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Volvo 850 10v to 20v Conversion.

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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Chuck W
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Re: Volvo 850 10v to 20v Conversion.

Post by Chuck W »

2ndGenVolvos wrote: 03 Jun 2022, 14:18 Okay, so the project took a big stall while I was sourcing parts and in the end, I ended up finding and buying a 98 s70 20v with a manual transmission. The car was 1 owner and was very well maintained. The engine runs much stronger than my 850 did so we've decided to just drop the Engin and transmission into the 850 instead of taking apart both engines.
While this thread won't actually answer the question of whether or not this swap can be done, well, I believe that it 100% is possible. More than likely, you'd need to convert the car from the Fenix ecu to 4.3m ecu. But that is just installing a new harness and the new ecu which isn't too hard.
Thanks to those who answered the question in the first place!
Yeah, that doesn't sound like too difficult of a swap.

The 20V NA motors were m4.4 in the (US) 850's in 96-97, so if you might be able to just swap the engine side harness to the ECU and leave the rest alone. Getting a 96-97 NA engine harness shouldn't be too difficult to find, though. Did your 10V have the OBDII port as well?
'97 854 T5 - Manual Swap/M4.4/COP/NA cams/P2R Brakes/16T/ chassis bracing/ XC70 nose swap
'97 855 GLT - Hers. RN swap/16T/COP/VVT/exhaust/302s/Flashed M4.4/ chassis bracing/ 2 kid seats
'78 GLE - Waiting in the wings. Future whiteblock/T5 swap.

The Others- '83 TBird turbo, '85 Mercury Marquis LTS (1 of 134), '86 LTD Wagon, '81 Granada GL, '76 Beetle, '93 F-150 I6

2ndGenVolvos
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Year and Model: 1996 850
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Post by 2ndGenVolvos »

Chuck W wrote: 05 Jun 2022, 06:47
2ndGenVolvos wrote: 03 Jun 2022, 14:18 Okay, so the project took a big stall while I was sourcing parts and in the end, I ended up finding and buying a 98 s70 20v with a manual transmission. The car was 1 owner and was very well maintained. The engine runs much stronger than my 850 did so we've decided to just drop the Engin and transmission into the 850 instead of taking apart both engines.
While this thread won't actually answer the question of whether or not this swap can be done, well, I believe that it 100% is possible. More than likely, you'd need to convert the car from the Fenix ecu to 4.3m ecu. But that is just installing a new harness and the new ecu which isn't too hard.
Thanks to those who answered the question in the first place!
Yeah, that doesn't sound like too difficult of a swap.

The 20V NA motors were m4.4 in the (US) 850's in 96-97, so if you might be able to just swap the engine side harness to the ECU and leave the rest alone. Getting a 96-97 NA engine harness shouldn't be too difficult to find, though. Did your 10V have the OBDII port as well?
Yes my 850 has OBDII.

I assume I can just use the harness off the 98 S70 that I am taking the motor and transmission from. That way I take the motor, harness and ECUs for the swap.

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Chuck W
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Post by Chuck W »

2ndGenVolvos wrote: 10 Jun 2022, 00:35 Yes my 850 has OBDII.

I assume I can just use the harness off the 98 S70 that I am taking the motor and transmission from. That way I take the motor, harness and ECUs for the swap.
You MAY find differences in the '98 S70 harness vs the 850 ones. I haven't pulled apart a '98 myself to be able to verify. It may be close enough to use, however.

A 96-97 850 harness would be a drop-in, though.
'97 854 T5 - Manual Swap/M4.4/COP/NA cams/P2R Brakes/16T/ chassis bracing/ XC70 nose swap
'97 855 GLT - Hers. RN swap/16T/COP/VVT/exhaust/302s/Flashed M4.4/ chassis bracing/ 2 kid seats
'78 GLE - Waiting in the wings. Future whiteblock/T5 swap.

The Others- '83 TBird turbo, '85 Mercury Marquis LTS (1 of 134), '86 LTD Wagon, '81 Granada GL, '76 Beetle, '93 F-150 I6

2ndGenVolvos
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Year and Model: 1996 850
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Post by 2ndGenVolvos »

Chuck W wrote: 10 Jun 2022, 05:22
2ndGenVolvos wrote: 10 Jun 2022, 00:35 Yes my 850 has OBDII.

I assume I can just use the harness off the 98 S70 that I am taking the motor and transmission from. That way I take the motor, harness and ECUs for the swap.
You MAY find differences in the '98 S70 harness vs the 850 ones. I haven't pulled apart a '98 myself to be able to verify. It may be close enough to use, however.

A 96-97 850 harness would be a drop-in, though.
From what I've read on the forums and seen in the wiring schematics, the 98 harness runs the same as the late 850 models. I don't know if the harness is actually different though, beyond the fact that one is for the Fenix 3.2 and the 98 is for m4.3

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misha
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Post by misha »

All '98 B5254S (2.5 20v n/a)are M.4.4. NOT M.4.3.
'97 850 2.5 20v / fully equipped / Motronic 4.4 from the factory / upgraded with S,V,C,XC70 instrument cluster / polar white wagon
History of Volvos in the family:
'71 144 S
'73 144 De Luxe
'78 244 DL
'78 244 DL
'79 244 GLE
'85 340 GLS

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