6
CYLINDERS
PRV stands for Peugeot-Renault-Volvo: a 90° V6 born of an aborted V8 — from the 2.7-litre carburettor unit to the 3.0-litre 24-valve turbo — from 125 to 408 bhp. The full technical legacy of the PRV engine.
The norm for a V6 is a 60° vee, which keeps the engine compact. The PRV kept the 90° angle of the stillborn V8 it descended from — a rare choice that gave it a distinctive character.
On the first generation, the flat-plane crankshaft with non-offset crankpins made the firing intervals uneven — the root of its early reputation. The 1985 second generation cured it with an offset-crankpin crankshaft.
The PRV wore two code families: the Renault/Peugeot/Citroën Z-codes (Douvrin) and the Volvo B-codes — and only those. Alpine, DeLorean, Eagle, Dodge, Lancia, Venturi and Talbot never struck a code of their own: they received the engine under its Renault, Peugeot or Volvo code. Here are the known variants, listed one code per line, by displacement — from the 2.5 L turbo to the 3.0 L 24-valve bi-turbo.
Note — from 1997, a 60° “PR” (Peugeot-Renault) V6 — called L7X at Renault and ES9 at Peugeot — succeeded the PRV on several cars that had carried it: Renault Safrane, Laguna and Espace, plus Peugeot 605 and Citroën XM. This V6 is not a PRV — only the PRV versions appear here (the phase-1 3.0 12-valve of the Safrane/Laguna; the early ZPJ4 24-valve of the 605/XM).
Eleven marques, twenty-six road cars — plus the civilian run of the Peugeot P4 V6. From the 1974 Volvo 264 to the last Volvo 960 of 1994, by way of the DeLorean of Back to the Future, a French presidential Renault 30 and the 408-bhp Venturi 400 GT. Each model has its own file.
What this engine gets asked most often. The full FAQ answers several hundred more — workshop figures, engine codes, car by car.
From the modest 125-bhp Volvo 264 to the 408-bhp Venturi 400 GT — discover the 26 road cars that fitted this V6.