Project Volvord (Ford Transit MK1 "74 + B230ET + M90)

Dear Brickers, I'm new to this forum, so still figuring everything out. My name is Alexandre, 27years old and from Holland.

A little over a year ago I found this German Ford Transit Mk1 "74, former tooltruck for the fire brigade. I brought it back to Holland, my first car ever, and drove it with a lot of fun for the past year. It had only 44.000km on it and was (and is) rocksolid. The only downside was the engine, the original 1.7l v4. It was to slow and had a lot of trouble with cold en wet weather. I wanted something better.



So after reading a lot about the best 4 cylinder engine available, I bought my second car. A "88 Volvo 740 Turbo Intercooler. Original from Kuwait, driven to Holland by the first owners. In 2002 the Volvo dealer swaped the engine due to bad pistons for a brand new B230ET ( documentation says it hadn't ran before) The engine has only about 100.000km at the moment.





Last month I took apart the Volvo, keeping the engine, the interior and all the necessary stuff (I hope). I already removed the automatic gearbox and got a M90 gearbox with dogdish flywheel in exchange for the leftover chassis. At the moment I'm trying to find all the good parts to make the M90 work on the B230ET and when the engine is completed I'll start to dismember the Ford and start fitting the engine.

Ps, I know it is the ET version, without the oilsquirters, but i'm not planning to go over 250HP. With time the bad Motronic ECU will be replaced by an adjustable one. for now first priority is getting it to run in the van.

Taking the engine out



And also started sorting out the wiring, I hope I didn't remove to much, but as far as I could see, the rest was unnecessary

That's a great work shop you have there. Good luck with the project.

Alexandredevos said:

Dear Brickers, I'm new to this forum, so still figuring everything out. My name is Alexandre, 27years old and from Holland.

A little over a year ago I found this German Ford Transit Mk1 "74, former tooltruck for the fire brigade. I brought it back to Holland, my first car ever, and drove it with a lot of fun for the past year. It had only 44.000km on it and was (and is) rocksolid. The only downside was the engine, the original 1.7l v4. It was to slow and had a lot of trouble with cold en wet weather. I wanted something better.

So after reading a lot about the best 4 cylinder engine available, I bought my second car. A "88 Volvo 740 Turbo Intercooler. Original from Kuwait, driven to Holland by the first owners. In 2002 the Volvo dealer swaped the engine due to bad pistons for a brand new B230ET ( documentation says it hadn't ran before) The engine has only about 100.000km at the moment.

Last month I took apart the Volvo, keeping the engine, the interior and all the necessary stuff (I hope). I already removed the automatic gearbox and got a M90 gearbox with dogdish flywheel in exchange for the leftover chassis. At the moment I'm trying to find all the good parts to make the M90 work on the B230ET and when the engine is completed I'll start to dismember the Ford and start fitting the engine.

Ps, I know it is the ET version, without the oilsquirters, but i'm not planning to go over 250HP. With time the bad Motronic ECU will be replaced by an adjustable one. for now first priority is getting it to run in the van.

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J?sssus a MkI LWB......I had a SWB Mk I from October 1973 to Mar 1975..English made with the Essex V4 not the German V4.. You know your Ford engines?
Which is yours?

I know 'back-in-the-day' when people put in Volvo engines they would usually put on "diesel front" which bumps the grill forward I guess for the inline motor. Are you familiar with that?
Here's a pretty red one to give you an idea


Have you heard of this?

Thanks, the workshop is cooperate, but nobody here uses the space, lucky for me

Mine has the german Taunus engine, I believe the Essex one is stronger and more reliable. I do have heard of the diesel front (pignose), but I don't really like the look of it, although this is a pretty looking van!
I have to put the engine far back in to the cabine to keep enough space for the radiator and intercooler, but thats no problem. I was thinking of making a see-trough part in the new tunnel, if thats possible.

Newbies can't know.

http://www.volvord.com/

nooooooooooooooooooo you did waste a good 740 noooooooooooooooo

Search abaout LH2.4 and the 2.2 you have now.
The swap with the diesel front is the easiest, ask me how I know

You will need a longer rear end, not easy to find. and disc brakes in front. And a speedy sensor, the engine will stall at idle if you won't have a digital speed signal. Search "LH2.4 install conversion just 4 wires"

good luck, Kay proud builder and owner of a Ford Transit MK1 with V8 engine, yeah.

Canuck said:

Newbies can't know.

http://www.volvord.com/

Click to expand...

Came here for this.

Good luck with the project!

Alexandredevos said:

Thanks, the workshop is cooperate, but nobody here uses the space, lucky for me

Mine has the german Taunus engine, I believe the Essex one is stronger and more reliable. I do have heard of the diesel front (pignose), but I don't really like the look of it, although this is a pretty looking van!
I have to put the engine far back in to the cabine to keep enough space for the radiator and intercooler, but thats no problem. I was thinking of making a see-trough part in the new tunnel, if thats possible.

Click to expand...

Nej nej nej minheer! According to the Pommies, the Essex V4 is a horrible disgusting putrid pile of stale piss engine...curiously the 3,0 Essex V6 is a prakt-example of human achievement...a Paragon of Perfection...
Even more curiously your neighbors just east of you say the V6 Taunus is an even loftier peak of perfection and the V4 is, despit it being just a short version of the 6, it is "ein grosse scheiss-dinge, ein misgeb?rt, schrot!">

Since my old MkI I have ben driving nearly daily various Fords made in UK oder in der alte BDR, mainly, for around 20 years Taunus V4 powered cars, and building Ford engines for a little more performance..Taunus V4, one V6, 8 or 9 Ford Cosworth YB, and some of what some call "America's Pinto" but which is like normal Pinto that like most Americans is bigger and "heavier" and called Lima 2300 SOHC turbo...which just happens to be same 96mm bore and 80mm stroke as the B23 and B230--and even odder, same spacing for cylinder head bolts..

I have been serious engine builder now --well for 4-takt--for 40 years..
Taunus V4 and V6 are much better engines than Essex both as original and as basis for modding..better in many ways..Much lighter, better oiling system, better rocker system..better quality parts inside..

Is the V4 in the van with 2-port carb (Solex TDID32/32)?? of wat?

What is your plans for the V4 engine when it comes out?

mocambique-amazone said:

nooooooooooooooooooo you did waste a good 740 noooooooooooooooo

Search abaout LH2.4 and the 2.2 you have now.
The swap with the diesel front is the easiest, ask me how I know

You will need a longer rear end, not easy to find. and disc brakes in front. And a speedy sensor, the engine will stall at idle if you won't have a digital speed signal. Search "LH2.4 install conversion just 4 wires"

good luck, Kay proud builder and owner of a Ford Transit MK1 with V8 engine, yeah.

Click to expand...

What axle is in the MkI German built vans? Isn't it the same thing as what les Anglais call "Atlas"? What ratio?

Haha, love the fact you took a seemingly perfect 740 as a donor
Looks like ECH Hoogeveen where you bought it, right?

Hello John, if I remember right only the Transit with single tyres in the rear are with the "english axle" type "Atlas"
Transit with dual tyres in the rear are with the "German Axle typ 51/52/53". Full floater called. If I remember right the original ratio in Fire-Transits with the German V4 is 6.17:1
The Firs cars with the German V6 " K?ln-Motor" are with 5,14:1 if my brain isn't fooling me. The V6 Transit have the same front as the Diesel cars

Good night, regards Kay

Funkee said:

Haha, love the fact you took a seemingly perfect 740 as a donor
Looks like ECH Hoogeveen where you bought it, right?

Click to expand...

The guys from ECH had spend a lot of money cleaning it, it was falling apart by rust, I could't afford it would it be in beter state haha

mocambique-amazone said:

Hello John, if I remember right only the Transit with single tyres in the rear are with the "english axle" type "Atlas"
Transit with dual tyres in the rear are with the "German Axle typ 51/52/53". Full floater called. If I remember right the original ratio in Fire-Transits with the German V4 is 6.17:1
The Firs cars with the German V6 " K?ln-Motor" are with 5,14:1 if my brain isn't fooling me. The V6 Transit have the same front as the Diesel cars

Good night, regards Kay

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Vorsicht junge! In the Ford world auf ?nglischski when you say ''English diff'' and naturally the axle its a little bugger than came in low powered English built MkI and MkII Escorts, and I believe in just the 1600 Capris.

When you say ''Atlas'' it is a bigger thing from someplace, and came in larger engine Capris---the V6 ones...

RALLY Escorts typically use Atlas if 2,0 Pinto or more powered and the bad-ass "Group 4 Escorts usually had a Ford Motorsport derived full floater and a big "006 family" ZF LSD

I really haven't dug much into 70s Ford axles, mainly its just curiosity...

(Just for fun the LSD in my old Saab came from GKN MkII "English" diff and the internals are the same just bigger halfshafts and spline and a steel case to Saabs ring gear and bearings.."Safe to 165hp" Gulp)


I wonder now what the Capri "Atlas" is officially called?

I need a little help guys, before buying an all new ECU system, I want to try to make the old one work first. The flexplate from the old automatic gearbox has only 1 pickup point for the rpm sensor. The new dogdish flywheel for the m90 gearbox has all the dimples -2. Do I have to buy a new sensor and if so, which one? Or does this sensor also work for the dogdish flywheel? Or is the Bosch motronic system not able to use this kind of flywheel/sensor?

This is what I have on it:

If you are going to use the motronic system and want to use bolt-on parts you need a early style dogdish flywheel.(pre lh 2.4)

mocambique-amazone said:

Search abaout LH2.4 and the 2.2 you have now.

Click to expand...

Nay, he's got Mo(t)ronic 1.0, absolutely unrelated to LH-Jetronic ECU-s. Like, "nothing swaps over" unrelated.

OP, 60-2 pattern flywheel is not going to work with Motronic. You either swap it to LH2.4 right away, or you make additional cutout in M90 bellhousing to accomodate deeper sensor carrier and either re-use your M46 flywheel for Moronic, and go with solid flywheel/sprung disc combo, or weld all those holes in M90 flywheel, then drill a single one using your Moronic flywheel/flexplate (whatever it was previously) as a pattern. You need to get it precisely where it belongs, otherwise it'll run like crap. Trying to run it with 60-2 triggerwheel would be fun. For a couple of seconds.

Thanks for the quick reply, I found an other flywheel, suitable for the motronic setup that I have a.t.m. I'll try to make it run and save some money for the later conversion to a standalone ECU, with the 60-2 flywheel.

Well, I had some work done:

Got the engine out of the Ford quite easy



Fitted the new clutch, with the right flywheel



Put the tranny back on it



Took me a long time to find the courage to cut a huge, doorsized hole in the van



And then I had to think, measure, try and think again for a few days





And after a loooong night of sweat and blood

Tof man. Vroeg me al af waarom je hem in onderdelen weg deed

Als je een keer tijd hebt kan je die achterbumper nog losslijpen