Unevolved's 1965 Volvo Amazon Sedan

re the condition of the bores: A buddy in high school pulled apart his datsun pickup 4 cyl motor, and had a pretty bad gash in one cylinder's wall. against the shop teacher's and his dad's advice, he did a quick dingleberry hone and threw it all together. Now we didn't measure or test anything, but it never smoked and certainly didn't drive like it was down on power.

With the condition of the cooling jackets, it might not be worth it, but with regards to the cylinders, i wouldn't hesitate to throw it together!

The proper way to do this is to go at it with various precision measuring tools and take some measurements, then compare to the manual and go from there, or just send it to the machine shop. The other, cheaper, way is to figure we're doing a rering job on an understressed engine and if there isn't a ridge at the top of the bore call it close enough and hone it until it's mostly cleaned up. You can get a decent idea of what you've got by sticking a ring in the bore and checking the gap at various points in the bore.

So no one sees anything that's immediately troubling? That's good to hear. I've never put together an engine this old, so I'm not sure what should be a warning sign.

I'll snag some bore gauges from work and measure the bores to see how they're looking. I guess that'll be the big tell-tale if it's healthy enough to rebuild.

Also, anyone have any great ideas for cleaning out the water jackets? Not sure if I should just flood them with vinegar and keep rinsing, or what.

unevolved wrote: Also, anyone have any great ideas for cleaning out the water jackets? Not sure if I should just flood them with vinegar and keep rinsing, or what.

I've successfully used a self service car wash for that before.

I would have loved to see that.

unevolved wrote: I would have loved to see that.

then do it and take pictures! It works great.

I've done the self-service car wash thing too. Works great!

Dingleberry hone that thing and stuff it back together. It's a B18. I'm pretty sure it'll run without piston rings at all.

B18's are hard to overheat. And hard to kill when they do. Those coolant jackets don't bother me at all.

unevolved is outside Fort Worth - cars overheat there if they overheat nowhere else. Some days they get Southern humid heat, some days they get Western dry heat.

unevolved wrote: Also, anyone have any great ideas for cleaning out the water jackets? Not sure if I should just flood them with vinegar and keep rinsing, or what.

Would CLR work?

Just about any acid/acidic cleaner (including CLR) would work, wear proper PPE.

I have this theory that you should be able to fill the cooling jackets with Coca-Cola, let it stand for a couple days, then blast it out with a hose and nozzle. Self-serve car wash sounds even better. Maybe do that and let me know how it works?

Don't forget the USA was considered "tropical" by the Swedes. They were fighting overheating when this car was new.

car39 wrote: Don't forget the USA was considered "tropical" by the Swedes. They were fighting overheating when this car was new.

Huh. I daily drove a 122 with the mechanical cooling fan removed, in South Carolina, and very infrequently did I have to switch on the electric fan I'd installed. I guess YMMV.

Anyway, yes, blast those cooling channels out.

Thanks guys. Yeah, the track I work at is used by OEMs for hot weather testing, so that should give you an idea of what we're used to.

To further complicate my plans for the car, a coworker has a T5 WC he'll sell me for $100. Which means I could move straight to getting the B230 to fit. It's not like I don't need to break out the welder anyways, to repair some of the rust...

Decisions, decisions.

So I found a guy in Tucson with a B20 for sale that's in good, running condition. If I go that route, I could just drop it in the car and focus on the other myriad problems with the car before I start adding silly amounts of power. The B20 is pretty much fully depreciated, so I'd imagine if I need to sell it in a year or two and it's still running, I could get what I paid for it. Hm.

Not a bad plan. A B20 will make that car feel pretty sporty, too.

And if you ever do decide to sell the B20, I know a buy in Austin who would probably buy it from you.

The b20 swap can be done in 45 minutes. Ask me how I know...

Finally remembered to bring home my digital calipers so I could measure the bores. Not too bad, all things considered. If I had to guess, I'd say it only needs 0.010" overbore to be healthy again.

Worst is cyl. 4, which is about 0.008" oversized. Granted, these measurements are all with an HF Special bore gauge, so they're probably not SUPER accurate.

If that B20 falls through, hell, I may just rebuild this motor after all. I keep having to remind myself the goal for this car is to have something fun to work on, NOT to have a silly fast toy. Rebuilding this old B18 may be throwing $1000 down the toilet, but it'd be a great experience. I've never gotten to tune carbs before, and this would be a great opportunity.

I honestly think that engine would be OK with a good dingleberry hone and new rings. There may be a "0.005 oversize" ring set made just for your application. Heck I may even have one in my vast stores of Amazon parts...

It's been an interesting few months. We're now expecting baby Unevolved this coming summer, so my priorities have shifted around a little bit. More of my time has been spent working on the house, getting things ready, and not as much on the car. Thankfully, though, I have next to nothing invested in this project, so there's not much pressure to liquidate. Just slowing progress down.

I've pretty well decided that since my eventual goal for this car is about 300whp, the B18 needs to go. I had initially wanted to get it back in there and running, sort the rest of the car out, and do the turbo B230 later, but since my time is going to be much more precious, I'd just rather focus on the eventual goal for the car, which is turbo hoonmobile.

Today I decided to waste some time and drop the B230 in the engine bay to see how it looked. I've seen people swap these in, both vertically (like the original Amazon engine) and angled (like how it was in the 940). First, I went with the angle.

Oil filter is pretty much right on the old engine mount.

Plenty of room on the intake side, though.

Definitely a snug fit front-to-back. It's leaning on the firewall at this point.

So, that's not great. Let's see how it looks stood upright.

Much better. That intake manifold won't work, though, I'll have to figure something out there.

Here's a better shot showing how it's basically up against the firewall. I think it's actually leaning on the crank trigger sensor:

I have no intentions of reusing the OEM engine management system, and I'm probably going to go with a Megasquirt variety. So it'll likely get a crank trigger on the front pulley, and maybe even move to a DSM cam sensor and LS1 coils.

So, all in all, not much REALLY accomplished today, but it's nice to be able to look at the engine in the car and brainstorm solutions.

I'll have all the B18 stuff up for sale before too much longer, I'm really just wanting to make sure it stays out of a scrapyard and in the hands of an enthusiast. Anyone in TX that wants a cheap, rebuildable B18 core, hit me up.

unevolved wrote: Also, anyone have any great ideas for cleaning out the water jackets? Not sure if I should just flood them with vinegar and keep rinsing, or what.

I had one of my spitfires blocked "tanked" and then bored. I was about to start reassembly and just for shiggles, I wheeled out my pressure washer and used the pinpoint tip. What I got out was amazing.

Congratulations on the baby. They do take up a lot of time.

Be sure not to take it on an airplane.

Thanks!

https://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/pts/6021103829.html

B18 is officially for sale. Someone take this off my hands.

Unevolved,

With a turbocharger, your intake manifold design is a lot less critical, because the pressure drop can be made up by increasing nominal boost pressure. If cramming it in there costs you 10% of maximum power, but takes you from 350 to 315 RWHP, you still hit the project goal.

In TX you'll want both an intercooler and E85. Since you're going to need additional injector capacity, why not try a PCI and a turbo a little smaller than you'd otherwise select?