Bang for your buck...it will go faster because your wallet is lighter.

 

I'd invest money in a motor with forged internals and a transmission w/a strong clutch, more for durability and longevity than outrageous amounts of power. Clearly, Turbo is the way to go if what you want is outrageous performance. I need reliability and gas mileage in a daily driver, not a trailer queen/track racer that would get me pulled over by the Georgia State Patrol. Here in Georgia in the county where I live, they not only test for emissions, they put a mirror under the car to insure that you have a cat installed. And anything with loud drone (even a Volvo) will attract too much attention from the cops down here.

 

Another thing to note here. While its impressive that someone has taken an N/A and rebuilt it to get 60hp out if it with lots of labor, $ and love the end result is the base HP of a Turbo 850 so why even do it.

 

Looks like he felt like building what he wanted and achieved the goals that he set for himself. Not everyone wants or feels that they need a turbo. I personally don't. The price of premium fuel in my area is reason enough for me to not go turbo. An SS Exhaust and header, an MSD ignition, and a tune up is all the extra performance I need to get to and from work with my 100 mile daily commute, at this point. Funny thing is I almost bought a turbo S40 before my Mom gave me her Volvo. I have years of service records for this car and know everything that's been repaired and replaced on her. I can't buy that kind of intimate knowledge with any other car, turbo or not.

To each his own. Some want turbo. Others don't. In the end, we're all Volvo enthusiasts, turbo or not. This isn't "turboOnlyVolvoforums", right?

 

You're obviously a novice so I'll take it easy on you...

But the N/A has 10.5:1 compression ratio and the HPT is 8.5:1. I.e. both should run premium (look at your owners manual). The former because of the relatively high compression ratio, and the latter because of the turbo.

If you have a HPT but you're never on-boost, then you could run regular.

You can run regular on both, but performance will suffer. These cars have knock sensors that will automatically retard the ignition timing for the lower octane fuel. FYI.

 

Where Volvos are concerned, yes, I'm a novice. Where cars are concerned, no, I am not. It's commonly known that with turbos in other cars, running anything lower than premium fuel causes detonation. Boom. That doesn't happen to Volvos? Great. I'm still not going to sell my N/A Volvo to get a Turbo Volvo. I'm happy with what I have and will mod my N/A Volvo and enjoy it.

 

Theres nothing wrong with that. Its just most of us like seeing results from buying performance mods. If you want a reliable DD, leave the thing alone. Most people dont get to utilize handling related mods, but when you increase power, you can use it because we spend more time driving on a continuous road, than taking turns. Whats the point in forging the internals of a motor with pretty much stock power anyways?

 

Everyone has choices to make. Some of you chose turbos and think everyone considering a Volvo should only consider the turbo models. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this topic and move on. I enjoy my N/A 850. I will do whatever mods work for me on this car. No one is going to change my mind about that.

 

Good to read, stick to your guns. Keep smoking Camels, drinking vodka, and whatever else you choose to do that is not illegal. This is still somewhat of a free country.

As for the turbo cars running well on 87 octane, most do. About 1/2 of us run 91+. Just to let you know, many of the modded turbo cars get better gas mileage than the na cars.

The point is, as has been noted several times in this thread, you can mod an na all you want. Dump a few thousand dollars in it, and when your done, a stock non modded nicer Volvo 850 or x70 will still be faster, more comfortable, and likely get the same if not better mileage than the na that just had money dumped into it.

I recently purchesed a pretty clean '98 S70 with 105,000 on the clock. Paid $500 for it. Rebuilt the head, CV axles, brakes, timing parts, PCV, and tossed in a few upgrades and was still into the car for less than $1,800. I had a very nice S70 T5 that would likely last 50,000+ more miles with only gas & oil changes. I could likely have sold your car and had money left over on this one. The car gets 22.6 mpg around my town and 29 mpg on the highway. Best dd any Volvo driver could as for.

 

 

I'm getting 31mpg in an N/A Volvo that's got 284,740 miles, thanks to being well maintained. I get that you guys are tired of discussing N/A performance mods with Volvo noobs who think they're going to get 300hp out of an N/A Volvo with mods, but I'm not one of those. As stated in another thread, I have no unrealistic performance expectations for my N/A Volvo and you'll note that at no time, did I ask anyone here about performance mods for my N/A 850, so we can all relax on this topic, where I'm concerned. The mods I'm doing aren't so much mods as they are bolt on replacement parts that will be replacing worn out parts or parts that will wear out and replace them with more durable parts than stock. I intend to drive this car for a while. So we can all take a deep breath, here, as no one needs to try to convince me to sell my car to get a turbo. That talk can be had with Volvo noobs who have unrealistic performance expectations of their N/A Volvos. I am not one of them.

 

Well then if you aren't one of "Them" why did you post in "How to make your N/A car go faster"
It's you who shouldn't get upset if we voice a very common opinion on what people with N/As should do to improve performance.

If you are silly enough to come here to this thread about N/As don't be surprised if we tell you what we think.
Stick to other threads or start you own talking about how to make your N/A more reliable with HD or performance parts and you won't have to listen to our advise and you won't feel picked on like you seem to now.

 

I posted here because I didn't see any indication anywhere on this forum that there was a limit to the expression of opinions, perspectives, or ideas. I've learned that it's a bad idea to even respond to any discussion about performance mods on an N/A 850 thread here. Lesson learned. No need to beat a dead horse. Thanks for the response.

 

This is where you aligned yourself with doing performance upgrades on your car. Your post, your words.
Sorry if we assumed since you said "us" that you didn't actually mean you wanted to do performance upgrades. That and again you posted in this thread.

Before you start giving me and or us the freedom of speech routine there are rules here both in where you can post and what you can post. Same if you use coarse language, you shouldn't be surprised if it's edited, deleted or you're booted. This isn't a public park and you can't say whatever you want to, sorry if you think that's a right you have. All forums I know of have moderators and it's there job to limit opinions, perspectives, ideas and language.

 

Found a turbo engine for my 1995 5spd n/a anyone done this swap before

 

Bingo-bango; here you go..
Successful 850 N/a To Turbo Swap....yes, It Does Run And Drive, Quite Well I Might Add! - Performance Modifications - Volvospeed Forums

Note; you will need more than just the engine; best to get a wrecked donor car that you can pull parts from.

I was actually considering doing this before I found my 855T last Sept. (after a 2+ year search). There are attributes of the N/A model I actually prefer.

 

I just want to state that I didn't come here to make waves, make enemies, brake rules, or **** anyone off. I'm not here to cause problems. If I broke any rules in any of my posts, I apologize. Mods don't work on N/A Volvos. I get it. Turbo swap is expensive. Cheaper to buy a used turbo Volvo and mod it. Clearly understood. I'm just here to learn, discuss topics, and do everything possible to keep my car on the road. Some research here showed me why that Viva N/A exhaust is actually a bad idea. The car needs back pressure. Reducing it is the wrong way to go.

 

Man, don't hurt yourself. Sometimes we go a little overboard trying to help people.

 

The original post was great! just purchased our third Volvo...this time a 1998 S70 non turbo for the wife and although i did wonder what it would take to add a turbo (being the go fast person of the house) i had the thought that #1 it would cost WAY more than the car is worth and #2 the engine wouldn't last (already has 107k). I'll keep the go quickly upgrades for the old and tired 04 S40 (1.9) with 180k on it.