My daily driver is a 1970 164. The motor does

not have a breather box on the side. Also, the

motor does say "VOLVO" but it only has the year

1969; nowhere does it say "B30".

There is a 164 in a junkyard near where I live;

its motor says "VOLVO B30" on it. It does not

have a breather box but there are some things

taken off of the motor so I can't be sure what

it is suppose to have on it.

Does anyone know when the B30 started getting

the name B30 branded on it instead of just the

year? Also, what's up with my car's crank-case

breather?

chris

Mine is a 1969, S/N 008731. The original block has a soft

plug where later ones have the breather box and has 2 hose

connections in the valve cover. It does not have a connection

in the oil filler cap. On the side of the block it says Volvo

followed by an insignia too complex for the casting process to

make legible. Number on the side was 430101.

The 2 1971 B30E engines I have had both have Volvo B30 on the

side and breather boxes. One has a shiny chrome valve cover with

one hose connection. If I remember right the other had no hose

connections and came to me without an oil filler cap. Let me know

if you want the numbers from these blocks - I can get them after

I get back from work.

My earliest 164 manual is 1972 so these details will not show

up there.

By the time you're done, you will be THE expert on 140s / 160s. (Well, you and George)

Could it be that the breather arrangement changed when FI was introduced?

I think 1968 (maybe 1967) was the year that the USA required a positive crankcase ventilation system. There were a fresh set of regulations that came into effect in 1972, and then of course the NO_x regulations of 1973, which was the death of horsepower until the computer chip technology and computer-designed combustion chambers, etc., came along and saved us. I'm sure things were changing yearly about that time.

On the B30s, even the first (69) had pcv but they did it in different

ways. Anywhere from none to two breather hoses out of the valve

cover, for example.