Hi All,

Basically pretense is I have always wanted a 'sleeper' volvo, I also love having a car that can be thrown through corners.

I looked into the various options open to me:

- hotting up the B20 with or without forced induction
- fitting a B23 or B230 Turbo, not a huge power gain and very small aftermarket for performance parts.
- fitting a V8, lots of power but the V8 rumble is a dead giveaway at the lights and handling would be totally stuffed due to the weight, even if using an all alloy V8 like the 1UZFE toyota engine, let alone the problems of squeezing a v8 into a 142 engine bay
- fitting a jap straight six or V6, would fit easier than the V8, but still would have some problems
- fitting an inline 4 dohc late model motor, being in Australia and having rather cheap japanese front cuts available this seemed like a good option, the most popular RWD four (as so many are FWD) is out of the silvia models, a good front cut (ie the complete front half of a car) sets you back $2500-3000 for the turbo model!

Would love to put the later S15 motor in but a half cut for those are harder to come by and a lot more expensive ($4000-5000), so I will go for an S13 or S14 SR20DET turbo motor. But the turbo motor along with a regimen of lightening (including fibreglass panels, which are already a work in progress) I will carry out on the car will definately have it obliterating unsuspecting vehicles with ease.

Will use factory wiring and ecu to begin with as I will definately leave the motor stock until the engine swap is well and truly sorted, luckily the SR20DET has the exhaust/turbo running down the left side of the motor so it won't clash with the steering (RHD here), and I have an early 142 with the long brake booster extension so there should, fingers crossed, be no interference there.

Buying a complete front cut I will use the 5speed manual that comes with the SR20DET motor, as I really dislike the seperate overdrive unit used on the volvo '5'spd, and it also means I don't have to mess around with conversion bellhousings etc, have fitted non-standard boxes to cars before and although there are usually a couple of road blocks thrown up along the way they are fairly straight foward.

Diff wise I will run with the standard unit with an LSD fitted but will see how it holds up. Will consider my options back there once I have completed the engine swap, have several options, actually have a Jag IRS unit out of a V12 complete with lsd that would look mighty nice under there (didn't buy it specifically for this project, it is just a nice piece of equipment and couldn't resist buying it when it came up for sale), but may consider a japanese IRS setup as they are much lighter and perform far better. But will definately leave the rear end till later.

The B20 in the car now is on its last legs and I don't want to spend any money on it (apart from chaging oil and filter as I always do) so the engine swap will be sooner rather than later. Will look to get a front cut over the next two weeks.

That is it for now, will keep you all posted, still interested to hear people's ideas/suggestions.

Daz
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'69 model (delivered in '68) B20/auto 142, keep the mods coming!