Hi all,
First time posting in the FWD section, oOooooo scary....
Anyway my son's teacher has an 850 sedan in immaculate condition with one slight problem, blown engine, I've checking ebay and found a couple with varying prices. 1st, are there a range of engines that can be used in the 95, say a 93 or 96 engine. 2nd, what would have to be swapped for an automatic engine to make the manual tranny work in this car? 3rd. I've never even seen a FWD Volvo's engine bay, except in pictures, how hard are they to work on, say to do an engine swap. 4th, is total lower end failure common on these beasts?
Thanks alot for any info you can provide.....
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Chuck Jaxel, Pine Hill NJ, Near Philly...

I'm not looking to buy this car or do the engine swap. I'm researching information for the owner. He has a 1995 Volvo 850 n/a with 5sp manual tranny.
This is rare from what I hear. He was told by the dealer that his car is worth 500 dollars salvage, and that's it. Total lower end failure at a mere 48k miles.
Seems strange to me. I have found some used engines with more mileage and hefty price tags on them, just wanted to know if its worth it for this owner to put and engine into this car, or walk away and find something new.
Thanks....
Chuck Jaxel
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Chuck Jaxel, Pine Hill NJ, Near Philly...

The range of engines varies by market. In U.S. there is a normally
aspirated engine and a turbo engine in that year range. There are no
manual trransmissions for those years in the U.S. (that I know of).

I would not consider swapping the tranny or even the engine. In
the long run, it is cheaper to just buy what you want. Also, my
wife drives a 95 850 and I have a 98 S70T5 with a manual
tranny. A casual glance shows there are quite a bit of differences
between the cars (for example, the brake cyliner resevoir is used with
the clutch so that may require some changes to the brake cylinder).
Also, the brake cylinder is different so pulling the components from
a 98 (when a manual tranny was available) and using it on a 95 may not
work. Things like that that you may not expect would cause grief
(I think).

I find working under the hood to be no problem. Much better then
many moddern cars. Not quite the sames as a 2 series, but not bad.
The hoods even still open to 90 degrees vertical on the 850s. An
engine swap would require special eqipment based on the images at
www.alldatadiy.com (online manuals that you must subscribe to) that
I have seen.

Lower or upper engine failure is rare. The engines are pretty solid.

I have never done an engine swap myself, but I hear the labor rate is high. My honest opinionn: I would have to practically be getting the car for free to consider engine swaps, etc. Engines just don't blow out of the blue. Usually an engine is blown because of owner negligence or lack of maintenance (i.e., low oil).

Let me preface this by saying I know nothing!

Also, I'm reading from your post that the 850 you want to get has a manual transmission on this blown engine. You should be ok then. With the FWD cars, the ECU is specific to the transmission. AFAIK, everything else is the same. So you should be able to pick up the same engine, from an auto or manual and swap the parts off the blown engine and put it back together. Is the car turbo or NA? You'll need to replace it with the same engine. If you were wanting to convert the auto transmission to a manual, I'd say it's not worth it. You'll need a new ECU and maybe a new wiring harness. Plus changing pedal assemblies, differentials and cv joints (I think.)

The 95 850 GLT wagon I just found must be a rare bird with its manual tranny. I haven't found an answer for my first question yet, so I thought I'd ask it in this helpful thread here: what's involved in swapping in the turbo? I don't know how fundamentally different the two engines themselves might be, so I'm assuming you'd want the entire motor and turbo, as well as the intercooler, piping and manual version of the turbo ECU. Where am I gonna find a turbo 5-speed parts car? In any 850, or only in later S70's?

How about going to OBDII -- a nightmare, or not?

Finally, are the manual transmissions the same between turbo and NA? If so, why are the halfshafts different pn's?