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first car

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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abscate
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Re: first car

Post by abscate »

Welcome!!

First Step - Stage Zero - get all your tuneup stuff and fluids up to date, and your PCV checked and updated.

Next step - Accept the car for its 16X HP, work an extra job to look for a 'R' Project, or if you are really cool, a T5.

There might be Blue R for sale in Alberta soon - search under 'Spawn of Satan'

lastly - adapting an NA (non turbo) to a Turbo..........doesnt happen.
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SirBrickWagon
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Post by SirBrickWagon »

wasn't planning on turboing my car, as i work minimum wage and just need cheap/free modifications to increase power
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Clemens
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Post by Clemens »

if it has an AT, the cheapest power mod for a NA is a manual swap. It is a lot of work, but cheap if you find a wrwcked parts car. Everything else that noticeably improves the power of an 850 NA costs ALOT of dough.

Enjoy it for what it is and get it to stage 0 as abscate suggested. If it is too slow for you, keep looking for a Turbo. And as previously stated: Upgrading an 850 NA to Turbo is beyond the skillset of most mortals.
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Post by ZionXIX »

Doing as much stage zero stuff as possible will add small amounts of lost HP. Every brittle rubber vacuum hose is a potential vacuum leak. Rolls of good quality silicone hose can be found fairly cheaply online. The PCV can be removed, inspected and cleaned essentially for free but requires removal of the intake manifold. I would have a spare intake gasket on hand incase the old one disintegrates. Check the spark plugs for wear and gap if necessary. Clean every electrical connection you can get your hands on.
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Post by volvolugnut »

Fat tires and air shocks in back for that drag racer look. Remove the muffler.

Wait. It is no longer 1970.

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Post by volvolugnut »

Seriously, most of us at MVS are not in to performance modifications. You may better find performance information at swedespeed.com

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Post by SirBrickWagon »

yea i just meant cheap stuff like drilling holes in the airbox, stuff like that. planning on restoring the 850 and eventually doing an engine swap as mine is estimated over 500,000km
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Post by scot850 »

Not sure why you would drill holes in the airbox? All that does is then draw hot air in from the engine bay which warns the air entering the engine reducing charge compression.

I regularly laugh when I see un-boxed cone air intakes, particularly at the back of the engine bay. Nuts!

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Post by RickHaleParker »

scot850 wrote: 27 Oct 2021, 11:45 All that does is then draw hot air in from the engine bay which warns the air entering the engine reducing charge compression.
Hot air is less dense. The lower the density the lower the amount of Oxygen in a given volume. The less Oxygen, the less fuel the engine can burn. That is why hot air reduces performance.

The function of a Turbo is to cram more Oxygen into the cylinder so the engine can burn more fuel. The function of Intercooler is to dump heat produced by the Turbo heating the air ( anytime you compress a gas it will heat up ) . Dumping the heat increases the air density up and above what the Turbo did and increases the amount of Oxygen for a given volume up and above what the Turbo did alone.
Last edited by RickHaleParker on 27 Oct 2021, 13:24, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by SirBrickWagon »

RickHaleParker wrote: 27 Oct 2021, 13:15
scot850 wrote: 27 Oct 2021, 11:45 All that does is then draw hot air in from the engine bay which warns the air entering the engine reducing charge compression.
Hot air is less dense. The lower the density the lower the amount of Oxygen in a given volume. The less Oxygen, the less fuel the engine can burn. That is why hot air reduces performance.
that's why i would drill holes in the front of the airbox to draw in fresh air from the front
1997 Volvo 850 Wagon (Non-Turbo) with too many problems to count

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