'92 850 2.0 20V Intake Swirl Flap. Missing solenoid, do I lose a lot of power?

Post by **koralski** » 07 Apr 2025, 10:45

Title says it all. I noticed that in my intake i have flaps that are vacuum operated. The car never had that solenoid. What are my options? Can I remove them somehow?

Post by **scot850** » 07 Apr 2025, 16:47

Sorry, are you talking about the flaps in the air box? If so, that is just there for cold starts to warm the engine up more quickly when the engine is cold. Once the thermostat considers the car is warm enough it closes the thermostat and draws cold air from the front of the car.

These will fail with age and can jam on pulling air from the hot side reducing engine power. When that happens, owners will jam the flap to only draw cold air. They were only fitted to NA motors for some reason.

Neil.

Post by **matthew1** » 07 Apr 2025, 16:53

Do the mod https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/volvo ... irbox-mod/

Post by **volvolugnut** » 07 Apr 2025, 17:54

I think the original post is talking about the variable intake manifold length. I don't know the details of the Volvo arrangement, but on my 2001 E320 Mercedes, it makes a lot of difference if the length change flap does not move as designed.
Find parts from a salvage car?
volvolugnut

Post by **scot850** » 07 Apr 2025, 19:10

What variable length intake?

Neil.

Post by **misha** » 08 Apr 2025, 00:09

Early 850 had variable intake(flaps in intake manifold).
I saw once a '96 with that set-up...probably with LH 3.2 Jetronic management since...in '96 they had both...M4.4 and Jetronic and in '97 only M4.4 was present.

@koralski...YES,you loose a lot of power if the system is not working properly...even in a 2.5 20v.

Post by **koralski** » 08 Apr 2025, 11:23

I think we'll just change the intake. The system is complicated and the vacuum lines are gone, as well as the solenoid. I think the solenoid is NLA.

BTW, I will check the airbox. Thanks for that, i didn't know there was such thing as a thermostat for it

Post by **koralski** » 08 Apr 2025, 11:39

Just talked to my dad, he did the airbox mod. He has another intake manifold so we'll change it. Thanks for the info guys. Helpful as always.

BTW, a little off-topic. Is there a way to directly support you Matt?

Post by **misha** » 08 Apr 2025, 11:52

koralski wrote: ↑08 Apr 2025, 11:23 I think we'll just change the intake. The system is complicated and the vacuum lines are gone, as well as the solenoid. I think the solenoid is NLA.

You will have the same results as leaving it as it is...because ecu is programmed to have variable intake.
You will need to tune the ecu to run the engine without it.

Post by **matthew1** » 08 Apr 2025, 12:19

koralski wrote: ↑08 Apr 2025, 11:39 BTW, a little off-topic. Is there a way to directly support you Matt?

You found it.

Thanks for your donation, koralski!