Hello everyone,

I am back after taking yet another period of hibernation. I'm here to talk about my V70XC, and the next chapter of its life: Chasing more power.

As most of you know, I converted it from auto (AW55) to manual (M66) about a year ago. Since doing that, it's given me 10,000 kilometres of mostly trouble free motoring. All of the issues I've had in the past year have pretty much being conversion related things. Although lately it has been having trouble starting, I'll work that out another day.

Although my 2002 XC is okay in terms of performance and torque, it's no R, and it never will be and I don't expect it to be. But I wish it just had a bit more. If you're in the wrong gear, it's all over. If you try and overtake a long stretch of slow moving traffic in your 1 kilometre of overtaking lane, you really do have to drop about 3 gears and thrash the thing. If you want to tow a caravan or similar, you can forget about 5th or 6th gear.

The car has done 127500 kilometres now. It's about to get its 15 year "major" service. I've been doing this car on "time" rather than "kilometres" due to the fact I never really drive it, but that's probably going to be changing soon as I am considering running the XC as my only car (and not having the 1997 V70). So I'd like to get all of this (and lots of other items) all sorted before I do that.

The car really does need a good tune up. Due to it passing into my hands, me being broke and having it serviced at a few different places, then the auto dying and the car was off the road, not being driven, for about a year, it ended up skipping its major service (I think it was due for one at the 12 year mark). So I am aware that some of the problems I'm having are probably because I really do need to do a full stage 0 on the car, but I really don't think it's going to make any kind of extraordinary difference.

I'm also thinking more long-term. I'd like to keep this car for as long as it wants to keep rolling, and I'll soon be finally getting my ECU tuned. The flash is only something I'd like to do once, so I want to make all of the mechanical changes before I do that. But I'm not sure how my engine will fair.

For a short period of time, I had a 2000 model V70 T5. I bought the car mostly for parts, the engine had bent valves. Due to some living constraints at the time, it was borderline impossible to have a non-registered, non-running car at home, and I couldn't keep it anywhere else, so I ended up plunging about $2000 into fitting a secondhand (reconditioned) cylinder head to it, with new gaskets throughout the top end. I ended up just registering it and driving it for a while as I then was considering it as a new daily driver, but the auto wasn't all that great and then the brake booster died (its a DSTC model) so I handed the plates back to VicRoads and now it sits in the driveway of our new house. I have taken the engine out and it's sitting in the garage (complete unit with all the bolt-ons).



I liked the T5. It definitely had more "go" than the XC, especially in the top end, and that was with a rooted auto and failing sensors all around. I've driven plenty of nicer examples which go really really good. I'd really like my XC to basically have the equivalent power of a T5. But without changing the motor.

Although I do have the 2.3 motor sitting here, and it was running well, I'm really not keen on using it at this point. I feel as though the 2.4 in my XC is "better". The 2.4 has done less kilometres, 127500, its only had one previous owner, who drove it pretty tamely, always serviced it at the dealership, every 10,000 or so. The 2.3 however, has done 178000, has had about a million owners (not even kidding, its had more people in it than you're average taxi), and the service history is pretty inconsistent and all over the place.

I feel as though the 2.4 is a better starting point, but I am certainly baring in mind that the 2.3 has thicker cylinder liners and is more of a "power" engine.

I'm not really chasing crazy amounts of power. I was just looking at the MTE tune offered by IPD and thats pretty much going to be the limit for me. According to them, the average 2.4 LPT engine like my XC has, only offers 190 hp and 210 ft.lb as standard, using their tune it takes it to 230 hp and 275 ft.lb. Not bad, but I think if I'm going to do this, I'll do it once and do it right. So!

The T5, as standard, has 247 hp and 243 ft.lb of torque, MTE takes it to 280 hp and 320 ft.lp. That's more the numbers I'm looking for. I guess I really want to know if those numbers (280/320) will be easily handled by your stock standard, 2.4 LPT block as found in all of your 2000-2002 XC's? I'm not keen on changing the motor. So I'm pretty much just going to take all of the bolt-ons from the T5 engine, and put them on the XC, and then hope and pray. Even if I could only do the equivalent to a stock T5 engine on the 2.4, I'd be pretty pleased I think. For now, anyway.

But then I'm also thinking, considering I have the 2.3 block with relatively low mileage (lets be honest anything with less than 200,000 is "low"). Obviously I did a cylinder head on it, so was able to inspect that the cylinder walls are in good condition with all the cross-hatching still visible. If I'm going to this effort, should I consider chasing ridiculous, R-levels of power. The 2.3 is the better block to do this, isn't it? As it has the thicker cylinder liners? I could put some decent rod's and pistons in it, maybe a stronger crank, a better cylinder head than you're average 2.4 LPT, and build something that is never going to blow up.

I'm never going to chase those dream figures of like 700hp. I really don't want that. I still want this car to be a practical, reliable and easy car to live with. I only service it every 7500, I use your standard 5W40 synthetic oil and all genuine Volvo parts and I really don't want that to change. I don't want it to be having crankcase issues, blowing out the dipstick and so on. It needs to be reliable as it will probably be my only car and I need it to get to work, do long interstate road-trips, and give me at least another 5-years of motoring. I'm 23 now, I need to start saving money for a house and my future, so spending lots on maintaining the Volvo is slowly moving down on the priority list. But I will cross the hurdle now, spend as much as it needs now so I can just focus on "maintenance" for the next few years.
I think the current motor is rooted from sounds of things and its just really really worn and has a few bad sensors (link in with hard to start)
The s40 pulls hard in either 5th or 6th and it has less power stock (motor on it still stock)

If you want to save money and stuff
Sell it and buy an appliance like an 08 i30 crdi
Owning a volvo and saving money do not go together

Sadly PB is right Jeremy, owning a Volvo (or a lot of other Euro cars) is not a good idea if you have other financial goals in mind. I know, I have owned shedloads of cars over many decades and it is almost always the Euro ones that have been either unreliable, costly or both. Sure, I can think of a 240 we had that was solid, but then again another we had was a total POS. Don't ever ask my wife about our Peugeot 504 if you want to live. I could go on.

I bought my son an old V40 to learn in and be his first car because they are about the only 5 star car you can get for those $ and Voldat charge peanuts for the work they do. I bought the V50 to indulge my love of Volvos, but only now in my 50s when I can take the costs involved should things go wrong. Neither is perfect, both need some $ spent on them and I don't really enjoy opening my wallet.

Contrast that with the appliance cars we have had. My wife's Yaris over the 8 years we have had it has cost us a battery. My Focus, nothing. I can repeat this over many cars and brands - few faults of any significance in the majority of appliance cars, anything from constant niggly faults through to major failures in the Euro ones, regardless of age.

Appliances are getting way better as cars too. On a recent trip to NZ we had a Corolla and a Malibu, both the ultimate appliance cars. They were surprisingly refined, comfortable, competent and pleasant. TBH both were better than the V50 in some ways.

For mine, if you want the Volvo because you love it, great, but accept it won't be trouble or cost free.
Alright, have you spoken to mark at vp tuning? Read many swedespeed threads? I think going with a generic American tune is the wrong idea and wasting your money vs a local who does it regularly whom you can consult.

Holy shit, 2k on a head!? reco does not cost that much.... And a major service is extra oils and a timing belt I thought? And im suprised you didn't try selling that v70...

First point of call is the compression on the xc70, if that is good and even. Leave it. The turbo is what makes power on all these cars for the most part.

The t5 runs a 15g or 16t td04 turbo, the lpt motor uses a 13t, its tiny and runs out of puff a lot sooner. That is most of the difference. If your changing to the bigger turbo, you might as well fit the much better flowing xc90 manifold.

And of course, upgrading the exhaust to a 3". None of the off the shelf shit, you can make one with a couple of bends and a welder yourself. Its good practice! You want 3" to at least the first muffler, and then replace the rest for 3" down the track, you can get mufflers that. Flow well and muffle the noise as well.

If the compression is no good, we can leakdown test the motor and. If its in the head. Rip that off, swap over the head from your t5 motor to get a good start, if the block is worn then also chuck the engine in.

There is no need to upgrade the crank (that option doesn't actually exist, mostly as they do not break before other components do).

eBay rods are handy if you want above 300hp though.

Injectors from the t5 should go straight in, can you swap the t5 ecu into the xc? Alternatively can ostrich like on an 850 be used?

If you want r power, a 19t with td04hl (8cm housing) is the next step. Or an xr6t gt35r turbo, which is slightly insane to use for your purposes I think, but would get over 300hp on high boost.
If your power goals are under 350 hp i'd recommend staying with the 2.4LPT, the higher CR makes for better day to day driveability due greater throttle response. With a healthy low km engine you also have a good base for adding extra performance.

Here is a blog from ARDtuning in relation to a bolt on build for the p2 LPT motor.

http://www.ardideas.com/LPT-Stage-3-Build_b_32.html

A healthy power gain but i would definitely go 465cc Bosch green injectors, upgraded fuel pump and quality intercooler replacement if sustained WOT are in order.

In the dyno you can see the power was capped due to fueling issues.

I've been running the s70 99' LPT with only downpipe, 19T (19 psi) and tune and its been solid for a few years now.

In addition ME7 tuning additions options include - Autotech (Europe) and Hilton tuning (USA).

Both have great reputations and results are on youtube.
I found a simple MBC on my LPT motor woke it up big time, massive low down torque. Get ebay rods if you want to screw boost up then go 16 or 18T
No need for rods until over 300hp, expecially with good fueling.
Thanks guys for all the comments and advice.

I think the first thing, as always, that I will address is the "sell it" comments.
Philia_Bear;96879 wroteIf you want to save money and stuff
Sell it and buy an appliance like an 08 i30 crdi
Owning a volvo and saving money do not go together
Chris;96894 wroteSadly PB is right Jeremy, owning a Volvo (or a lot of other Euro cars) is not a good idea if you have other financial goals in mind.

For mine, if you want the Volvo because you love it, great, but accept it won't be trouble or cost free.
I might have made it sound like I'm broke or something - that's not what I was getting at. I like the car and am quite happy to continue owning it and maintaining it. On the whole the P2 range is fairly solid, yes they are hard on the front end side of things and yes they will need more maintaining than your average joe Yaris or i30. But thats to be expected and I'm fine with doing that, I like the car, it suits me for what I do, and I still think even with the maintenance on it, it's still cheaper than financing a new car. What I meant was, I will no longer have the 1997 V70. The V70 has given me a good 40,000kms and 2 years of reliable, trouble free motoring, but I just no longer see the point in owning 2 cars, things are a bit different now. The XC on the whole is pretty good as well and is my preferred choice of motoring. So Im choosing the XC, I just need to make sure it isn't going to be any less reliable than any other 2002 V70XC because of the upgrades I plan on doing.
Philia_Bear;96879 wroteI think the current motor is rooted from sounds of things and its just really really worn and has a few bad sensors (link in with hard to start)
The s40 pulls hard in either 5th or 6th and it has less power stock (motor on it still stock)
The current motor is a bit tired from neglect over the past few years. It hasn't done much mileage due to a variety of reasons. It skipped a major service and therefore the PCV is probably blocked again, the spark plugs died a while back and I threw some cheapies in which was shortly followed by the coils failing. The air filter is just a joke its that blocked. So yes, I'm well aware that it really, really needs a good tune up and service. But I think the basic mechanicals are all in good condition.

The hard-to-start I'm not sure about. I think that might actually be my fault. Its a communication error and has been getting progressively worse. I cut a few wires in the engine loom that I shouldn't have during the conversion, so I'm thinking a solder joint is a bit dodgy, as I imagine all of these CANBUS signals would be quite sensitive to that. If I can't fix it, I'll throw another loom in it.
Vee_Que;96900 wroteAlright, have you spoken to mark at vp tuning? Read many swedespeed threads? I think going with a generic American tune is the wrong idea and wasting your money vs a local who does it regularly whom you can consult.

Holy shit, 2k on a head!? reco does not cost that much.... And a major service is extra oils and a timing belt I thought? And im suprised you didn't try selling that v70...

First point of call is the compression on the xc70, if that is good and even. Leave it. The turbo is what makes power on all these cars for the most part.

The t5 runs a 15g or 16t td04 turbo, the lpt motor uses a 13t, its tiny and runs out of puff a lot sooner. That is most of the difference. If your changing to the bigger turbo, you might as well fit the much better flowing xc90 manifold.

And of course, upgrading the exhaust to a 3". None of the off the shelf shit, you can make one with a couple of bends and a welder yourself. Its good practice! You want 3" to at least the first muffler, and then replace the rest for 3" down the track, you can get mufflers that. Flow well and muffle the noise as well.

If the compression is no good, we can leakdown test the motor and. If its in the head. Rip that off, swap over the head from your t5 motor to get a good start, if the block is worn then also chuck the engine in.

There is no need to upgrade the crank (that option doesn't actually exist, mostly as they do not break before other components do).

eBay rods are handy if you want above 300hp though.

Injectors from the t5 should go straight in, can you swap the t5 ecu into the xc? Alternatively can ostrich like on an 850 be used?

If you want r power, a 19t with td04hl (8cm housing) is the next step. Or an xr6t gt35r turbo, which is slightly insane to use for your purposes I think, but would get over 300hp on high boost.
I have spoken to Mark but only briefly, once I have so more plans about what I'm doing I'll be definitely getting more involved with him. I already spoke to him about the flash tune, but I'm yet to hear back 6 months later so I'm leaning towards its not going to happen.

Sorry I think $2000 might have included the cost of the car itself. I think the head job was in the ballpark of about $1000. I did consider selling it, but it would have taken a lot of time, money and effort to even make it drive semi-decently, so I decided to just wreck it. I figure the engine is worth a bit being a 2.3.

I'll be doing spark plugs on the XC when I service it so I'll check the compression and report back. I believe my T5 has a 16G but I'm not sure, the writing is pretty faded. That turbo does have a bit of play in it so I'm not sure if I'll end up using it or getting it reco'd or finding myself a new one. And yes you're right about the manifold, I'll grab one from work before I do any of this work.

I'll consider the exhaust too. As long as it doesn't make it any louder I'll be happy. I really like the quietness of this car, but it has just the right amount of grunt noises when you give it some.

I will be putting the injectors in, they are the blue ones, I'm led to believe thats better than orange but not as good as green. I could put the ECU in but it would have to be changed over to match the immobiliser, CEM and most of the other computers in the car. By the time I do that, I may as well get my current ECU tuned as if it was a T5.

I'd do R power if it could survive on my engine, but as I said I really don't want to blow the guts out of it. I'd be more likely to keep this one as "reasonable" levels of power, and build up the 2.3 with the better rods and so on to get insane power out of it. And if I ever blow the 2.4, I'd then throw the 2.3 in.
phonsa;96905 wroteIf your power goals are under 350 hp i'd recommend staying with the 2.4LPT, the higher CR makes for better day to day driveability due greater throttle response. With a healthy low km engine you also have a good base for adding extra performance.

Here is a blog from ARDtuning in relation to a bolt on build for the p2 LPT motor.

http://www.ardideas.com/LPT-Stage-3-Build_b_32.html

A healthy power gain but i would definitely go 465cc Bosch green injectors, upgraded fuel pump and quality intercooler replacement if sustained WOT are in order.

In the dyno you can see the power was capped due to fueling issues.

I've been running the s70 99' LPT with only downpipe, 19T (19 psi) and tune and its been solid for a few years now.
They are definitely under 350 for now. I'd be happy with IPD's figures of 280HP for now. It's still a big upgrade from the current 190HP. Thank you for the link, I'll give that a read. I'll also consider hunting down some green injectors in the future. I'll throw the blue ones on for now. I may as well upgrade the fuel pump as my current one needs to come out. The car has issues starting on low fuel, its the sender unit but I'll be checking the pump pressure while I'm there. I was considering changing the intercooler anyway so that won't be a problem. Thanks also for the recommendations for software tuning. I only saw that IPD did them because I was browsing for some other parts, I had definitely NOT made a decision. I did contact Ash (DVS) for a local option but unfortunately they can no longer offer it. Still definitely more keen on getting it done locally.

Okay so basically, the 2.4 block sounds like it can handle a fair bit of power left unchanged, which is what I was hoping for.
Don't get me wrong @JeremyK I wasn't trying to make you sell the XC, just pointing out keeping it was likely to cost time and money and that could be an issue if you have other things you want to do with your $.
When you are ready to jump, go and talk to Mark, he isn't big on email or website stuff, too busy working on cars really and wouldn't be ignoring you on purpose.

The reason I say rods in your LPT motor when you up the boost and turbo upgrade is they give massive low down torque, it is quite stunning so rods are the weak point for sure, HP is irrelevant when massive low down torques are happening!

I reckon I have had my v70t on the edge of rod failure for a couple of years.. . boost screws are addictive, more is always betterer!!
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