Volvo SI6 (B6324)
3.2 L · inline-6 · naturally aspirated · petrol · 2006–present
Also known as: si6, b6324s, b6324, b6304t si6, 3.2 straight-six volvo
Volvo's transverse straight-six — the SI6 — in the XC90, S80, XC60 and the Land Rover Freelander 2.
⚑ A straight-six mounted TRANSVERSELY is the whole engineering story. To make it fit, Volvo moved the ancillaries: there is no belt on the front of the engine at all — the alternator, water pump and air-conditioning compressor are driven from the rear, off the camshaft chain drive, inside the engine.
So a failed ancillary is not the job it is on any other engine. Replacing the alternator means going in from the gearbox side, and a job quoted from a conventional layout will be wrong by a large multiple. This is the single most useful thing to know before agreeing a price.
It is chain-driven with no belt to schedule, which is a genuine advantage, and the chain itself is not a common failure.
In the Freelander 2 it is the same engine under Land Rover badging, so Volvo material applies where Land Rover's is thin.
Cars fitted with this engine
2 generations, across 1 make. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Posted about this engine
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about SI6 (B6324).