What do you guys think are the pro's & con's of each engine offered in the 300's?
I've never experienced the 2.0 in a 300 (yet!) but I have in a 740, and that seemed perfectly adequate so it should be pretty good in a 360.
My 1.4 runs well, but always took an age to fire up when cold, not that quick but smooth and reliable, my 1.7 I haven't driven all that much but doesn't seem much quicker than the 1.4 to me, but a fair bit heavier, I didn't realise they were completely differently designed engines til I was shown the error of my ways! The 1.4 benefits from being almost half as cheap to tax too....

The 2.0l is great, reliable, solid and manly
The 1.7 owns-eco-reliable etc
The 1.4 is eco+reliable

My 1.7 really does own, seems quite a bit quicker than the 1.4 ive driven both and had a little drag..




Cheers
will

As a cheap run around the 1.4 is great. I personaly hate the engine because I have a dislike of liner engines

The 1.7 is good as a quick car to hammer and has pleanty of tuning potential. The std engine is quite well built and revs freely.

The 360 with the early silver top engine revs very well and has pleanty of poke but not much more than a 1.7 , the later black top engines do not rev as well for some strange reason. The 360 is great for turbo or 16 valve swaps

It all depends on what you are after

I have had both types of engine and i still can't make my mind up about which i prefer. Having said that the last 1.7 i had was knackered so i can't really compare my 1.4 to that one!. The 1.4 obviously has two main advantages cheap tax and no cambelt to change, but it is really a bit underpowered.
When i first joined the forum everyone on here seemed to have 1.4s, but now there seems to be alot more members with 1.7s than 1.4s, or i could be wrong.

Agreed, lots of people have changed. I've had all but the carbed redblock now, the 1.7 is so much punchier than the 1.4. The 2.0i was cool, but I didn't like the non revvyness, I think that was more me not used to it though, it was noticeably quicker in a straight line, even though it didn't feel is as the 1.7 clutch spring is so strong, always feel more powerful than it is .

classicswede wrote:The 360 with the early silver top engine revs very well and has pleanty of poke ... the later black top engines do not rev as well for some strange reason.

Now that's interesting. Does anyone know more about this?

Tom

Silver top engines are B19-series engines, much stronger internals..

B200/230-series engines are so called "low friction" engines, some changes were made to rotating assembly to get the fuel consumption lower, but that made the internals weaker and there are differnecies in bearings etc.. Power wise changes were not good and I guess Volvo noticed that too because bigger crank bearings came later for B230 series too and stronger con rods also.

B19A engine in the 360 is the best engine for bolt on turbo, it has compression of 8.5 and strong internals, so if the engine is in good shape just slap on a turbo, sort out the fueling and you are good to go. 8.5 compression just calls for big boost and advance..

Too bad most 300-series with 2litre engines in here are B200-series engines which have weak con rods and compression of 10.. not fun. Nowadays there's not much point starting to build a turbo using the stock B200 because with the same effort you can slap on a better block like B23/B230.

In that case, one of the last B19 silver-tops in a 1985 360 GLT sounds like the one to have if you're looking for a 2 litre. 1985 was the only year Volvo quoted 85kw / 116PS for the injected 360, with a top speed of 185 kph, earlier and later 360's were always less powerful (in theory), max speeds "only" being 180kph ...

As a daily driver, I'm still happy with my B200F though. 91 RON instead of 98 RON, 2/3 the tax of a non-catted B200, no city centre ban (as from next year in several German cities ...)

Tom

I concur that the B19 has a better rev response and feels more highly tuned that the B200, having had two previous B200E's and now on the B19E. Recently gave a full ignition service + iridium plugs and have got rid of early morning start up roughness and much faster throttle response all round.

I love my B19E