Volvo S80 Tuning

"Cheers for reading this Volvo S80 tuning guide."

The S80 is a awesome project car to play with. If you do your research then you can create an awesome S80 but don't be fooled there are lots of competition inspired parts out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for DIY mechanics first priority in your S80 tuning project.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you S80 often benefitting your drive.

We suggest that you fit motorsport suspension and lower the car by 26mm - 37 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with performance suspension.

Top end power should be your overall aim on the S80 with a nice fat peak torque band.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and uprated upgrades are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

Getting the right sports modifications for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 competition upgrades just won't work well on the road hard to control in slow 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: Suspension upgrade (drop 26mm - 37 mm.), Engine Tunes/Remapping, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels, Panel air filter.

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

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

Your aim when tuning should be a flat and wide torque curve. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a competition car.

The aim of our articles is to give a limited introduction of car tuning mods and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your tuning project, the best motorsport upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest torque gains for your money as far as a bolt on tuning mods goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine.

The exhaust and intake flow play a big role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car challenging to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU for the best performance gains.

Don't forget to ramp up the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Most power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after performance modifications are done can usually be traced to fuelling or timing issues. Higher capacity injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned S80's uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is usually very little if any power gain achieved by fitting an induction kit, they only work well and are recommended after you raise the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Derestricting the air flow into the engine is a primary goal of tuning so get a freer flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean only if you find the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound great but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not add noticeable power and actually rob you of power.

Sports exhausts balance the flow of gases through the engine. But if the exhaust pipe is too large, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a lot of the exhaust flow rate and end up losing power and torque.

Getting a professionally gas flowed head with larger valves can fully maximise your power gains. When you tune up your S80 you will find that the standard clutch starts to fail so get an uprated clutch. The best mods we recommend for your S80 are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

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 phenomenal power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block.

We've also come across some owners toying with twin charging conversions and making some seriously high power figures.

The most significant power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are often easier to add than turbos. It is more challenging to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with rpm.

The nice correlating boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Adding forced induction will usually require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brake cooling and are usually lighter than the steel ones. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a soft compound tire. The downside to large alloys on your S80 is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio so this will have a negative effect on acceleration.

Because of this we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 inches, although we know some of our members have installed larger rims with no problems.

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 S80 options in more detail with our S80 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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