Greetings All!!!

I want to double-check my understanding of the variations

between the B30-E and F engines. All my 164 experience is with

carbs. I'm discussing U.S.-market vehicles only.

A) The engine offered in 72 & 73, equipped with D-Jetronic

fuel-injection and points-ignition, was termed a B30-F. It was

built to English/Standard dimensions entirely.

B) In 74 (still with injection and still termed B30-F), it

acquired many internal metric-dimension parts, i.e. can't swap rods

with earlier blocks.

C) In 75, electronic-ignition was added to the injection, and

the whole was termed B30-E.

D) Regardless of engine, the car itself was always labelled

as 164E.

E) In 76, the U.S. 164's vanished, and a Great Darkness came

over the land . . .

Please correct if I'm in error anywhere.

A. I'm not convinced that there were no B30E engines produced in

1972. You can measure the head thickness to determine for sure.

The E head is about 3 3/8" thick (slightly less) and the F head

is about 1/16" thicker, about 3.425 so if you are good with a ruler

you can tell them apart.

B. Most parts on the 74 were still interchangeable except the crank,

rods and pistons. In fact the main bearings were the same so you could

put a 6-bolt crank with rods and pistons into an 8-bolt block.

I am not sure about the B30 but on the B20 the maincap bolts and the

bellhousing bolts were both changed to M12 1.75 but everything else

was still Unified threads as before up to the end of production.

C. To the best of my memory the few 75 B30s I have seen did not have

electronic ignition. The 75 B20s DID have electronic ignition.

The engine was still called the B30F. The cam was changed to what

some call a "smog cam" somewhere along the line. It was somewhat more

radical than the "C" cam used in previous B30s, both FI and carb.

D. Only the ones with fuel injection. The carbureted models were

just called "164".

E. 164s have NOT vanished! I drove one less than an hour ago.

I've had it over 30 years and it is 32 years old, 279K miles.

Got the IPD street perf cam and even with carbs does WELL

(er, ah, till you get to the gas station).

Greetings!!!

George, obviously my meaning was that 164's vanished from

Volvo showrooms, and found refuge in the strangest places; one

currently inhabits my back-yard, with another in the driveway

undergoing a painfully slow engine-rejuvenation.

For the benefit of anyone contemplating rebuilding a 71 block,

be advised that the rod & main bearings are no longer dealer available

(the inventory-hatchets of the Ford bean-counters are already at work).

You'll have to go with aftermarket shells. I didn't check on other

years, but I'll bet that 69 thru 73 are dropped, also. This is a

portent of the future situation, when the only dealer 164 items will

be a paltry few for 74-75's, due to parts-crossover with the 200's.

And all 75's came with electronic ignition; I'm currently

running the system on my 69 164; very satisfactory.

Jerry Warren--you have/had 75's in both manual & automatic

flavors??? Talk about a sweet dilemma!!! How did you decide

which to drive each day??? Compare and contrast them for us. For

instance, was there much difference in leg-room for the driver???

Take care everybody.

Well, I stand corrected and I guess I am looking for a 75 B30

ignition system, since my current distributor has about 100,000

miles on it, and that, in my experience, is about how long they last.

I guess you know that, if they REALLY need to be changed, (and in my

experience with plastigage and micrometer measurements, that is pretty

RARE), the B20 shells are identical and you can frequently save a couple

from the old set. In fact, the last time I checked prices on them,

the B30 set, with two more sets of shells, cost MORE THAN twice what

the B20 set cost, so you could save money by buying two B20 sets

and throwing the extra parts away! (applies to both rod and main brgs)

I have a complete spare engine and quite a few engine parts so if there

is something I might help you with, e-mail me offline.

Both 75 164s I owned had elctronic ignition. One had the same taillight setup as the 75 240s and the other had the 6 tailight setup.

Acutally, the '75 model was still the B30F. The 'E' designation after the '164' indicates that it is a fuel injected car, as opposed to carbureted. The 'E' in the motor designation (B30E) indicates the high-compression version used in European an other markets. The B30E in Sweden put out 175HP, thanks to the higher compression and a hotter cam, whereas the smog-strangled, low-compression B30F put out 145HP in '72-'73, 138HP in '74, and something like 125HP in '75.

I believe they lowered compression using the internals, rather than changing the head, but I'm not sure. A 175HP 164 backed by the M410 would be a sweet car. But if I ever had a million bucks dumped on my lap, I think I'd keep my low-compression B30F and get a turbo setup from GIK Turbotecnik.