Thanks for the input. I've been silent for some time, but now I am back with a little update.
Car sat in my backyard from early December until last week. In the meantime, I bought a barely-running 964 B204FT, fixed it and drove it most of the time. Sold it now, and back to the wagon.
It was not about HG, I feel I could change a HG on a D24 with my eyes closed, since this was 4th HG in these three years. The point is, I got tired of doing HG's, valves, bearings, etc on this engine every-so-much.
Also, the head is gone, it had 11 cracks. I did eventually fix it as-is, got new (well, used) head with better cam and intake manifold, new valves, HG and everything that goes along. So, the car is back on the road.
However, I am still tired of the D24 and this "rebuild" is there just to keep the car mobile until the swap. I was thinking over AEL/D5252T engine, but dropped the idea in the end, since I do not want to end up with a Volvo 950.
Moreover, it just doesn't do it for me...
PRV6 is also out of the question, for availability reasons, since I have not been able to find one engine as the base point, let alone spares and parts.
Redblock is cool, my 960 16v turbo was a great car, but I couldn't either find another B204FT as a starting point, nor could I find at least an 8v turbo, or a 16v head or...more or less, anything. Availability again. I could have started with an '93 FD block, or similar, and work my way with custom parts and VEMS (or alike), but in the end it would take forever to finish and be way overpaid.
And still...it is only 4cyl.
I wanted a 6cyl. Volvo doesn't have one. B30 is too old, conceptually, and unobtainable, and 24v white blocks are junk. At least IMHO. Had a 960 3.0, never more.
And there is the gearbox issue, since this is Europe and Worldclass T-5 is "never heard of".
So, it seemed like the only way around everything, i.e. to have a:
- 6cyl
- turbo
- dohc
- over 2.0
- stock EMS
was to swap something non-Volvo. And so it is.
I am usually against those "cross-bred" cars, but really, there isn't other way.
Especially not in this price range.
So, the base is here:
M50B25, iron block, non VaNoS.
For the time being, I will gather parts for turbocharging, then prepare it and get it to work, hopefully it will be in the car by the end of the summer.
Anyway, I have legal part of the conversion to solve, and I'm hoping someone here could help me.
Is there any official VW/Volvo document/manual that could be scanned that shows D24TIC engine numbers. I still have the original block in the car (and, apart from the crankshaft, that is the only thing left of that engine, head and internals changed too much times), hence the original engine number in the title, but for some reason it is registered as 60kW (80HP), which is D24's power rating. I need to prove it is D24TIC, rated at 90kW (122HP), in order to make the M50 swap legal... So, I need a VW/Volvo piece of paper, or a scan, that proves that "engines with engine number starting with *XY* are rated at 90kW", or something.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?
Thanks in advance.