60s from 1995 to 1997 look very similar.) Have only owned rear wheel drive Volvos and wonder if this vehicle is worth repairing? Any thoughts on price to buy a good S90 with a blown engine would also be much appreciated. Culd a good home mechanic handle this engine swap or it is something to leave for a pro? With many thanks as always, Larry.

There's been a lot done with the 960/S/V90 as far as engine swap's and the easiest would be to find a six cyl after late '95 with the B6304S engine designation. By then any problem issues were cleared up. There's nothing to stop you from taking a six cyl from an S80 either. One from the 2.9 or T6 will go right in except the T6 wil require some extra items for the turbo setup. The T6 conversion has been done several times in a 960/S90.

The S60 is a newer 5 cyl car. The 960 was an earlier RWD 6 cyl version of the S90. 960s were from 92-97 and the S90 was a one year version, the last RWD car.
Anyone capable of swapping motors could do that assuming that all the sensors will still work, needs to be researched.

I suppose that anything is possible if you expend enough time and money, but I've not heard of anyone substituting a 5-cylinder Volvo motor for the 960/SV90 I-6. The S80 has an I-6 but it's a generation or so removed from the 960. Again I've not heard of anyone successfully performing such a transplant.

If your state doesn't require environmental certification (it's much more of a legal roadblock with the '96-up cars than an engineering one) the 5.0 Ford V8 and T5 transmission have been transplanted into RWD Volvos for years.


http://www.converseengineering.com/

Hi Larry,

Assuming you're in N. America, the S60 was introduced as a 2001 model. Perhaps you were referring to the S70, which was introduced in 98? Either way, they are front wheel drive, and therfore completely different cars.

Basically, the only thing that makes financial sense would be to replace the engine with the same type used, or rebuild the current engine. However, check out the 700/900 FAQ's on the 960/S90...the engine is prone to self destruction unless it's been meticulously maintained, so be careful with used engines. I'm not sure exactly what it's worth, but I personally wouldn't pay more then $2k.
Good luck!

Just why do you say the 6 cylinder engines are prone to self destruuction?
That means to me that it is a common occurance, or at least more common than other Volvo engines.
Timing belt replacement is important, as it is with any other Volvo engine or any other interference engine.

-- S'V'

SV,

What I should have said is this is an opinion, which is based largely on reading this site on and off for the past 8 years or so, and the opinion of my mechanic who has worked with Volvos for about 22 years, most of that with one of the largest dealerships in the country.

According to what I've seen in these forums and what my mechanic's told me, the 960/S90 seems more prone then other models to break the timing belt, which in turn can destroy the engine. This is apparently especially true of the older models, which could be a factor when looking for a replacement engine. There also seem to have been some models with block porosity problems, and according to the FAQ's, that may have gone into the mid 90's.

That being said, I've had a 740 for 15 years, which has given me FAR less trouble then my 850 that has less then half the mileage. So I do have an affinity for RWD Volvo's, and a 98 S90 would be the last of them, which is even better. My point was try and make sure this buyer looks for a well maintained engine if possible, and that future maintenance is done religiouly. Hope this helps!

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Just why do you say the 6 cylinder engines are prone to self destruuction?
That means to me that it is a common occurance, or at least more common than other Volvo engines.
Timing belt replacement is important, as it is with any other Volvo engine or any other interference engine.

-- S'V'

Believe most of the bad press came from a guy named Tom Irwin who was a frequent visitor on the RWD forum some years ago. Engines of both 5 & 6 cylinder design are nearly identical. The Europeans are famous for doing exotic engine swaps.

http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/volvo-433381.html

It wasn't just Tom. The 960/SV90 motors got a black dot in Consumer Reports, too.

Apparently there was a problem with the relatively long block castings. It seems to have been solved in the S80 and XC90 but in the S80 at least, but there are now electronic nightmares to worry about.

BTW, my V70 T5 still uses no oil at 165,000 miles which I think is remarkable....

-BTC

Well the 960 I-6 early model had severe problems with porosity from bad castings. Its a known issue, and an expensive one that frequentky was covered up by many a dealership since Volvo NA was loathe to admit they had a problem. So the dealerships covered until the warranty was up then played the game of "It's no longer a warranty issue its an owner issue".

All Tombo did was go postal on his own failures as a tech during his tenure as a Volvo Tech at a dealership that was in meltdown.

Volvo was aware of a few complaints with the earlier 960 6 cyl blocks and I've met a few techs at school who claimed to see those but I really don't think that it was all that common. I've never seen one. It was also something that couldn't be ignored as they wouldn't hold coolant and couldn't just be patched. I think that by now, those blocks have all been replaced.
Volvo's attitude on those were when they were seen leaking (under warranty which they were then), replace the blocks. No recall.

If any early 960 6s had t-belt failures, it'd be because of their very short belt life intervals which were probably ignored by many. The '93 960 had a 30K t-belt replacement interval.

As for Tom, one's best to ignore anything that guy ever wrote here as he wasn't exactly a good source of info IMO.