Finding a red block M90

Ravanelli

I imagine that these are as rare as rocking horse poo and very much in demand.
How can you get your hands on one ?

Ex850R

Talk to @iceton1975, he was in UK recently and may have found a couple.

iceton1975

Yep got 2x full conversion kits for Redblock

Philia_Bear

Price?

iceton1975

RING ME 0434 897144

Vee_Que

They also are not worth having vs a t5. As parts are scarce and expensive, they are only too suit 940/740s so the shifters position sucks in a 240, and they aren't that strong

Ex850R

If there are M90s still sound then they must last I would have thought that's a sign.
The shortage is only due to Britain's old car removal scheme.

Vee_Que

Ex850R;94678 wroteIf there are M90s still sound then they must last I would have thought that's a sign.
The shortage is only due to Britain's old car removal scheme.

In dead stock cars, m46s are still around too, for higher hp, its not worth the expense for when they break.

familyman

Not strong? Hm, have to bookmark that so I'm not tempted later. (I did a quick search earlier and some wiki came up claiming it was one of the strongest Volvo made!)

Major Ledfoot

The M90 is stronger than the M46 / M47, but has a weakness with rapid shifts and 3rd gear, unless it is modified.

Spares are harder to get for M90s also, as Mother Volvo never sold spares for them; they only did complete exchange units. That said, some M46 / M47 spares are hard to get nowadays anyway.

Vee_Que

Strongest volvo ever made is reletive... And yeah. Can't be repaired easily.

deleted_user_160

Let's not forget, m90 only come in one model of car in the redblock configuration.
Going beyond that brings you into the zone of engineering possibility.

Philia_Bear

M90 will hold 450Ft-LB all day every day
The only thing that fails is the 3rd gear syncro... which you can fix for sub $15 with a few hours work
I have modified >20+ boxen now and its sub 3 hours labor once the box is out of the car
its the same thing that frequently fails on the M56... cause its the same box...

Vastly prefer to tig the ring to the gear but it is possible to just mig it

With the short shift kit the transmission feels worlds better than any truck like T5 and is nearly on par with a good gertrag box

deleted_user_160

What happens when you have to.do.a full service or rebuild when you kill the box?

Vee_Que

How have you modified 20 Mike? They don't exist in the states either....otherwise there would be more available on turbobricks.

Philia_Bear

Vee_Que;94754 wroteHow have you modified 20 Mike? They don't exist in the states either....otherwise there would be more available on turbobricks.

2005-2007
I was buying a pallet box load of them at a time from the uk guys
A bunch of others were as well
Iirc just one of the uk guys who was paying for school exported >200 of them over the 3 years he was at uni

I offered a conversion service for 2k usd and there were a lot of takers

Philia_Bear

blondejay;94751 wroteWhat happens when you have to.do.a full service or rebuild when you kill the box?

Ive never seen one killed by a redblock
The 2.3 just does not make the power

I have seen them killed by big turbo whiteblocks making utterly stupid power though

Ex850R

Geez, a lotta hate for the M90/M56 ........
Seemed to me to be good in my 855R, it did have synchro in 3rd starting to go iirc though.
Otherwise a nice box to live with.

Major Ledfoot

@Philia_Bear - Does a transmission tunnel in a 240 require much / any modification to get an M90 to fit in it?

Also - is there much work in shortening the shifter a couple of inches so it fits into a 240?

A_Volvo_Driver

This topic has evolved a bit it seems...

How much better is an M90 compared to an M47? I'm over my M46!