1 riktig svensk said:
The one thing that I noticed you guys forgot to discuss was cams.....most people that have the T5 cars don't bother considering other cams, HOWEVER there is a very cheap option when it comes to cams. Get a set of N/A cams from like a GLT or something. They will have higher lift, and when it comes to high performance on T5 engines, they will help you yield more potential out of your engine. They can be found cheap on Ebay, and other sources. I got a set for $60 shipped. I've seen them on Ebay for $9.99 plus shipping. But you might also spend upwards of $200.....shop wisely.
Also worth mentioning is the newer exhaust manifold, AKA Japan manifold....outflows the older one by far. That combined with a 19T, GLT cams and so forth, will give you a fast car to say the least!!!!
On certain early R models, they had the reverse intercooler flow setup.....I did this on the '94 850 turbo I had, and the biggest difference I noticed was quicker throttle response, in my mind, it's worth doing, if it's done right.....flush and clean intercooler, etc. One of the benefits would be that the air has a much shorter distance to travel, and fewer bends.
Just my 2 cents.....
Good points
I had the GLT cams in my black 850 before it died... I did too many mods at the same time to see how that affected things though.
I have mixed feelings about reverse intercooler piping, and one thing people forget is that the longer path with the good 850 aluminum piping will help cool the charge a little more. It depends what you're after though, and if I had the parts laying around, I'd probably do the reverse setup. I don't know if I'd spend a lot of money on it though.
For my upcoming setup, I may be using a custom FMIC mounted below the bumper... Depending on the space and if I can do the piping with stuff I have now. One interesting option though is one guy over on VS has cut up his stock piping to create the reverse piping setup at no cost.
I don't know that the 19T is the best option on 850s, but if you have a reliable form of boost control and you aren't relying on motronic 4.3 to control boost, it's a nice setup I think. I'm going to be using an angle-outlet 18T on my upcoming setup, which is essentially the same thing (slightly smaller compressor, but same turbine stuff).
volvo: Jesse850GLT (he comes around here sometimes and is a moderator on VS) has done pretty well with his 97 GLT, as has Alex (forget his exact name on here?), both running in the 14.4s
Jesse is running off-the-shelf chips for the low pressure turbo cars, a 15G turbo (straight from an 850 T5), and has exhaust, water injection, and a couple of other modifications.
Tuning those cars seems to be essentially the same as tuning the other 850s, but you'll have to be a lot more careful with the amount of boost you run and how well you tune, as you have a higher compression ratio and thinner cylinder walls. Hope that helps.
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Since I keep talking about "my upcoming setup," I may as well get it down on paper here
I'll be running a brand new angle-outlet TD04HL-18T turbo, new oil lines, a used long block with 73k miles (might put on my .040" off and slightly ported head with GLT cams, but haven't decided yet), possibly a front-mount intercooler... Definitely Samco silicon hoses.
A 3" mandrel-bent SS downpipe made by Jesse, a 2.5" IPD cat-back, a resonator in place of the cat.
For fuel, I will be using Megasquirt with 395 cc/min "blue" injectors from a 1999+ 70-series T5 car, tuning with a Techedge wideband O2 sensor, and controlling boost with an AVC-R electronic boost controller, both by RPM and gear, and watching a Boris M. KnockSense unit to make sure I don't get any knock, and see what air-fuel ratios I should shoot for (probably ~12.0:1 at WOT, running ~18-20 psi at the higher RPM levels). Ignition timing map will come courtesy of a chip designed and programmed by a personal friend of mine in Sweden.
My goals for this car are ~285-300 whp (maybe more if I put on that other and cams), and hopefully a quarter mile time around 13.5 or possibly a little faster. This is certainly a setup capable of yielding these numbers, and certainly capable of exceeding them at least by a nominal amount, but I am skeptical of my ability to tune it to the point where it can put up those numbers consistently and reliably.
I'm hoping to have the car running with this setup in a month, month and a half or so. I'm hoping to meet my power goal perhaps a month or so after that. I have all the said parts except the turbo (en route from Sweden), engine (picking up tomorrow), and downpipe (waiting for Jesse to make it... and I'm waiting for the turbo to come before I start pressuring him
).
After I get that setup running well, I will write up a final copy of this "article" and submit it, mainly chronicling my adventures with these cars and mentioning results others have had with various setups.
*phew*
the only reason i am hesitant to buy a chip is because i want the flexibility of being able to control boost levels myself, so i guess the best thing for me would be a chip + boost controller????
