Converting to turbo?

[nadz]

Hey everyone,
I am just wondering what would I need to convert my non turbo 1995 Volvo 850 to a turbo?
Thank you.

[jblackburn]

A turbo engine. You'd be better off just selling yours and buying a turbo if you want one. The 95 will be hard to convert to the Motronic ECU.

[polskamafia mjl]

+1 There was a time when I wanted to convert my NA to turbo, my mechanic even said it could be done. However, after learning more about the NA 850 engines I realized what everybody else already knew: it would cost more to turbo an NA than to buy a turbo 850. The reason is that the NA engine has a compression ratio of almost 11:1, that's really high. If you throw a turbo on there the engine will quite literally explode. In addition, the cost of a turbo itself is quite high and then you are faced with the challenge of mating an NA ECU to a turbo engine.

If you want more power from your NA try out theses links:

• $25 Cold air intake - "Ram" air intake from the chin spoiler
• Discussion on airbox upgrades
• Throttle plate mod - big gains
• Airbox T-stat Removal - also big gains
• More on air induction
• Volvo 850 Cold Air Induction - the first post on MVS Forums about this

Good luck!

[kcodyjr]

No argument on point, and no intention of beating a deservedly dead horse, but I've got a tangentially related question.

I have a 97 LPT engine in need of an RMS and a mystery coolant leak yet to be tracked down, and I have a neglected but otherwise healthy 96 NA engine sitting around collecting spiderwebs. I'd like to put the NA engine on a stand, overhaul it, and mate it up to the already-turbo 97 car.

At first blush, the question splits into two parts:

1) What would I have to do to the NA block/head to deal with the turbo oil and coolant lines?

2) Is the compression ratio difference an artifact of the cam profiles, or are the pistons or head shape different as well?

And the ubiquitous,

3) What else aren't I thinking of?


Thanks in advance.

[mercuric]

you might find some of this thread useful: http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/15 ... -a-b5254s/

[kcodyjr]

That article is indeed a good start.

However, the situation is a little different. The car is already expecting a turbo, has the TCV in place, correct ECU, et cetera. The displacement is even the same, just a somewhat higher compression ratio (11:1 vs 9.5:1, is it?). As I understand, the proper ECU tune can deal with that, and that's what people are trying for anyway when they put an NA cam into a turbo.

My real objection to the way that writeup was done was the hack-n-slash method of connecting the turbo oil and coolant lines. What are the block and head differences, REALLY, between a B5254T and a B5254S? What would I have to do to the NA engine to make it functionally identical to a factory LPT engine?

[erikv11]

Tidbit: the turbo head has sodium-filled exhaust valves, the NA head does not.

[kcodyjr]

erikv11, I'm aware the B5234T high pressure turbo heads have that, are yo usure the B5254T light pressure turbo heads also have them? I was kinda under the impression that was a 2.3 thing.

[erikv11]

No I am not sure!

Sorry about that, I did not read the fine print and made a (likely) mistake.

[kcodyjr]

No apologies. Now that you mention it, since I am talking about overhauling an engine on a stand as means to avoid dicking around with 100 gazillion little hard to reach repairs, going for a set of sodium filled exhaust valves is sounding like a good idea. That's a separate matter, though.