I have a 1993 Volvo 940 8-valve base model. I'd like to know if its possible for me to put a 16-valve head in the place of my 8-valve head. Anyone have any ideas if this is possible and if it is what other modifications would I need to make as well.

Thank you in advance.

 

It has been done a lot. Younger folks seem to automatically equate dual cams and double the number of valves with performance so, yeah, it's been done. It's a lot of work for negligible gain, imho, but hey...go for it! Search turbobricks.com Several write ups there.

 

So the 16valve head will bolt right onto the b230f engine in the place of factory 8valve head? I'll search www.turbobricks.com however i'd like to exhaust my resources here too. By the way Swift, you wouldn't know if I'd have to switch/modify my ECU once I switched to a 16valve head?

Thank you in advance to all whom post.

 

You'll absolutely have to change your ecu and do some engine bay wiring.
There are good power gains to be had with the 16v engine, but it's all top end horsepower, so think hard about that if you own an automatic car or want to ever pull loads. Behind a manual transmission, no probs, but lack of torque will make an auto sedate till the revs climb.
I still reckon buying a factory turbo car and swapping the turbo gear over is teh cheapest bang for the buck.

Regards, Andrew.

 

I agree, how about piggyback systems, can I just go ahead an add a piggyback and get some HP gains via altering the timing?

 

This should keep you busy for a bit... I would hardly say it is a direct bolt on other than the head bolts lining up...
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=31900

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=2794

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=21873

I typically spend only 30 mins to an hour a day scouring Volvo forums. Most are either maintenance oriented (as is this one and Brickboard, Swedespeed), "ricer" oriented (Volvospeed)...of all the boards, only Turbobricks has a super knowledge base on modifications. The forum has a small core group of people who throw caution (and their engines) to the wind. Their membership includes the owners of RSI, Yoshifab, Avalanche Performance, V-Performance.com, cravingboost.com as well as employees of IPD and FCP. There is a lot of experience there (at the expense of quite a few engines and transmissions) in modding redblocks. They do not tolerate posers or people wishing to be spoon fed; use the search function. Trust me, it is rare to come up w/ an idea that hasn't been already done. The 16v conversion can be done, has been done and has been turbo'd too.
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showth...t=16v*&page=10

 

I'm assuming your car is n/a? If you want to make the car faster, turbo it as Andrew has recommended. If you find a good used turbo motor (I recently traded one for a set of Virgo's) you can drop it in, swap the ecu, icu add an mbc and rock and roll!
Making a turbo car fast costs money but making an n/a car go fast is even more expensive.
As for piggy back systems, I have a UniversalAirFuelController that piggybacks onto the ecu of my 245 soon going into the GT. It has 3 settings, one of which is the stock baseline and the other 2 are expressesed as percentage + or - from the base line.
It works fine at the track but know this...LH2.4 will learn around it if you attempt to run a piggyback non-stop and will end up where you started.