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B230FT in the amazon: questions?

A

amazonturbo

New member
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Location
Germany
Hi there,
I'm Nate, a new member from germany. I need some help with my amazon turbo project. Some months ago my syepfather gave me his 65amazon as a present. He bought this car 4 jears ago to have some spare parts for his 68 123gt amazon. But the only thing he ever needed was one front brake caliper. Now its mine, and I want this thing to go fast!!
I bought an B230FT engine and lots of other parts from an 1988 740turbo (m46 tranny,intercooler,3"Exaust,17"Rims,rear axle with discs..)The 740 had the turbo+ kit so the engine have 180hp now.
The past two months I have dissasembled everything and eliminated the rust. Now it is time to order parts.
From reading in the forums I found out that the difficult things are the engine mounts, air intake manifold,radiator and intercooler,tranny. These parts will not fit without modifications.
Has anyone who did this before some suggestions to solve this problems?
And how can I tune up the engine to 230-250hp?
I have not so much experience with things like this, but with a little help its gonna work.

Nate
 
I don't want to try to stop you, after all, with enough time, patience and $ anything is possible, but I think it would be easier to buy a supercharger kit and tune the b20 with that, the only 230ft's that I have seen in 122's were all auto tranny's, and they were done profesionally by Volvo Mechanics, one is owned buy the shop owner and he has like 2 or 3 years into it...I would suggest getting a Volvo repaier manual, it will help you figure out all the wiring for the fuel injection and ingnition systems...
 
This is a good project...

It has been done many times. If you have power brakes, then you might have to perform some magic, due to interferance with the brake booster. Otherwise, you should be able to pretty much bolt the drivetrain in. Off course, the transmission has a short shifter, and you may have to fabricate a cross member for the M46. Also, you may need to relocate the distributor using the intermediate shaft from a 240.
You'll obvoiusly need the fuel pump situation taken care of as well. (tank mounted in the FI setup)
 
amazonturbo said:
Hi there,
I'm Nate, a new member from germany.
Click to expand...

Hey Nate, what's up?

amazonturbo said:
Some months ago my syepfather gave me his 65amazon as a present. He bought this car 4 jears ago to have some spare parts for his 68 123gt amazon.
Click to expand...

WOW! an 123GT??? WOW!!!
have any photos?


amazonturbo said:
Now its mine, and I want this thing to go fast!!
I bought an B230FT engine and lots of other parts from an 1988 740turbo (m46 tranny,intercooler,3"Exaust,17"Rims,rear axle with discs..)The 740 had the turbo+ kit so the engine have 180hp now.
The past two months I have dissasembled everything and eliminated the rust. Now it is time to order parts.
Click to expand...

sounds like a great project! I personally don't know of any Amazons Turbos, but I'm sure must be at least one... somewhere!!!

amazonturbo said:
And how can I tune up the engine to 230-250hp?
Click to expand...

is only 250hp you want? :badboy: :-D

good luck buddy!
do keep in touch!
 
Kirby said:
Kickass. this is the same swap I'm gonna be doing pretty quick here into my 122S
right on
Click to expand...
Wow, thats cool! Please keep me on the run! And so do I !
Maybe we can share some experieces in dealing with occuring problems.
Nate
 
My brothers car...

Hello, i seems as you like the movie we did when we did the first testdrive with the new engine. The car has been built by my brother and it is a simple, usual Volvo Amazon on the outside. The original B18 engine is gone and is replaced by a completly home-engeered B23 turbo engine. Special in every small part. Bottomparts of the engine is no extreme, just blueprinted. Cylinderhead is gently ported. Ownconstructed intake and exhaust tubes, twin wastegates, Autronic spark and ignitionsystem, gearbox from Bmw M5, rearaxel in large uniballs from Volvo 940t. It runs pretty good and its a fun car to scare the living hell out of older gentlemen in their "fast" company Audi S4 and other slow cars ;-)

Well, we are from Sweden so if you think my english suck, thats the reason, no one of us working in kitchen as in the cook in the muppetshow. My brother which has built the car workes as a "optiker" (sells glasses to people who have bad sight - you know what i mean).

Now is the engine rebuilt over the winter with 16valve cylinder head and som other fun stuff...

//mt4base
 
WOW 16V Turbo?
Your brother is cool! I just bought a 740 with B230 16V last week to eventually use as a donor for my Amazon project.

@Amazonturbo; you'll also need to shorten the propshaft I think, and I friend of mine has done a B230FT swap into his 1800ES. As it is technically the same (front axle) it is very well possible. You might also have to change the firewall to make room. And I'd use a brakebooster of a diesel car. You'll have to mount a vacuum-pump to your engine, but it saves you a lot of space since you don't have to use a booster with an UFO size disc thing that I have now. (I'm going to change it)
 
Hey, where are you located? I live in Holland, near the german border, close to Aachen. Would like to see your project when it is taking shape :-D . Or could help.
I am sure that www.volvo-spezialist.de could help out in therms of information on fitting, engines, everything. They are really very good.
 
mt4base said:
Hello, i seems as you like the movie we did when we did the first testdrive with the new engine. The car has been built by my brother and it is a simple, usual Volvo Amazon on the outside. The original B18 engine is gone and is replaced by a completly home-engeered B23 turbo engine. Special in every small part. Bottomparts of the engine is no extreme, just blueprinted. Cylinderhead is gently ported. Ownconstructed intake and exhaust tubes, twin wastegates, Autronic spark and ignitionsystem, gearbox from Bmw M5, rearaxel in large uniballs from Volvo 940t. It runs pretty good and its a fun car to scare the living hell out of older gentlemen in their "fast" company Audi S4 and other slow cars ;-)

Well, we are from Sweden so if you think my english suck, thats the reason, no one of us working in kitchen as in the cook in the muppetshow. My brother which has built the car workes as a "optiker" (sells glasses to people who have bad sight - you know what i mean).

Now is the engine rebuilt over the winter with 16valve cylinder head and som other fun stuff...

//mt4base
Click to expand...
Your english is a lot better than our Swedish. Do you have pictures besides the video. Thanks.

Thread hijack over.

B23/230FT is a tight fit for both the manifolds. Intake and exhaust. You will need to sit the engine upright. Use the 160 or diesel mounts. In an 1800 the stock T3 will fit on the stock exhaust manifold but the wastegate rod and diaphragm are very close to the upper A arm. If you stabilize the engine with a third link this may not be a problem. You can use the B20 oilpan and the B20 oil pump. There is a special part number that is still available from Volvo for the oil pump crossover tube. The intake manifold side is the toughest. You will need a custom intake no matter what you do with the braking system.

At first you can use the M40/41 unitl you get to the 175-200HP level. At this time you will probably start breaking them. You will need something custom at that point.

You should probably upgrade your braking system to the later disc setup also especially if you are going to remove the brake booster.

This is all information I have gathered during my 1800 project. I think will be useful for you because the engine compartment and subframe are very similar.

Good luck
Matt
 
64Amazon said:
Don't know if you were talking to me, but I live in Holland too! In Flevoland near SixFlags.
Click to expand...
Same here, I live in Deventer. Is the amazon in your avatar, your amazon? Looks pretty spiffy! Lowered, widened wheels, whats the engine in there? I'm working on a amazon with a big bore B20 (and perhaps stroked) with a AW71L tranny. My daily draiver is a B20B, K-cam, DGV and M47 tranny. Have a look at www.tinustechniek.tk

About the B23 engine in a amazon: I have a friend who did that. Lots of fidling around with al kinds of thing, but it works. Thought of doing it myself, but decided to *just* make the B20 go fast...

Cheers, Ben Flierman
 
In na dutch volvo club magazine was featured a amazon B23 conversion. It used a B20 bellhousing to set the engine in the vertical position and required a special inlet manifold. With a engine in its original position things would be much easyer..

I live in the south of holland..
 
JW240 said:
In na dutch volvo club magazine was featured a amazon B23 conversion. It used a B20 bellhousing to set the engine in the vertical position and required a special inlet manifold. With a engine in its original position things would be much easyer..
Click to expand...
Using an OHC slanted indeed is much easier. You wouldn't need to alter the sump and oilpump plus both intake and exhaust manifold.... :-(
Why did they use a B20 bellhousing? I hope they did not put a M40/41 behind the B23... :omg:
 
I know your site Ben, have been looking into it a lot, lot of usefull information! Especially the parts that describe putting an M47 behind a B20. I have been looking into that very deep. I still have the M40 even without O/D.

Yup my Avatar is my car, it's lowered, has koni shocks all around, 6" widened wheels, has a fast Cam, rebuild cylinderhead with hardenedsteel valveseets, spaghetti exhaust manifold, simons rally exhaust, Twin 40-DCOE Webers with K&N filters and ram-air induction, about150HP, Battery is moved to the rear for weight distribution, Sparco stainless-steel brakelines, Brakebooster of an 480Turbo 1995, Rear axle of an 140, 4 disc brakes. JVC headunit, 4x 240W JVC speakers around, amplifier and subwoofer in the rear. From the outside it looks like sh*t (Has to be repainted) but it goes like hell.

Today I picked up my new car, a 1989 740GLT 16V with B230 16V DOHC head! SWEET!
It is going to act as a donor car for the project I am starting in the near future. I'm going to do the B230 swap into my Amazon for rear. But not for a while, I still need to gather a lot of parts and a lot of info.

Gr. Ted

Btw, Have you ever been to the circuit day in April every year? There are lots of cool cars. I have been champ in my league (1800 of my dad) for two years in a row. You really have to come!
 
I can tell that the M47 transmission is no good with turboengines (or engines at all above 140hp). It has Alu-housing and it considers as "weak". The M46 is better but the overdrive is no good even with a original but lightly tuned B23turbo. After 200hp is that transmission a downbuy - belive it.

Its Accurate that the modification is easier if the engine turns "right up". It is a "must" if you want to drive whith big turbocharger. My brother drived with the biggest original exhaustchamber on the former turbocharged engine and it runned ok but compared to the Holset HX40 turbo (taken from the smallest IVECO truck i believe) the old turbo is a "playforchildrenthing". The theory about this is complicated and I dont know it but my brother do and it were quite obvious after the testdrive with new engine i have to tell.

If it were me you asked about our location it is very near G?teborg in Sweden. The Capitalcity of Volvo ;-)

//mt4base
 
mt4base said:
I can tell that the M47 transmission is no good with turboengines (or engines at all above 140hp). It has Alu-housing and it considers as "weak". The M46 is better but the overdrive is no good even with a original but lightly tuned B23turbo. After 200hp is that transmission a downbuy - belive it.
Click to expand...
Very true indeed. I wouldn't recomment the M47 to anybody. It's crap IMHO. I first did have a M46 behind my B20, which ran like a charm. Very solid boxes, except maybe for the OD. Circumstances made me to chuck the M46 for the M47. It's crap, and not only because of the alu housing. Synchro's on 1st, 2nd and 3 gear are famous for wearing out, 5th gear is famous for make a whining sounds on highway speeds, and the output shaft bearing (right behind the flange) is also prone to wear out. I took the M47 apart to have a look at it, hoping that I could exhange some part with an other M47 (a newer one, without the emchanical speedo drive gear) but they inner parts where different. The whole construction of fifth gear is crap. Conical bearings and shims and sh*t. Dont like it at all. It does keep me on the roads however, and keeps the rpm down on the highway though...


64Amazon said:
Yup my Avatar is my car, it's lowered, has koni shocks all around, 6" widened wheels, has a fast Cam, rebuild cylinderhead with hardenedsteel valveseets, spaghetti exhaust manifold, simons rally exhaust, Twin 40-DCOE Webers with K&N filters and ram-air induction, about150HP, Battery is moved to the rear for weight distribution, Sparco stainless-steel brakelines, Brakebooster of an 480Turbo 1995, Rear axle of an 140, 4 disc brakes. JVC headunit, 4x 240W JVC speakers around, amplifier and subwoofer in the rear. From the outside it looks like sh*t (Has to be repainted) but it goes like hell.
Click to expand...
Sounds like quite a stout car! Did you by any change had your car on the last Volvo-beurs in Utrecht on the sunday? There was a pale red one which matches your description. What cam are you running?


64Amazon said:
Btw, Have you ever been to the circuit day in April every year? There are lots of cool cars. I have been champ in my league (1800 of my dad) for two years in a row. You really have to come!
Click to expand...
Are there classic volvo races in April? Then I should come indeed! (could one run a lap with a street car aswell?)

Cheers, Ben
 
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