Tom,

Steering effort is a big problem, even with new ball joints, alignmnet and a rebuilt box I still curse at the prospect of trying to squeeze into a tight parking spot, but once on the move the steering is OK. Probably needs work on that car you mentioned.

FI-mine had SU's when I bought the car. I rebuilt a pair and finally settled for a pair of Strombergs from a 144. Much better than the Su 's were and the idle is good too. I bought a b20e engine and its still sitting in my garage. Ive decided to use K jet instead of the Djet since its more reliable. Ive read an article posted on the net of K jet in a 122 and it looks feasible in a P1800 as well. Power isn't too bad.Probably can touch 10 seconds 0-60 now with my new ignition system.

Noise and Heat! In Malaysia where it's hot Theres a lot of heat that gets in on my right hand drive car. The Noise problem is better after I used a lot of padding on the floor board, under the back seat and for the boot.You can also get a lot of improvement by stuffing absorbent material in the rear sills around the wheel arches which are huge hollow spaces that resonate somehow . Generous padding to layer the firewall helps too.

I think you should get one. Despite all their faults, P1800's are probably the only sports cars of that era that you can still use on a daily basis.


Good Luck

1) Steering - should be light with very good road feel once the car is moving. While parking just let the car roll an inch or two while you crank the wheel around. Stiff/numb steering at speed means something is amiss - stiff steering box (probably dry and about to self destruct) or lower ball joints? Also the alignment could be off.

2) D-Jet is nice in my opinion. It just needs a different style of tinkering to keep fit compared to the mechanical tinkering of SU carbs. Some of the parts are getting expensive, however. How hard it would be to change back to D-Jet would depend on how much of the D-Jet was left on the car. Fuel pump, regulator, computer box, wiring loom, injectors and fuel rail, sensors, manifold - some of those parts could be difficult to track down at this point in time unless you find someone with a parts car where they are taking the bare engine for use in an older car. All that being said, SU's on a B20E shouldnj't exactly gut the performance. Just a mild loss in middle rpm's perhaps. SU's can be tweaked and tuned to keep up with a pretty hot B20, much less a stock B20E. Of course, as already mentioned, the 130 HP of a stock B20E with D-Jet isn't really enough to make the 2,750 lb 1800E coupe really scoot. What the 1800E was built for was effortless cruising at highway speeds, not sprints from stoplights.

3) Loud? I guess it's all a matter of perspective. NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) has come a LONG way in the last 35 years, and actually the 1800 was designed in the late 50's. It was a different time, and cars weren't expected to be quiet inside. Mine is quiet compared to my PV, and very noisy compared to my 95 Jetta GLX. road tests of brand new 1800's complained about wind noise in the cockpit, and 35 years later hardened, shrunken rubber seals certainly haven't improved on that aspect. You can typically hear the rear end gears whining in pretty much any Volvo. Rattles, squeeks - yep. Loud engine noises could be related to leaky exhaust systems or sagged motor mounts allowing some solid contact between the engine and body.

The cars don't have an abundance of horsepower for their weight. Without extensive modification performance is just OK. I don't know why people trash the FI for carbs, especially SUs which can be more problematic than injection. There is a wealth of info on this site about maintaining these systems. My'66 has SUs and once I finally got them set up correctly they've been behaving but it was a long road. Steering effort is a bit subjective but if it steers hard all the time I'd suspect a box problem or something else in the steering linkage. Noise is subjective too. This is a 30+ year old car that wasn't assembled all that well to begin with. I stuffed mine with sound deadening insulation all around the rear seat (??) area and things improved quite a bit. Too bad you decided against buying. 1800s are fun despite their faults. Keep looking.
--
Roy Olson

Sort of a tough one there... being that its the first 1800 you've ever driven, you don't really have a standard by which to judge the characteristics of the car... and all your complaints a bit on the subjective side. Steering will be heavier than a Cadillac of course, but it could also be a problem in the box or...? And of course, its gonna have a lot less power than about anything modern, but could also be indicative of a problem with the carbs... etc.

Were I you, I'd look around your area locally for a club, or even one or more enthusiastic Volvo owners... buy 'em a six pack and make friends. After y'all sober up, coax said enthusiast into letting you take their 'known good' car for a spin so you know what is right and what is wrong...and generally what to expect. Same person will also be able to assist you in thoroughly looking potential cars over before and after you get one.

-matt
--
-Matt '70 145s, '65 1800s, '66 122s wagon, others inc. '53 XK120 FHC

Steering should be easy and precise at any speed over parking speds. You should be able to steer it holding the wheel between two fingers and a thumb. It should want to go straight, and about that much effort would be required to keep it turning.

The '70-'71 E was the most powerful of the B20-powered Volvos. It's not a drag racer and some revs are required for brisk acceleration. 0-60 times should be under 11 seconds, and it should have plenty of power for merging onto the freeway. Without knowing which engine is in that particular car, or how much of the fuel injection system is left and in what condition, I can't say anything about what it would take to put it back.

These obviously never drove in the hushed silence of modern cars, but you should be able to converse with a passenger on the freeway without yelling and without going deaf. Wind noise should be louder than engine noise at speed.

Hi.

Some answers:

1) Hard steering: See http://home.earthlink.net/~goodspeeds/BIGBALLS.HTM

2) Injection back: Carbs are a lot more easy to maintain. Few original
"injection computers" on good shape are available. Some
volvofans are adapting megasquirt injection computers (see
posts about it on the brickboard).

3) Loud reference: On my 121 Amazon you can'T hear the radio at 90 kph
(60 mph)!

Hope it helps.

Joaquin
Rojo 121 Amazon
Lima Peru