Volvo C70 Tuning

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The C70 is a great car modification project to try. Sit down first and research C70 tuning to avoid making the usual common slip ups we regularly come across.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are a good place to start for the C70.

Good suspension tweaks that substantially improve handling for the C70 include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe in or out on the front wheels. Toe in for stability, or Toe out to improve cornering. It would also pay to improve the brakes, by adding larger discs and or higher friction pads..

We suggest that you fit uprated suspension and lower the car by 25mm - 42 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.

Our aim in engine tuning should be to increase peak bhp at the top end.

To be completely frank and honest, on the more modest engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.

Engine Tuning.

These are the performance kits are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get started.

• 2.5 20V B5254S125 kW; 168 hp162 lbft @3300
• 2.4 20V B5244S125 kW; 168 hp162 lbft @3300
• 2.0T B5204T2  132 kW; 178 hp  177 lbft @1800
• 2.0T B5204T4 132 kW; 178 hp  177 lbft @1800
• 2.5T B5254T 142 kW; 190 hp  199 lbft @1800
• 2.4T B5244T  142 kW; 190 hp 199 lbft @1800
• 2.4T B5244T7 147 kW; 197 hp  210 lbft @1800
• T5 2.0 B5204T3  169 kW; 227 hp 229 lbft @2700
• T5 2.3 B5234T3 PS 177 kW; 237 hp 243 lbft @2700
• T5 2.3 B5234T9 184 kW; 247 hp  243 lbft @2700

Getting the right sports modifications for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

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: Remap, Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 25mm - 42 mm.).

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Sports gearbox, Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves).

You really need to keep as much low end torque as possible and aim to achieve a wide power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.

In this article we shall give your a good starting base to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance part.A fast road camshaft usually proves to be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

It improves the intake and exhaust durations and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

When pushing up the power you will need to look at to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Most power losses, and erratic idling after uprated parts are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Air induction kits will only help to add power if your cars air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most small engines will see LITTLE LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

For most C70 engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of needing cold air.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow through the engine but do not go too large 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.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional head porting and polishing. These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. A good multi plate fast road sports clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never skimp or ask the standard clutch to cope. The best mods that we recommend for your C70 are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A tuned/remapped turbo will give significant power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine. Adding forced induction will see impressive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Superchargers are usually easier to add than turbos. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it harder to map.

The nice proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engines compression ratio .

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow.

Don't forget that your choice of rubber greatly affects your cars grip and handling. It is not worth compromising performance with cheap tyres when you can buy soft compound performance tires.

Please note that although they can look cool on the C70 big alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance.

The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Due to this aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the same as supplied from the factory. In all cases without going bigger than 18 inches.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss C70 options in more detail with our C70 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Volvo tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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