A patch of "black ice" recently claimed my wife's favorite car but Volvo's fine engineering saved her, for the 2nd time in seven years. We found a pristine '91 wagon to replace the '93. The '91 has a destroyed engine but the '93 is mechanically excellent with many recently new parts. So since "life has given us lemons, we're making lemonade"!

I'm a retired part-time Volvo mechanic so I now have a grand project. I have a few questions and I know I'll have a few more related to some minor differences between these two model years. I'm hoping there is a forum member or two who might have done this retrofit of a '93 B23 Turbo engine into a '91 Turbo vehicle.

Today I noticed that it's unlikely my new '93 radiator & intercooler will interchange due to a slight difference int the mounting frame. Will I be encountering other such issues TD

 

yeah, in 92, they went to a larger radiator, with an electric fan, and redid the turbo air plumbing to suit.

assuming the 91 is a turbo, its probably best to stick with its radiator+intercooler+air plumbing, just swap the engine.

 

92 turbo:

 

91 turbo...

 

[that 91 is a 940SE which is a '960 turbo', so there's some body differences around the cowl, but the engine is identical to a 91 740/940 T...]

 

So, you propose to put the wrecked '93 engine in the '91 SE with the destroyed engine?
Two things. One, if the engine of the SE threw a rod like that, means that the oil was never changed (or almost never). Pretty good guess that the rest of the maintenance must be pretty bad as well, unless you know different.
Two, the SE, the 960 with a B230FT, is somewhat more troublesome: the HVAC is "automatic", i.e, a PITA that hardly ever works well, the rear suspension is Nivomat with $600 a piece for shocks, and a million bushings in the IRS suspension. The locks are high security, and don't age well, both the ignition and the actual keys/locks. Other than that, it has an adjustable steering wheel, the only 940 to have that, which is nice. All the SEs I have had, I disliked for the above complications.
The swap itself is easy, both cars use the same body, the minor differences should not be a problem...

 

Hey Pierce,
Good to hear from the Guru! The '91 is a turbo and has been impeccably cared for until the car owner's son's girlfriend started driving it. I will use the '91 radiator, water pump fan, fan clutch, & the turbo plumbing. Any incompatibilities regarding the ignition control module or any of the fuel injection sensors, or CPU? Most things look the same but we all know that looks don't always tell the whole story!

I'm down to only one Volvo now. Our '97 850 blew a cam seal & self destructed @ 70mph. I sold my precious '66 122 (the inspiration for the official Volvo song) to a fellow in PA who is restoring it since I can't afford to.

Since our patron saint Irv Gordon passed on in November, we seasoned Volvo guys are stopping in more rest areas. TD

 

Thanks for the reply Lev. I've got lots of service records that show the car was well maintained before it was passed on to the progeny and in particular the "girlfriend" who disregarded basic maintenance. Calling the car a 960 even though it has a four cylinder engine in it is confusing to me?? I don't know what you mean by a "PITA" in reference to the HVAC?

I've never heard of Nivomat Suspension but it sure sounds expensive. What is it? What do you mean by high security locks? TD

 

A b230 doesn't throw a rod if well maintained, I don't care what the records say--I see plenty of cars with records from shops for work never done, hard to believe, I know.

The 940SE was a 1991 only model; it is a 960 with the 960 luxuries BUT with the b230t motor. These "up market" improvements are the ones I mention. The climate is an AUTOMATIC system prone to failures. Nivomat is a self leveling system in addition to the independent suspension requiring more care as it ages. The locks are different from a 940/740, keys, etc. For one they are softer and wear much faster--I have replaced SE locks with locks from a 740/940.

 

we had a 940SE, a 93 960 wagon, and a 97(?) S90 sedan, the automatic climate control worked great on all 3.

the locks are different, they use fancier 'milled' keys, and you can lock/unlock all doors from the passenger side, which 740/940's can't. the locks are fine as long as you use volvo key blanks, its the brass aftermarket blanks that suck and cause problems.

the 940SE wagon has conventional live axle rear suspension, although it does have nivomats. aftermarket, nivomats weren't nearly that expensive last time I replaced them, and man they give a nice ride. or you can get a set of conventional wagon overload springs from IPD or FCP, and use standard boge or bilsteins or whatever, but then you lose the self leveling ability. true the nivomats tend to go soft in about 5 years but rear shocks on a live axle 700/900 are trivial to replace.

 

Yes you are looking through the block! Can wait to disassemble this puppy but that will have to wait till after installing the '93 engine in the '91SE.

 

I don't care what the records say, this is not a "well maintained engine"! You don't need to disassemble it, one picture tells you enough.

 

well, it pretty obviously threw a rod, and the typical cause of that is a total lack of lubrication

 

Have the engine bay all clean & I'm ready to start the install of the '93 engine. I notice that the '91 intake manifold has a cold start injector but the '93 doesn't. I'm guessing that means there is a thermal-time-switch in the '91 block? Seems like I should use the '91 intake manifold as the CPU will be expecting to get info from that sensor thus controlling the cold start injector? Any idea if there are any differences in the idle speed motors or the the air-mass meters between these two engines? TD

 

they did drop the cold start injector, and instead just inject extra with the main 4, works just as well. you can use the 93 ECU to get that behavior, or swap the manifold, injectors and fuel rail, whichever is easiest

 

Swapping the ECU sounds easier (that's just to the right of the passenger's feet right?) Would I then then let that lead for the cold start injector just dangle under the intake manifold? TD

 

I think I'd tape it off at least, maybe use silicone fusion tape as its quite impervious to heat and very durable.

 

Today's questions as I start installation:
--Is there also a wire in the '91 harness that was going to a thermal timer on the '91 engine that I need to tape off as well?
--There is a second arm on the shift linkage of the SE car. What's the purpose of that?
--There is an auxiliary ATF cooler, and an oil cooler on the '91 car that aren't on the '93 car. Is it worth the effort of re-installing them? I live in the "coolish" NW, don't drive aggressively at all, and I've never had any temperature issues. TD

 

no thermal timers, the ECU reads the engine coolant temperature via the CTS sensor... this will be the same on 91 and 93.

 

Post mortem so far has revealed that two rods came apart and the torque converter bolts sheared off. The idler shaft is in at least four pieces, one found on the left side of front crossmember, a second protruding from block above starter, a third still connected to the cam belt gear, and the forth nubbin still in the back end of engine. The head & all peripherals appear to be in good condition. This sort of "grenading" is what one might expect in a Ford Fiesta but a Volvo B230? She still maintains that she heard nothing, which I guess is a testament to Volvo audio systems??? TD