Driving/pushing the B6304 24 valve straight 6

Seems performance is the right place to put this. Start off by saying I'm a big fan of this engine. Needed an engine swap last fall and the replacement engine sounds and runs better than the last 5 I've owned. Intermittent valve clatter was normal on each, except this new one. With 184K on it I've not had the slightest hint of the clatter.

The point of this post is how hard you push/drive your B6304. I don't normally redline my cars, but regularly take it up to 5K. That may not seem like much actually, but it gets there easily. With the W-S-E switch I drive in S (sport mode), shifts quicker and revs higher. In E (economy) driving easy it's hard to feel the thing shift. To me anyway this is a wonderful engine. Don't get me wrong, I still love boost.

I've heard/read over the years Porsche had some involvement the development of this engine. Is this true? I've also read here I think about a 780 with this swap. Was a very clean install and looked right at home. So with this being about performance how hard do you drive this engine?

You may be interested in this guy's car (Europe but has the B6304 head)

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=309746

I've heard the Porsche rumor as well, but can't find any sort of confirmation on it. It seems more well-established that Porsche helped with the 16v B234 head, and that the whiteblock heads are evolved from those, I guess maybe that's what people mean?

If you like 960s, B6304s and boost, you'll like this thread too:

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=69171

In this case he's using a B6284T block with a B6304S head.

Very interesting builds. Have to go over the Poi's again. These are way over my head these days. As complicated as the 960 can be I just keep it maintained and enjoy it for what it is. It's too bad volvo's RWD days ended with this car.

The 2 builds listed above are definitely high performance machines. What I'm really asking is how you drive just a stock 960, V/S 90. How durable are these engines? It seems the 5 cylinder white block actually appears more reliable than the 6 for some reason. A lot of high mileage turbo engines racking up more miles than the 6 cylinder. They're basically the same engine other than the number of cylinders.

And I'd have to guess that the majority of 960's lead an easy life from new. I have no issue getting on mine while merging or passing or the like. I just want to know if this engine isn't up to the task of performance. I love these cars for the smoothness, power, and the way they eat up cruising miles. With a tight suspension they're just as nice on the road as anything else.

Khrrck said:

You may be interested in this guy's car (Europe but has the B6254 head)

Click to expand...

Fixed a typo


5-cyl cars are much more common so it's just natural that there are more with high mileage. I don't think there is much difference in relation to the amount of cars. 400-500tkm/250-310k miles is a regular amount for a well maintained 6-cyl. Just remember that pre facelift 960 have really short timing belt interval and they tend to fail too often. That's one reason the older ones may not have so many miles.

As long as cooling works and there is enough oil they will last. For track use, even as naturally aspirated, I would install an oil cooler.

Also what sort of performance are you speaking of? It can take some boost as is with a small supporting mods and that changes the behaviour drastically without shortening the lifespan significantly. Automatic kills a lot of power from B6304S(terrible with a B6254) so best performance upgrade would be changing to a manual

thatcher.hubbard said:

I've heard the Porsche rumor as well, but can't find any sort of confirmation on it. It seems more well-established that Porsche helped with the 16v B234 head, and that the whiteblock heads are evolved from those, I guess maybe that's what people mean?

If you like 960s, B6304s and boost, you'll like this thread too:

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=69171

In this case he's using a B6284T block with a B6304S head.

Click to expand...

Porsche helped tuning the head for the 850r... That's about it.

Keep the timing belt good, and the cooling system healthy. Those 2 things in particular are what keep it going. Other than that I rev the nuts off mine.

Speaking of cooling I had an issue with the replacement engine. The coolant level kept changing once it cooled down. Was driving me crazy trying to figure out what was going on. By accident I found a clog in the small hose going from the top of the radiator to the reservoir tank. That kept the radiator from filling completely up. And fortunately did not cause any engine damage. Along with the engine I also used the radiator, reservoir tank and the hose between the 2. All from the parts car. All other hoses had been replaced with new at the time the engine was replaced. All but the small one.

My heater valve rotted away recently and I just got around to fixing it. I basically just bypassed it and fill it up with coolant, then went to a meeting. I was in a rush and didn't burp the system enough so it started running warm, and then POOF! Steam in the cabin! Popped that heater core good!

So now I'm driving a no AC/no Heat car! lol

I had another cooling issue that involved 2 water pumps. I bought a running car for the replacement engine. Water pump in that engine was not leaking. As soon as I installed the engine the water pump suddenly started leaking. Pulled and installed the pump from the engine I removed and it started leaking as well. Out of the 5 960's I've had I've not replaced a water pump. Installed a new one that is the same brand the white block comes with. It's been fine.

Now I had to do something with the timing belt during the pump replacements and front cam seals that I'm not comfortable with. The belt came back off 4 times doing the 3 pumps and cam seals. Once a belt is on should it be touched again until the next replacement. All this happened within 1,000 miles of the new belt. Next time I order parts I'll order a new belt.

It's ok to take the belt on and off. You have to in order to fix a number of things around there. You don't normally buy a new belt every time something gets fixed....

I just wish the pumps and cam seals would have all shown they were bad from the beginning. I'd take care of one leak drive a little bit and have another leak, then another. I've put over 3K miles on now and finally the drip pan is clean showing no leaks.

At least ahead of time while the engine was out I knew the rear exhaust cam seal was bad and it was easily replaced with engine out. I can only hope the rear intake seal does not fail. Without the correct seal tool there's just no room between the head and fire wall.