This text is lifted from the my old web page about my 1988 Volvo station wagon. I made some updates and completed the text so it now has pretty complete information needed to assemble a similar shortblock. I’m re-posting it here for so people can find it easier and search for it on google or turbobricks.com website.
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Shortblock details

This is how you build a strong long stroke Volvo Red Motor

Block

I started with a 1984 B23 block. At the time of assembly, this was considered the strongest foundation to start with. The block is a little heavier than the late blocks due to more iron in some spots, and it also has a forged steel crankshaft that doesn’t come in the later motors. Since then people have proven that the later blocks and cranks are strong enough for just about anything you can throw at them. But I started with the best at the time:

Block Specs:
1984 Volvo B23FT
Bore: 3.800″ (.030″ over)
Deck Height from crank center to top: 9.125″

Crankshaft

The backbone of a strong motor is the crankshaft. I started with a B23 forged crank. My machine shop did an offset grind on the rod journals to use Mitsubishi 4G63 connecting rods. The rod journals now hold the mitsu rods with about .010″ side clearance. Much nicer than the Volvo setup which guides the rods from the piston. The crank was heat treated after grinding. In metric measures, I started with an 80mm stroke Volvo crankshaft and ended up with 88.8mm stroke

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Rods

The engine uses a set of Scat H-beam connecting rods for a Mitsubishi 6-bolt 4g63. These rods are nice and strong with an ARP 3/8″ cap screw holding the caps on. They also have a small hole drilled in the big end that sprays oil on the pistons. A nice little bonus feature.
The rod dimensions are:
Scat Rods for 4G63 Mitsubishi
Length: 5.906
B.E. dia: 1.890
pin bore dia: .827
Big end width: 1.117
Small end width: 1.010

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Some pictures of the assembly coming together. The final displacement is roughly 2.65 liters. Enough for some extra low end grunt.

 

I have been timing some acceleration runs using a G-Tech meter lately. It has been a useful exercise to have some feedback when launching the car and getting into 2nd gear in a way that moves the car along as quickly as possible. The 0-60mph area is the trickiest and most important part of drag racing. Hopefully this will help me reach the 12 second ET range.

Traction is an issue, and bogging the relatively small 4 cylinder motor with a hard clutch release is also a problem. Somewhere there is a careful balance of power and traction where the tires don’t spin too much, the engine doesn’t bog, and the turbo makes boost almost immediately so the engine is making close to max power right away.

With a little practice, and a launching technique that includes launching the car aggressively at 5000rpm, spinning the tires a bit, and shifting quickly to 2nd at about 5000rpm. I was able to pull of a 4.75 second 0-60 time. I was pretty happy with that. Other cars that run to 0-60 in about that time are the 2002 Corvette Hardtop (4.7s), and the 2003 BMW M5 (4.8s) a couple years ago. The Subaru Impreza STI makes the sprint in 6.1 seconds. And thats a car with all wheel drive, which should help traction immensely. So my full weight grocery chasing station wagon is right there with some pretty fast company. And this is all at 5500′ altitude. My car is going to run a 12 second quarter mile. Soon I hope.