Crank no start issue after engine swap, Volvo 740

[Håkon Mathias Bergvik Trulsen]

So my friend blew the engine in his 1986 Volvo 740, with a B230A carbureted engine. The head gasket blew and drained coolant into the oil passages, the engine ran until it didn’t.

Anyways, we had a friend with a spare B230F engine laying around, witch he claimed ran fine before being pulled out of his car. We put on a new head gasket kit and timing belt, swapped over the intake, carb, mechanical fuel pump, block-mounted distributor, and a header he had laying around before we put the new engine into the car.

Now everything is assembled the way it should be, but the engine cranks and doesn’t start. The mechanical fuel pump is working, the carb is clean as a whistle, all spark plugs spark, the distributor is timed correctly, the firing order is correct (1342) and the cam timing is correct. The closest we have gotten to a startup was when we pushed the piston in the carb out of the way and gave it a large dose of starting fluid, but that only resulted in a couple of “coughs” out of the engine, maybe two revolutions on its own before it died again.

We’ve asked pretty much everyone locally that knows these engines for advice over the phone, a few have stopped by, and they all were stumped as to what it could be.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Topic

[Richard Kirshy]

First thought is to check that #1 cylinder is @TDC.
Pull the plug and either put a long screw driver down the cylinder or use a bore scope to confirm the position.
Next double check the timing on both the cam and distributor.

Beyond that what year engine did you install and does it have a ECU, if so are the vehicles ECU AND wiring compatible to the new engine?

[Håkon Mathias Bergvik Trulsen]

I’ve checked that TDC lines up with the mark on the crank/timing cover, and the cam is in time with the crank.
The original engine (B230A) was carbureted with an early “dumb” electronic distributor, and the new one (B230F) was fuel injected. We swapped over all the “dumb” systems to the new one. There’s basically nothing else than the distributor, cold start valve, oil pressure sensor and temp sensor when it comes to electronics.

[Richard Kirshy]

I’ve checked that TDC lines up with the mark on the crank/timing cover, and the cam is in time with the crank.
I try this again..
Remove #1 spark plug, visually confirm it is @TDC then remove the distributor cap and confirm the rotor is pointing at number 1 cylinder firing position.

The original engine (B230A) was carbureted with an early “dumb” electronic distributor, and the new one (B230F) was fuel injected. We swapped over all the “dumb” systems to the new one. There’s basically nothing else than the distributor, cold start valve, oil pressure sensor and temp sensor when it comes to electronics.

You installed a fuel injected motor.
Have you checked for proper fuel pressure at the rail?

[Håkon Mathias Bergvik Trulsen]

As I said, I’ve checked that TDC lines up with the mark on the crank pulley by poking a screwdriver in the spark plug hole. The distributor points towards the spark plug wire going to cyl. #1

Maybe I didn’t make it clear, but I stated in my original post that we took the carb and intake manifold from the original B230A and stuck it on the B230F in place of the EFI intake.
The main differences between the A and F engine is a tiny bit higher compression on the F as well as the distributor being mounted on the back of the cylinder head instead of on the block, to accommodate EFI I think, but we converted it back to block mounted distributor.

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