I'd say i'm pretty familiar with the b230ft...i've owned about 10-12 of them by now. Recently i've discovered a lot of interesting cars that have swapped in the b230ft...namely, a toyota pickup, a porsche 944, and a nissan 240sx.

It intrigues me that some would consider a b230ft a better option than the OEM or variant.

I realize that the b230ft can be a strong and capable engine...but more desirable than an sr20det? or even the porsche 16v turbo?

Anyone like to chime in?

I would suspect most of the swaps you have seen of that nature have been done in Scandinavia (the one's I've seen have been), where the engine is very common, and access to cheap performance parts, quality builders, and a wealth of knowledge is prevalent. I wouldn't say the b230ft is that much better...its just that these people have been building these engines for so long, and access is so easy, that it would be a preferred swap over something more exotic. It's the same reason everyone is North America is swapping in LS engines to just about everything.

Hmm...fair enough i suppose.
Regardless of whether it's a better engine or not... I just love seeing that volvo logo popping out of an engine bay where it doesn't belong.

Definitely! My favourite is still this Opel Manta with the 16 valve....oh man....

Stumbled across this BMW e30 with a T5

There's a guy on TBrix putting one in a Chevy Nova...just to mess with people. Won't be clean, probably won't run...but whatever.

Is that e30 awd???

no, apparently the dyno spins the fronts for some reason

I have doing my research on this motor for sometime and will most likely continue for another few months.

I plan on swapping this into my 122. Or B234FT... believe it's a DOHC. The bottom end is the same?

What is a stock B230FT pushing out at the crank? And when people are modifying these, what are they using for a form of tuning (besides Mega Squirt)?

Thanks,

Uh, you can't just stick a B234 into a 122...the head is massive and won't fit as it hits the brake master cylinder. Also a custom intake is needed as space is at a premium. It's been done and Dale has one for his 122 almost ready to go but it's NA. So lets think about goals first of all before we go nuts.

I've got a very stout B230FT in my 242 and while it's not been on a dyno yet, I'm guessing 200+ at the wheels at 12 psi. It's got a CK1 cam and a worked head, H-beam rods and a 15G turbo with 2.5" stainless exhaust. Look it up on the build pages. It's running LH 2.4 and I've got no complaints (it's chipped) - it had to start and run nicely in the winter and it does. I would call it a clean installation with all aspects resolved properly and with reliability in mind.

With a larger turbo, this bottom end/head combination could make a lot more power, but not with this EMS and I really don't care to win internet HP battles. It's plenty quick and works very well.

One thing to think about it that the more complicated the swap the less likely the car will ever roll again. This is a fundamental truth of cars. You become the limiting factor. I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but a well sorted B20 is pretty simple to sort out and fits right where the factory intended. Jumping up to any of the OHC engines is not just adding a few bits like an oil pump that's got a repositioned pick up and a different oil pan and you're good to go. It's a lot more complicated than that.

How comfortable are you with the fabrication?

As Craig said, the OHC swap isn't simple. The oil pan & oil pump are simple, the motor mounts require fabrication and I think the old 240 alternator bracketry will work, but the intake manifolds are the real problem. The 16V head doesn't hit the master cylinder though: the intake manifold is too long and points the plenum and throttle body straight into the inner fender, so yes a custom manifold is needed. I built one using the 740-16v intake manifold runners as a starting point and it's tight... If you lean the engine over at the OHC 20* slant, you need to install an M46 at least and that'll require a few other things: a reworked transmission tunnel and transmission crossmember, and the adaptation of a 740 hydraulic slave cylinder. I think some combination of an OE exhaust manifold/downpipe will fit with the engine slanted over but a turbo manifold will definitely not. With the engine straight up the downpipe is too short and you've got to fab a new downpipe or fab a header, which I've also done and is fun if you're handy with a welder and a CAD program to design it properly. The OHC engine is longer and it gets really TIGHT at the radiator, so a pusher fan is required and I'm not certain about my high capacity aluminium radiator agreeing with where the water pump wants to be. The B230 has a large diameter and deep crank pulley that will hit the steering linkage at full lock unless you raise the motor by quite a bit. Obviously you'll need a block-mounted distributor and they're getting hard to find for LH2.2 so LH2.4 is probably the safer bet. Once you've got all of that sussed it's getting hard to find space for an AMM and air filter, so switching to a speed-density aftermarket fuel injection system is probably wise as this solves the distributor dilemma as well.

However, if you've got a B21A lying around somewhere I've seen it installed into a 140 and that means it'll go into a 120 pretty easily with only motor mounts and the oil pan/pump swap. Still, the B21A makes less power than a B18B or a B20D, so that's probably not the most cost-effective venture you could undertake. Getting a B20 up to B23E/B230F power is pretty simple, it will diesel a little when you try and shut it down but it'll sound and run a lot more sporty than an OHC motor of equal power and will fit. Another option is installing a B20E, which I've ALSO done in a 122 and though it takes a little ingenuity (and Megasquirt), it's pretty simple.

Here are some photos I took while mocking up a B23 block and 16v head in my car to build motor mounts and the intake manifold. It seems as I misremember how much clearance there is between a reasonable alternator and the idler arm bushing housing, so a little more fab is required. I also may be wrong on the manifold hitting the master cylinder: on this car we're using a short Wilwood single cylinder master with integrated reservoir.

That is awesome!!!

Did you mig or tig that intake?

That was my first attempt at TIGging aluminium. I was using a big, hungry transformer power supply and my garage didn't have enough juice for the job. It would just start to get hot enough and blow the breaker. I have a much smaller inverter machine now, this kind ofwork is easier but the fillets between the cast mani runners and heavy transition plate might still be iffy.

hey if i could TIG that well first go i'd be pretty happy about it!

do you have any sort of fancy transitions inside?