this 95 850 im looking at needs new piston rings, the car is going to be CHEAP other than the motor being in rough shape the body is excellent, just want some opinions as far as if its worth it to either replace the motor or put new piston rings in the one its got?? thanks all!!

I'm shocked. Rings usually are the last things that fail. Unless the PO had run witthout oil for a long time.
Buying a new engine from Erie Vovo would be the most cost effective.

Klaus
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Just driving a 1998 V70R :)

Are you doing the work or are you farming it out? IMO I don't think farming it out would be cost effective, just get a rebuilt engine. Perhaps just a short block, but if the rest of the car is in EXCELLENT shape, perhaps a long block. If you are going to do the work yourself, have you ever done similar work? There is more to it than just putting new rings on the piston.

Just how much do you know about the car? What kind of shape is the transmission, the rear end, the radiator, the head and all the other supporting systems? It won't do any good to fix the rings to have the rest of the car fail shortly.

Jerry

Bad rings seem to be a pretty rare problem for the 850 engine. If that is indeed the case I would suspect that it was really abused or the maintenance neglected. In either case you could have other problems ready to develope. Maybe just buying a good used complete engine would be the wisest thing to do. There are some companies in the NE and Midwest that routinely advertise on e-bay.