Hi all!
I imported a 1990 VW Vanagon 4x4 Transporter crew-cab pickup (known as Dokas) from Sweden. The truck has a Volvo B23A engine conversion.
From what I know this is a fairly common conversion over there. Looks to be a pretty good job.

My question is about power. The truck was neglected the last few years. I have already done the following:
Fresh oil change and filter
Air filter (very dirty, oily)
New plugs
Cap and rotor
Couple tanks of good gas.
No smoke, few drips of oil after drive.
The engine starts right up, but I have to fight with the manual choke to keep it going until warm, lacks power at highway speeds. Just seems to lag around 45.
Any hints?

 

I guess I should clarify. When I say it lags around 45 mph, I mean it struggles to go faster. Hard to get it over 50-55.
Seems to have good spark, plugs are clean and grey. Runs pretty smooth at lower speeds.

Are there EGR issues that might be at play here?
Also, the carb has a small yellow screw on cap that says "special oil" what's up with that?

Thanks for any help.

 

First, the B23 was introduced in 81, not 80. Splitting hairs really but might help when looking for parts. It's a very stout engine; I'd suspect the carburetor is worn out, assuming timing is good and fuel filter is clean. Looks to be a single Solex on there but can't really tell from the angle. Still...I'd start with a compression test to see where you stand on engine health before I went much further.

 

Thanks SW44,
The carb is a Pierburg.
I'll be checking the compression and timing later today.
Fuel filter is a good bet also, I believe it's still using the VW pump and filter. I'll replace filter. Could be full of crap!

 

Pierburg, Solex, Stromber, SU...all of them seem to have the throttle shaft bores wear out and start sucking air over the years. If timing is ok and compression is sketchy, be sure to check valve clearances. Tight valves will do a number on compression. It's possible they swapped cams prior to sale and di not re-shim.

 

If it turns out to the carb, what are replacement options? Do you know which Weber has been used?
Thx.

 

Because the B21 was used extensively as a boat engine, both single and dual carb intakes are readily available w/ a footprint for SU's and Strombergs. Pierburgs don't have the best of reputations but SU's and Strombergs can be rebuilt by a countryman of yours, Rhys Kent. Here's his web site URL. He rebuilt my SU's to like new. Island Automotion LTD
As for Webers, the dual DCOE 40's have been used often. Space may be an issue for you however. MM-4950B is the part number for MANGOLETSI'S version of the B21 intake for dual DCOE's. DCOE's are pricey but combined with an H or K Volvo cam your bus would be a screamer! Here's the web site for Mangoletsi...http://mangoletsimanifolds.com/manifolds.html

 

Thx SW44,
The compression checked out at: 1) 147# 2) 138# 3) 129# 4) 128#, however,after I was done I realized I should have checked them warm so numbers may be better.
Timing was good.
I looked over the fuel line situation and discovered the converter left the electric fuel pump plumbed in. No power to it. That can't be good for fuel flow! Original fuel filter.
So i'll be ordering some parts, including valve cover gasket, fuel filter, exhaust manifold gaskets.
I checked out the Mangoletsi's web site, referred to a USA vender:
Piercemanifolds.com and they have a weber kit for $449 that includes manifold, 32/36 DGV carb, all linkage and air filter housing for the B23.
As this is a 4x4 pickup a more subdued approach is in order!

 

The DGV and other downdraft Webers, once jetted, are simpler to maintain than the current car set up for sure. No real performance gain however. Your engine bay looks tight on height, not really sure a down draft will fit w/o mods but hey, it wouldn't be the first on this vehicle so...The oil used in the dampers is a subject of great conversation among the side draft suction carb crowd. ATF works fine in most climates. The down and dirty way to fill them is to over fill, replace the damper, put a rag over the vent hole and gently pick up the piston through the air inlet and pump out the excess.
Please post more pics of the entire vehicle as time permits; it sounds wonderful!

 

heh. last vehicle I had with sidedrafts was a 1971 TR-6 with dual zeniths. after a rebuild, and properly setup, they ran flawlessly for years. various people said to use everything from sewing machine oil to 30 wt non-detergent to ATF to jack oil in the dashpots. we found ATF worked really nicely, gave good throttle response without being twitchy.

previously I'd had a MG Midget with SU's, they were somewhat more troublesome than the Zeniths.

I'm with swift, I doubt you could get a weber manifold in that pancake engine compartment, its amazing the B23A fits. I'd try and find one of the 'good' sidedrafts carbs mentioned by the folks above sized appropriately to the B23.

 

The engine compartment for the Transporters is taller than a regular Vanagon by about 6 inches. If you look close at photo (of the engine bay)you can see the corrugated decking of the original height of the Vanagon opening. The bed of the pick-ups are raised above the wheel wells and have fold down sides to convert to flat-beds.
I'll try to post extra photo from the gallery. If it won't work you can see two more shots in photo section.
Oh yeah, whats the oil for? I've never seen a carb with an oil tank before.

 

side draft carbs are also called 'constant velocity' carbs. they have a vertical slider in the throat that goes up and down in response to airflow, this keeps the airflow moving at a constant speed so the venturi stays most efficient... That oil container is a 'dash pot' to damp the rate it moves at (much like a shock absorber). thinner oil means the slider responses faster, thicker oil means it responds slower. conventional red ATF is just about right for normal/sane driving (too fast, and the throttle response gets twitchy, too slow, and the throttle lags on changes).

all this is as a replacement for the 'accelerator' pump in a conventional downdraft carb, and properly set up, they behave almost like fuel injection in that the throttle response is tuned to the engine speed. you can drop the throttle to the floor and not worry about flooding the engine.


p.s. my son would kill for a vanagon synchro westie that was in decent running condition but every one we've found has been priced ridiculously high... his friends up in northern California tend to put Subaru 2.2L flat 4's in them. This is the first I've heard of a Volvo B23A conversion. VW Rabbit 1800cc engine conversions used to be popular, I saw more than a few Ford 2.6L/2.8L "Cologne" V6 conversions back in the day, too (thats the german-built engine from a early 70s Mercury Capri), although these were more common on the earlier VW T2 transporters.

 

Hi Pierce,
Thx for the info,(also Swift for refilling hints) the oil is almost completely gone from the dash pot, I'll refill tomorrow and see how much difference refilling makes.
After taking a closer look at clearances I think staying with a side draft setup make sense.
I would only want a single though to keep MPG reasonable.
The white van in the photo is my Syncro Westy with a 2001 Ford Zetec engine conversion.
The company that produces the conversion is Bostig.com out of Boston. Very slick setup, much easier than the Subie conversion. They are currently working on a turbo.

 

Well,
More fun. While starting to pull the exhaust manifold because I thought the the gaskets were leaking, I find that the Pulse Air system has a hole rusted through. It's on the outside pipe next to #1 exhaust port.
Can anyone tell me if this system is critical? Do the mod'ers plug the ports?
From the looking I've done it would appear these pipes are NLA. Any ideas???

 

you're not running a cat on this thing, are you? is there an O2 sensor ? if thats no, no, then afaik, plug away

 

No, there is no cat. So I can just strip this whole system, and will it effect tuning?
I'm a fair wrencher but not a tuner.

 

it shouldn't affect tuning. it pumps fresh air into the exhaust so a catalytic converter has some free O2 to work with.

not sure how you'd cap off the holes in the head under the exhaust ports. one guy on a forum I googled said he threaded them and used short bolts the right size.

 

Pierce, Thx for the help.
I did some searching for parts to the Air Pulse system. The gaskets for the ports are still available, so it looks like I could use those and tap some threads for short bolts.
I had no idea this motor came with a cat. I feel bad about not running with it, but I live where there are no emission checks.
With the air pulse pipes rotting away it would be hard to re-plumb the system and there's not much room for a larger exhaust set-up.
The parts list shows a O2 sensor, but where does the wiring go?
Ah, the joys of a conversion! Makes me want to just tear it out and start over, but the B23A seems to be a strong engine so I'll keep it for now.

 

I might be wrong about the cat .... my knowlege of carb'd volvos is minimal at best, they switched to EFI quite early in the US models, and I'm in California where smog testing is mandantory on anything newer than 1975, and Cal. tests to a higher standard than most of the rest of the USA....

the volvo redblock (b21, b23, b230) are really durable sturdy engines. people regularly put 400K or more miles on them without so much as a head gasket.

 

Hi, I am the new owner of the blue VW DOKA with the Volvo engine. I bought the truck last November from the previous owner who had posted some questions here. I have never owned a Volvo or a Volvo motor until now so I have some questions too.

Fortunately the previous owner fixed the fuel starvation at high load issue. The old VW electric fuel pump was still plumbed in, although not wired up, so the Volvo fuel pump had to suck the gas through the (non-energized) VW pump. Now the engine seems to run fine at highway speeds.

I just put the vehicle on the road about a week ago and at first it was a challenge to start, cold or hot, and it wouldn’t idle without my foot on the gas pedal a bit. I checked the ignition timing and found it set to 0 degrees (TDC) – with vacuum advance unhooked and plugged. Once I finally freed up the distributor housing by banging it with a brass drift (after having loosened the bolt that secures it) and set the timing to about 5 or 6 degrees BTDC it became easier to start and idled better. (note that the vehicle has no tach and I don’t have a tach/dwell gauge so RPM not precisely known).

Question 1: the book said 5 degrees BTDC but it seemed like when I advanced it to about 10 degrees the RPM was noticeably higher. Years ago when I used to work on engines with points, carbs and no computers I used to set the timing as far ahead as it would go without pinging in high load low RPM situations. Any reason not to go that route with the Volvo B23A engine?

Questions 2: I noticed the timing seemed to jump around a bit. With the distributor housing stationary and the engine at idle (vac advance disconnected) the timing would jump ahead a couple of degrees just for a short time somewhat randomly. This made me think it could be worn distributor bushings although I didn’t pull the distributor to check for shaft free play. Anything else that might be a culprit for that?

Question 3: how can I tell if this really is a B23A engine?

Finally, the engine seems to pull pretty well. I did notice it running on a couple of time after I shut if off (maybe I need to use mid-grade instead of regular fuel). One time it had a big backfire in the muffler just after shutting it off. Also, it seems to smell rich at idle. My plan has been to see if I could get the Volvo engine running nicely. I had considered possibly putting it on propane (cheaper than gasoline and readily available here in BC) as I converted 2 previously gasoline carbureted vehicles to propane in the 90’s and was very happy with the results. If I can’t get the Volvo engine running nicely then plan B is to stick a Ford Zetec (Bostig conversion kit) into it. My other syncro vanagon has a Zetec in it and I am quite happy with that.

Thanks for any info or advice you may be able to share!
Ed