Volvo !

[SilentUnicorn]

Guess what?! with any luck by this tommorrow i will be the proud owner of a volvo 122 of the 1960 vintage (older than me). The Car is in fairly solid shape. inspected and on the road. Under the hood is a rebuilt B20 motor with a pair of what looks like a pair of HS4's. starts and runs very well. I am physched! Car needs a little exhaust TLC. Looks like a may have a neat winter beater. Price is extremely right.
so ...any of you good folks out there know anything about these cars? Where to find the best Volvo board? Parts? Any idea of it worth? Any and all comments welcome,,,good or bad



mark

 

[SilentUnicorn]

looks like this

 

[davelgee]

Congrats! 122s are great cars, very tough and dependable if half way taken care of.
You may have a B16 if you have HS4s the B18s had HS6 carbs. If you look at the block on the drivers side towards the front of the car the type engine is cast into it. Also the B16 valve cover is held on by 2 central bolts, the B18 by 4 placed about where they would be on a small block chevy valve cover.
The brickboard has a section for the 120 series cars.
Er...Just noticed that you said it is a B20 in your earlier post so you should have the '3 bolt' HS6 carbs if the 20 came with the car.

Cheers!
Dave G.

 

[SilentUnicorn]

Thanx Dave. i will look into the brickboard. cast on the block says B20.......any thoughts on where it may have come from? the gent says its a 135hp? i am not 100% sure on the carbs, i was just guessing..

mark

 

[davelgee]

Well 135 might be a bit optimistic! the version of the B20 with high compression (10.5-1 IIRC) and Bosch injection in the 1800E/ES was 135. The SU equipped sedan version was around 120 or so, and pretty torquey for a 2 liter, very broad power band. Both the B18 and 20s are 5 main bearing engines and are pretty bullet proof as are the trans. Front ball joints and the fiber cam gear are the weak links on these cars, both fairly inexpensive and relatively easy to replace. For beaters Volvos are pretty hard to beat!

Cheers!
Dave G.

 

[tony barnhill]

Good deal - you & I are both looking into unusual cars tomorrow...good luck!

 

[AngliaGT]

IPD in Portland,Oregon,has Volvo parts.
I'm not sure if they still carry parts for the 120 series.
I do know that he (Richard Gordon - the owner), built
some very clean,& fast 122's,1800's etc.

- Doug

 

[Steve_S]

Neat! I don't know anything about it, but I'll bet it's a well built car.

 

[davelgee]

IPD has some Volvo 122 parts, they are especially good on suspension parts, both stock and tweaked. Their improved sway bars and bushings are a must if you want the thing to corner without a pretty extreme amount of body lean.
For other stuff Swedish treasures (on the net) is very good for many things that are hard to find, and - amazingly enough - so is your local Volvo dealership!
Many 1800S/E/ES parts can easily be made to fit as performance/handling/braking upgrades too.

Cheers!
Dave G.

 

[Basil]

Wow, very cool! Speaking of Volvos, my wife and I have been debating whether to replace her Miata (when it's time to do so) with either a new Mini Cooper S or a Volvo S60. I'm leaning toward the Volvo due to the reputation that they "take a licking and keep on ticking."

Basil

 

[Steve]

Great car! Known as the Amazon in the UK. Bullet-proof, well-made, reliable, a driver's car. They had a lot of success in rallying back in the day.

 

[davelgee]

Heh! Volvo had quite a dust up with Hercules (purveyor of mopeds and a wankel engine bike IIRC) over the Amazon name! In the end Volvo could only use the name in a few markets. A shame really, but Volvo had the last laugh as the 122s are called Amazons today and when did you last see a Hercules 'Amazon' Moped?


Cheers!
Dave G.

 

[jessebogan]

Good buy!!. I service a bunch of 122s still, and think they are pretty good cars. The Volvo 4 spd with OD just about bolts in. Brake parts are girling, and a lot of the electrical stuff is Lucas, and the rest are Bosch. Surprisingly, Volvo still makes a lot of parts for this car. You will have to find a cooperative dealer parts guy, but they can supply just about anything for the car. IPD suspension parts are highly reccommended, not real expensive, and easy enough to fit. The improvement is beyond belief. The shop I have now, I "inherited" from a guy who parted out a LOT of 122s. I have been ebaying parts off for 6 years, but when I moved, I gave most of the remaining parts away to a local Volvo club member. A good choice of cars, but I will warn you, you might like it enough that you won't want to spoil it as a winter car.

 

[SilentUnicorn]

Thanks for the heads up on the IPD site.. looks like the best one i have seen yet.

Well Here She is! Drove her home this evening. it is pretty loud with the broken exhaust pipe , but it ran well.

 

[Bugeye58]

Mark, that looks way too nice for a winter beater.
Had a friend bring his 122S out to the track last Sunday for our final open track day of the year. He was getting it ready for the vintage Volvo bash at Elkhart Lake this coming weekend. One of my all time favorites.
I just picked up a '95 850 Sedan for a winter ride. I'll park my 740 Turbo wagon for the season.
Jeff

 

[davelgee]

Whoa! Very nice, I guess I mis-read your first post, I thought you said 60's vintage! That looks like it may BE a 1960 122. That car (unless rusted badly) is no beater.
I think you did very well indeed, these cars can be a lot of fun.

Cheers!
Dave G.

PS Give us a photo of the intake/exhaust side under the hood, if you got the cast iron manifold I know a trick to pull a few more ponies out the exhaust pipe (since it sounds like you are gonna be there anyway).

 

[coldplugs]

I've always liked 122's also. I looked at a couple down in southern Maine not too long ago but they were both too far gone for me to deal with.

Good luck with it. It sounds like we have some knowledgable folks here if you need help with it.

 

[aeronca65t]

Amazons are the bomb. And your's looks pretty straight.

My best friend had one in high school. We drove it to Watkins Glen (from South NJ) several times.

One of my other friends has a rusty four-door he's fixing up right now.

As vintage racers, these cars pull pretty good money. I saw one for $25000 (a nice PV will bring $40000!).

This link below shows a 122S I raced with at the Pittsburgh Vintage (with a PV behind it).

https://liverpoolmotorclub.tripod.com/vrg-beaverun06.html

 

[SilentUnicorn]

[ QUOTE ]

Cheers!
Dave G.

PS Give us a photo of the intake/exhaust side under the hood, if you got the cast iron manifold I know a trick to pull a few more ponies out the exhaust pipe (since it sounds like you are gonna be there anyway).

[/ QUOTE ]


Update, it was in the yard 20 minutes and whike trying to check the brake lights, "Da Swede" blew a front brake cylinder. And of course when i took it apart, the drum was toast. Now try to find these drums......took 3 days, and cost more than i paid for the car. On the other hand shoes are cheap.

here are a couple of pix of the engine bay. As you can see i have an alum intake with a single down pipe, would love to here any tricks you may know Dave.......

 

[SilentUnicorn]

pic 2