Red engine block?

My engine block (the lower part) is painted red. I was asked to check
with you folks if this is a standard factory thing or if this
indicates a rebuild has been done.

Anyone know if they painted engine blocks red at the factory? The car
is a 1983 240 Turbo from the US.

Thanks,
blurp

 

standard volvo..

john

 

As "john" already said, this is absolutely normal. I was once told that
exchange engines were painted in blue instead of red, but I don't know
whether this is true.

 

Funny you should mention the red block. My neighbour peeked under the hood
when I was doing oils etc. He saw the red block and immediately asked if it
was a rebuild. I told him thats the way they come from Volvo and showed him
the other two cars engines, both 740's and redblock. Dunno if he's convinced
tho. It's a Volvo thing. I've never heard of a rebuild engine being painted
red tho, so there you go.

Stuart.

 

Yeah they've all been red since the B18 aside from the PRV haven't they? I
know every cast iron 4 they ever sold in a car was painted reddish orange,
that's why these famous engines are often called redblocks.


On that note, does anyone have a good match for the original red? I've got a
rebuild in progress and would like to repaint the block something close to
the original color.

 

Ford Red engine paint at any auto parts store is very close.

 

Mine was red as well, and I've owned it since new. Very good engine it
was too!!
Herman '83 282 5.0 H.O., formerly 242 Turbo intercooled.

 

PRV engines are indeed not red. If they where they would probabely be
better.


Cheers,
244
144
262C
Merc C

Martijn

 

The later-model B280 engines didn't have as many problems as the original
B28 engines did. But you're right, the PRV engines are not as reliable
as the red-blocks are.

 

I still think the worst part about them is what a pain they are to work on
in comparison, there's just nothing that feels Volvo about them.

 

The French must have olympic articulated arm. Have you ever tried to remove
a (square) air inlet manifold of a B27E. One nut is almost unpossible to
reach. Fortunately the bottom part of the block is more reliable.

MB

 

From a point at sea, to the circles of your mind, this is Martijn:

I used to have a 240 with the B27E engine. Actually I liked the
engine, it semed well suited to the car, and I got it up to a fairly
high milage without any of the more commonly reported problems. But it
seems that few share this view. And it returned abysmal MPG.

The only lasting trouble I had with it was, indeed, with that big
square inlet manifold. My memory of it is that the bolts that held it
down were stupidly short, stupidly small and stupidly too few (four
bolts for a six port manifold is patently poor design). It was
impossible to clamp the manifold to the block and make all six ports
airtight without stressing and eventually stripping the threads.

In the end I dispensed with the bolts and made a couple of clamp
plates that went across the top of the manifold, tied down to the
block with long J-bolts. Didn't look pretty, but did the job.


--

Stewart Hargrave

A lot faster than public transport


For email, replace 'SpamOnlyToHere' with my name

 

The cast iron blocks were indeed painted red at the factory. Look at a
'60's
Amazon, 544 or P1800 and the the block will even look a lot like yours.


--






http://www.albany.net/~mjc1/index.html

 

Thanks for letting me know. I noticed the oilpan was red the first
time I went for an oil change but never put it together that the whole
block would be red.

One more question answered!

Thanks again,
blurp