Looking for ideas

[weagie]

Evening folks, seems like forever since I've posted here. After lots of let downs by my local garage and life in general I'm finally moving house and it comes with a garage so I will be getting Giles back and doing the work myself. He's down with hgf so not a major problem, just time consuming. Long story as short as can be, I will need to remove the sump as that's where the coolant went and while discussing this with my dad I mentioned the idea of upgrading as I fix and he said okay but take the engine out and do it right the first time. Replace all the bearings and crank shells get the crank itself checked over and basically go to town on it. Obviously that will take time and plenty cash but I'm in no rush as I really want my R done right, he deserves it. My query is, how far should I go and what would be realistic? Yes I want to get the most out of it but I'm not looking for a race build, just everyday usability but with a naughty side, really naughty! I can get my hands on a non turbo 2.4 engine and I'm wondering if any bits on that would help get more bang for little buck. Any ideas would be great folk.

[nobananas]

TBH I don't think anything off a non turbo 2.4 would be of any use upgrade wise. Im just about to start rebuilding a B5244T5 engine (2005 s60 T5 engine) to go in my R but I'll admit finding one of these engines was a bit like looking for a unicorn in a haystack (they have the same bore as the 2.3 R engine but are stroked to give 2.4 so you should get the best of both worlds). I rebuilt the engine for my old T5 several years ago using all Volvo parts. By the time I'd replaced the rings, main bearings, big end bearings had the head skimmed, all valves reground, bores checked and lightly honed, crank checked/balanced and journals polished plus all the other stuff, i'd spent well over a grand ! (although that was back when 850 T5's weren't worth much). If your not pushing yours too far a rebuild to stock with perhaps a little light headwork would probably be as far as you need to go. You could throw in a set of rods (I didn't because back then rods were 600 quid a set !) to future proof any further light mods and perhaps look into fitting the multi-layer head gasket from a later s60/v70R, I believe it will fit with a small modification and should be less prone to failure then the standard 850 item

[weagie]

TBH I don't think anything off a non turbo 2.4 would be of any use upgrade wise. Im just about to start rebuilding a B5244T5 engine (2005 s60 T5 engine) to go in my R but I'll admit finding one of these engines was a bit like looking for a unicorn in a haystack (they have the same bore as the 2.3 R engine but are stroked to give 2.4 so you should get the best of both worlds). I rebuilt the engine for my old T5 several years ago using all Volvo parts. By the time I'd replaced the rings, main bearings, big end bearings had the head skimmed, all valves reground, bores checked and lightly honed, crank checked/balanced and journals polished plus all the other stuff, i'd spent well over a grand ! (although that was back when 850 T5's weren't worth much). If your not pushing yours too far a rebuild to stock with perhaps a little light headwork would probably be as far as you need to go. You could throw in a set of rods (I didn't because back then rods were 600 quid a set !) to future proof any further light mods and perhaps look into fitting the multi-layer head gasket from a later s60/v70R, I believe it will fit with a small modification and should be less prone to failure then the standard 850 item

I was under the impression that the n/a cams were a good upgrade. Besides that I'm going forged internals as a start point if I'm going to get the block checked out. Why not.

[nobananas]

Ah, I forgot about the N/A cams route. You could get the head of a later T5 or R. My original plan was to drop my 850R head onto the 2.4T5 bottom end but then it seemed a missed opportunity to use the better flowing head from the 2.4 that also benifits from having solid tappets and dual VVT (which I won't actually be using but gives me the future choice of reinstating it)