Well, got my 16t and went to see Lucky!

[cvergi01]

2000 v70xc. I put the 16t and ard tcv in a few weeks ago, and noticed some improvements right away! Knowing that the ECU was still tuned for the 13t, i decided to take it easy, but still had plenty of fun with it. This morning, I drove to see lucky in Oregon! (212mi away).

This guy is cool. I walked into his office that is laden with groovy Volvo upgrades on the bookshelves. We sat down and he asked a few easy questions to see what I wanted to get out of the tune. This is my daily driver and I was just looking to get the gas pedal directly wired to my smile actuator without sacrificing drivability, and more importantly the cars lifespan. I explained that I'm not looking for a racer, and this will probably be all I do. Whelp, I swang around to his side of the desk and he showed me a little about what he was going to tinker with, and then started going to town! Even with a program that breaks down the code, it is still quite complex and it was obvious that he has done this once or twice (1200+ times actually). He finished the preliminary tune and came with me for a test drive, laptop in lap so he could make sure that the ECU was adapting properly. During the drive, he asked me how it felt, if there was enough in the low end, mid, high, if I wanted some more here, less there... I added a suggestion here and there (really just one) and back to the office we went!

After another 10 minutes or so of tinkering, we double checked the wastegate and were off and running! This time, he wanted to make certain that I was happy and had me try a few runs. He pointed out that we are in no rush, and could take all day if need be to get it dialed in, but it was perfect. A little bit of me wanted to think of something just so we could keep going on test runs, but his work was spot on! After we made it back to the shop, we just BS'd for about 10 minutes about the Volvo line and previous/current projects he's had, and what I should expect to do with the car next (I've now decided that I might want to add in a few more performance parts lol). I was having fun but it was time to go, as I'm sure he had plenty to do and I was playing hookie and had to get back home.

So there I was, with a new tune on the freeway back to Seattle just going through the motions to recalibrate the adaptive driving and not really getting on it too much. After 20-30 miles I was cruising at about 60mph. I decided to see what this tune has really got me. I stepped on the gas to just barely engage the kickdown, and BAM! in short order 6 psi took over and I was at 80mph! FUN. I recalled lucky telling me that our max psi goal was 10-12 so I decided to find that...engaged the kickdown to get the 6 psi, and rolled on the throttle to find out that 12 psi was exactly what I've been searching for alll my life.

Money well spent. I love this car even more. Lucky has filled the void that this car was missing. I cant wait to see what else he has up his sleeve (teaser)

Smile actuator functional.

[matthew1]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

In case you haven't found it already, here's Lucky's 40-some collection of tuning advice columns: Fast Friday.

[cvergi01]

I refer to them often! That is why I decided to have him do the tune..."I'll take 2 degrees of timing over 2 pounds of boost any day". I'd rather have an engine that performs better because its efficient, rather than one that is just burning more fuel, and Luckys philosophy sounds like and engine that's meant to run more efficiently to me! not to say that other tuners don't think about the small stuff, but I haven't seen more dedication above and beyond to the art of Volvo performance (Fast Fridays), than Lucky.

[bmdubya1198]

Nice! I'm excited to see what I can do with my GLT once it's back up and running properly.