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Volvo 1800ES: Barnfind to B230 swap

Andy Somogyi

Andy Somogyi

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2022
Volvo 1800ES: Barnfind to Restomod

Picked up this 1800ES a few months ago. The car was sitting in a shipping container in Colorado since the 1990s. Body looks great with no rust. Car looks very original with IPD upgrades. Previous owners had issues with the injection so it?s just been sitting there.

Plans are short term and longer term.

Short term is the make a few engine tweaks, fit modern Speeduino injection, address any safety issues and get the car running and driving. Longer term, I'll be fitting a B230FT with Mustang T5 trans.

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:omg: wow, what a find!
not sure I'd want to stray too far from stock with that car...that could fetch a pretty penny at an auction.
but it's yours, not mine...enjoy :)
 
oldschoolvolvo said:
:omg: wow, what a find!
not sure I'd want to stray too far from stock with that car...that could fetch a pretty penny at an auction.
but it's yours, not mine...enjoy :)
Click to expand...

My first goal is keeping it as period correct look and feel as possible. One of my all-time favorite cars was the BMW 2002 Turbo (1975), and I'm shooting for that kind of feel.

Plans are:

(1) Get it running with the B20, upgrade to Speeduino, pull engine, inspect and minor head porting.
(2) Fit the T5 to the B20
(3) Swap in the B230FT

Got a B230ft that I picked up a month ago that's going in, along with a Mustang T5 trans. Bit first task is getting the B20 up and running. I've pulled the engine and now inspecting it, and will convert it to Speeduino. This is the board I'm building for it, still need to make a crank trigger missing tooth wheel, and find a cam angle sensor I can fit on the distributor shaft. The ECU is based of a Speeduino with a few of my own enhancements, like an experimental knock detection circuit.

I'm a ways further into this project, and just started posting the progress here.

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Gas Tank, and Engine Stand

Got the car up on these cool car dollies so I can push into a good spot to pull the motor. Gave the gas tank a look and ohhh yeah, this thing will have to come out. The inside is completely sludged up with rust and all sorts of trash. Here?s some pics of inside the tank. Bummer. But at least I've got a lot of practice dealing with sludged up gas tanks with my Porsche 912E. Going to drop the tank, clean with industrial degreaser / cleaner with agitation, and and soak in some phosphoric acid. Hopefully the tank isn't so badly rusted that it's leaking.

I bought this base-model Harbor Freight 750 lbs stand a few years ago. Back then, was just using it for an air-cooled VW, so figured base model stand was OK. Well, it wasn't. Even with something as short and light as an ACVW, this stand was bouncing and flexing all of the place, downright dangerous. Went to Harbor Freight to buy the heavier duty one, and looks like they discontinued the 750 and 1000 lbs stands., that's unfortunate. So, decided to re-engineer my existing stand. I determined that most of the flex was coming from the upright, and joints, so I welded a 1.25" square tube to front, and cut/welded heavy gussets to the top and bottom joints. Much, much better now, feels really solid.


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Well, it?s out, and OMFG what a pain in the ass it was to pull this motor. Most definitely a 2-person job. We left the engine and trans together and pulled as one unit.

I ended up bolting some brackets to the head with the head bolts. There?s an official Volvo tool to bolt the the exhaust manifold bolt, but
I didn?t feel like making one. Anyways, it?s out, tomorrow I?ll bolt to engine stand and give it an exam. And will get on with 3D scanning the engine bay.

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I've only pulled a couple motors w/the trans still on and not once was it more effective IMO. If you drop the trans you can about lift a b20 out by hand.

Still plan on keeping it pushrod for now even with it pulled out?
 
James M said:
I've only pulled a couple motors w/the trans still on and not once was it more effective IMO. If you drop the trans you can about lift a b20 out by hand.

Still plan on keeping it pushrod for now even with it pulled out?
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I?ll have to try putting it back in motor first then trans. Wasn?t fun pulling it out as one unit.

I?ve got a buyer interested in a turn-key built B20 with modern Speeduino ECU, so I?ll first build the B20, get it all running and tuned and sell it. All of the electronics are identical between the B20 and B230 ECU wise, so I?ll just make two wiring harnesses when I get them going.
 
kgalla said:
Are you only scanning the passenger side of the engine and engine bay?
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I?ve got complete scans of the whole engine bay, and B230 motor, I?ll post in a bit

It?s just super dumb and annoying to have to post pics to a separate site and link here
 
Got the engine cleaned up, but also made a huge mess in the ship. I kicked over the pan I was washing engine into, and got nasty greasy slime everywhere. Anyways engine is nice and clean, and started an initial inspection.

Cylinder bores are all dead nuts round, zero measurable taper or out of round, and they?re all 3.502. Can still see hone cross hatching. So far only issue seems to be a lot of crud clogging up some of the coolant ports.


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stick70 said:
This is rad, keep it up. Looks like you have yourself a really nice ES to start with.
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Thanks, still (probably unrealistically ) hoping to get it running this year .

If I don’t get the engine back in this year, I’ll probably get the car prepped for paint over the winter and shoot the engine bay, door jams and interior bits .

I don't like the gold color at all, and decided I'm going to re-paint in VW / Porsche Gemini Blue.

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