Volvo's first

overhead valve 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 be ...

passenger car engine was the

inline-four A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...

B4B of 1944 and its descendants, the B14A and B16. These were cast iron engines, and used just three

main bearing Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

B4B

Introduced in 1944, the B4B displaced and powered the Volvo PV444. It was a departure for Volvo who had not produced an automobile with a four-cylinder engine in nearly 20 years. The B4B was equipped with a single down-draught

carburetor 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 meteri ...

. Suppliers of ancillaries included

Autolite Autolite or Auto-Lite is an American brand of spark plugs and ignition wire sets. Autolite products are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Until 2011, the Autolite brand was a part of Honeywell's automotive Consumer Pro ...

(ignition distributors and generators),

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 "high ...

and

Carter Carburetor Carter Carburetor Company in St. Louis, Missouri, was established in 1909, and ceased operation in 1985. It was founded by William Carter, who started experimenting with automotive carburetors while running a successful bicycle shop. His first, c ...

s, and Bosch (ignition distributors, generators and starter motors.)

B14A

The B14A was essentially a twin carb version of the B4B. These two engines were nearly identical, except for the induction systems. The B14A carb system was supplied by the British

SU Carburettor SU carburettors were a British manufacturer of constant-depression carburettors. Their designs were in mass production during most of the twentieth century. The S.U. Carburetter Company Limited also manufactured dual-choke updraught carburetto ...

concern and the carbs used were designated HS2. These diminutive carbs, familiar to any English sports car fan, improved the

acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by ...

and overall performance of the B4B which in turn accomplished Volvo's corporate desire to make the

PV444 The Volvo PV is a series of two-door, four-passenger car models — the PV444 and the PV544 — made by Volvo from 1947 to 1965. During World War II's early stages, Volvo decided that a new, smaller car that could deliver good fuel economy woul ...

cars powered by these engines more attractive to the American audience, whose attention Volvo hoped to gain. While B14A engines are considered rare in the US setting, they were even rarer in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The production run lasted for one year. Some of the earliest P1900 roadsters were built with B14s but many of the short production of 67 of these open

fiberglass Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...

cars received the replacement for the B14 — the B16.

B16

The B16A and B16B (single carb and twin carbs respectively) were a bored out development of the B14A which in turn was sired by the B4B. These engines were fitted to the

in its final two years (1957 and 1958), the

Volvo PV544 The Volvo PV is a series of two-door, four-passenger car models — the PV444 and the PV544 — made by Volvo from 1947 to 1965. During World War II's early stages, Volvo decided that a new, smaller car that could deliver good fuel economy woul ...

in its 1958 introduction, as well as the companion estate and van versions known as Volvo P445, Volvo P210, and

Volvo Duett The Duett is an automobile from Volvo that was in production from 1953 until 1969. The name ''Duett'' was intended to signify a car that could be used as a delivery vehicle during the week and as a comfortable sedan away from work. The Duett was ...

. A new Volvo automobile introduced in 1956, known in some markets as the

Volvo Amazon The Volvo Amazon was a mid-sized car manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars from 1956 to 1970 and introduced in the United States as the ''122S'' at the 1959 New York International Auto Show. The Amazon shared the wheelbase, tall posture and h ...

Volvo 122 122 may refer to: *122 (number), a natural number * AD 122, a year in the 2nd century AD * 122 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * ''122'' (film), a 2019 Egyptian psychological horror film *" One Twenty Two", a 2022 single by the American rock band B ...

was the first production Volvo to sport this engine in any significant number although some of the later examples of the short-lived

Volvo P1900 The Volvo Sport (also known as P1900) is a Swedish fiberglass-bodied roadster of which sixty-eight units were built, first 19 by Glasspar Company in California, between 1956 and 1957 by Volvo Cars. Assar Gabrielsson, Volvo's president and fou ...

were also fitted with them. Other applications of this engine found use in marine, industrial and agricultural settings. The Volvo BM T425 tractor is one such example of a non-automotive use for the B16. The appearance of the B16 was not unlike its predecessor, the B14. The block and cylinder heads bore no particular difference at a glance. The B16B sported twin SU HS4 carbs, notably larger than the B14A's HS2 carbs. Also, the remote oil filter attached next to the water pump on the ignition distributor side of the engine on the B14 had been relocated to a housing under the intake and exhaust manifold side on the B16. The

exhaust manifold In automotive engineering, an exhaust manifold collects the exhaust gases from multiple cylinders into one pipe. The word '' manifold'' comes from the Old English word ''manigfeald'' (from the Anglo-Saxon ''manig'' anyand ''feald'' old and ref ...

which dumped centrally on the B14 now was made to exit towards the rear of the B16 manifold. In automotive applications, the B16 was featured from 1957 to 1961 model years although in marine and industrial applications it was used for a number of years after. It was replaced in 1962

model year The model year (sometimes abbreviated "MY") is a method of describing the version of a product which has been produced over multiple years. The model year may or may not be the same as the calendar year in which the product was manufactured. ...

cars by the 5 main-bearing B18 engine of 1.8 litres which had been first seen by the automotive public in the 1961 Volvo P1800 sports car. With the discontinuation of the B16 also came the end of 6 volt electrical systems in Volvo cars.

References

* {{cite web , url = http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/Volvo_Books/engine2.html , work = Volvo Books , title = Chronology of Volvo Engine Development , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060116020013/http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/Volvo_Books/engine2.html , archivedate = January 16, 2006 B4B Straight-four engines Gasoline engines by model

B4B

B14A

B16

See also

References