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Cheap Performance Increase

What exhaust do you have? If you have the mechanical fan, switch to an electric. What base timing on your ignition? Sometimes you can add a degree or two and make it feel better, as long as it doesn't ping. If you don't know how to listen for ping, maybe not a good idea. What kind of ignition? OEM? or aftermarket? sometimes playing with the gap on aftermarket high energy ignitions can change the feel. As far as a cam, depends on your driving style. If this is a "around town" car, switching to a hipo cam will make it feel slower. Usually you shift the power higher up in the rev band and only feel it when you are driving hard. Unless you are shifting at 5k rpm all the time, be careful of switching cams. In my 740 (with V8) the current motor has a bigger cam, but since I shift under 3k rpm, the car feels slower than it did with the old "peanut" cam. If I run it hard I can feel the increase in power, but rarely do.


My first Volvo was a 68 142S, Bought it in 1981, fun car and miss it a little. Enjoy your ride
 
Dan said:
What exhaust do you have? If you have the mechanical fan, switch to an electric. What base timing on your ignition? Sometimes you can add a degree or two and make it feel better, as long as it doesn't ping. If you don't know how to listen for ping, maybe not a good idea. What kind of ignition? OEM? or aftermarket? sometimes playing with the gap on aftermarket high energy ignitions can change the feel. As far as a cam, depends on your driving style. If this is a "around town" car, switching to a hipo cam will make it feel slower. Usually you shift the power higher up in the rev band and only feel it when you are driving hard. Unless you are shifting at 5k rpm all the time, be careful of switching cams. In my 740 (with V8) the current motor has a bigger cam, but since I shift under 3k rpm, the car feels slower than it did with the old "peanut" cam. If I run it hard I can feel the increase in power, but rarely do.


My first Volvo was a 68 142S, Bought it in 1981, fun car and miss it a little. Enjoy your ride
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:lol:

E-fans suck, and might not even work with a 35 amp alternator.
 
If it's a 140 that has the optional rear window defogger. Those cars got a 55 amp alternator. My 123gt had a 35 amp alternator. I had a 55 amp 140 motorola one rebuilt with an integrated regulator. Worked really well on there for many years. None of that was gonna run an efan though.
 
Dan said:
E-fans are fine if done correctly. 35 amp alt will be a problem for sure, since a decent fan pulls 20 amps
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:hahano:

Next thing you'll be telling us is that the other quintessential TB cut sprangz mod is the best thing since sliced bread & toilet paper.

:roll:
 
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You might check out Tinus Tuning, they have a range of cams designed to work with stock heads. That and an exhaust would probably be the easiest thing to do. As has been stated,there is no cheap route to pushrod performance. ....
 
Dan said:
What exhaust do you have? If you have the mechanical fan, switch to an electric. What base timing on your ignition? Sometimes you can add a degree or two and make it feel better, as long as it doesn't ping. If you don't know how to listen for ping, maybe not a good idea. What kind of ignition? OEM? or aftermarket? sometimes playing with the gap on aftermarket high energy ignitions can change the feel. As far as a cam, depends on your driving style. If this is a "around town" car, switching to a hipo cam will make it feel slower. Usually you shift the power higher up in the rev band and only feel it when you are driving hard. Unless you are shifting at 5k rpm all the time, be careful of switching cams. In my 740 (with V8) the current motor has a bigger cam, but since I shift under 3k rpm, the car feels slower than it did with the old "peanut" cam. If I run it hard I can feel the increase in power, but rarely do.


My first Volvo was a 68 142S, Bought it in 1981, fun car and miss it a little. Enjoy your ride
Click to expand...

I have what appears to be the stock exhaust. I have heard that exhausts don't do crap but I'm open to other opinions. I'm not near experienced enough to have a say in how well it works. Is the mechanical fan insufficient? The base timing in the book is 10 degrees btdc. I may have to check but I'm pretty sure that's true. If the engine pings, is it possible to up the octane to make it go away? I'm currently running premium through my car because I wanted to play it safe as far as octane. I'm running a set of points in my car that I found from Rock Auto. As far as a cam, I'm not looking for anything crazy. I want to drive the car around town mostly. Just need it to get out of its own way. Who knows. Maybe it will be a totally new car with the m40 in it. I hope so. Its slow and rough with the bw35. I'm thinking of a modification that gives me power when I want it but isn't a super bummer when I don't need it. Don't say nitro.
 
Throwing the BW35 in the garage and installing a m40 will make twice the difference any motor work will. Ide worry about that first, then add power
 
1968 volvo said:
That's what I was thinking. I just need to have a million things on my mind all at once so that I fail school.
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Get help before the Volvo game consumers you, you have cars parked at every living relatives house and your spending your food budget in the TB for sale section
 
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1968 volvo said:
So if I was to go with a camshaft, what camshaft would you choose? What would I gain from that? Would I loose anything to a camshaft? Is there anything else I would need to do besides installing the new camshaft and some tuning?

I don't fell like I need to make more power... I just think it would be fun to play around with. This whole car is getting restored but I'm also enjoying experimenting with the car. I've never done any of this b4.
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The most often recommended swap for a cam is a K or D cam. These cams were recommended as the go to upgrade cam for carb'd B18/20 motors. They came stock in the fuel injected motors. They are about the same but the K has three degrees less duration. Slightly better down low torque and slightly better idle with the SU carbs. I doubt you'll notice a difference though.

They will both pull to the 6k redline on these cars.

Also I thought the '68 140s came with a B18? Was your car swapped at some point?

First thing you should do is get rid of the auto and put in a manual gearbox.
 
James M said:
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Get help before the Volvo game consumers you, you have cars parked at every living relatives house and your spending your food budget in the TB for sale section
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I'm currently in grad school and this is all too real. I also do have cars parked at my parent's because my driveway is full.
 
spock345 said:
The most often recommended swap for a cam is a K or D cam. These cams were recommended as the go to upgrade cam for carb'd B18/20 motors. They came stock in the fuel injected motors. They are about the same but the K has three degrees less duration. Slightly better down low torque and slightly better idle with the SU carbs. I doubt you'll notice a difference though.

They will both pull to the 6k redline on these cars.

Also I thought the '68 140s came with a B18? Was your car swapped at some point?

First thing you should do is get rid of the auto and put in a manual gearbox.
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:nod:

We've been over this already, B20 swapped hopefully alternator and all.
 
Dan said:
E-fans are fine if done correctly. 35 amp alt will be a problem for sure, since a decent fan pulls 20 amps
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I have a 1971 142E with the original Bosch 35 amp alternator. I have retrofitted an electric fan and with an 850 RPM idle the alternator has no problem maintaining a voltage of 14.2 volts with the fan running. The fan draws 10 - 13 amps on initial start; but, its running current is only around 6 -7 amps. Any fan that is drawing 20 amps continuously would be grossly oversized for a B20.

The original Bosch alternator has a very flat output curve and doesn't need to be turning at really high speed to produce rated current - unlike some modern high output alternators. The only modification I have is one of Dave Barton's adjustable voltage regulators. Contrary to what was noted by others, my 142 E has the rear window defroster and only has the 35 amp alternator. I believe the 55 amp alternator was supplied on cars that were equipped with air conditioning.
 
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