3.2 engine seized, now what? | SwedeSpeed

Catastrophic engine failure in a 3.2 with that low of miles is almost unheard of. Honestly if you are good enough to tear down the engine then I would search for diy salvage yards and pull your own engine. I’ve seen plenty 3.2s make it over 300k. Its usually everything else besides the engine that causes expensive repairs with the main one being the transmissions. That and basically all of the accessories on the engine are expensive to fix and if the serpentine belt or anything it touches goes it’s big money too, also awd issues. Most people just put off these things and when the car stops driving they take it to the shop and get a quote that is more than the car is worth. This is the most likley reason you will find 3.2s with perfectly good engines in the salvage yards and you can get an engine for like $500. I wouldn’t worry about the mileage because you have all good parts you can swap over.

Basically I would download the car fox car care app and enter the vin then add the vehicle to your garage. From there you will be able to see the complete service history of the vehicle for free. Check and see which car has the best oil change service intervals because you are basically going to use the bare engine assembly and transfer over all of your accessories. Leave the old transmission and reuse yours, you might be able to find mine new parts that you can use as a bonus. Another bonus is that the engines are already half out because most salvage yards take the cats and you need to drop the rear part of the subframe down to get at the primary cats. I would try to get an 08-10 engine for the better piston rings because I know the 11-14s burn oil because they were trying to reduce friction for better mileage and a few more hp.

One thing I’m not sure about is if the s80 3.2 blocks would be compatible. It’s the same engine but a completely different platform so mounting points might be different although a 3.0 t6 xc90 swap would be pretty cool.

As for finding out what your failure point was it’s up to you if you want to tear it apart to find out but if you suspect that gas was diluting the oil then send in a sample to blackstone and that might help.

I currently have a 2010 3.2 with 218k on it and it runs and shifts perfectly but I did have to do a lot of suspension work to get it riding like new again. I have full faith in the 3.2 and your case is definitely an anomaly from what I’ve seen and read.

Anyways my two cents is to swap the block and transfer over everything else from yours and I figure it would be the cheapest option but labor intensive if your up to it.