Ok, so I asked the question last week when I started to hear tapping/clicking noises that get faster with the RPMs. I was told by many brickboarders that it was probably the lifters (by the way, thanks for the responses! I appreciate it alot.) It started happening on Wednesday then when I tried starting the car on Thursday morning, the sound was gone. I was going to take it to the dealer to have it looked at but the sound went away so I never brought it in. Well while I was driving to the mall with a friend, the noise started up again. Luckily, I was just passing a brand new Volvo dealer that was in the process of opening. I turned the car around and brought it in. Turns out that the service wasn't open yet. Monday would be the first day for service. So I just left the car there for them to look at on Monday. Unfortunately, Chicago was hit with a major snow storm/blizzard on Monday so everything was closed up! So now Tuesday rolls by, the tech took apart the oil pan and such (I was ready to cry when I saw my baby all opened up :*() but still couldn't find the problem, although he heard the noise. Now today, I called up the dealer to see if there was any news. Turns out that the rod for the 5th cyl was bent out of shape and was hitting the crankshaft. The tech said he's NEVER seen this before. They're in the process of working with VIP to see what they need to do. I'm told that there's 2 options, either get a new (remanufactured) engine, or have it rebuilt. The question is, could I request that a new engine be put in or is it up to the people at Volvo? Also, this isn't normal right!? My '97 850R only has 70k miles on it! I've been reading the posts here for over 3 years and I can say that I've probably seen only 3 cases of an engine that needed to be replaced. ANY help is really appreciated. My email is RaceMy850R@aol.com. And no, I don't race my car to the extent of having a rod bend out of shape! =)