Volvo V70 Tuning

"Tuning guide to the best Volvo V70 modifications."

The V70 is a great car tuning project to try. The key to V70 tuning is choosing the right mods - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

For more than a decade, Volvo has produced the V70, a luxury sedan. 'V' stands for "versatility," and '70 refers to the proportional size of the platform, therefore the name "V70" (i.e., a V70 is larger than a V40, but smaller than a V90).

One car that keeps cropping up in emails and questions we get sent is the V70, and what modifications work best on it. so we've created this page which covers our go-to modifications that you should tune and outline which modifications we feel are the best.

There have been three versions of the Volvo V70, which were produced between 1996 and 2016 but this guide gives an insight into tuning each one, but for more in depth info please check out our engine guides which contain more specific tips and guidance.

The Volvo V70 is an executive car manufactured between 1996 to 2016 with 3 revisions.

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 mods for your V70

1. Remaps - V70 engine tuning/remapping offers the biggest gains for your outlay, aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Air Intake and Performance Exhausts - NB: on their own these mods won't ADD PERFORMANCE in most cases, but they will enable you to lift power after other upgrades by lessening the restrictive flow.
3. Turbo upgrades - A New Turbo is the most significant way to improve intake air supply, which permits you to burn more fuel and make power gains. It is one of the most expensive upgrades you'll see massive gains.
4. Fast road cams are generally the biggest mechanical mod upgrade, but we recommend they be installed by someone competent and tracking one down may be hard but there is usually a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft for you.
5. Lighter flywheels - a lower mass flywheel will noticably improve the engines ability to rev freely. Not beneficial for all V70 engines.
6. Braking Mods - Improve your ability to stop needs to be high on your agenda.
7. V70 Suspension Tuning - Fitting a more sporty Suspension kit radically improves your V70 handling Adjustable coilovers and better bushings are what is needed here.
8. Flowing and porting the engine head - for larger gains, you will get better flow and make a more efficient engine if you do this to support your other mods.

V70 Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Suspension upgrade (drop 29mm - 36 mm.), Panel air filter.

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

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

Your goal when modding the engine should be a wide torque band. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

V70 Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are the thing most do first for the V70.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you V70 substantially improving your drive.

We would go to a maximum drop of 29mm - 36 mm. on most models. You risk compromising your handling if you go lower than this.

Improvements to the bushings

Bushing mods are needed so what's involved?

The suspension components of the V70 may be mounted to the car's chassis through bushes, which are rotatable rubber mounts. These rubber ones will deteriorate as they age.

Installing new OEM rubber bushes may dramatically improve the performance of your car.

Because polyurethane bushings are stiffer, the ride may be less forgiving, but the bushings will last longer and maintain the car's handling over a longer time.

They may also lead to an increase in the stress of other suspension components due to the increased vibration and play.

A new set of polyeyurothane bushings may be able to lessen the excessive play that comes with rubber bushes.

You may struggle to find a full set of poly bushings, but most regions have the primary mounts available. Custom poly bushes are often made to your requirements.

V70 Brake Upgrades

For sharper enhanced braking add better performance pads and match this with meatier brake discs.

We should point out that motorsport friction pads can be noisier and will need to be really hot before they are effective.

In every day driving the brakes are only applied now and then so will not be effective so specify pads which have a low working temperature.

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

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

V70 Power mods.

The following tuning modifications are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get going.

V70 Model History

In November 1996, the first generation V70 (1996–2000) was launched and it offered reliability, practicality and performance, but actually had much to offer after tuning mods are added.

Front-wheel drive (FWD) was standard, but an all-wheel drive (AWD) version sold under the name "V70 AWD" was also available. The V70 XC or V70 Cross Country was released in September 1997. Volvo S70 was the name of the sedan model.

In the spring of 2000, the second generation (2000–2007) emerged. AWD and XC versions of the P2 platform were used in this model, as was the case with its predecessor, the V70, which was marketed as the V70 AWD. The XC70 was rebranded for the 2003 model year. Volvo S60 was the name of the car's sedan version.

This generation (2007–2016) debuted in February 2007. As the V70 and the XC70, it was sold under the V and XC model names, respectively. The V70 production halted on April 25, 2016, but the XC70 production continued till May 13, 2016. Volvo S80 was the name of the sedan.

The following engines were offered in the V70

• 2.0–2.5L I5 Petrol
• 2.5L I5 Diesel
• 2.0–2.5L I5  Petrol
• 2.4–2.5L I5 Diesel
• 1.6–2.0L I4 Petrol
• 2.0–2.5L I5 Petrol
• 2.9–3.2L I6 Petrol
• 1.6–2.0L I4 Diesel
• 2.0–2.5L I5Diesel

Getting the correct grade of tuning upgrades for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

The point of our pointers is to give a brief overview of car tuning modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your car tuning project, the best motorsport parts and all aspects of modding cars.

V70 Performance Cams

A fast road camshaft is one of the best NASP power mods 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 reflashed ECU.

We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling.

Using higher octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Volvo project after fitting other performance mods. Larger injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the 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.

V70 Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine.  Please note that WE DO NOT FEEL YOU GET POWER GAINS FROM INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car massively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a restriction.

For most V70 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.

Do not go with the widest exhaust you can find this will slow the exhaust rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Head porting and polishing the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools A good triple plate fast road power clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never skimp or expect your standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods we would do for your V70 are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

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 impressive power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. It is often easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to bolt on a turbo. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost builds exponentially with revs.

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

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Because alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. We can't go into too much detail here about tires but they are how the car puts the power down on the road so are a critical choice. directional tread pattern tires work well on V70, and make a big difference over budget tires. Large V70 alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18 inches, although we know some of our members have fitted larger wheels 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 V70 options in more detail with our V70 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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