Making an old Volvo fuel efficient

[Joris]

Some pictures, saves me from a couple thousand words! I'll try to keep it short!

When I bought the car, in all it's hideousness.


After a lot of welding and mending I changed the old worn down 2 liter carb'ed engine to a 2 liter injection engine.


Installed a vacuumgauge and oilpressuregauge together with some other things. Lowering springs, better shocks, poly bushes.



Two years later I wanted more power, so in came the 2.3 liter (b230fb) from a Volvo 940.


Then an electric fan for more power


Did some slalomming


Then the eco interest showed up, so I made a front undertray


And because the car narrows at the bottom, made some front tire deflectors


Started prepping for a grillblock, sealing the gaps in front of the rad


Got some more gauges for oilpressure and volts


And bmw 320 mirrors, which are a lot more aeroshaped then the original mirrors




so in short, some of the performance upgrades are also good for fuel economy.
The original carb differential happens to have the longest gearing available, together with the five-speed this is quite nice.
Lowered the car 2"
Electric fan instead of one on the crank
New engine with better management (lmm, lambda sensor)
Front undertray
Better mirrors

Future mods will be
Turbo camshaft, short duration, short overlap, small valve opening
Full undertray
Grillblock
Partial kamback
Engine cut-off switch

Hoping to break the 40 MPG!

[RedDevil]

Ah, the bonnet hitches in the front.
That is a pity, as though it makes it easier to raise it on the rear it also means there is nothing to catch it in a collision, so that easy raise would be quite dangerous unless you weld in a heavy slot beam or such.

Any chance for a longer gear ratio? How high does it rev in top gear at highway speed?
That 2.3 engine should have enough torque to power it under 1500 RPM at 100 kmph.

[Superfuelgero]

I wouldn't turbo, I'd do a b230kh. If you must have a turbo, find a b204ft.

[elhigh]

I miss my 240

He's talking about installing the turbo camshaft, not a full turbo. Interesting approach.

Neat car, I've never seen a 300 series before.

[Superfuelgero]

Originally Posted by elhigh

I miss my 240

He's talking about installing the turbo camshaft, not a full turbo. Interesting approach.

Neat car, I've never seen a 300 series before.

Force of habit, opps. A T cam is a good low lift approach, if you can't find an M. I would advance it a few degrees to take advantage of the tall gearing. What injection you running the k-jet, LH 2.0, 2.2, or 2.4? Edit, you said 940, so that'd be 2.4.

[Joris]

Yes, it's a b230fb with lh 2.4 management. I'm trying to find a T-cam but everybody wants to sell only the whole engine.

The b230hk was made for being fuel efficient, with high compression heron head en T-cam. So I can't wait to try that cam in my engine with better management. Only the 9.3 compression I have won't help.

Edit: it's at 2000 RPM at 50MPH or 80km/h, 2500 RPM at 60MPH or 100km/h and 3000 RPM at 70MPH or 115km/h.

On the highway I mostly try to stay under 60MPH.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Have you never considered a Diesel swap?

[Joris]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Have you never considered a Diesel swap?

There are diesel versions of this car, called the volvo 340 diesel. These diesels get 40-45MPG. However, because of new tax rules it is way to expensive to drive an old diesel.

[Joris]

Did some tuft-testing yesterday.









As expected the back needs some sort of spoiler/kamback, and maybe extend the spoiler on the rear.

Front wasn't as bad as I expected it would be. Turbulence around the A-pillar, a high pressure zone in front of the windscreen. I think the new mirrors do help quite a lot.

Wat do you think? I have some short clips, if anyone is interested i'll put them on youtube.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Joris

However, because of new tax rules it is way to expensive to drive an old diesel.

Gotta hate what Europe is turning into by the so-called environmentalists who seem to ignore the environmental and social benefits from the enhanced resilience to lower-grade alternative fuels in the old Diesel beaters.