Sorry for the lack of progress.  I met Murphy...

I decided I should put a new thermostat in.  Of course one of the thermostat housing bolts broke.  I drilled it out and ran a tap down the hole.  Unfortunately it was an old dull tap.  I broke the tap.

I worked for some time trying to ge tthe tap out and eventually  pulled the head.  I took the head to a machine shop to get the tap EDM'd out.  I've got the head back now and I'm goong back together.  I rebuilt the clutch MC and installed the pedal box with a new brake MC today.

Murphy NEVER sleeps.

Picture Updates.

I had some issues and really got slowed down. I hope to have it ready to fire in about 2 weeks. The plan is to start the engine with an 8UA, small VAM, 35 pph injectors. Once it runs I'll begin the conversion to a Meagsquirt. That means the piping to the VAM is temporary.

That Volvo engine really looks at home in a MGB bay.....nice work!

The Volvo Head looks great on a Blue Oval Block!  Hope to see some great Dyno #'s in the future.   Great Job.
SAFETY FASTER!

An interesting option for sure... What kind of power numbers are you looking for or expecting?

A few minutes ago I attempted first engine start.  The wiring is really messy right now and it's using stock Ford EFI, not Megasquirt.  The thermostat cover is leaking.  Oil pressure gage is not hooked up.

http://www.amcansolutions.com/amcandocs/docs/Folvo%20MGB/Folvo_MGB_Start.mp4

The link isn't working.  I had to go zip the file and you will have to download it.  Apparently my FTP site does not support MP4 format.

go here:
http://www.amcansolutions.com/amcandocs/docs/Folvo%20MGB/Folvo_MGB_Start.zip

Video of the Folvo MGB driving. Note: 8 psi 5000 rpm max. Still in tuning stage. It's running an MS2 with 50 pph injectors. Stock T3 with a .63 exhaust. VE live was tuning during this little drive.

http://www.amcansolutions.com/amcandocs/docs/Folvo%20MGB%20Drive.wmv

Yesterday was a bad day for the Folvo MGB.  I was out working on the tune with VE Live and was struggling to get the boost above 5 psi.  I was kinda WTH is going on.  The engine was noisier than usual I could certainly hear an exhaust leak.

I was a mile or so from the house doing a 2nd gear accel when there was a bang and the exhaust got super loud under the hood.  AFR's went lean and the engine seemed down on power.  Since it was running, intake manifold pressure was good, staying cool, and had oil pressure I decided to drive GENTLY back to the house as there was no real place I could gracefully pull off.

Made it back, parked it in the garage, shut it down, and opened the hood.  It was pretty obvious what happened.  The turbo was no longer attached to the exhaust manifold.  The oiutlet where the turbo attaches had broken off.  Ford Lima 2.3 are vibration prone and this thing has very limited flex in the motor mounts.  I'll need to weld the manifold back together with thicker tubing and some support pieces.

No permanent problem and it was running nice until the manifold broke.

I've had to go out of town on business.  I'll post a picture when I get back but it will be the weekend before that happens.

That's a bummer. This is so cool!

Tim

As far as problems go, that doesn't sound too bad.  I thought you were leading up to a catastrophic failure story.

Ford Lima 2.3 are vibration prone



You ain't kidding.  One of my buddies in Fla had us do some work on his ministock ( an oval class pretty much dominated by the Ford 2.3L, they crank them up to something like 250hp through a two barrel carb ) and we took it out on race night and did some shakedown runs.  

I did really well in the heat but the car didn't seem to run right in the feature.  Came off the track and Boneman asked me if I had tightened the carb bolts after the heat race.  I say, "Why would I tighten the carb bolts again, we double checked those at the shop?"  At which point he informed me that there's so much vibration in these 4cyls that he would re-torque the carb after every practice session.

*facedesk*

We checked the carb and two of the bolts were almost falling out of the bowl.  Car performed much better the next week.

I still can't get over the idea that a degreed engineer would NOT figure out a way to get those bolts secured ( in an aircraft application, they'd have drilled and wire secured the bolt head ) so you weren't constantly fiddling with them.


http://boneman.homestead.com/

That 4 day trip turned into 2 weeks.  Just got back Sunday.  So, this evening I welded the manifold together and added some braces.  It's all bolted together now but is supposed to rain through Wednesday.

I'll fire the engine tomorrow and check for oil leaks.  I'm a bit unsure if I got the drain on the bottom of the turbo tight.  That is really difficult to reach.

I had to take the engine/transmission out to fix an oil leak around the pan. I changed out the speedometer drive gear on the output to a 6 tooth gear at the same time. This way I can use a 20 tooth gear rather than the non Ford 23 tooth self destructing gear.

All back together except for the heater. Hey, It's spring now right?

Engine now....

Having just seen this post again it reminded me  again about the Rover T series engine, about 200 bhp stock 250 with a chip or megasquirt. As far as I can remember it bolts straight onto an MGB gearbox or LT77 if you can find a bellhousing (Sherpa vans and Discovery 2 litre) It  also weighs less than the B series engine. This one is on ebay for £300 or $430 plus freight.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/rover-800-vitesse-2-0l-turbo-full-car-engine-box-breaking-dust-cap-/111937529364?hash=item1a0fff2614:g:JM0AAOSwYlJW6Ha5

It will never be as strong as the Folvo but if you search the internet this can be done, in the nineties several MGBs had the non turbo version, this give quite a bit of power for little money.

Philip

Philip,

I'll never find a Rover T series engine here in the States.

On another note, ALL RIGHT! FINALLY!

I have fought this thing to get the internal wastegate to actually hold boost. I changed the actuator out while the engine was out but still only got 7 psi with the bleed open to atmosphere at the fitting. I finally realized the control orifice in the fitting before the tee was missing.

Cobbled a control orifice out of a Mig welder tip and took it for a drive. 16 psi boost. I guess I need to add the circuits into the MS2 to use one of it's outputs to pulse width modulate a boost solenoid. The firmware I'm running on the MS2 supports that.

Great except AFR was 12.2 at that boost level. Ok, back to tuning....I need to get that to about 11.5 under boost. I need to add some timing at medium rpm and near atmospheric. It's a bit sluggish on a throttle blip for down shifting.