Dear Volvo friends,

I need your help and insights, since I can't find anything about this topic online after days of searching(which is already a bad omen, i know)

I own a Volvo 850 2.5l, it's still in optimal state, but I wish it had slightly more power.

I wish to add a supercharger (Eaton 45M) on this block and get it tuned. A turbo charger was already strongly discouraged on other threads and after reading in on the subject I fully understand why, however the topic of a belt driven supercharger seems scarce(only one person seemed to have done it with this particular supercharger from what i have seen/read, but can't find his contact info for questions) Therefore I have a few questions regarding the matter.

How much pressure can this particular engine manage(already assuming i will cut it's lifetime in half with this modification)? The Eaton m45 according to the supplier will boost around 0.5bar on a 2.5l engine.

How could this specific supercharger be installed?(on top of the block means a hole in the hood, keeping in mind that the pulley is in the optimal spot too)

Is it even possible to begin with?

In advance, thanks for all your insights.

 

anything is possible but I don't ever recall seeing an after market kit so you'd have to fab your own pulley etc. There's not a lot of room between the radiator and the timing belt so there's a major buzz-kill. You have an overhead valve engine with a tall deck so unless you want to sport a "Roadkill" hood, you'd have to place the blower to the side where the airbox is and move the battery to the trunk. Besides, putting a supercharger on an NA engine has the same issues as putting on a turbo - where the turbo has readily accessible hardware. So of the choice between turbo and super charger, for a Volvo the turbo is the only practical choice. For the level of effort involved, you'd be better off swapping in a T5 engine - including the wirng harness, ECU etc. If you want to go totally budget, you could bolt on a turbo exhaust manifold, install a small turbo (like a 12T etc) and run the boosted air using the T5 parts. You'd then need to device your own boost controller or simply waste gate it to a max of say 5 PSI (.3 to .4 bar). Since your NA is already at 10.3:1 compression - adding 5 PSI will make that like 14:1 (T5s are 8.4:1 so that's roughly the same pressure as a turbo running 10-12 PSI boost. This approach is pretty similar to the Volvo LPT design which uses smallish turbos and a max of 7-8 PSI boost on a 9:1 compression engine.