Oh boy. I already have two old cars, one of which is my loverly '83 244, but when I saw an '89 245 with "engine problem" for $500 OBO, I couldn' he'p m'sef... I'm going to take a battery over there to crank it, tomorrow. Original owner says the blankety-blank mechanic who put a new timing belt on it tried to line it up with the mark on the cracked/warped back cover and that's why it won't run. (but they also said it had a good battery, but we found out the battery is completely dead) (maybe that's from the clock...) He had some young relative fiddlin' with it after that.

If it cranks without any loud crashes and bangs, might this be something fix-able? I've never done a timing belt, and it sounds too complicated for my old brain, what with so many tiny things to go wrong and I'd never be able to trace all the things, so I might even let the local Volvo mechanic do this if I buy it.

I have a feeling I could get it for quite a bit less than $500. What do y'all think? It's not too bad other than that, considering. It's only a few blocks from my house, even.

Oh, if the timing belt broke on this engine, would it have trashed the valves? That's one thing I love about my '83.