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K or VX cam in a NA B230F? (2010 bump)

Not as much as the Swedes cut but way more than you'd do to a small Chevy...2.6mm.
If I remember correctly, the Swedes typically say slap a cam in there and take 2mm off for a good street car. We have 3mm taken off of our race car's head, but I also opened up the combustion chambers to reduce the compression and we also have a larger than K camshaft.

My street car had 1mm/.040" taken off, but I'm going to have another .040" taken off here soon before I put it back on the car. I will be running less than stock amounts of ignition advance though, likely.
 
Aww, don't leave me hanging Fred! :) I was excited to see something in the thread. :lol:
 
My bad! I actually posted a quick question (valve lash) and then got the answer through email so I just edited my forum post to make it seem like nothing.

So far I received the head from the machine shop in CT and brought it up to the shop in MA for installation/tuning. The multi-angle valve job, skimming and complete rebuild along with the cam installation by the machinist was fairly priced in my opinion. I believe every valve port was machined to the optimal depth so that no shims were needed. About $380. Now I'm just waiting to see how the shop in MA installs it with the thinner head gasket and tunes it as needed. Thankfully those folks seem to be really into it. That makes a big difference when you are tossing a lot of money out there with zero personal experience. Things are looking good!
 
Cool. Here again are my recommendations from earlier in the thread. With the .036" headgasket and .040" off the head(is that what you went with?), I think you will want to use premium fuel with your KG004/"K" camshaft, at the very least in the summer. You will find out and report back! I look forward to hearing more about your experience. It should move pretty nicely compared to what it used to be. It may want additional tuning there, but you'll also want to advance the cam timing 4 or 6 degrees from the stock position to get you closer to what would be normal and decent low end performance with that head shave/headgasket combo.

For use in an automatic equipped B230, the K cam would benefit from being set up with valve clearances on the looser side of spec(0.018", or even 0.020" if you don't mind some more valvetrain noise), and being advanced 2, 4 or 6? from straight up. The more advanced it is(up until a point where it's just horrible up top), the more torque you'll have at low rpm at the expense of the torque curve falling off at an earlier rpm. I will try to get some dyno charts loaded up when I have a chance later showing this as my previous posts about it don't have working pictures anymore.

If you have control over the ignition timing(Ostrich emulator for LH2.4 or just twisting the distributor on earlier FI systems), that will help the overall torque production as well. Tuning the fuel side of things can also help if running LH2.4, as the stock tuning is junk at high load off idle(super lean). If you stomp on a stock, automatic LH2.4 car from a stop, it usually does a little lean bog first before picking up and going. If you roll into the throttle while brake torquing, it'll stay in closed loop better and maintain at least a stoich mixture.

If you want to take it a step further and have more power than stock everywhere, you'll want to pull the cylinder head and put on a thinner headgasket targeting between .030"-.040" or 0.8-1mm squish/quench clearance between the piston and cylinder head surface, generally speaking(some have gone with even closer clearance, but usually not on something that's revving over 6,000rpm). If you're going to that extent, you might as well have the head checked out, the valve grind redone and while resurfacing, take at least .020" off, if not .030, or potentially even more. Once you raise the compression by installing that thinner headgasket and shaving some off the cylinder head's mating surface, you won't really be able to run anything other than premium fuel with stock ignition advance in most circumstances. If you just do the thinner headgasket and only take a little bit off the head, you might be fine still on regular octane fuel but you will have to try it and find out.

If you do all that, you'll be pretty close to the max preferred operating range of the stock NA injectors and tuning(but people have run them at even higher power levels). The white top, 16V injectors are a good drop in if you start doing much more than that(port work, larger valves, better flowing intake and exhaust).
 
So if I put a 531 head 0,02" -0,8mm skimmed on a NA redblock and take a bit of advance I should be ok with ws in LH2.4 environment. Choices between D, K and H camshaft en looking for best torque low end. Main fuel will be LPG (injected) which likes the higher CR more than the 95/98 fuels anyway. Exhaust 2,5" but again aiming for a nice daily which hardly ever will exceed 3000 rpm.

Which Camshaft out of mentioned 3 would be best? Have also A, B and V available but consider these less attractive for this set-up
 
I agree but the other week when helping out someone with a K in his B23E fitted with Motorcycle. carbs I was shocked about the smooth performace and only a tiny bit of lag in low revs. I always thought the K is for high revs but this setup was proof for reconsideration. br Joseph
 
Where in MA is this getting out together?

That would be Indie Automotive in West Hatfield, MA. I picked it up today and I am very satisfied with the new modifications. Bottom end power feels the same as it did but my god does power just keeping building and building as the revs climb. I consider it to be a dramatic improvement in power and definitely worth the approximate $1,600 I spent on parts and labor. It even idles better as well. The mechanic did tell me that it is no longer a non-interference motor.

Eastwood's Auto Machine Shop in Stratford, CT did the milling/grinding/boring work.

Next in line is a T5 swap with a lightened flywheel but that will likely wait until next year. Thank you all once again for your help with this!
 
Glad to see you are enjoying the new upgrades! Volvo left a lot on the table for the US models and now you get to enjoy what they wouldn't give us from the factory.
 
So if I put a 531 head 0,02" -0,8mm skimmed on a NA redblock and take a bit of advance I should be ok with ws in LH2.4 environment. Choices between D, K and H camshaft en looking for best torque low end. Main fuel will be LPG (injected) which likes the higher CR more than the 95/98 fuels anyway. Exhaust 2,5" but again aiming for a nice daily which hardly ever will exceed 3000 rpm.

Which Camshaft out of mentioned 3 would be best? Have also A, B and V available but consider these less attractive for this set-up
For less than 3000 rpm, the A or V, absolutely. The T will be even better, just keep in mind peak horsepower may be around 4000rpm. The H and D would be the worst options because they have the highest durations which is good for high rpm power, not low rpm.

THAT BEING SAID, if you want low end torque, the 530 head has smaller intake ports that create higher velocity flow which makes more low end torque and efficiency than the 531 head. The benefit of a 531 head?s larger ports are seen more when you are running larger camshafts with over 12mm of lift(K and H, minimum).

I picked it up today and I am very satisfied with the new modifications. Bottom end power feels the same as it did but my god does power just keeping building and building as the revs climb. I consider it to be a dramatic improvement in power and definitely worth the approximate $1,600 I spent on parts and labor. It even idles better as well.
Congrats! It sounds awesome and I look forward to hearing more about the experience as you put more miles on.
 
Hi folks,

I purchased a .036" compressed gasket so I think that the tightest squish will be .036" - .007" = .029" after the gasket is installed.

Is that pretty good?



.

"Boys" made little error on their own engine calculations. Ended up with 0,02" (is that 20 thou in americanski?) It was B21 roadrace engine, and did not grenade during two seasons.
 
How much can you skim of the head before you need to worry about the timing belt being too long? - getting some new valves put in & was going to get the head skimmed to tidy it up for the MLS gasket. Now wondering whether to up the compression a bit at the same time.
Tim
 
How much can you skim of the head before you need to worry about the timing belt being too long? - getting some new valves put in & was going to get the head skimmed to tidy it up for the MLS gasket. Now wondering whether to up the compression a bit at the same time.
Tim

Around .060? off the head is where the timing belt tensioner runs out of adjustment.
Good news, timing belts with 1-less tooth (122T, I believe) are pretty common.
 
Cool. Here again are my recommendations from earlier in the thread. With the .036" headgasket and .040" off the head(is that what you went with?), I think you will want to use premium fuel with your KG004/"K" camshaft, at the very least in the summer. You will find out and report back! I look forward to hearing more about your experience. It should move pretty nicely compared to what it used to be. It may want additional tuning there, but you'll also want to advance the cam timing 4 or 6 degrees from the stock position to get you closer to what would be normal and decent low end performance with that head shave/headgasket combo.


You were/are right on the money!
 
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