Volvo B62 Tuning

"All you need to know about tuning the Volvo B62 engine!"

This pages aim is review and look at B62 tuning and show the best upgrades. Volvo B62 make awesome project engines and with the optimum tuning tuning mods like a remap, turbo kits and camshafts you will dramatically increase your driving enjoyment.

History, Power & Specs of the Engine

• 1995–1998 B6254 — 2.5 L (2,473 cc) DOHC 24v — Volvo 960 Eu

Tuning the Volvo B62 and best B62 performance parts.

Best B62 mods

The ultimate B62 tuning parts on an engine are sensibly the ones that give the best value for money.

We won't be swayed by popular B62 tuning parts, they need to be cost effective.

The cam profile plays a big part in the engines power output so cam upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake & exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen cam profile, so large power band gains are on offer for cam upgrades.

Fast road camshafts tend to bump the bhp and torque over the rpm range, you might lose a little bottom end power but the high end rpm power will be higher.

Motorsport camshafts, bump the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Motorsport and race camshaft makes it harder when driving around busy urban areas. This is because a competition cam causes a very lumpy idle, and makes the car more prone to stall or jerk along in stop start traffic, sadly though many ignore this and end up ruining a perfectly good car and having to revert back to a fast road, or OEM cam profile.

You should ideally match your bhp range to your preferences so for a daily driver stick with a mild fast road B62 camshaft

Each engine responds better to less aggressive camshaft durations than others.

The ecu map and fuel pump and injectors also will say much on the torque gains you'll achieve.

A longer valve duration can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Intake manifolds, Panel air filters, Remaps/piggy back ECU, drilled & smoothed airbox, Fast road camshaft, Sports exhaust header/manifold.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Fast road cam, high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, induction kit, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Competition cam, Twin charging conversions, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Remaps should help to establish the full potential of all the tuning parts you've done to your B62.

(In some cases, as the factory ECU is locked flashing is not an option, so an aftermarket ECU is the route to take, and many of these will outperform factory ECU's but make sure it has knock protection and that you get it setup properly.)

It will usually give you around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NA (naturally aspirated) engines, but power output may differs on the tuning parts you've applied and the condition of your engine.

It is the aim to any car tuning task to get air and fuel into your B62

Intake flow the air during the suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine and mixed with fuel.

Shape and flow rate of the Intake manifold can make a large improvement to fuel atomisation and engine efficiency on the B62.

On popular production engines air intake manifolds are needing a performance upgrade, although some makers provide fairly well optimized air intake manifolds.

Increasing the B62 valve size, getting port matching and head flowing will also improve torque, & more importantly will raise potential for a greater torque increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades

NA (naturally aspirated) engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your B62

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes excellent power gains.

When a car has a turbo already fitted upgrades are giving better power gains and we find turbo charged engines already contain strengthened components.

There are tuning limits for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some just sufficiently able to handle stock power

It is important to find these restrictions and fit stronger pistons, crank and engine components to utilize the power.

There are many guys spending a lot of money on turbo charger upgrades on the B62 only to watch the motor explode soon after it's finished.

Large upgraded turbo chargers tend to experience a bottom end lag, and smaller turbo chargers spool up really quickly but do not have the peak end torque gains.

Over the last 20 years the world of turbochargers is always increasing and we now see variable vane turbochargers, allowing the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust gases into a couple of channels and feed these at differently designed vanes in the turbo charger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is not unusual that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the B62 when considerably more air is being drawn into the engine.

We note 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting performance at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large power gains, although more complex to setup. We have this article covering twinchargers if you want to read more.

Fuelling

When you raise the torque you will need to pay attention to the fuelling.

More torque needs more fuel. We strongly recommend you to over specify your flow rate on the injectors.

As a rule of thumb add 20% when buying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and provides a bit of spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Exhaust

You should look to boost your exhaust if the existing exhaust is actually causing a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll find your flow rate is still fine even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow from the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too big or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to around 2.5 inches to maximise flow rates, and this should take into account the amount of air your engine is moving.

Typically exhaust restrictions are in the catalysts installed, so adding a higher flowing sports alternative is the answer. This keeps the car road legal and will flow much better due to it's higher internal surface area and design, so has the added benefit of keeping your car road legal. The alternative decat should be considered an off road only mod, as removing a catalyst is illegal in most territories and regions for road registered cars..

Weak spots, Issues & problem areas on the B62

The B62 engines are generally reliable and solid units, as long as you follow the manufacturers service schedules, and use a good quality oil to ensure longevity. Few problems should happen as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.

Carbon build up in the head, particularly around the valves which will sap power or create flat spots, this is a larger issue on direct injection engines but should be looked out for on all engines. We have tips on removing carbon build up.

Some of our members have had issues with flat spots or glitches after applying mods and upgrades or tuning, this is not usually related to this engines design, so instead see our article on diagnosing flat spots and problems after tuning which should help you get the bottom of this issue.

Regular oil changes are vital on the B62, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your B62 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our B62 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below.

We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which parts work best for you on your car. Which helps us keep our guides and tips up to date helping others with their modified car projects. Your feedback and comments are used to keep this page up to date, and help improve the accuracy of these B62 tuning guides which get regular updates and revisions.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Volvo. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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