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The Legendary Volvo Whiteblock Engine – Modular Design of the Future

The Legendary Volvo Whiteblock Engine - Modular Design of the Future

Volvo is a modern brand that is slowly but surely turning towards the electric vehicle segment. That new face of Volvo is fairly recent as well. It was a different story back in the day. This brand suffered from a borderline personality disorder, and the Volvo White block engine is partially to blame. What does any of this mean? Let’s find out.

The Duality of Volvo

Safety, innovation, reliability – these are the words your average Volvo owner would use to describe the brand throughout the ‘90s and later. Volvo was always the choice of soccer moms and family people who didn’t care much about performance and sleek designs. The archetypical Volvo driver didn’t care about most things automotive, except for reliability and safety.

This image would be perfect if it weren’t for a whole different side to Volvo. Swedes, much like other Nordic peoples, love to drive. They may not be on the same level as Fins when it comes to organizing amateur rally races in someone’s backyard, but they were involved enough to appreciate a bit of juice in a car.

Needless to say, Volvo was more than accommodating in this regard. The company’s first vastly popular creation was the legendary B230FTRedblockengine. This engine was the driving force behind the entire ‘Turbobrick’ movement.

Volvo had essentially created a simple motor built like a tank capable of sustaining a lot of boosts before you had to play with the internals. In other words, they’ve created every tuner’s wet dream.

By the time the ‘90s rolled around, you could find a ‘Redblock’ engine in just about any platform you could imagine. It was so popular that many project builders skipped the almighty LS in favor of the ‘Redblock.’ You could see that red valve cover all over the place.

The Duality of Volvo

Time Waits for No Engine

There’s no denying that B230FT secured its place in the automotive hall of fame. It was and still is a true legend. But, much like with other legendary engines, it succumbed to the passage of time.

Right around the beginning of the ‘90s, Volvo was ready to retire the ‘Redblock’ and come up with something new that would replace these engines. However, they didn’t want to do what everyone else did and design several different engines to cover their gamut of models.

Instead, they’ve decided to kill multiple birds with one stone. The idea was to build a modular engine – something they could adapt to a whole spectrum of applications without too much trouble.

Volvo’s vision of this modular engine would cover the small econoboxes as well as massive SUVs. The solution they’ve come up with would allow them to add cylinders, remove them, reconfigure fuel injection systems as necessary. In the end, there would be over 80 versions and variations of this new modular engine used across various Volvo cars.

Volvo “N” Whiteblock

The official designation of what is now known as the White block engine was the “N” engine. As soon as the first information regarding this engine started to spread, it was obvious that it had very little to do with the motor it was designed to replace.

Where the ‘Redblock’ ran a cast-iron block, the new engine ran an all-aluminum alloy open deck design. Volvo has also decided to go with forged connecting rods and twin overhead camshafts sporting 4 valves per cylinder. These new motors would also use a timing belt with a decent lifespan of some 50,000 miles to it.

On paper, the new engine looked promising. If you consider that it came with forged connecting rods as stock, it would later be revealed that these connecting rods weren’t all that people hoped they would be. Alas, that’s a story for a different time.

Volvo “N” White block

Going Transverse

If there’s one discussion that can instantly divide a room full of car enthusiasts, it’s whether RWD is better than FWD and vice-versa. Volvo was traditionally an RWD brand in the ‘80s and up to the early ‘90s. The famous ‘Redblock’ was longitudinal, offering that traditional feel of being pushed rather than pulled up the road.

When Volvo designed the entire ‘N’ line, they looked well into the future. Unfortunately for most hardcore car enthusiasts, the future back looked awful, like FWD. Needless to say, Volvo was correct in this assumption.

Gong transverse made more sense. Front-wheel drive simplifies things a lot. Sweden is a Nordic country that sees a whole bunch of snow every year. As fun as rear-wheel drive and snow combo can be for enthusiasts, your average Volvo owner would benefit much more from having a simple, safer FWD setup in their car.

Racing Pedigree

The only issue with going transverse was the negative feedback from the diehard Volvo performance fans. Such a move was bordering treason in their eyes. However, Volvo wanted to prove that going transverse didn’t mean pulling out of the enthusiast performance game altogether.

To show what their new engines can do, Volvo joined the British Touring Car Championship and scored decent results. Their initial run with 850 wagons in 1994 was nothing to write home about. A few years later, they went back and did reasonably good, coming in 3rd both two years in a row.

Racing Pedigree volvo white block eeuroparts

Understanding the Nomenclature

Designing some 80 engines on the same platform greatly complicated things from the nomenclature standpoint alone. The previous engines used fairly straightforward designations, the “N” engine was all over the place. However, there’s some order to this chaos.

We will take one of the most popular engines from the “N” lineup as an example. The B5244T5 was a well-known choice for tuners all over the world. It was shipped in the S60 T5s, and V70 T5s produced from ‘05-’09 roughly.

Understanding the Nomenclature about volvo at eeuroparts

So what does the B5244T5 even mean?

  • B stands for Benzin (Gasoline)Volvo was always pragmatic when naming their engines. The B on their motors stands for Benzin, D for diesel, and GB for Gas/Benzin. Most of the ‘White block’ engines were gasoline engines, meaning that B is more or less always going to be the first letter in the sequence.
  • The second digit tells you the number of cylinders – In our particular case here, that number is 5. Mind you, and these engines came in both 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder versions as well.
  • The next two digits represent displacement – Volvo has offered these engines in a variety of displacements. You could tell the volume of an engine by reading the 3rd and 4th digit. In our case here, the displacement is 2.4-liters.
  • The next digit represents valves – Most of the “N” modular engines came with 4 valves per cylinder, so the 5th digit in the sequence usually doesn’t change from engine to engine. However, there were a few motors in this family that ran 2 valves per cylinder.
  • The sixth digit represents induction – Volvo has used a bunch of different forms of induction over the years. This sixth digit will tell you precisely what you’re dealing with. T stands for turbo, S is the naturally aspirated configuration. That being said, you might sometimes see an F, FS, or G in this position as well. These letters represent different types of fuel injection systems.
  • The last digit represents generation – Last but not least, you’ve got the digit that shows you precisely what generation of the “N” motor you have. Mind you. Some versions had up to 14 generations, which makes this digit a necessary one.

A Long and Successful Run

Volvo’s “N” family of engines has been in production for over 26 years, going from 1990 to 2016. The ‘Whiteblock’ may not have established the same kind of wild reputation as the ‘Redblock.’ Still, it showed that you could do a lot with a modular design that significantly cuts down production costs and part production.

Speaking of parts, one of the best things about the “N” engine was the abundance of spare parts. With so many cars using the same platform, spare parts were everywhere, both new and used. Add Volvo’s generally incredible logistics, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Genuine Volvo Parts and Accessories

eEuroparts.com understands that automotive maintenance greatly depends on the quality of the parts you install. We cater to the DIY community, so we know that quality has no alternative. Because of that, we’ve put together one of the largest catalogs of Genuine, OEM, and aftermarket Volvo parts you can find.

We also offer similarly extensive catalogs for all kinds of other European car brands. To find the part you’re looking for, all you need to do is head over to our online store and input your car’s info into our navigation tool. Once our system crunches the data, you’ll be presented with a list of parts that match your inquiry.

If you find yourself stuck or unable to find what you’re looking for, feel free to get in contact with our customer support service. Our reps are standing by to offer whatever assistance you might need via email or by phone.

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