High RPM vs Low RPM

John that is awesome. I see what your talking with the came profiles. Question, how much does over exh/int overlap have to do with powerband range? And I do want to run a higher compression around 11:1 and right now I'm around 9.8:1 assuming the previous owner did not have any head work done to it.

But in your experience with Volvo's what would be a good rpm range that I should focus on. Now I'm not planning on building the car and jumping in. I want to get my suspension set first. Replace my bushings, struts, etc. Get some time on an OHV park, practice a bit. Enter autocross, rallyx, then eventually into rally's like Mendo and then from there we'll see. But I'm slowly going to build up the motor. The first step I see is the T5 swap, then 16v, a rebuild with block work (think stock oversized), cams, head work, and I know some where in there I have to do a cage, seats, suits, helmets, fire suppression, safety, harness, skid plates, etc, etc, etc.

But since I know that it is not a short path I must travel as I do not have a silver spoon, I want to map out my plans, set stages for my car.

Throw the volvo engine in the rubbish and drop a bone stock F20c motor and box into it .
9000 rpm, 240hp, awesome gearbox ratios, indestructable.

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IIIRII
Throw the volvo engine in the rubbish and drop a bone stock F20c motor and box into it .
9000 rpm, 240hp, awesome gearbox ratios, indestructable.

Obviously you have not heard the Gospel of The RedBlock!

Correct ,
Do they make a 100% reliable 240hp all day and rev to 9k with an awesome gearbox with excellent ratio's ?

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IIIRII
Correct ,
Do they make a 100% reliable 240hp all day and rev to 9k with an awesome gearbox with excellent ratio's ?

Not stock but they can especially when mated with a T5, Gertrag, or Supra box they can.

Here is a crazy swede with a crazy Volvo. Impressive no matter the car.

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I plan on going NA

Followed by, look at this turbo'd car ...

You can make anything go like a raped ape if you throw enough money at it.
I though you were wondering about affordable atmo engines with a gearbox with excellent ratios.

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IIIRII

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I plan on going NA

Followed by, look at this turbo'd car ...

You can make anything go like a raped ape if you throw enough money at it.
I though you were wondering about affordable atmo engines with a gearbox with excellent ratios.

Yes I am but I am not planning on changing my motor, only my gearbox, and my original questions what is the best RPM power range for a RWD car for rally (i.e. 3000-5000 vs 6000-8000 RPM's)

And the reason why I posted the video was to illustrate the potential of the RedBlock. Now as for your question about reliable 240 hp, there are plenty of Bricks that have 200-300 range. Now most of them are taking the slightly easier route and going turbo'd and intercooled.

my recomendations are to complete the chassis/cage , suspention, brakes, saftey equipment, trans and rearend, get your license, log book, etc, and run a season before messing with the motor seriously.

as far as redblocks go, ide stick with the 8v head for a while (even if your going to build a new motor) , besides double the cam cost, you also have double the valvetrain parts.

for now, i would just throw a K or H cam in when you swap to the t-5 tran.

the issue then comes down to the rearend ratios available for the 1031 rear in your 740. with the 1031 the lowest rear ratio you can find easily and cheaply is a 4.10. you want to be in the 4.27-5.88 range depending on cam and motor. i can supply 1031 R&P in 3.31, 3.54, 3.73, 3.91, 4.10, 4.30, 4.88, 5.13, 5.28, 5.43, 5.83, but with the exchange rate your looking at $1000 with a install kit (bearings, shim, bolts). then there is the LSD. for it to hold its gonna be between $1600-2900.

you might want to swap to a toyota rear, much cheaper R&P,s and LSD,s .

powerband....... hum... how do i put this.....

with a cam designed for a broad torque curve (thats what you want) the power band is going to be closser to 4000rpms. a 2000 rpm powerband is going to be a huge peaky cam .remember that the redblock is 2.3 lt so you are going to get some grunt before its in its band compared to say a 1.8lt.
i would plan on building for a 7500-8000 rpm redline. ( it gets pricey to build 8500+ rpm) .

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lawrence knox aka fidel
knox motorspors
knoxmotorsports.us



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2012 10:48AM by fidel.

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IIIRII
Correct ,
Do they make a 100% reliable 240hp all day and rev to 9k with an awesome gearbox with excellent ratio's ?

You're right its an impressive motor in terms of Beee Haitch Peas,
and the box ratios are OK, but I looked around for what they might cost and I say one, ONE for $6500, not bad..

But here's the ratios:
1st Gear Ratio: 3.133:1
2nd Gear Ratio: 2.045:1
3rd Gear Ratio: 1.481:1
4th Gear Ratio: 1.161:1
5th Gear Ratio: 0.942:1
6th Gear Ratio: 0.763:1

Nice not but really something I'd get excited about, and not something I want to think about because of the rarity of the box, WHEN something go Klang!Boom! 6 speed but really 5 and overdrive, that last step is pretty big..

And COST or the engine..

You seem to not understand we want to increase torque, and we can do that in a motor we HAVE to rev the piss out of with peak torque at 7400..... we just gear it super short and the magic of gears..

That is always more costly, much more costly..

If you could even find one of those motors.

The guy has a Volvo, they are excellent motors for privateer modding, easy to but either a GM or a Ford Borg Warner T5 behind where a gear kit every bit as nice as your uber rare Honda thing costs $385.

Volvos fill about half the field at rallies in Sweden, and those events are intense competition, from what I can see closer and deeper competition than you are used to down there, there's a reason for that popularity and it is this: the money spent for good power return ratio...
235bhp was the clubbie norm by 1992-93.
Real BHP, not OZ, not Canadian, not Texas of SoCal.

It costs a LOT of money to make that power. The Honda is nice but not remarkable. Its nice because it is STOCK, but its a revver.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

You can get those honda motors with gear box, computer and everything for $4000 on ebay, there are tons of them from that Japanese milage tradeout thing.

BUT, for $300 you can get a voooolvo motor, an as for your main question, go high RPM by keeping your foot planted, and bouncing it off the rev limiter. This is how you get all 120 HP out of it. Its a good deal, you get half the HP for less than a tenth of the price. And it will last several year of mindbending abuse if you keep all the wires and hoses hooked up.


Yep gearing is how we get the barge moving, and you want somewhere between 4.56 and 4.88 ring and pinion ratio for your rear axle. As Lawrence kindly offers, ring and pinions for 1031 are hard to get and expensive, you have to get them from Sweden and they cost in the $1000 range. On the other hand, the volvo 1030 axle found in early 240 takes the dana 30 ring and pinions, which you can get in any size from Randy's ring and pinion for $130. Mounting a 1030 in a 740 volvo will take a little custom hack saw and welder work, but we are building rallycars here right.

Lawrence chimed in about the LSD, which is hard to find for volvo (stock ones are rare and weak, good ones are $$$ and you have to import them from Sweden) Here the welded stock differential works fine.

Changing to the T5 trans is mostly about dealing with the HUGE second to third gear gap in the stock volvo trans.

This can all be done in stages, and you can start rallying in a car with stock drivetrain. Its important to have a realistic plan.

And to be clear, that drift guy probly spent $10000 on his trick volvo motor.

I'm very sure that Volvo cost a lot but it was only to show the awesomeness of the RedBlock, to help spread the Gospel. And I love how the other Volvo-ites jumped, thanks lol

Now luckily I have a 4.10 rearend in Volvo. And like I mentioned before I don't plan on doing this all at once and entering into competition. It is going to be stages. Brakes, I already run ceramics, and I don't use them that often. I downshift my AW71 if I really need to. Poly bushing, race, race, race, Billy Struts, race, race, race, sway bars, race, race, race, maybe Variable rate springs, race, race, race, WC T5, race, race, race, 16v head, race, race, race, blah blah blah, race, race, race, bluh-blah blah blah. So this is definitely going to take some years, but I like to have a course map on how I'm going to build the car. And I definitely appreciate the help and insights

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CaliMeatwagon
I'm very sure that Volvo cost a lot but it was only to show the awesomeness of the RedBlock, to help spread the Gospel. And I love how the other Volvo-ites jumped, thanks lol

It looks to me more like displaying the awesomeness of expendable income.

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Grant Hughes

The S2000 honda is my favorite car to beat in a drag race with my $500 Ford 2.3 powered Volvo wagon. I have raced 2 of them, and whooped them both to 75mph. One is owned by a good friend who has many dollars spent on it. Are they cool, yes. Better than what you can do with Volvo or ford 2.3 with the same money? I don't know. Circle track guys are making 240hp with 8v Iron head Fords through carbs....... Oh, and they rev them to 9k

"my recomendations are to complete the chassis/cage , suspention, brakes, saftey equipment, trans and rearend, get your license, log book, etc, and run a season before messing with the motor seriously."

Quoted for truthitudiness

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Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...

The f20c isnt the holy grail, but bang for buck they are hard to beat.
At the end of the day if you dont want to do an engine swap, dont ....

There probably one of the common Mk 2 escort conversion's now.
In reality the 3sgte beams (Altezza) engine is also up there, not quite an f20c but at a 1/3 of the price , still leaves some coin left over for an aftermarket ecu etc:
My current car E36ti has a 3sgte & 6 speed

John the ratios are the same for all jap 6 speeds (f20c-Altezza-S15-Mazda), same manufacturer
3.874
2.175
1.484
1.223
1.000
0.869

Never seen one with anything other than 1.1 fifth

If you were clever enough to break one , theres a/m kits and other options to repair them.
the s15 6 speeds are pretty cheap as the drift guys dont use them because being 6 gears into a 5 gear case, the gears are narrower and dont like to be clutch kicked on tarmac.