Can We Restore Lost Power To Our £500 Volvo?

This week Alex and Jack take 'Brick' our £500 Turbo Volvo wagon with 265,000 miles to a dyno, to see if we can restore lost power it its old engine. We'll use some cheap fixes and a secret weapon to see if we can increase the power.

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[mikefethers]

Charlie needs to be a regular feature. Great guy!

[Bodini]

The bloke who runs this dyno is brilliant. Hilarious in every episode, Love his dry sense of humour.

[Glitch]

Great to see Alex still around, and a great energy with both in this video!

[jjonesi]

Stock turbo should do around 1.0 bars. Just the fuel cut comes first before max boost around 0.8 bar on stock Map

[jamesinc]

Lads you can go to about 0.85-0.9 bar of boost with any turbo redblock on stock internals without any major impacts to longevity or reliability, it will impact how much you spend on fuel though. The ECU is quite good at adapting to the increased boost.

[jamesbreakwell]

I love what you are all doing individually but it's great to see the band back together 👍🏾

[volvopentaman]

That engine is a B230FK, 135hp/230Nm from the factory. Only and I mean ONLY difference to the "B230FT is the wastegate at 0, 3bar vs 0, 5bar. Block, pistons, rods, cam, ECU program, injectors, exhaust, evarything else is 100% same. So just by adding boost you will gain 25-30hp IF the engine is otherwise somewhat up to spec.

Then there is a Turbo+ version that takes 190hp out of the same B230FT/FK engine with an electronic boost controller. Again no other swapped parts than added electronic boost control instead of mechanical. This ups the boost to around 0, 8bar if I recall correctly to achieve the 190hp. That is the maximum safe limit with stock parts.

Most likely your restriction is the exhaust and specifically the cat if your power went that much down by fixing the precat exhaust leak.

With ECU programming you can gain 235hp out of the same stock engine, BUT the intercooler is really close to blowing at 1bar of boost. There is also the limit for the injectors and turbo.

The engine block itself is good for around 4-500hp with upgraded turbo, cam, intercooler and injectors and of course ECU and ignition module programming. I have a few of these making 350-525hp.

[bigfra]

Nice to see another old 940 getting some, er, love. Please don't destroy it, I need spare bits for my 940 restoration! 😆

[lukeo]

Great video, loving Charlie’s vibe and optimism 😂 cracking me up, kind of a James May vibe blunt yet he knows people will be laughing

[TooFlyNico]

I absolutely love the 700/900 series. Especially the turbo estates! These cars are so cheap to work on, live forever, and best of all RWD. Got my manual 745 with a 15g for only 1.5k a few years ago and have been obsessed since ❤

[Skarfar]

Funny thing is that the B230FK engine (which is the unit used in this 940) is often turbo-swapped to a higher pressure unit from the earlier 740 Turbo.
These engines are well built, and the stock internals can usually handle pressures up to 1.5 bar, and could produce over 200 HP without too much work needed.

For Brick, the first step would be to replace the catalythic converter (those 100-cell racing ones are pretty good). This will ensure better exhaust flow.
Then you can consider a turbo swap.

[RacingSlow]

As much as Jack has been smashing the most recent videos is nice to see that Alex is still around :)

[Jahmed]

So good to see Alex back wow, can’t lie I miss this infamous trio

[shay]

loved this video, hope to see more of the car soon and hopefully ethan in the next video too, we need the trio back!

[YouTube]

the dedication that went into this 🙌🙌🏻🙌🏼🙌🏽🙌🏾🙌🏿

[soundseeker]

Next stop - eBay turbo and a sports cat! Should make Alex's wildly optimistic "240bhp" possible.
Charlie's deadpan sarcasm/pessimism next to the lad's boundless enthusiasm was hilarious! 😄

[bjornlillpers]

I guess this is a LPT version. The HPT (high pressure turbo) got 165hp from the factory at 0.55 bar with an identical engine (the boost level is the only difference whatsoever). With the Turbo+ package you got around 190 at 0.8 bar. 0.8 bar + a good tune for both ECU:s should give around 200. You might have to upgrade the stock downpipe a bit, it's restrictive.

I hope you give this thing some well deserved love :)

[arthurspringthorpe]

As said below, a big TD04 and some good ECU chips, bigger MAF, bigger injectors, along with an 3inch exhaust system should see you to around 300+. Stock bottom end on the later redblocks is also good for 400 from what I've heard/seen too!

[liltamai]

Finally good to hear someone who's not going on about putting high octane in absolutely everything. I'll run my LS on regular while watching some 17 year old with a 1997 micra using 99. Best car throttle vid in years though lads, informative but yet still straight to the point. Was hoping to see it with a hood exit on 10psi but there's always next time

[destructionnl]

It's good to see Alex is in a CT video again. Also good to see that Jack's taken on the presenter role like that.