Volvo Penta VP700 -78 renovation.

[Fastjeff57]

Great photos! (Often wondered how they got a rotary valve to work on a three cylinder.) Interesting to see that, like the old Merc triples, it has two carbs for three cylinders.


Jeff

[taatto]

Nice work!
I try to fix normal vp700. -76. Per, how your engine have worked? And how much it rew? It sounds great in that video. Do you have more videos?
Sorry my bad english, I Speak Finnish better..

[Mark75H]

Your English is good!

[Per]

Nice to hear from more people working on these engines!

It worked very well until the Power head came loose during the first half of Roslagsloppet last year. I noticed it to late and two cylinders got scuffed again. Luckily it was the std bore cylinders! I have recently bought two nib pistons and an new head gasket so it will be fit for fight again next summer.
This is actually a bit embarrassing since it was the second time a power head has come loose for me, don't forget to put on nylock nuts and Loctite EVERYWHERE you can

Revs were lower than anticipated, round 5500 but than again the engine was barely run in and the jetting was probably a bit on the rich side. I will actually give it some extra exhaust duration now that it is in pieces hope that helps the revs a bit.

This spring I went to a classic racing meeting in Herräng a bit north of Stockholm. I had to use my spare engine which is almost stock and the mid section on that engine was tired to say the least, when we got back to shore after the ride a lot of bolts and nuts were missing and the lower unit was only held in place by 3 of 6 studs. I ended up scrapping the middle section when I got home...

Right now the boat is rigged with a OMC 56CI from 92 with 47knots it's still no rocket but I will get there in the end

One of the conclusions from running the OMC engine on the boat is that the lower unit on the Penta is not really suitable for running at the elevation required for it to work well on a Cat, the skeg is quite small and very thick.

I have more video on my computer, if it makes it to YouTube I will post a link here.

taatto
I don't speak any Finnish but if Swedish is ok you can always call, I'll PM my number if you are interested

[pdt]

in the uk we just cannot find spares for these engines, its like trying to find rocking horse poop. ha ha

you are correct that they stopped in 1979, but also in 1979 quwait (middle east)bought nearly all the Volvo penta 60 and 70 hp engines and they stayed in crates not used at all.
I think they were getting ready for huge military evacuation and planned to use these engine, but we all know what happened there !!!!!!!.

loads of them re-surfaced as old stock brand new engines during the 1990's, but no spare parts back up.
here is a pic of mine, it was a very powerfull engine for its size back then and would leave a omc or mercury in its wake.
sounded like a much bigger enegine ,easy to start, but no power trim etc.
fantastic well built engines though.
47mph on the back of my dateline bikini 15, same as a few other boat under different names. prop was 19 pitch I think.
the only trouble with Volvo was the decals faded very easy if left in the sun.
great to see a restored one, and good to know you can get parts for them too.

[Per]

Nice ride pdt!
I had heard about those quwait engines before but thought that it was only a rumor...

I just realized that there is actually one video of the boat from herräng already on YouTube, this is from the second "start" after our coffee break in Älmsta.

[pdt]

yeah there was loads of them that came to uk in crates back in the early 90's.
All brand new in their crates and they were nice strong sounding engines, just no spares back up.
I paid over £100 just to get a impellor for mine, nothing else seemed to fit and it was in the days of no internet so shopping around for one was not going to happen.
I had to write off to a fella down in cornwall who had spares sitting in his shed.
he must of earned a fortune from people like me..
that engine was fantastic, easy to start and very reliable.