7 months later . . .

Sort of fell off the map for a couple months.  Got the engine installed, followed immediately by moving, getting married, getting a new job, and summer starting.

First two pictures are after everything was assembled and ready to install.  

 

While the engine was out I took the opportunity to clean up the engine bay.   It's just a spray-can job, but the color is a pretty good match to the body.  Made a big difference in the overall appearance.

 

These were taken right before firing the engine up for the first time.  The wiring is a mess, but it started up on the second try (missed a wire to the starter) on the first try.

 

The last two pictures are more recent, when I was making the overdrive installation a little neater.  I'm using the switch bezel from an early Volvo 1800 overdrive switch and a small blue LED for the dash indicator light.  Makes a nice finishing touch.

I wanted to make the wiring neat and presentable and leave myself some room for future expansion as well.  Ford used some nice small relay boxes in the mid-late 90's.  This one came out of a junkyard Expedition, and has space for two mini relays, and 4 micro relays.  I'm using the Volvo 240 "sequencing" overdrive relay  (the blue one), which conveniently has the same pin out pattern as a standard automotive mini relay, so it plugs right in.  One of the black micro relays is handling the overdrive trigger signal from the stock "pull" function of the indicator stalk.  The other micro relay is triggering the reverse lights.  Cleans up the look under the hood considerably.

More Engine Assembly

Things are progressing rapidly, as the time crunch is on to get the engine installed and running by Thanksgiving.  I've been trying to get at least one or two things done every day.  With it getting dark earlier and earlier, it's not always easy.

The carbs are back from being rebuilt by Rhys Kent of Island Automotion.  Pretty much every wear item on them is new.

The head and valve train is finally installed.  I ended up using a Cometic MLS head gasket; .027" thick.  The block wasn't shaved down quite as much as I expected, so I needed the thinner gasket.  All the lifters are new, and the pushrods are tubular chromoly ones that I found when I tore the B20 apart.  Cam is a new D grind, and the timing gears are a steel set from a Volvo Penta marine engine. 

The manifolds are also bolted up.  I had the cast iron exhaust manifold machined down at the common stud locations to pair up with the aluminum intake manifold.  Also had the flanges faced off to insure they are nice and flat. Carbs are only mounted temporarily, and will be removed to prevent damage when the engine is installed.  Also visible is the Delco Remmy 10SI alternator, mounted using a bracket from Ron Kwass.  Both the alternator and bracket were previously used on the B18 in the car, and will be used on the B20 as well.

The transmission and overdrive are mated back together.  The overdrive has all new O-rings and gaskets, as well as a new solenoid.  Nothing was really done to the transmission, other than fresh paint, as it appeared to operate as intended and they are generally fairly robust.  No sense in tearing it apart until the need presents itself.

Engine Assembly

Finally started getting things put back together.  Feels good to be torquing some of these bolts for the last time!  The crank was polished and balanced with the flywheel.  I also had the friction surface of the flywheel ground.

Just waiting on some tools and materials to show up so I can reassemble the head.

New STD bearings and polished journals

Crank installed

+.040" Mahle Pistons

Balanced and resurfaced flywheel; refinished starter

Engine Rebuild - Getting Close

Long time, no update.  Pesky things like work, summer, and getting engaged have slowed the pace.

But, now that I've been granted permission to use the 122 in the wedding, I've got renewed pressure to finish the engine . . . and fairly quickly!

Since the last post the head has been shaved down an additional .035" to get the combustion chambers to about 51.5-52 CCs'.  With my combination of head gasket, block, and head this should yield about 9.7:1 static compression.

The crank has been back to the machine shop to have the journals polished.  I bought a set of grungy SU carbs, which are going out to Rhys at Island Automotion this week to get rebuilt.

All the new bearings, gaskets, and bits and pieces are mostly in hand.  I was able to pick up a steel timing gear setup for a great price on Ebay.  Found out the engine already had tubular pushrods, which was a nice surprise.

There are no internals installed at this point; I've sort of just been dry fitting everything to make sure I have all the parts and hardware I'll need for final assembly.  Ignore the sideways bellhousing below . . . I was just making sure I have the proper length bolts for the smaller style starter found on later Volvo's.

Engine Rebuild - Block Finished

Swamped with work lately, but progress continues (slowly).

I picked up the block from the machine shop a couple weeks ago.  Had the cylinders honed, the block vatted, new cam bearings installed, and the head surface milled down.

I was able to get a couple coats of primer and paint on it before heading out of town for two weeks.  Came back to find it nicely cured and looking good.  There is a couple areas to touch up and a couple I need to clean overspray from, but overall it came out great.  I started mocking up parts on the block to make sure I've got all the external bits finished, and to start gathering up nice new hardware. 

There is still some machine work left to do: cleaning up the exhaust ports, skimming the head down for compression, polishing the crank journals, and surfacing the flywheel.  That should just about do it.

Still a long way to go but nice to see things coming together, if only temporarily.

Engine Rebuild - Measuring Combustion Chambers

Finally found the time to measure the combustion chamber volume of the head.  The B20F head that I've got used a pretty low compression ratio stock, somewhere in the mid-8 range.  I'd like that to be a lot closer to 10:1 once everything is done.  That'll happen through a combination of shaving the head down to reduce the combustion chamber volume, and milling the block to get more "squish" in conjunction with a thinner head gasket.

The head has already been skimmed to clean it up, but no significant material was removed, so it should be pretty close to stock.  My first attempt I used water with a couple drops of dish soap to break surface tension, and blue food coloring for viability.  The water got way too "foamy" when injected with the syringe, making it hard to get a good measurement.  I switched to isopropyl alcohol with blue food coloring, and had much more repeatable results.  All the combustion chambers ended up right around 56-57 cc's, which is about what I was expecting.

Next step will be getting the block and head taken to the machine shop for the last time (hopefully).

Also got the starter taken apart in preparation to freshen it up.

Engine Rebuild - New Pistons II

Got the pistons loaded into the block this evening (no rings).  The fit is smoother than I figured it'd be without rings keeping everything squared up.  Just a good coat of teflon-based lubricant on the cylinder bores and healthy amounts of assembly lube on all the bearings.

At TDC the pistons are still visibly below the deck surface.

I did some pretty crude measuring with a caliper near the edges of the bores.  Seemed to be pretty consistently reading .026"-.030" down in the bores at TDC, regardless of location or cylinder I'm measuring at.  The technique wasn't particularly confidence inspiring, but it's good to see the numbers are fairly consistent.  I have a nice deck bridge to check the measurements in the center of the bores, just need to bring home a nice calibrated dial indicator from work to stick in it.