Volvo V60 Tuning

"Thanks for reading my V60 tuning guide."

We review V60 tuning and outline the optimum mods that work.

Volvo V60's make a good tuning project and with a few sensible motorsport modifications you can dramatically maximize your driving experience.

The only thing holding you back in your V60 project is time, money and your imagination The key to V60 tuning is getting your choice of modification right - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

 

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for loads of people first priority in your V60 tuning project.

Good suspension tweaks that greatly enhance handling for the V60 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 performance suspension and lower the car by 28mm - 38 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.

Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

V60 make good sleepers if you debadge them and fit the most powerful engine upgrades and handling mods you can !

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.

Tuning modifications.

2010 -2018 model range engine options.

Petrol:(110kW–257kW)

  • 1.6–2.0L I4
  • 2.0–2.5L I5
  • 3.0L I6

Diesel:(85kW–158kW)

  • 1.6–2.0L I4
  • 2.0–2.4L I5

Diesel-Hybrid: (171kW–213kW)

  • 2.4L I5

In the more recent 2018 model range the engine options were simplified a little with only a 2.0 liter being offered but in various states of tune.

Petrol:

  • 2.0L i4 140kW-228kW

Diesel:

  • 2.0L 110kW-140kW

Hybrid:

  • 2.0L i4 186kW–223kW

These mods kits are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you begin.

Getting the best modified mods for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport 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: Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Alloy wheels.

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

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

Peak power is good on competition cars but for a drivable and fun car you need a long torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best mods for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance upgrade.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.

The exhaust and intake durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip to fully realise your gains.

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

If you find you suffer from flat spots and power surges after your sports kits you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Upgrading the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned V60s uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Induction kits only help to add power if the air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most standard engines will see NO 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.

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for V60 engines you should settle for a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow out of the engine but do not go too wide or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Head work including a gas flow (ported and polished) and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. A good fast road uprated clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never make false economies or ask the standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods we recommend for your V60 are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intakeRemaps offer big power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NA (naturally aspirated) engines the benefits are doubtful. However a flashed ecu on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.

We've also seen some tuners toying with twincharged conversions and making some impressively high power hikes.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. Turbos are generally harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos provide boost in increasing proportion to increasing engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

Superchargers, however will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is simpler. Adding forced induction will generally require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

As alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they can help to cool the brake disks. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good directional tread pattern tire can really enhance your cars handling. The drawback to large alloys on your V60 is that you're changing your effective final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration.

Although some people have gone larger than this we would stick to a 16 inch rim size as the maximum.

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 V60 options in more detail with our V60 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.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below. We love hearing about our website visitors projects, especially the mods done and which 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 articles which are kept updated and constantly revised.

If you've enjoyed this page we would be very grateful if you could share a link to it on your favourite forums or on your social media profiles, it helps us keep going.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

PLEASE HELP: I NEED YOUR DONATIONS TO COVER THE COSTS OF RUNNING THIS SITE AND KEEP IT RUNNING. I do not charge you to access this website and it saves most TorqueCars readers $100's each year - but we are NON PROFIT and not even covering our costs. To keep us running PLEASE Donate here

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.

Feedback - What do You Think?

Please use our forums if you wish to ask a tuning question, and please note we do not sell parts or services, we are just an online magazine.

Help us improve, leave a suggestion or tip

Your Constructive comments on this article, I really want to improve this article with your help and suggestions.


Please watch this video and subscribe to my YouTube channel.



Member Benefits

Join our forum today and benefit from over 300,000 posts on tuning styling and friendly car banter.

You will also have full access to the modifed car gallery, project car updates and exclusive member only areas.

(All car owners of all ages and from all countries are welcome).


BMW 335i - 2021 COTY

We gave the BMW 335i our coveted car of the year award, read more about this awesome car and see why 335i Tuning Guide

Tips for N54 Tuning

Tips for N55 Tuning
Tips for B58 Tuning

Popular articles

Diesel tuning
ECU Remaps
double de clutch
Induction Kits
Customize a car
Tuning Chips
Modified Car insurance
Track day insurance
Diesel Remaps
MPG calc
DPF cleaning
Tuning Stages


Electric Water Pumps

Electric water pumps
Read more...

Safety Mods

Improve safety and braking of your car
Read more...

Stretched Tyres

Stretched tires legal & safe?
Read more...

Vehicle Wraps

Total vehicle wraps and applying vinyl wrap to your car.
Read more...

Cheap Sleeper Cars

Cheap Sleeper cars
Read more...

Astra Sport Diesel

Tuning the 150bhp Diesel Astra Sport Hatch
Read more...

MPG Calculator

MPG calculator UK miles per Gallon – calculate MPG
Read more...