Augie the Amazon- 1965 122S

About 4 months ago, I sold our '86 Comanche, and ever since I've been without a project car. It's been killing me, only having two responsible vehicles (both mid-2000s Toyota SUVs). Every night, almost, I'd pour a tumbler of whiskey and browse Craigslist, forums, and anywhere else randomly searching for a project. I thought I might want another Miata or E30, or anything interesting, really.

Earlier this week, I found this 1965 Volvo Amazon sedan on Craigslist, listed for $600.



Went by and looked at it after work, and it was more or less exactly as described. The only real problem areas are the rear panel under the trunk lid, the spare tire well, and some rust by the battery tray.





The interior is about what you'd expect for a 51 year old neglected car. It's mostly there, if you use the term "there" very loosely.



No idea how many times this odometer has turned over.





It's got a pair of SUs that haven't done much carbureting in years.



When I went to look at it a second time, I saw the spare tire well had been rusted through over the years. I think it had been sitting outside for the past 20 years or so without moving, and it just filled with water. I saw you can still buy replacement panels for those, so I wasn't scared off. It did allow me to talk the seller down to $500, though! The guy that had it was a tow truck driver, and since it was only 20 minutes away agreed to drop it off at my house for free.





Started tearing into it immediately. Wouldn't turn over by hand, so off comes the head.



Took apart the head, and found what probably caused it to be parked and effectively abandoned 30 years ago.

Took a day to clean out the interior.

It's not great.





Didn't have any major surprises, which is good. The trunk's in pretty bad shape, though. This is going to require some replacement sheet metal.





But hey, new-in-box fuel tank! That's one problem off the long list.

So I found a B230F on Craigslist a few hours away. Old ad (about 3 weeks), but emailed anyways. Spoke with the seller on the phone, and he said his landlord had just issued an ultimatum and the motor had to be gone in 24 hours. He said if I came and got it, I could have it for $50.



Punchline was I had to take the AW71 automatic trans with me too. Somehow I crammed it all in the back of the 4Runner without pulling the trans.



So I guess now this means I'm going for a turbo redblock in this car. I'm planning on doing Megasquirt, but still not sure what transmission.

Lots of fun to be had. Subscribed.

So, for planning purposes, I want to figure out if I'm going to stand the B230 upright, or angle it over like in a 740.

Does anyone have any information on how the oil flow is affected by the angle? Seems to be people mounting it in both orientations. Seems like upright would make for an easier exhaust side package, but laid over would have more room on the intake side, and leave more room if I get stupid with brake stuff later.

Lookin good...and I'm diggin the 4door!

I'm starting to lean towards modifying the tunnel for a WC T5 to go behind the B230. I know it'll take some sheet metal work, but I'm having a hard time finding pictures of what it's going to take.

Does anyone have any pictures, or links to build threads that have had that swap done? I'm sure I can figure it out, but pictures of the finished product would help get things moving.

Today was nice and productive. Mrs. Unevolved was out of town, so I spent all day outside working on the Volvo. A few friends stopped by and helped out, which is always nice.

First thing we did was pull the transmission off the B230F.





Despite our best efforts to clean it up, the transmission still leaked everywhere. I hate automatics.



Then it was time to prep the Amazon to pull the B18. I love how the front of the car just detaches so the motor can slide out the front.



Out it comes!





Getting the transmission off took like 2 minutes. I love it.



Rear main is... nasty.



Had to stop and take a look at all the beautiful chaos we'd created.



Turned the motor over to get the oil pan off. A lovely mess of water and oil and grease (what?) fell out and went everywhere.



So, the guy that owned the car before me heard that pumping grease into a seized engine can help free it up. Not totally off base, when it's pushed into the combustion chamber in a pressurized fashion. I found out today that he had pumped what <i>had</i> to be a full tube of grease into the crankcase through the fuel pump's opening in the block. Prior to taking this picture, I removed a softball sized <i>ball</i> of grease that was just sitting there under cylinder 1.



But, good news, there didn't appear to be anything wrong with the internals, aside from being stuck.

Cleaned it up a little more, and went into the garage since we were losing light. Decided it was time to figure out exactly what was keeping this engine locked up.



Flipped it over, and started loosening main bearing caps and rod caps in a somewhat systematic fashion, but none of the bearings were causing the lockup.



Then decided to pull off the cam gear.



It took a lot of heat and hammering, but it finally came off.



So, uh, didn't see this coming. Heated it up with the MAPP torch, and it looked a little weird. Once it was off, and "cooled off", I picked it up. Plastic! Did not see that one coming. Guess I learned it's a thermoset...



So, back to the pistons. Slowly started removing rod caps and pushing out pistons, and found our culprit. Piston 2 is STUCK.



Finally figured out a way to get enough force on it. Never done this before, but it actually worked pretty well.



OMG, grease everywhere.



All of the bearings actually look pretty good. None of the them spun, and there was some very minor spalling. This one showed the most wear.



Here's the second chaotic shot, showing the engine scattered over my workbench.



I'm actually kind of surprised how good of condition the engine's in, all things considered. It ran for maybe 20 years or so, then sat untouched for 30. The bores don't have any significant damage. I would be surprised if it took more than 0.010" over to get it freshened up enough.

This kind of has me thinking it'd be fun to get this engine running again. Just put the B230F turbo stuff on pause for a little bit, freshen up the B18 and get it running again. I've never owned a carb'd car, and I kind of want to check that box. Wouldn't be easy, but it'd be less work than getting the B230F running in the car.

I just want to drive the damn thing, and it seems like a B18 is the easiest route to that goal. I just wasn't planning on the motor being a decent rebuild candidate.

A few minor updates from the past few weeks.



Tore apart one of the carbs. Nothing appears too terribly stuck, but it clearly hasn't run in a very long time. Early 80s is still the best guess.



Cleaned up the B18 block a little more. Coolant jackets are pretty nasty, but I think they might be able to be cleaned up. Here are the bores after a quick hone.









You can definitely see where #2 was seized in place, but it doesn't really catch a nail. Still conflicted on whether or not to bore out the block. If I take it to the machine shop, I'll also get it decked a little to clean it up, hot tanked, etc. and rack up a $500 tab without really trying.





Took some measurements of the bores, too. Not horrible. If I want to stay super cheap and DIY, I could probably clean it up some more and make it run. But there's also a B20 long block for sale that'd cost me less than the parts to rebuild this B18...

Very awesome, good stuff in this thread so far!

looks like you know what your doing, that's awesome. cant wait to see how it turns out!

Great progress...I like where this is going!

Very nice. Follow cannuck122 and his engine building and head work ideas. If you're decking the block, do the overbore first then aim for 32' squish for piston to head clearance with the b18d iirc gasket.

There is also in projects section, a 122 with a b23et fitted and a t5. Not sure how updated itv is. But it is a running t5 manual car now.

unevolved said:

But there's also a B20 long block for sale that'd cost me less than the parts to rebuild this B18...

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Tucked away in a corner of the garage just for you. In all seriousness, contact me if you decide to go that route. I may also have a cheap B18 here soon, depending on whether or not I put a B20 in my 67.

Good save, even I wouldn't have bought this thing, props to you for diving into it!

Sorry I haven't checked in in a while, but nothing much has happened with this car. Been sitting for the past few months without much (any) progress, but hey, at least it's out of the rain for the first time in the past 30 years!

I've been leaning more towards selling the B18 parts and focusing on the B230 aspect of the build, mainly because we've got a little one on the way and the B230 is the eventual goal anyways. I need to eventually sell the B18 stuff, just to keep it from winding up in a scrapyard. Stuff like this needs to stay in the hands of enthusiasts, even if I don't get much money for it.

I'm squirreling away some cash for a welder for the house; it's hard to get motivated to start in on the repair work when I know the rust repair is going to be a roadblock without a welder. I'm telling myself that's the reason I'm not working on it, anyways.

It's been an interesting few months. We're now expecting baby Unevolved this coming summer, so my priorities have shifted around a little bit. More of my time has been spent working on the house, getting things ready, and not as much on the car. Thankfully, though, I have next to nothing invested in this project, so there's not much pressure to liquidate. Just slowing progress down.

I've pretty well decided that since my eventual goal for this car is about 300whp, the B18 needs to go. I had initially wanted to get it back in there and running, sort the rest of the car out, and do the turbo B230 later, but since my time is going to be much more precious, I'd just rather focus on the eventual goal for the car, which is turbo hoonmobile.

Today I decided to waste some time and drop the B230 in the engine bay to see how it looked. I've seen people swap these in, both vertically (like the original Amazon engine) and angled (like how it was in the 940). First, I went with the angle.





Oil filter is pretty much right on the old engine mount.



Plenty of room on the intake side, though.



Definitely a snug fit front-to-back. It's leaning on the firewall at this point.



So, that's not great. Let's see how it looks stood upright.



Much better. That intake manifold won't work, though, I'll have to figure something out there.





Here's a better shot showing how it's basically up against the firewall. I think it's actually leaning on the crank trigger sensor:



I have no intentions of reusing the OEM engine management system, and I'm probably going to go with a Megasquirt variety. So it'll likely get a crank trigger on the front pulley, and maybe even move to a DSM cam sensor and LS1 coils.

So, all in all, not much REALLY accomplished today, but it's nice to be able to look at the engine in the car and brainstorm solutions.

I'll have all the B18 stuff up for sale before too much longer, I'm really just wanting to make sure it stays out of a scrapyard and in the hands of an enthusiast. Anyone in TX that wants a cheap, rebuildable B18 core, hit me up.

Just curious why you dove so far into the b18 tear down when you are planning on using the b230?

Jordan said:

Just curious why you dove so far into the b18 tear down when you are planning on using the b230?

Click to expand...

Curiosity and/or poor planning. I was debating rebuilding the B18, but now I'm pretty sure I'd rather focus on the redblock. It's still got some value to someone that wants to rebuild a B18, but this car needs so much work, I'd rather just go straight for the silly turbo motor, you know?

Can't wait to see it fully restored.