Today I unearthed a B20 that I have had stashed away for a while to replace the ailing B18 in my wagon. The guy I bought it from (along with a '73 ES and LOTS of Volvo parts from all sorts of round fenders and bricks) said it was the original from the ES, and the the ES had a '71 142E engine in it.

But this engine has a carburetted head, and has a mechanical pump on it. And the head has been off and reworked, and may not be teh original head or even a B20 head.

So here's what I have: B20 block, SN 8232 3684. The head has casting numbers on it, 419305 is under the rocker cover, and outside the cover is cast either M2S or M29 and close by has an "H" cast inside a square.

So what do I have, and what needles do I need to run in the SU's?

Today was good. I buttoned up the 850, and decided to start on the 122's new B20. The history of this engine is not very clear, it came with my old ES. That guy was somewhat vague, and given time, what I remember may have nothing to do with reality! What I recall, is that the guy had a '71 142 with a nice engine, with IPD BIg Bore kit, Street Torque cam and some other mods. He wrecked it, and bought the ES with the intention of putting this engine in the ES, but all he ever did was disassemble the ES, get a girlfriend, and that was that.I ASSumed that the 142 was a E, not an S, but I think I was wrong, as one of the engines I got ( the 'hot' one) was fuel injected, and had the oil temp bung, and the other was a carburetetd B20 in unknown condition. After looking at this one and verifying the nimbers, I think I have the ES's block, and the guy swapped the 142's head and oil pan.

Anyway, I started by getting the engine on a stand, and then pulled the oil pan. Looked nice and clean except for the three big crickets in the oil pan...I'm not sure how they got there, but I doubt they were happy. They were well preserved however. Cleaning those out, I also realized that the pan gasket was a used and well siliconed item, and tossed that in favor of a new one. I popped the timing cover off, and stuck in a new felt seal, and them moved to the rear seal. Wow I'm glad I did that! There was no rear seal, only the retainer! I had a nice looking used one and stuck that in.

With that, and piecing together what I think the history of the engine is, I decided that the head gasket might not have been new when installed. So I called my buddy Brooks, and he's got an extra one, since I doubt our sorry parts houses have one in stock and could get one by New Years Eve. So I popped the head off, and sure enough, the gasket was used. But I'm not sure about the rest of the engine now. Supposedly the ES had only 65K on it, but the #1 bore is scored, and something got in the #4 cyilinder and put a nice ding in the wall. There's some taper in all cylinders that I can feel with my fingers, but no ridge ( how can that bet?) So who knows how this engine will run. It can't be any worse that the old B18 with it's nice round cam and whopping 115 PSI compression. If nothing else, I have a full 2 liters of worn out engine!

So I expect Monday the engine swap will begin. Dave Matz wants to come over and help and observe, so I expect he'll hear my cussing at it's finest. It always helps with those rusty bolts ya know.

Heh! At least you have the proper "Olde Volvo" attitude!

Good luck & Cheers!
OK

Got most of the numbers but are a few short. Before the "8232 3684" there will
be some numbers cast onto the block, probably either 49 or 4969.
We need the total 6 digits starting with 49 to give you the motor type.

Does the head have injector ports over the intake ports on the top surface of
the head, with 5/16"-18 threaded holes beside them? If not, it is NOT an FI head. If it does and you can post a picture of the center portion of the top
of the head we can give you more info also.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

It's definitely a carb head, no injector ports, but is it a B18 or a B20, and which carb head?

Block does have a 49 cast in it.

It would appear you probably do have the 1800ES B20F block, but 419305 cast into the head indicates B20A/B20B. If that is the case, my shop manual says B20B's had KN needles.

Gary L
--
1971 142E ITB racer, 1973 1800ES, 2002 S60 T5

Thanks.
Now I've forgotten what are in my SUs, but I bet they aren't KNs though. It's a '68 B18 with the really bad combination intake-exhaust manifold with butterflies. I wonder how far off those needles will be? I'll be splitting that '68 manifold and using an earlier aluminum intake with this B20.

I would recommend that you NOT split the manifold unless you are going racing
and you live where it never gets cold. You should remove the butterflies and
either leave the shafts in or remove the shafts and plug the holes.

Your engine number, fabricated as "498232", does not show up on my list.
I did find 498282 which was used in the last of the 1800Es and all the 1800ES
cars. It would have definitely come with an injection head (B20F engine).
Other possibilities include 498252, an 82 HP B20A, and 498222, a 115 HP B20F.

The combination cast arn manifold is not that bad for normal or mildly hopped up
operation and for cold weather driveability is quite a bit better than the
aluminum intake manifold. The exhaust portion of the manifold is good also.
At high speeds the intake flows through the manifold so fast that it does not
get heated much as long as the butterflies are wide open or absent.

Gary's comments on the head are good.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

The one number is lightly stamped, so it may be an 8 instead of a 3.

As far as the intake, why not split it? Volvo and others used an aluminum intake for years, and my understanding is that the ugly cast one piece was a miserable attempt at emmisions control. The thoughts of that heat load on the intake, and then carbs, with today's lightweight fuels sounds like an invitation to vapor lock, which this car suffers from miserably.

I've got a 68 as well and I swapped the butterfly job for another combo from a 67. The issue with the separate units is heat - pure and simple. The aluminum intake gets no warmth from the exhaust and as such your air/fuel mix is colder longer and you must run with the choke on longer. You have to let the car warm up a lot before it will perform normally.

I've got a couple aluminum units I picked up to do what you wanted, but I got mine as stop-gap measure before a D-jet conversion and/or before getting a nice aftermarket header unit.