The B30 is an

inline-six The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balan ...

automotive

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as ''E ...

produced by

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

starting in 1968. It was used primarily in the

Volvo 164 The Volvo 164 is a 4-door, 6-cylinder luxury sedan unveiled by Volvo at the Paris Motor Show early in October 1968 and first sold as a 1969 model. 46,008 164s were built before the car was succeeded by the 264 in 1975. The 164 was Volvo's first ...

sedan from 1969 through 1975. The engine also appeared in military, marine, industrial, agricultural, and powercraft applications.

History

In March 1958 Volvo launched Project 358 to design a new large model with Chief Designer

Jan Wilsgaard Jan Wilsgaard (23 January 1930 – 6 August 2016) was the Chief Designer at Volvo Cars from 1950–1990, having studied at the Gothenburg School of Applied Arts (now HDK, Högskolan för Design och Konsthantverk, at the University of Gothe ...

taking the lead. The original plan for this car was to use the V8 engine that had been developed for the

Volvo Philip The Volvo Philip was a concept car that was built by Volvo in 1952. It was designed especially for the United States market and so was fitted with a prototype V8 engine called the B8B, which produced at 4000 rpm and was fitted with whitewall t ...

concept car of 1952. That engine, which was later called the B36, was rejected in favour of a new inline six. The engine for Project 358 was developed by adding two cylinders to the existing B18, resulting in a six-cylinder engine with a displacement of 2.7 litres. Project B358 did not go into production, but most of the early work done on it was revived when development began on the

164 Year 164 ( CLXIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Macrinus and Celsus (or, less frequently, year 917 ''Ab urbe condit ...

, including the six cylinder engine. Bore and stroke for the 164's engine were based on the larger B20 inline four, resulting in an engine displacing 3.0 litres. Due to their common heritage, many components are shared between the B20 and B30, including pistons, connecting rods, valves and valve-train parts. The B30A was used in the

Marcos GT The Marcos GT is the name used by the British firm of Marcos Engineering Ltd for all of their cars until the introduction of the Mantis in 1970. Most commonly, the name is used to describe the very low coupé designed by brothers Dennis and Pet ...

from 1969 to 1972 and the

Volvo C303 Volvo Cross Country C303, (Tgb 11, A.K.A "Terrängbil 11", translated as "Terrain Vehicle 11"), is the base model of a range of military vehicles produced by Volvo Cars, Volvo. The car was developed in the late 60s based on the successful Vol ...

from 1974 to 1984. The B30 from the 164 was also used in the 1970 Volvo GTZ 3000 concept car. Marine application versions of the B30 were sold by Volvo's

Penta Penta may refer to: Places * , an Italian hamlet (') of Fisciano, Salerno * Penta-di-Casinca, a French municipality of Corsica * Penta, Chhattisgarh, a town in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, India * , a small river in Lithuania Other * Pent ...

division. These engines carried designations AQ 165A and AQ 170A, B, or C. They were equipped with three down-draught

carburettor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...

s. and P type camshaft.

Technical detail

Like the B20 that it was developed from, the B30 has a

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

block and cylinder head. The single camshaft is in the block, and operates the two

overhead valves An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...

per cylinder through

pushrod A valvetrain or valve train is a mechanical system that controls the operation of the intake and exhaust valves in an internal combustion engine. The intake valves control the flow of air/fuel mixture (or air alone for direct-injected engines) ...

s and

rocker arm In the context of an internal combustion engine, a rocker arm is a valvetrain component that typically transfers the motion of a pushrod to the corresponding intake/exhaust valve. Rocker arms in automobiles are typically made from stamped steel ...

s. Cylinder bore and piston stroke is , giving a total displacement of . The B30/B30A version used twin 175CD2SE constant-depression

Zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction (plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The zenith is the "highest" ...

Stromberg carburettor Stromberg, Strömberg, Strømberg, Stroemberg, or ''variant'' may refer to: Places Germany * Stromberg, Oelde, a town in Oelde * Stromberg (landscape), a region in Baden-Württemberg ** Stromberg-Heuchelberg Nature Park * Stromberg (Siebengeb ...

s. Both the B30E and B30F used the D-Jetronic

fuel injection Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All comp ...

system from Bosch. There are three major variations of this engine: In 1974 the number of bolts holding the

flywheel A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, ass ...

increased from 6 to 8 and the size of the

connecting rod A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the cranksh ...

s was increased.

History

Technical detail

See also

References

Further reading