[Shop-talk] Volvo Engine Swap

[Mullen]

John Miller wrote:
>
> in Europe the belt-change interval spec is 48K km (30K miles) 
> but when brought to the US GM rolled the dice for some reason 
> and kicked the interval up to 60K-100K miles depending on the car.  

It's not the manufacturers, it's the government.

The federal regulations require that "emission equipment" must be warranted
for at least 60K miles in order to be certified.  California did it one
better and required 100K miles.  So, the manufacturers had to do the
calculations and decide if it was worth it to re-design everything, or pay
for the expected number of engines that would require repairing.

An example of this is the early Miatas.  They require that the timing belt
be replaced every 60K miles - except in California where you need to replace
them every 100K miles.  Exactly the same parts, but geography somehow
magically makes the parts last longer in California.

Oh, by the way, this was all as of 10 years or so ago, the feds may have
upped the requirements since then.

Tim Mullen