Volvo 940 Tune Up and ‘Upgrades’

Sydney940 · 2024-12-27T06:29:58+00:00

Hey everyone, I recently bought a naturally aspirated, 1994 Volvo 940 GL wagon (now named Hilda) and I’m in love with it. There’s not a single thing I don’t...

Slowbrick

An FB is a great candidate for a +T. It has the right compression at 9.3:1 thanks to the B230 bottom end with the 531 head. It will have LH2.4 so the electrical work is a matter of swapping the ecu and icu over + extending the maf wiring. Then you can either use factory oil and coolant lines or make them up yourself. Find a 13c if you only want stock power and run it at 7psi and it will be the best bang for buck in terms of performance. Making NA power with a redblock requires you to make it rev which is not really practical with an auto in a traffic setting. A stock +T wouldnt require engineering in NSW and would be the best use of your time if you are spending anytime increasing performance.

If you arent up to doing it yet, then when you have you exhaust done make sure you get atleast 2.5 inches. That way your 13c will breathe nice and easy and make quick usable power in traffic.

Sydney940

Slowbrick Oh wow you’ve given me some food for thought. I’d love to do a +T, but only if I was positive that my car was in the state to handle everything that forced induction could throw at it. Maybe that’s what I start working on after next year’s OzVolvo Nats!

Are there any well documented 940 +T conversions for RHD vehicles that you’re aware of?

crawlvo

Sydney940 I got quoted 1600 for a SS catback system last week (Melbourne, inc install)

Have since gone with a replacement (Ferrita) system via Skandix, not expecting it to change the driving experience. just less leaky!

jamesinc

@Sydney940 I wrote a guide years ago for it, check it out https://ozvolvo.org/d/4096-4096

Stainless exhausts are expensive, probably $2000 for one, although it will last nearly forever. A mild steel system would be about $1300 give or take.

Sydney940

jamesinc Fantastic guide, thanks for that!

crawlvo

FWIW, Skandix have emailed me and told me the Stainless catback system will cost an extra 500 euro in shipping fees, making it substantially less viable. Now going to try rendcarparts for the same parts.

Forg

Did anyone address the comment from the original post about upgrading the fuel pump?

If not, IMHO that’s not going to achieve anything. With an EFI system, if you’re not getting enough fuel it’ll run really badly & you’ll know it … misfires under acceleration etc.
I mean I could be wrong and it could be some odd thing with FB’s that doesn’t get discussed very often; but I suspect not, I suspect there’s no value in replacing a fuel pump unless it’s running poorly.

Major Ledfoot

Forg Did anyone address the comment from the original post about upgrading the fuel pump?

If going from NA to turbo, the main fuel pump will need to be upgraded.

If sticking with NA, an NA pump in good condition will be adequate. The B234 engines used the NA pump, same as the 8V NA engines.

94+ 940s went from a lift pump / main pump system to a single 3-Bar pump in the tank. YMMV, but personally I prefer the two-pump system, since the low pressure lift pump is doing the hard work under hard cornering and low fuel level on steep incline conditions. See the Volvo Pocket Data Book (in the Tech Archives) for the Bosch part numbers and year model applications.

Major Ledfoot

Sydney940 - Looks like I have two multi-disc CD players - one in my 940T wagon and one in my 960 wagon.

Only had the chance for a quick look over the weekend as other matters kept me busy, but it appears one unit (I forget which wagon it was in) doesn't have its CD disc holder unit. Not sure if they're the same model number either, but they both look the same.

If time permits during the week, I'll remove them from the cars and see what the story is.

crawlvo

Ferrita exhaust from Rend installed easy, sounds nice. Came out to 680 Euro, including shipping! Took under two weeks to arrive.

Major Ledfoot

22 days later

Oh, my; I really need to get a wiggle-on with those stacker decks.....

Sydney940

Major Ledfoot All good mate. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to wire it up. If you've got the bracket that they sit in I'll happily take it. I fabricate parts about as well as a quadruple amputee on Valium so anything I can save myself from having to put together is a big plus.

Any chance you'd be able to show me how yours is wired too? I checked in the compartment where it's meant to be located and found a bunch of wires from when the previous owner had a towbar installed. Didn't see anything that appeared related to the wiring of the stacker decks. I swear I read that 1994 onwards models had everything wired up already to make the installation of dealer options simpler. I might have the year wrong or I could be talking out of my leather fruit loop, but I'm pretty sure that's what the situation was.

In any case, don't rush. I've been keeping myself busy with all sorts of little projects here and there while I try to get it up to scratch