Guys, I'm seriously thinking of a ECU upgrade/re-map, (what ever you want to call it), i suppose this question is for S70driver...he seems to be our in house tweak specialist.
1.Are they as easy as to download as stated on many tuning web sites.(just plug in to port and download)
2.Are there any problem's i may encounter.
3.Are there any long term issues i should be aware of.
4.will The ECU upgrade harm my car.
5.which company do you endorse, and or trust.

Thanks in advance....
Seems to be the best bang for buck out there.

v70 2.4t

 

I will try and help you out right now as much as I can with the info you have provided me.

I do have some questions myself.

1. What year is your car?

2. Budget? What is your budget?

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Now to answer some of your questions.

1. IPD, RICA and BSR currently have what is called the PPC system. It is basically a tuning box that you hook up to your OBDII port and install the ECU upgrade this way. This is for ME7 cars 1999+. And if you later decide to upgrade to a better program they offer I do believe you download it from the web or from e-mail and install in into the tuner and then install it into your car.

2. There are always problems you may encounter what they will be could be anything. One from the top of my head is you may run RICH. Such with tuning from SpeedTuning USA. Now this isn't good but it could be worse.

3. Long term issues. Since you are putting more stress on the car you will shorten the engines life span. By how much no one can really say.

4. In and of itsself an ECU upgrade wont hurt your car. But problems can occur from having an ECU upgrade.

5. Depending on your budget and what year car you have depends on what company to go with. I recommend and suggest IPD USA, RICA and BSR. These are the top three Volvo ECU tuners out there and have the best R&D as well. Upsolute, SpeedTuning USA and Inmotion are decent cheap ECU upgrades.

I have SpeedTuning USA. I run RICH and if I had to do it again I would go with IPD USA and or RICA. I only have SpeedTuning USA because I went in on a GroupBuy and got it real cheap. Good kick in the pants fun but as of now I wish I could have saved for the better tune.

Also before you do an ECU upgrade do STAGE ZERO this can be found in the General Volvo section of the forum and is in the PINNED topic titled VolvoForum Resources Thread. Also within doing STAGE ZERO you also want to get a boost gauge. One that can read 25 In Hg and 25PSI. This way you know what your boosting stock for sure not what the manual and or papers tell you and also after your ECU upgrade you know what your boosting as well, which is important.

Also don't run more boost then your turbo can handle. I am taking a stab here the 2.4T seems to be a LPT engine meaning stock your running around 5-7 PSI. Which means that you have a small turbo that can handle about 15PSI max and after that your out of its efficency range. I would run around 12 PSI max. This is a good upgrade from stock. You will be creating more heat so doing some other mods wont hurt and you will also gain more Hp.

Examples: Bigger mandrel bent downpipe. 3" to be exact. Also a 2.5" mandrel bent catback system with a free flowing straight through design muffler like BORLA and or Magnaflow. Since your not upgrading your turbo you don't need a full 3" system. Also your stock intercooler is good but isn't the best. Adding what is called a Front Mount Intercooler (FMIC) will be a lot better then what your stock intercoolr is doing for you now. Also EST sells a drop in intercooler too that would be better then your OEM one.

 

s70driver, thanks for the detailed post, maybe i need to do a bit more
research regarding this.
If i have to modify my car, intercoolers and stuff, it may be an expensive mod...more expensive than i had planned...

good luck

v70 2.4t

 

You don't need to do any of those other mods I suggested. Your car will be fine. I just suggested those other mods to help your car breath better and for you to gain more Hp. Out of all those mods I suggested I would do the downpipe and catback system.