Volvo 164 B30 Engine First Start since 1994 - Ep 3 

Nothing beats watching a Volvo being resurrected by enthusiasts. The excitement in you and your friends voice when it starts up and idles after being derelict for so long is amazing

Swedish quality at its finest. A Volvo never lets you down at the end of the day

Considering what vehicles cost these days it's insulting the difference in quality and durability. What an amazing car!

I've finally found civilised youtube. No dislikes!!

my uncle had a 164 with injection, ported and polished head, K cam those made 160ish hp stock and he believes it was around the 200 mark when he had done his things to it, he is especially fond of when there was a full kar of grown men going to a party in it and a "brand new" golf gti came up on the side of it, he never left 4th gear but gapped the "new hot hatch" on a straight xD

I've seen only two 164s in my life. One, burgundy, belonged to the Swedish Embassy in Caracas; and the other, same green as yours, big bumpers and big taillights, that belonged to buddy of mine in college, a lot of body-leaning and a very American sound comming from the power steering pump (Borg- Warner), reliable and strong as a tank. The rest have been only 2 and 7 series.

In some areas of Sweden, the police used the Volvo 164 to chase tuned mopeds and motorcycles. I know, I was chased by one when I had my Zündapp KS50 with a 100 cc engine mounted, which was illegal. Also, I was only 15 years old. I got away.

Nice! It's a Volvo, that's for sure.

Brits really loved those variable-venturi carburetors. It took me a while to get the one on my Spitfire dialed in - my only experience before that was with simple tractor carbs and big slobbery Quadrajets.

I’ve always said you do amazing work, but oh my! So often, I’ll watch someone make a “barnfind startup video” and they NEVER consider putting some marvel mystery oil down in the cylinders amongst other things you did. You ALWAYS do things so properly and so well. I swear, people disconnect the fuel, make a small, temporary tank, make sure the oil is full, and do nothing but rev them like crazy 😝. Always and forever, love your stuff! 💕

I can personally say that I've only ever saw one nice driving 164 in the wild since I got into old rwd volvos. these are rare cars

Lovely machine! The Swedish quality is still there! You´ll have it out on the road in no time!

Nothing beats the build quality of a rwd Volvo. 👍🏻

My 740 estate/wagon was built in Ghent in May 1990 and has a plethora of parts marked 'W. Germany' and 'Made in West Germany'. Curiously, the air filter box is marked as being 'Made in Western Germany'. I imagine that due to Volvo building up then running down parts stocks, such things were fitted until at least early 1991.

Amazing David! W0W!! Can't wait to see her on the streets!! Happy New Year 2021!!

If you had manged to set the choke it would have started easier. No cable fitted but you could have wedged it shut. Your long experience with SU's should mean that you know that pumping the pedal does very little as there is no accelerator pump like on the Weber. You made it without Easy Start and that's a bit of a feat! Very good progress. The fuel lines between the carbs shouldn't need clamps if the hose is the right size. They only have to cope with about 3 psi max. Any 15" (16/17") 200/700/900 wheel up to the very last V90/S90 will fit, steel or alloy. 14" wheels will scrape the callipers. I look forward to the next episode.

Simply beautiful I hope one day to have my own classic volvo Happy new year and greetings from Costa Rica.

Nice to see this 48 year old car again. They are rare and have a beautiful design in the front

Just a short comment to the thermostat: Germany was reunited on October 3rd 1990, so it has to be manufactured before that date. Keep up the good work and greetings from Germany!

The Berlin wall fell in 1990 (I remember watching on TV) so unless that thermostat was a leftover old stock one it's 1990 or older. Awesome car!

Well. I'm jellious. I'm also super happy to see another Volvo live. Such good cars. Thrilled to see this video. Thank you for saving it.

Well done dude !! You've demonstrated the skill and patience required to restore a classic car. I own a 1969 B20 Volvo Amazon, it's a brilliant car and like the 164 so well engineered. I wish you every success with the full restoration. ☺

hi from Sweden I most say that you have one fine 164 :) you bearly see them here anymore for sale or one the streets, if you find one for sale here they are expensive

my 1981 260 volvo had "made in west Germany" i asked about this when i visited and apparently Volvos were considered luxury cars and some elite east Germans owned them i was told.

Great to see this old warrior come to life 😃

The green paint, almost iridescent, is gorgeous, it will look great when it is eventually cleaned and polished. Getting that engining running was awesome. It was dirty, it was unused for decades but when it turned over it was smooooth. I think you scored a winner here. It will give you much pleasure in the future. I am inspired to attack my 940 to clean it and get it running as well as it can.

My neighbor had a new one in 1970. Very nice. Maybe it was '71. Fuel injected? If I had the youthful enthusiasm, I'd attempt something similar, but just watching this is enough for me.

Nice seeing that there´s still guys taking interest in those old luxo-heaps that actually has less leg room in front than the 140 series due to not enough extra length put into the new nose to accomodate the extra cylinders :). It should be noticed that the B30 straight six has a critical weakness in that its oil pump (as far as i´ve heard it´s the same item as in the B20 straight four that it was developed from) is not really sufficient for the engine and so it often causes less than enough lubrication of the camshaft and its lifter gallery especially when run hard at low speed and not changing gears in time, ending up in excessive wear and engine noise. I´ve never owned a Volvo 164 but a few friends and aquaintanses did back in the 80´s before rust and lack of special parts made it merely impossible to keep one running on a budget, so i´ve experienced this from the shotgun side and know it for a fact. However, it seems to be better parts out there for those wanting to find solutions and some of the hard-to-find parts has now gone into reproduction thanks to aftermarket companies. A finnish-swedish master competition mechanic/driver by the name of Timo Kormu (RIP) managed to take the gremlins out of these engines and made them do quite good power, otherwise they has always been considered not as dependable as the B18/B20 fours for tuning. I believe mr Kormu besides changing the oil pump also made some improvements to the oil lines and such in the engine head to make for better oil flow. Another thing that might be of interest is that the 164 has the same transmission bolt pattern as same period BMW´s sixes (my guess is the bigger line) and Opel Commodore (which has a straight six cam-in-head engine called just that, CIH, originally designed in Detroit and that Opel engine is related back to the venerable Chevrolet OHV-type six) which makes it possible to use their gearboxes - the best alternative is said to be a rare Getrag manual 5-speed box found in some big Beemers, but those are about as rare as hens teeth these days. As far as i know the automatic found in 164´s is Borg-Warner 30. As for the Volvo B30 and B18/B20 engines, the family also includes a V8 called B36 that has some architecture in common and also used some internal parts from its inline brethren, but that´s mostly just trivia. It was developed for a series of luxury cars that never made it to production but the engine ended up in a delivery truck known as the Volvo Snabbe and the luxury car front end kinda sorta made it onto the 164. Of course there has been a few engine transplants made by car nuts, so there is one and another Volvo Amazon/121 cruising the roads of the native land with eight cylinders :D but it´s really a tight fit and not that much horsepower to be gained as the B36 was set up mostly for torque when turned into a truck engine (when it comes to tire grinding, that´s another deal XD) and as for aftermarket parts, well... i haven´t heard of any. That would be whatever could be scrounged from the fours and then of course preferably the Volvo Penta marine engines. Btw, there is actually some old Volvo Penta marine V8 engines that are really early-generations Chevrolet small blocks consealed under the red paint and Volvo labelling, just a fun fact.

Hello David I've been watching your videos for years you inspired me to buy a Volvo 240 3 years ago I bought one from a man who had seven cars and had to get rid of one I was fortunate or misfortunate to buy the one his daughter didn't want to go to college with 1993 Volvo 240 was 63,000 original miles 3rd to the last one made it's been a basket full of problems first person who worked on it left me a spaghetti interior full of wires finally hooked up with someone who's helped me out a lot he currently has a 244 is a certified mechanic and he's had five 240s but I always get something fixed and two other problems pop up great tasting music super lady by The late Luther vandross

Happy new year to all of you.

Those Motorola alternators were not reliable. I installed many Delco 63 amp integral regulator alternators on B20 and B30 motors. You have to drill the pivot side hole to 1/2 inch and heat and put a small bend in the tension bracket due to alternator being larger. Belt has to be 1 1/2 longer than OE size. The delco are bulletproof and cheap. The lights won’t dim at idle when blower motor and other stuff is on due to 63A unit kicking out about 40 idling. The 45A originals were rarely even doing 45A at high speed. The carbs are decent because it wasn’t parked with ethanol gasoline left to dry up in bowls. Lucky on that!

Awesome, my second car was a 164, I loved that car, my first car was a Volvo Amazon. I was a Volvo fan, still are 😀

that was awesome! looking forward to tomorrows shenanigans!!

Engine sounds very healthy. These are very nice cars.

Great job guys! Greetings from Sweden

David, nice video.Enjoy following your 164 resurrection.

Waterpump had different height seals against the head depending on the thickness of the headgasket, get the right ones. And keep a packet of membranes and a phillips screwdriver in the car, not fun to drive at idle all the way home. And regularly checking ATF oil level in the dampers of the Stromberg makes for a smoother idle.

Fantastic, ! How lovely to see a old 164 brought back to life and what a great way to spend New Year’s Eve Eve! Can’t wait for the next instalment.

What a beautiful car .

She is an absolute beauty

Cool, it'll be interesting to watch you work on this 164. I bought a rough but roadworthy 142S just about two years ago and it has been mostly a lot of fun.

Happy New Year David / Volvo Family! I'm very pleased to see & your New Classic is in really good condition 😀

That's a beauty!

My favorite car when I was young. My friend had one, a deep red beauty, and I only had the 142, a white one, but I was happy with that ;-)

Very interesting indeed. What a score that beauty is. Just gorgeous.

Loving this series!!

I love your videos David, keep up the good work :)

Great save man. Waiting for the next video

This is almost like the prehistoric iceman from 1994. Be sure to only play Ace of Base to it.

About the front door on the driver side. My car has the same problem you can see a ding on the trim that goes on side of the car as a result of that.

If the bolt pattern differs on the wheels it is because the ones on the shelf is for the 544-120-130 series! All 140-160-240-260-740-760 had the same bolt pattern.

Amazing! Great work! This is my favorite car. My father had a 1974 year model in which I learned to drive. It was a 164E with fuel injection and 160hp, not the best car to drive as a beginner and young man... 😉

Really looking forward to following this build 👍🏻

Awesome! Great work. I have always wanted one of these.

Nice car and video! Well done!

An iconic car!

Very nice video, love these cars!

would have been so cool seeing you restore a Volvo Duett. But this is also great to see!!! Keep it up!!

Nice one guys

A volvo never die's 😁👍

David: I won't bore you with my background "story" . With the limited selection of tires on the market in this size, *trust* me on this one: Tires : NEXEN SB802, 165 / 80R15 ( "All-Season")

Great choice in the car. Fantastic content in the video 👍👍👍 Your doing an awesome job😀😀

Well done, new to your channel. Beautiful car.

Well worth the effort put in. You have a car to pass on to your grandkids.

Oh wow👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻 And here I was envious of your xc on FB...😂

CLR does a good job of cleaning out the water system, just got to make sure you rinse all of it out thoroughly!

Brilliant choice of Volvo model.....I admire these rare gems made by Volvo. Happy Nee year and wish you all the best.

Nice !!!!!

Haha the sound of the door closing definitely matters for the sure. Great video 👍

These old volvos are solid. Still have my 74 164 e with the b30 fuel injected

Yeaaaaa brother good job I just want u to bring it back home so I can see her 🤗🤗🤗🤗

Nice 👍you can use a dishwasher tablet in the cooling system and warm the engine and then flush the system it works great.

This is a great video, so much more than change the oil and add the battery

The B30 is a reliable SOB. There is a "Volvo Penta" marine version that I had in my boat. Didnt have SU or Stromberg, but triple Solex that probably would add som juice to that engine of yours.

Yesss!!!!!!!!

She’s ok. 👍

Nice one

very similar to the 1971 142 that i had in the early 80's. mine had dual su carbs, 4 speed with od. loooooong gear shift on mine and the od was on a stalk mounted to the column. unfortunately it rusted away to almost nothing by the nineties and was scrapped

Dear David Bello. LOL 😁, you are absolutely right, wet leafes stick to everything and it's often a pain to remove them. But it's also a pain to remove dry leaves from inside a car when they are broken into thousand little peaces. Please kindly allow me to suggest: Maybe, as a kind of reminiscence, a good/cool name for this great car would be "(The) Green leaf"?! 2) Congrats! The engine runs really smooth. Nevertheless I suggest to compression test it. I'm eagerly looking forward to watch the next parts. Will this be a kind of patina restoration or will it be like your other oldtimer Volvos? Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and health to all of you.

Jääävligt fin nyans på lacken

So happy for you! Sounds great! I need to have my 164's.radiator repaired too. How much do you think it'll cost?

If it could be of any help. Nicks garage did one of these a while back. West germany stopped being a thing in ca 1990 so if ti was layued up in 1994 most german parts will be west germany.

Hey David! Are you going to the Swedish Car show in Arizona next month??!

Hope you can find some 165/80-15 tires for your 164 soon!

You dont have to clean and fix a bunch of things beforehand on old Volvos, just charge the battery and turn the key and it starts😃

I remember that taco bell hot sauce Dave!!! Must have been 8!!

About 1990 or 1991 the two Germany’s were unified and I suspect that when parts were all labeled Germany. What’s really old is to find something labeled Western Zone of Germany. Which is probably from 1945 to 1952 or 1955.

Mad decent bro. There's a subby.

Sounds little tired. the ignition timing is probably little late.

I've been working on mine for months and I still haven't got it to run

what to say swedish car :) greetings from sweden

Running the old petrol in the tank?

Nice👌do you happen to know the colourcode of the car?

Just seeing the 164,engine going, it is incredible,I don*t know if you can answer me why, if when the 164, was made it had a 6 cylinder, pretty good reliable engine, then the 200 series comes, to be exact the 260, which is a 6 cylinder, but the engine of the 260 series was a renault,Peugeot,Volvo engine, which was not that great in comparison to the engine from the 164, which is a strong,reliable engine,David have you ever thought of of doing a project like a 260, but with the 164 engine, I don*t know if that can be accomplished,but that would be some nice project

I had an opportunity to buy one last year, but I went 240 because of the stromberg issue.

Whats the color code 416?

You went to the carbs..... You are brave. 40 year old brake fluid is next? Had to completely redo brakes lines. Denatured alcohol ftw. Love that hat and glad you got it started. How many miles?

I've got a triple SU/ZS intake for a B30...if you're brave...;).

I used to idle my 240 in the garage a lot until I blacked out...

I forwarded this video to Ed China