bugjam1999
Member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2015
Welcome to my first complete engine rebuild! Do I know what I’m doing? I'd like to think so, but possibly not really. I have read a lot of Turbobricks threads and watched the overboost racing videos on youtube about how to build a B230 bottom end as a start, but I’m very much open to comments. I’ve replaced head gaskets before, but this is the first time I’ve completely stripped an engine down to the block.
The engine currently in my car (1988 240, I engine swapped it in 2015) is an increasingly tired B230FK from a 1997 940 with a 19t, about 20psi of boost and 40% leakage showing after a recent leakdown test. It’s also got an issue with a coolant leak down the inlet manifold side of the block after a swap to a maxxecu, so I’ve an ongoing question about whether I have too much timing advance. I asked about that issue in a different thread, I’ll need to revisit that before putting this engine in the car.
Anyway, back to this engine – after the leakdown test it was time to look at options for an engine rebuild. Unfortunately I’m a bit constrained on space to work on bigger projects on the car as I live in London and the car is in a communal underground carpark, so finding a replacement engine or just a bottom end and rebuilding that somewhere else, then swapping it into the car at some point in the future was going to be easier. After a couple of false starts I found an ebay listing for a B230FK from a 1997 940 that was being broken due to crash damage, with only 65k on the clock. The engine was a bit more expensive than the other engines I’d found, but I figured it was worth the extra for a low mileage engine as it most likely wouldn’t need a rebore – and new pistons are expensive. So I bought it.
I got the engine delivered to a local garage that I’ve used for various things (including renting a lift on a Saturday occasionally), then stripped it down completely. The low mileage appears to be genuine, as everything was in great shape inside: honing marks visible in all cylinders, waterpump spins freely, oil pump the same and the bearing surfaces were all in good shape with no visible wear or missing coating.
I took the bare block, crank and head to the local machine shop for the following:
Head – replace inlet stem seals, lap valves, skim
Block – deck the top surface, check the bores and advise- they measured within spec and the bores were lightly honed
Crank – polish bearing surfaces.
When I picked it up, the main bearings were in a box having been removed before dunking the block in their hot tank.
So now I had a block ready for a rebuild, but first – paint. After watching a load of videos of people prepping blocks with a wire brush attachment on a drill which didn’t look like much fun, I gave a local soda blasting place a call – they quoted £100 to clean the block and all the loose engine parts, which sounded like a bargain to me, so I delivered the lot and picked them up a week or so later.
The block is now completely clean both inside and out, they blasted through all the oil galleries as well. Unfortunately between the machine shop dunking the block and the soda blasting place blasting it, the surface of the intermediate bearings now look and feel like a gravel driveway, so those will have to be replaced (VP autoparts has a set that do not need to be linebored after installation, I understand the original Volvo ones require boring) so I haven’t got any further with painting, since the block might have to go back to the machine shop to have those bearings installed. I did clean the block completely using degreaser and a scrubbing brush and wow, now I know why it’s called flash rust – little specks of orange appeared almost immediately. I’ve sprayed down the whole block in WD40 (that’s all I had to hand) to protect it for now. The soda blasting place also cleaned the pistons, and removed all traces of carbon from them, including in the ringlands.
Annoyingly, one piston appears to have been dropped at the soda blasting place, but the damage is minor and I think it’s usable after dressing down the top to make is flat to avoid any hotspots?
Poor surface on the Intermediate bearings
https://imgur.com/sVo5SIt
https://imgur.com/aacg68I
Flash rust after degreasing
https://imgur.com/tUSPSZi
Flash rust in the bores
https://imgur.com/GgRFDBe
I’m not planning to change the head or turbo initially, but I do have first refusal on an extensively machined 531 head with bigger valves from a friend’s abandoned project, so I’ll be doing a bit of future proofing to the bottom end so I don’t have to revisit it later. With that in mind I’m currently planning to rebuild the bottom end with:
Standard Volvo main bearings
Standard Volvo big end rod bearings
Maxspeeding Rods
Existing standard Pistons with new Volvo Rings
ARP Main Bolts/studs
ARP Head studs (not sure I need these for this power level – 300bhpish?)
Intermediate shaft bearings from VP
Zeligsgarage.com oil transfer tube
Volvo gaskets and seals
IPD oil pump reinforcement ring.
I’m in no rush to complete the rebuild, as the engine currently in the car is still working. A few initial questions:
ARP head studs? Do I need them?
The 350bhp budget thread refers to cleaning up the oil return channels… I’ll ask there as well, but I’m not quite sure what that means.
turbobricks.com
What else should I do /have I missed?
Cheers
The engine currently in my car (1988 240, I engine swapped it in 2015) is an increasingly tired B230FK from a 1997 940 with a 19t, about 20psi of boost and 40% leakage showing after a recent leakdown test. It’s also got an issue with a coolant leak down the inlet manifold side of the block after a swap to a maxxecu, so I’ve an ongoing question about whether I have too much timing advance. I asked about that issue in a different thread, I’ll need to revisit that before putting this engine in the car.
Anyway, back to this engine – after the leakdown test it was time to look at options for an engine rebuild. Unfortunately I’m a bit constrained on space to work on bigger projects on the car as I live in London and the car is in a communal underground carpark, so finding a replacement engine or just a bottom end and rebuilding that somewhere else, then swapping it into the car at some point in the future was going to be easier. After a couple of false starts I found an ebay listing for a B230FK from a 1997 940 that was being broken due to crash damage, with only 65k on the clock. The engine was a bit more expensive than the other engines I’d found, but I figured it was worth the extra for a low mileage engine as it most likely wouldn’t need a rebore – and new pistons are expensive. So I bought it.
I got the engine delivered to a local garage that I’ve used for various things (including renting a lift on a Saturday occasionally), then stripped it down completely. The low mileage appears to be genuine, as everything was in great shape inside: honing marks visible in all cylinders, waterpump spins freely, oil pump the same and the bearing surfaces were all in good shape with no visible wear or missing coating.
I took the bare block, crank and head to the local machine shop for the following:
Head – replace inlet stem seals, lap valves, skim
Block – deck the top surface, check the bores and advise- they measured within spec and the bores were lightly honed
Crank – polish bearing surfaces.
When I picked it up, the main bearings were in a box having been removed before dunking the block in their hot tank.
So now I had a block ready for a rebuild, but first – paint. After watching a load of videos of people prepping blocks with a wire brush attachment on a drill which didn’t look like much fun, I gave a local soda blasting place a call – they quoted £100 to clean the block and all the loose engine parts, which sounded like a bargain to me, so I delivered the lot and picked them up a week or so later.
The block is now completely clean both inside and out, they blasted through all the oil galleries as well. Unfortunately between the machine shop dunking the block and the soda blasting place blasting it, the surface of the intermediate bearings now look and feel like a gravel driveway, so those will have to be replaced (VP autoparts has a set that do not need to be linebored after installation, I understand the original Volvo ones require boring) so I haven’t got any further with painting, since the block might have to go back to the machine shop to have those bearings installed. I did clean the block completely using degreaser and a scrubbing brush and wow, now I know why it’s called flash rust – little specks of orange appeared almost immediately. I’ve sprayed down the whole block in WD40 (that’s all I had to hand) to protect it for now. The soda blasting place also cleaned the pistons, and removed all traces of carbon from them, including in the ringlands.
Annoyingly, one piston appears to have been dropped at the soda blasting place, but the damage is minor and I think it’s usable after dressing down the top to make is flat to avoid any hotspots?
Poor surface on the Intermediate bearings
https://imgur.com/sVo5SIt
https://imgur.com/aacg68I
Flash rust after degreasing
https://imgur.com/tUSPSZi
Flash rust in the bores
https://imgur.com/GgRFDBe
I’m not planning to change the head or turbo initially, but I do have first refusal on an extensively machined 531 head with bigger valves from a friend’s abandoned project, so I’ll be doing a bit of future proofing to the bottom end so I don’t have to revisit it later. With that in mind I’m currently planning to rebuild the bottom end with:
Standard Volvo main bearings
Standard Volvo big end rod bearings
Maxspeeding Rods
Existing standard Pistons with new Volvo Rings
ARP Main Bolts/studs
ARP Head studs (not sure I need these for this power level – 300bhpish?)
Intermediate shaft bearings from VP
Zeligsgarage.com oil transfer tube
Volvo gaskets and seals
IPD oil pump reinforcement ring.
I’m in no rush to complete the rebuild, as the engine currently in the car is still working. A few initial questions:
ARP head studs? Do I need them?
The 350bhp budget thread refers to cleaning up the oil return channels… I’ll ask there as well, but I’m not quite sure what that means.
Budget 350hp b230fk build (9.3:1 compression)
Hi All, I've created this thread in addition to my 745 project build thread, since I would like to keep the engine build seperate, since it might end up in some other project eventually. For this first update I'll start with the beginning, the block and inspection. (first pictures taken with...
turbobricks.com
What else should I do /have I missed?
Cheers
