New Member With Crazy Ambitions For His Volvo S80

[HelgaTheS80]

Well, let me first start off by saying that I am most certainly excited that I found this place!

I'm actually coming over here from volvoforums.com, if anyone posts over there.

Anyways, here is my story:

Since October, I've owned the best car of my life: a 1999 Volvo S80. Her namw is Helga. Helga is one sexy car. Slow, but sexy.

I've owned her since November of last year after picking her up with 132,000 miles and have since added on about 3k since purchasing. I will come out straight and say at first I thought a volvo was nothing more than a big comfy safety bubble. Man, was I wrong! I thought the stock look of the s80 was sort of old-manish, soI've added on 18" Voxx Wheels with Kumho Ecsta tires (took off some of the rubber drifting/powersliding in places I won't disclose haha!), painted red calipers, total revamp of the audio system. That's all I've done for now.

Problem, is I've hit a wall with my s80. I know there is a T6 brother to this car, but I am not a conventional person so I've decided to keep my car (because I like it and cost aside) and want to go the route of doing a custom engine build and a custom turbo setup. Only problem is, I can't find any aftermarket stuff for the engine on mine. No pistons, rods...etc. What is the most boost a stock volvo engine can take and still be safe? What about nitrous...etc?

I want to keep my volvo powerplant and try to give it some pep up from the standard 197 hp.

I also want to make this car handle despite being a big luxury car that can do some serious corner-turning at autocross events and on driver along twisty roads (and not flop around so much when I try to drift with it!)

Peopl have said I'm nuts for trying to modify such a plush luxury car, but that's half the fun I think. After all, who thinks in their right mind a volvo, let alone an s80...would blow them in the dust?

Anyways, I am here for suggestions. What kind of turbo setup would the 2.9 inline 6 engine respond well to? What parts, etc. What is a good setup for the suspension?

I forgot to add that even though my car is a N/A, I did get rid of the factory exhaust system. In its place, I have a custom mandrel-bent 2.5" dual system from the cats on back. The system consists of a single tube after the cats going to a magnaflow glasspack (the only one I could fit in the exhaust tunnel). It has dual exits with 3 inch polished stainless steel tips, but it doesn't have any performance benefit. Because of the limitations on space, the best I could have done was a y pipe right after the exhaust tunnel going out to 2 individual pipes out back. So other than aesthetics (I think single exit looks ricey), it's not doing a blasted thing for power.

As a matter of fact, I'll add this:

I've taken my car to the drag strip a few times, and it's bloody slow. In stock form before I added the exhaust, my time was 17.8 @ 83 miles an hour. And that was my girlfriend in the car with me.

Since I've added on the exhaust (because I planned to go turbo later down the route) I've lost a lot of backpressure, which I thought was good until I got to the track again. Figures out that a N/A needs the backpressure. Next time at the track with the new exhaust, it sounded amazing but my car really struggles to climb in the powerband in the upper rpm's.

Oh well. The redeeming aspect of it is I took off the muffler and both resonators (hehe!) and it sounds AMAZING at WOT. You can hear it from a ways away. I did add quite a bit of resonance inside the car, which between 1,500-2,500 rpms is so loud it can give you a headache....but I've gotten used to it. But people come up to me and say that the engine has a sound of it's own. And people look twice when they hear it coming from a volvo!

The only issue I've had with it is when it came to get me car resmogged, it almost didn't pass because the owner of the smog shop was fighting with me that ANY car with aftermarket exhaust is illegal in California (which is a load of bull, I ended up having to take it elsewhere).

Speaking of which, why in the heck does my car have 4 cats??? I was looking under the hood and it seems I have a pre-cat, then the actual cat. Would my car benefit from better flowing cats? My only concern is if I change out the cats will it still pass smog? Passing smog is a big issue for me living in SoCali.

If anybody wants to hear my exhaust, here's a link to youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdBqFEAhK3A

But I guess I've kept it because it's one of the most comfy and luxurious cars I've ever owned (even though I'm only 19). It's slow, but the other things I've done to it like the aesthetics (ooh, I forgot to add I smoked the tail lights too!) really make up for it.

Turbos aside, I have a friend who runs a fabrication shop here in town and said that my car might benefit from a custom direct port nitrous system. Now, I've been talking to other volvo guys. Some say that for track purposes, it is fine. Others are saying stay away from it like the plague. Even if I go with it, I don't condone street racing. I race only at the track. If used in moderation is nitrous alright for fun at the drag strip?

And possible suspension layouts? I am thinking about the IPD front and rear sway bars, IPD end links, Eibach sport lowering springs, Quickbrick motorsports strut brace conversion, Koni coilovers, and a polyurethane motor mount bushing.

I'm also having an issue of adding on a CAI under the hood. The big problem I'm having with my s80 is the fact that there are vacuum lines that go to the intake and hook into the airbox. I tried an experiment to see what would happen if I dosconnected them. For a couple of days, nothing. Then the engine started to misfire BADLY. I hooked them back up, problem went away., If I were to fab one up, how would I get around this issue. The odd angle of the ECM is a problem also. I can't seem to find a good inlet for cold air either other than the factory inlet tube behind the radiator going into the airbox. Suggestions?

I don't want to give up on helga. But I'm a college student so I've gotta do high-performance stuff on a really tight budget budget.This car was also a gift from my parents when I went off to college, so getting rid of it is out of the question. I guess for now, I'd like to squeeze as much power as I can out of the N/A engine until I've got the cash to do stuff with forced induction. Ideas?

I am not afraid to turn wrenches, and I am willing to save up over time to do turbos later on, and I love to talk cars or weld so if anybody has suggestions help is appreciated!

here are some pics of Helga after being waxed: http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrow...der_id=1806084

Enjoy!

-HelgaTheS80

[Volvo Virgin]

pics no worky

Welcome to VS!!

[PharmD]

Welcome to VS! I really like what you've done with the S80 - I'm a big fan of them! Your exhaust sounds great, too! There are some guys here with some hopped up S80's you'll have to talk to!

[volvo4lif3]

exhaust sounds great. Rods, etc can be had for our cars if you look. As far as getting a lot out of your car, i would say a little more hp is attainable via a chip (not much hp but a little). Otherwise from little things such as a k+n filter, forced induction is the way. I also forgot, you could do cam adjustments. Don't swap in a T6 motor. It doesn't work well with the Gm tranny. Mine went out at 99k miles. Re-do your bottom end, and do a single turbo setup. That would be your best bet. If you would like a set of HID's for your car, pm me. I'm getting a new car this week, and unfortunately my H7's wont fit in my s60. It takes a 9006 I just bought these from mydepot (800k) so if you want them for cheap pm me. Otherwise, don't let people talk you down about your car. Most on this site drive s70s and 850 and are just jealous of the comfort of the s80. GL

[BoxLover]

That exhaust sounds real nice!

['93 Dave]

dam its glad to see some1 who really cares for their volvo

tho the link for ur pictures doesnt work for me

[HelgaTheS80]

if all else fails, go to the members gallery under 99 s80 "Helga". I added up pics of my car on here right after I joined.

Thanks guys for all the comments! Although I won't lie, trying to just add rims to this car has been a struggle. The s80 has literally no aftermarket support at all, so it's quite difficult to do anything outside of suspension and appearance mods.

Do they make a rebuild kit for the engine? Any recommendations on what mods I should do next? Input desired. I'm pretty much open from a CAI all the way to a custom turbo manifold. I'd like to make my own mabye but I'm not sure where 'm gonna find a head flange to make it with if I decide to do so.

Oh and fyi, my rims are 18" Voxx MG's on 235/??/18 rubber on Kumho Ecsta tires. (Not sure if I posted it above but I'll just add it again heh)

But yeah, I've actually done some more things to my car since I took these pics. A big one was I totally redid the front grille and lower fascia. I ditched the OEM grille form some grille sheet aluminum (the aluminum they use to make the euro grilles) and I painted it gloss black and made an insert so it looks really aggressive. I also got rid of the cross sections in the lower part of the front fascia to make the lower opening more noticeable. It sorta looks like how the grilles are on the new audis now...really love how it came out despite it all being home fabricated. I'll try to get pics later.

And another "minor" thing I did was ditched the fake wood trim for aluminum trim. I didn't think wood was very youthful. Well, it's not actually real aluminum, just some high quality aluminum paint over the existing trim pieces and shifter. Looks like an OEM option, I really like it.

-HelgaTheS80

[Che'_Moderator]

if all else fails, go to the members gallery under 99 s80 "Helga". I added up pics of my car on here right after I joined.

Thanks guys for all the comments! Although I won't lie, trying to just add rims to this car has been a struggle. The s80 has literally no aftermarket support at all, so it's quite difficult to do anything outside of suspension and appearance mods.

Do they make a rebuild kit for the engine? Any recommendations on what mods I should do next? Input desired.

-HelgaTheS80

Issue are going to be:

You live in PRK

+

NA

=

Screwed.

You have lots of options but I cannot seeing any of them passing your inspection. Is this going to be a daily driver or track car? BTW welcome to the board.

[drinking940’s]

I like your " opening statement"

very very classy. welcome. and volvoforums.com=/

[HelgaTheS80]

It's going to be my daily driver, but I'd like to make it least a mild track performer as well. I want to keep it basically a nice luxury cruiser but it would be fun to upgrade the suspension for, say, autocross and twisty mountain roads.

But I really do wanna do something along the lines of a single turbo.

[BlackT5]

Not a big fan of the wheels. I think pegs would look better.

For performance, you're pretty much screwed like Chuck says. Particularly if it's your daily driver and you're on a tight budget.

[HelgaTheS80]

The budget is actually kind of open, I can save up it just will take some time. Fortunately, I'm still living at home and going to school with a part time job so the money is there.

I liked the pegs too, but I didn't wanna spend the money it've cost to get pegs, even replicas. These are still a pretty simple 5 spoke design. And they're easy to clean. My wheels were only 145.00 without tax for 18X7. That's a good price in my opinion, so I went that route.

And what the heck does PRK mean? Confused on that.

[Mattphi]

Like the wheels. But you need a drop. Loose the sticker on the gas cap, kind of looks tacky.

Tails look pretty sweet, but a little bit lighter might look better since your car is light silver. And loose the foglights!

Other than that, everything else looks great! Welcome. :tup:

[S80 Tsixer]

Damn, I feel like I’m staring at the N/A version of my car. Same color, same silverstar bulbs, smoked tails(although I left the backup/signals clear)! I love the look of the dual pipes. A bit louder that what I have planed but props for modding an S80. Keep em clean and welcome.

Tony.

PS +1 on losing the sticker and fogs, if you want fogs, go with oem ones-much cleaner looking

[theForgottenone]

Exhaust sound sexy....