Volvo 5 Cylinder in an E30

[varg]

I like those intercooler mounts using the original rad mounts. In a bit of convergent evolution of my mount ideas I just arrived on something similar for my E34, but mine don't look as nice.

[Steve o 77]

Intercooler is mostly mounted using the stock lower rad mounts. I’m going to ditch the plastic upper rad mount and make something out of aluminum.

the radiator is also mounted at the bottom. I ended up using some stock holes in the frame rail to hold rivnuts, then made some brackets to support the bottom of the rad. I will add some gussets to the bottom before paint.

[Steve o 77]

Nice. This is one of many engine ideas I thought about over the years but I didn’t give it too much consideration after seeing the sump would be an issue. It is a lot of effort. I like that you’re not cutting the car up, that’s a good constraint to place.



I don’t envy you there. There are multiple reasons I got a Garrett core, mostly because they flow well, but also that they’re supposedly easier to weld to than chinese cores. I think you will probably need more fan than the slim Spal pulling through that stack. I’d upgrade the condenser fan, my E34 has a similar stack and I bought a $$$ brushless fan for the condenser because AC+Florida+3 core stack is bad news and I had room for only two smaller slim Spal fans between engine and radiator.

Thanks!

The cooler core was actually quite easy to weld, it was the mandrel bends that I notched into the end tanks that were tough. Next time I'm going to pony up for some quality bends because these thin ones are a pain.

And thanks for the tips on the fan setup, I am definitely ok with upgrading the pusher fan too if needed. It isn't super hot here in Colorado but the altitude is hard on cooling systems.

[QuiqueUy]

V nice work , i envy your welding skills !

[CubbyChowder]

This is awesome. Nice fab work too!

[varg]

Nice. This is one of many engine ideas I thought about over the years but I didn’t give it too much consideration after seeing the sump would be an issue. It is a lot of effort. I like that you’re not cutting the car up, that’s a good constraint to place.

While waiting on engine parts I've been working on the intercooler situation. In my quest to not cut up the car at all, and keep the AC, I'm going to put the intercooler where the radiator used to be and space the radiator back. The spacing will be tight to fit the spal 16" slim fan but it should fit with similar clearance as the 24V swaps.

Started with a koyorad tube and fin core and mocked up the end tanks with paper.

then transferred to metal. Huge respect for anyone that makes intercooler tanks, Welding the suuuper thin wall chinesium tubes to the 1/8" plate tanks was extremely challenging for me.

I don’t envy you there. There are multiple reasons I got a Garrett core, mostly because they flow well, but also that they’re supposedly easier to weld to than chinese cores. I think you will probably need more fan than the slim Spal pulling through that stack. I’d upgrade the condenser fan, my E34 has a similar stack and I bought a $$$ brushless fan for the condenser because AC+Florida+3 core stack is bad news and I had room for only two smaller slim Spal fans between engine and radiator.

[e30davie]

pretty neat project.

80s car 5clr turbo. So Its basically an audi group b rally car.

[Tzantushka]

As an E30 tragic and Volvo tragic - this is the best of both!

[Steve o 77]

Who makes that adapter plate?

PMC motorsports. I got the whole kit from them including a custom flywheel and a stock 535d clutch kit. I like their setup becuase it sandwiches a Volvo flex plate under the flywheel for the starter. I also love that the plate has bolt patterns for basically every bmw trans ever so changing the setup is pretty easy, just need to get a different flywheel depending on which trans you use.

[MrBurgundy]

Who makes that adapter plate?

[Steve o 77]

While waiting on engine parts I've been working on the intercooler situation. In my quest to not cut up the car at all, and keep the AC, I'm going to put the intercooler where the radiator used to be and space the radiator back. The spacing will be tight to fit the spal 16" slim fan but it should fit with similar clearance as the 24V swaps.

Started with a koyorad tube and fin core and mocked up the end tanks with paper.



then transferred to metal. Huge respect for anyone that makes intercooler tanks, Welding the suuuper thin wall chinesium tubes to the 1/8" plate tanks was extremely challenging for me.









Everything is just kinda wedged in there right now, still need to build mounts. The plan is to build some bolt on brackets that basically extend the stock rad brackets back to support the new radiator location. this whole no cutting/welding on the car thing is a pain!

[Steve o 77]

So this engine has 2 weak points, the cooked noodle con rods and the machined grooves between the cylinders. The latter is a highly debated topic but the general consensus is this 81mm bore engine is actually pretty strong (the 83mm bore found in the R models among others is known to crack cylinder walls).

So the engine was torn down. I will be re-using all the bearings, pistons, and rings because I'm cheap, these motors are cheap, and they look good enough to me haha.




The con rod issue was solved with a trip to alibaba for some of China's finest H beam rods, proven by the swedes to hold insane power.



And just because it's easy to do now, I opted to "shim" the block. There is debate as to whether or not this actually does anything, but it's easy and very cheap (the cost of 4 sets of harbor freight feeler gauge sets for the 0.035" shim material)



Now just waiting on parts to re-assemble the engine!

[Steve o 77]

Next the engine came back out for some final fab work and to be torn down for the H beam rod install.


You can see the volvo 960 water pipe setup here, it still needs more mods to feed water to the turbo, but it's awesome how perfect the rad hoses line up with this swap.

Next oil feed and return, all hard line.




the oil drain might be a little close to the up pipe? Not sure it really matters with it being metal but I may re-make that piece.

[Steve o 77]

Turbo!

This is where the budget got a little out of hand but it'll be worth it. That's a Borg Warner EFR 7163 V band inlet. The stock manifold places the turbo too far back to fit this thing so I made an up pipe for it.

[Steve o 77]

I love the whiteblock volvo stuff. It's ridiculously fun. Really nice job on the mounts/xmember/oil pan! What intake are you using? Standalone or stock volvo ecu?
I swapped a ratty '84 318 a bit ago as a test bed. My girlfriend really wanted the volvo engine for her e30truck but I just haven't gotten around to moving it over yet.

Thanks! Glad to see another one running around!

intake will be a custom air box of some sort, I’m running a borg Warner Efr 7163 on this thing so the intake system is all custom. Ecu is a maxxecu race.

Edit: just realized you probably meant intake manifold, I'm using the stock RN manifold for now, I've heard its not the best but if the car makes 350ish whp with it ill be happy enough.