Ok put away the pitchforks, yes I'm swapping a Volvo 5 cylinder into my fairly clean 1988 320i touring, but the number 1 goal for this build is NO CUTTING OF THE CAR.
A little background, I've had this car since 2016, it's a pretty rust free 320i 5 speed LHD with AC. Really all I had done to it prior to starting the swap was drive it. The little M20B20, while slow, sounds sooooo good so it was totally fine as a nice reliable daily.
Fast forward to a few months ago, I started getting the itch to mod this thing. I had always loved a good turbo 5 cylinder but none of the cars they come in really do anything for me. I started doing research on the two accessible options, the Volvo whiteblock and the VW 07K.
In the end the volvo would win due to a much easier oil pickup situation, lighter weight, and factory turbo models meaning no need to source an exhaust manifold. Yes the 07K can make way more power with less effort, but I don't want more than 400hp max so the volvo fits the bill.
Half off day came around at the local U pull so I snagged this B5234T3 out of a 2002 S60 T5 for $250.
This is maybe the second most desirable 5 cyl volvo behind the newer 2005ish S60T5 engine. It's got the 81mm bore for additional wall thickness and long rods but it's just a 2.3L vs the better 2.4L later engine. These are still known to take 400+ hp pretty easy once you install some china H beam rods.
Goodbye old friend
So there are some minor complications with this swap. Number one is the oil pan situation. These engines are a common swap into Volvo 240's which work well with a rear sump.
The trick there is to find an oil pan from the only factory RWD whiteblock, the volvo 960. It is acutally a 6 cyl but the modular nature of these engines means that you can cut 91mm out of the middle of that pan, weld it together and you now have a nice rear sump rwd 5 cyl pan.
As we all know the e30 does not like rear sump. the solution is to treat it kinda like an S54 swap, custom subframe and move the sway bar to the front. Sooo I got to work on those.
A little background, I've had this car since 2016, it's a pretty rust free 320i 5 speed LHD with AC. Really all I had done to it prior to starting the swap was drive it. The little M20B20, while slow, sounds sooooo good so it was totally fine as a nice reliable daily.
Fast forward to a few months ago, I started getting the itch to mod this thing. I had always loved a good turbo 5 cylinder but none of the cars they come in really do anything for me. I started doing research on the two accessible options, the Volvo whiteblock and the VW 07K.
In the end the volvo would win due to a much easier oil pickup situation, lighter weight, and factory turbo models meaning no need to source an exhaust manifold. Yes the 07K can make way more power with less effort, but I don't want more than 400hp max so the volvo fits the bill.
Half off day came around at the local U pull so I snagged this B5234T3 out of a 2002 S60 T5 for $250.
This is maybe the second most desirable 5 cyl volvo behind the newer 2005ish S60T5 engine. It's got the 81mm bore for additional wall thickness and long rods but it's just a 2.3L vs the better 2.4L later engine. These are still known to take 400+ hp pretty easy once you install some china H beam rods.
Goodbye old friend
So there are some minor complications with this swap. Number one is the oil pan situation. These engines are a common swap into Volvo 240's which work well with a rear sump.
The trick there is to find an oil pan from the only factory RWD whiteblock, the volvo 960. It is acutally a 6 cyl but the modular nature of these engines means that you can cut 91mm out of the middle of that pan, weld it together and you now have a nice rear sump rwd 5 cyl pan.
As we all know the e30 does not like rear sump. the solution is to treat it kinda like an S54 swap, custom subframe and move the sway bar to the front. Sooo I got to work on those.
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