• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Volvo marine engines

Since not many people in here are into volvo powered boats, you're gonna be hard pressed to find straight up info. You could try viisitng a really large boat store's website. Search engine's are bound to turn up something. All I'm fairly sure about is the existence of a 2.5 liter stroked B23F penta engine, and I have no idea of it's power output.
 
Here's a site with a boatload of information about Volvo Penta engines. They don't do extremely detailed technical stuff, but from what I see, the 4 bangers are reblocks. They've got a 3 liter 4 cylinder listed with a 2 barrel carburetor that has a 101.6 X 91.4 Bore and stroke, which mean's it's been bored out 5.6mm beyond a B23's 96mm and has a stroker crank that strokes it out another 11.4mm from the B23's 80mm. They must have used another casting for the blocks because I didn't think it was possible to take a B23 block that wide without finding core shift problems or cutting into a water jacket. Anyway the engines listed on that site go all the way from 3 liters to past 8 liters. Interesting stuff.

http://www.ebasicpower.com/engines/volvo/
 
the 350ci engines are rebadged chevy 350 v8s. in theory you could get a chevy 350 and put volvo valve covers on it and it would look stock to whoever's smoggin it. hee.
 
VOlvo penta rated many of their engines in output AKA
AQ151
AQ135 etc
There are 2.3, 2.5 and those seem teh popular ones. There is also a marine B30 with triple carbs on it making about 200HP. The marine engines are both B23/B21 and B200/B230 based. There are different crank sizes. The B230 based motors come with either 80mm or 86mm cranks. Just installing 86mm crank with appropiate rods and possible pistons will give 2490cc or 2.5L. The marine cam is oftenjust a K cam, I am not sure what head they use, but 151HP from a 2.5L would suggest a 531 head and K cam, though I remember that the marine engiens use a specialized head that isn't foundd on land bound stuff. With some strengthening a very late B230 might be able to bored that far over, but I would guess that the blocks are slightly stronger?
 
945ti said:
VOlvo penta rated many of their engines in output AKA
AQ151
AQ135 etc
There are 2.3, 2.5 and those seem teh popular ones. There is also a marine B30 with triple carbs on it making about 200HP. The marine engines are both B23/B21 and B200/B230 based. There are different crank sizes. The B230 based motors come with either 80mm or 86mm cranks. Just installing 86mm crank with appropiate rods and possible pistons will give 2490cc or 2.5L. The marine cam is oftenjust a K cam, I am not sure what head they use, but 151HP from a 2.5L would suggest a 531 head and K cam, though I remember that the marine engiens use a specialized head that isn't foundd on land bound stuff. With some strengthening a very late B230 might be able to bored that far over, but I would guess that the blocks are slightly stronger?
the 86mm crank would fit right into a redblock? would the stock pistons and rods work?
 
[quote:e63503674f]s the b300 a redblock? if so it sounds reallllly nice.[/quote:e63503674f]
The B30 is a redblock, it was developed around the time of the B20. I am not sure if the crank is more related to the late B20 crank or the early one, but it has a special crank that is supposed to be modern at the time. The B30 is pretty useless, because it is all iron, block, head, etc. IT can handle tons of power as it is all forged, but will need a rebuild. THe B30 that was marine based continued for a while after the land version died out, probably because it's weight wasn't such a setback, and it was rugged and reliable as all hell. It is a great design with one major flaw: it is all iron and just too heavy to be any good. It is a very well balanced motor, and is cooler than a PRV when hooked to an M410, overall though I would pass it up. The B300 maybe a stroked B23 based block with a cylinder wall reinforcement to run like a 100mm bore, no B230 based penta marine engine got that big to my knowledge, it si odd though, I think the AQ151 is a B23 based 2.5L , though there is anouther AQ with similar ratings that is a 2.5L B230 based motor.
 
There are some weird and wonderful Penta parts out there, but unfortunately there isn't much info available and the parts are rare.

There are a few 16V Penta motors, one is I think called the AQ171, and has a 2.5L block, 16V head and twin carbs. I once saw one for sale, but they wanted $3500AUD for it.

Most of these motors came with carbs it seems, probably for reliability reasons. A local Volvo nut once showed me a manifold he had just bought, it allowed twin carbs to be fitted to a B21/23. It had two of the weirdest carbs I've ever seen, nothing like most automotive carbs.
 
These marine motors definitely used different blocks, one reason being the lack of a water pump. The 2.5L crank will drop in, and I believe the 3.0L 4-banger crank can be made to fit somehow (I seem to remember a 3.0L four in a 940 on the KG Trimning website), or maybe you'd need a special offset-ground job.
 
Are B18's and B20's redblocks? I don't think they are... well in the way we refer to them at least. The B30 is essentially a b20 w/ two more cylinders. Same design. Really strong engine, but of course its pretty old!
 
Umm, just one minor point, don't most marine engines rotate the wrong direction? Then again, one speed forward and five speeds reverse could be fun! :yikes:

I know that the Chevy V-8 marine engines have reverse rotation and isn't that what a Volvo Penta V-8 basically is?

-Dave Clark
 
guys....The way that I understand it is that for the V-8 Penta things that Volvo bought Bare smallblock Chev castings and did ALL the machinework and bits inside themselves. Do correct me if I am wrong, but this is what I have heard. Doing anything like that for your car would not make sense just so that you could say that it is a Volvo motor. If ya have to have a V-8, do one of the ones that are tres common and go fast.
JL.
 
B23 Penta with 86mm =AQ151 A,B & C model.
B230 Penta with 86mm =AQ171 A & C model.
There is a difference in the b230 before (#95082189) and after '88, (part #95082170) Available at S.A.M. and of course your nearest dealer(I'm not sure if these numbers are Volvo's or S.A.M's.
Pretty common mod in Europe, these drop right in and give a little extra torque but are not reccomended for high boost applications without some major work, probably custom pistons.
 
the poi said:
isnt it realtively easy to chagne the direction of the motor?

Sure, just replace the crankshaft and the camshaft, etc.

Seems like it would just be easier to drop in a small block Chevy and bolt Volvo Penta valve covers to it.

Or build a turbo PRV V-6 and get gobs more torque with less weight! Muuaahhaahhaa!! :badboy:

-Dave Clark
 
Back
Top