You are indeed a volvo nut, an even bigger one than me apparently. It looks like I'm going to have to do some research at turbo-bricks over the uni-break.
Definitely, there is loads. If you have trouble finding some things, I can direct you to them, but they virtually have EVERYTHING needed to do the DOHC conversion. A guy at OVLOV.com sells the tensioner needed. A timing belt is needed from a Hyundai Sonata V6 (with correct number of square teeth)
Do you have any idea of the height of the DOHC head? eg I know that by putting the internals from the B23 into the B20 you convert it to a B23 and in terms of keeping the job simple if the DOHC head cleared the hood I could look at keeping a vertical mount which would save on fabricating slant mounts for a B23.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it should clear the hood just fine – with valve cover and all. Standard mounts should be fine. You have a B20 (I think you mean B21)? If you plan on boosting (I didn’t quite catch if you’re talking NA or not), the B21 block has thicker walls, and could probably withstand higher pressures. By ‘swapping internals’ I am guessing you are also including boring. Then yes. The B234 head fits on any red block Volvo. Here’s a pic of a 16v in a 2 series. Belongs to a guy called Jesus.
The first shot warms your heart, doesn’t it? Just me, maybe
.
In terms of being realistic though this would be a long term project and my thinking was if I acquired a B23 and started work on that (might not tell the landlord about an engine in the spare room
) building that up and looking at a g/box and engine transplant maybe summer holidays. With the lowering and LSD occuring abit further again down the track. Such a time frame because of budgetry and time constraints.
Sounds like a good idea. If you want a reliable engine, you are probably going to have to make a number of trips to a machinist – so you’ll need a Volvo ‘greenbook’. I don’t know for sure where it can be found – but it has the sizes and clearances for every part in the engine – an invaluable tool for rebuilding. As to budgetry…well I’ll get to that.
I hadn't thought too much about g/box and diff yet though the getrag unit sounds good (what price from castlemaine?). Diff may well depend on what can be found and could even become a custom unit if I get really keen (and or dad is up for it).
You must have misunderstood me. Supra unit is available from Castlemaine, The Getrag is largely available from your regular Pick’n’Pull out of older BMWs. (However the 'Supra' unit is also a Getrag, but a different casing). Everything matches up quite nicely, except for a driveshaft that is a bit too short – so that needs to be machined. Since you already have an M46, much of what you need is there. Turbobricks has some excellent articles on the Supra gearbox and Getrag gearbox conversion. A guy in the UK even makes a full kit, including crossmembers, and so on for the Getrag. If you go for Supra, the tailshaft needs to be altered, as it’s too short – new crossmember too, but that’s easily enough fabricated.
And finally the million-dollar question how much (excluding labour) is your guestimate for the engine and transmission?
B23 would be acquired by purchasing a 200 series so say $800 (afterall I dont give a dam about paint, tyres, anything except the engine).
I hate making guesstimates like this. The rule of thumb is get all of the prices for labour and parts, and then multiply by 2. How far would you be going with the rebuild? New parts, honing, blueprinting, balancing? For a barebones rebuild, I would guess several hundred. An all-out rebuild, fully preparing it for upwards of 18psi boost would run you several thousand. Depends if you can get on good terms with the machinist (supply him with data he needs, make sure you know what he’s on about) you could significantly reduce that. A Getrag should be no more than $200 or so (maybe a bit more depending where you get it from) – this is second hand from an old Bimmer. A reconditioned Supra box from Castlemaine…? Hmmm. I simply can’t remember – maybe 400-500? I’d call them – they can even do the whole gearbox conversion for you (
http://www.rodshop.com.au/gearboxes.htm). Total? I’d say $6000, minus the price of gearbox and engine. This is neither barebones, nor ‘all out’. It’s depressing, but this project will take you longer than a few months, and the money will be spread out over the period.
But what about the kit off the 940/740 any idea how much that would cost/how easy it would be to lay hands on? Would again the best bet be to acquire a complete car and strip it from that?
A complete car is going to turn out quite expensive. The last (fully functioning) 16v 740 I saw for sale was going for $6000. That price would undermine the whole project. Your best bet is to find a wrecked 16 valver. That would turn out the cheapest, but probably the rarest (so you will have to wait the longest). From there you should grab as much as you can – maybe the whole engine, so you can get the crankshaft, head, camshafts, sensors inc. wiring loom, you could even get the pistons (which I think are forged Mahle). Or once you do the rebuild you can order custom forged J&Rs which will run you $500 or so.
Or you can fly in the bare essentials from interstate (or intercontinental). Which is the head and camshafts. It’s all luck, I think – they pop up on eBay from time to time. Here’s the OVLOV site with the tensioner required. And the other site is a
very general run down of all you need to do for the conversion (straight from TurboBricks).
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=30786&highlight=16v+differences
http://www.ovlov.net/page.php?page_name=tensioner
A couple of other things – is this going to be turbo, or not? Custom exhaust manifold, if yes, is also needed. Adding the B234 head will also make this an interference engine. So watch out – make sure the timing belt is changed regularly. You also need 4 fly cuts in the pistons, as they make contact with the valves at TDC. Any machine shop can do this. The plus side: this head flows infinitely better than the 8v and with its stock stainless steel valves is pretty ready to take boost from Step 1.
You will definitely need EMS. I recommend Megasquirt (MS). I think it’s best for this job. It’s actually around US$200 last time I checked (2 years ago) – so this may have changed. They have upgraded the system to MegaSquirt n’Spark (Fuel n’ Ignition) – so it’s even better value.
If you minimize squish by decking the block (distance between piston crown and block surface at TDC) you can greatly increase the amount of compression the engine can take without detonation. 10:1 with 18psi is entirely possible with good squish and a well calibrated EMS (you’ll need 98RON, though). I’d wager to say that the difference in kWs at 10.1 with 18 psi between a B23 with an 8v and a B23 with a 16v would be around 80kWs. And that’s a helluva difference to make up solely with boost.
Wow, this turned out longer than I thought. Good luck! There is a wealth of information regarding this, and SO much more than I can fit in one post. Go to Turbobricks. There are some real experts there (search for stealthfti’s posts). I’m just a n00b at this.
