My salesman told me the 850 glt ,1997 I bought friday was a turbo.I see nothing under the hood or on the air box saying turbo,what is the easy way to find out if it is or not.

 

Look behind the engine and see if it has a turbo or not.

1997 GLTs were the first years of the LPT engines, so if it's badged right, it should have a turbo.

 

yeah usually GLT = Turbo
Non Turbos just say "850" on the back not "850 GLT, 850T5, 850T6.. "

 

only in 97 and late 96 i believe were the GLT's the low pressure turbo, before that the GLT's were N/A 2.4L my parents have a 96 GLT and its not a turbo

 

If it is turbo, you will see a black hose/pipe going over the top of the engine. Usually s shaped. Also, if you punch it and you have great pick up, it's likely a turbo. Non-turbos are kinda slow.

 

Thanks,so there is not a turbo gauge of any kind?

 

it probably doesn't because of the boost being low pressure. Post some pictures of under the hood if you can't figure it out. from back behind the engine

 

Nope no guage on the LPT GLT models. If you are driving at about 2500 RPM's, floor it and if you go OH WOW, it's a turbo. You will not have that feeling with the NA. All 97 GLT's were LPT so it probably is unless the badges are wrong. I believe is also has 56 in the 6th and 7th positons of the VIN.

 

In '97, they did away with the boost gauge in the dash and the word TURBO embossed into the air filter box. I wish they hadn't...

 

maybe the prev. owner just added the GLT badge to make the car seem more sporty?

 

No, they did make non-turbo GLT's. '97 was the first year that the GLT had a turbo.

The easist way to determine if you have a turbo is if there's a pipe running over the engine (it's a 2.5 inch black pipe from the factory). That's the air pipe running from the intercooler to the turbo. If you have an N/A engine, there's no pipe.

This will help to decode your VIN:
http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/vin_850.shtml