T6 Internal Strength

Hi everyone this is my first post and I'm probably asking a question that's been asked a thousand times so I'll apologise in advance. Does anyone know what power the standard T6 internals can take before needing a forged rebuild? Thinking of using one as a Donor in a project either that or a T5 but the T6 comes with more power standard and I know the old 850 T5 engines needed Con rods after about 320bhp? Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

arthur242630 said:

Hi everyone this is my first post and I'm probably asking a question that's been asked a thousand times so I'll apologise in advance. Does anyone know what power the standard T6 internals can take before needing a forged rebuild? Thinking of using one as a Donor in a project either that or a T5 but the T6 comes with more power standard and I know the old 850 T5 engines needed Con rods after about 320bhp? Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

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Welcome to the forum. The statement I bolded is a load of crap perpetuated by people who don't know better. So don't believe any of it. The fact is no one knows what the stock internals are good for. It's impossible to give a number and say "X rods/pistons/whatever are good for Y amount of torque". There are just too many variables involved to actually believe that an ultimate number can be stated. This goes for all engines.

thanks for the reply. That thing about the T5's needing Rods after about 320bhp was something I'd read on one of the other Volvo forums. I just want an engine that I can put in and use mainly bolt on power without needing a major rebuild before even getting the vehicle moving. I'm after about 350 - 400bhp and love volvo engines as they seem to have amazing sounds as opposed to any other engines.

thanks for the reply. That thing about the T5's needing Rods after about 320bhp was something I'd read on one of the other Volvo forums. I just want an engine that I can put in and use mainly bolt on power without needing a major rebuild before even getting the vehicle moving. I'm after about 350 - 400bhp and love volvo engines as they seem to have amazing sounds as opposed to any other engines.

haha, double-post, i know nothing about white-blocks, i post useless commentary. welcome to the board

Alex Buchka said:

Welcome to the forum. The statement I bolded is a load of crap perpetuated by people who don't know better. So don't believe any of it. The fact is no one knows what the stock internals are good for. It's impossible to give a number and say "X rods/pistons/whatever are good for Y amount of torque". There are just too many variables involved to actually believe that an ultimate number can be stated. This goes for all engines.

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even so, what harm does it do to spend $600 for new rods to have some piece of mind?

$600 should not make or break the project...if it takes a few more months to get the $$, so be it

320 bhp on a T5 seems to be the commonly accepted limit for the engine if you take into account age/poor fuel/crappy tune/abuse etc. Get a good T5, give it a good map, treat it nicely and feed it well and as Alex says who knows what the limit is.

Given the T6 uses the same internals as the T6 we have to assume 320/5 = 64bhp per cyl is safe therefore the T6 should be safe up to 6x 64 = 384 bhp.

Certainly there are many chips out there for T6 owners that take them to 350bhp and they seem to last well so your goal of 350-400 seems achieveable on stock internals if mapped well and fed good fuel.

My stock T6 seems pretty safe at 388whp, well north of of 400bhp on pump gas.

I suspect it would make more safely if I had enough injector. That said I'm putting rods in this winter. I think it's good insurance.

Peter's 960 w/ stock T6 made about 360whp on E85 as well.

As far I know we're the only people who frequent the forum at all that actually have T6 swaps with numbers.

Both swaps were not done using the string and duct tape approach though,and both seem to contradict the accepted "limits" per volvospeed etc.

Captain Bondo said:

My stock T6 seems pretty safe at 388whp, well north of of 400bhp on pump gas.

I suspect it would make more safely if I had enough injector. That said I'm putting rods in this winter. I think it's good insurance.

Peter's 960 w/ stock T6 made about 360whp on E85 as well.

As far I know we're the only people who frequent the forum at all that actually have T6 swaps with numbers.

Both swaps were not done using the string and duct tape approach though,and both seem to contradict the accepted "limits" per volvospeed etc.

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Hi thanks for the reply do you have any photo's or video of you car and conversion? I'd love to see it?

did poi ever dyno his 960? he was using stock internals, right?

Don't the liners pooch out before the rods bend?

This is making for interesting reading, I'm considering a T6 conversion myself next year so pics and info would be very gratefully received.

745 TurboGreasel said:

Don't the liners pooch out before the rods bend?

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Some premature failures have been reported with 83mm bore motors. 81mm T5/T6 style motors can make a lot of power before having liner issues - they definitely need rods first.

I have some dyno vids and various pics at http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll214/WatsonFab/

Thanks everyone for all your input. I've got 2 project options 1st is a 960/S90 Estate With a T6 or T5 and various other add ons, 2nd is A Volvo 240 Saloon Fitted with either a T6 or T5 But Fit the 4X4 Running Gear From the Ford Sierra XR4X4/Cosworth I'm just after opinions neither of these projects will even come off until mid next year but would appreciate opinions and any advice.?

Let me put it this way: one of those options is a one month project, max. The other is a black hole money pit with no end in sight. Guess which is which.

Thanks I'm a bit impulsive so even if I say now I know what you mean and I'll do the 960/S90 conversion when I'm looking on the Net at one of the most stunning Looking 240's I ever seen and I'll probably go totaly blindfolded and Head for the Money Pit. But hopefully my wife will make me see sense and beast me until I do...

Hard to make suggestions since we don't know if you work at McDonald's, live in an apartment and own one crescent wrench and a rusty screwdriver or if you're an ex-nasa engineer with access to a full shop and a cnc machine or what.

You know better than us what you are realistically capable and can realistically afford.

My project is comparatively simple vs. a full on awd conversion, and it has still taken a fair amount of time and money, and I have a garage and ~10k worth of tools and equipment and do pretty much everything myself and farm nothing out except the odd machined part. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I have some fabrication experience and an engineering background.

I would do just the whiteblock swap first, and do the awd conversion after you have everything working as a std 2wd configuration.

arthur242630 said:

2nd is A Volvo 240 Saloon Fitted with either a T6 or T5 But Fit the 4X4 Running Gear From the Ford Sierra XR4X4/Cosworth I'm just after opinions neither of these projects will even come off until mid next year but would appreciate opinions and any advice.?

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Strangely enough I have looked into doing a similar thing, (but not in a Volvo), and it might not be as involved as it sounds at first.

I would use only the gearbox and propshafts from the Sierra though. Transplanting the Ford IRS type rear suspension into your car would be a waste of effort. The rear would simply be a case of driving it into a stock live axle....easy.


The front end could probably use either the Sierra or 850 struts and modified driveshafts, and I'd use a Volvo IRS rear diff with the same final drive ratio as the rear axle in the front and a short cross shaft and bearing (850 maybe?).

To position this correctly would foul the engine badly, but IF THE ENGINE AND GEARBOX WERE MOVED FURTHER BACK and a longer front propshaft used it could be made to clear while improving weight distribution.

A turbo 4 or 5 cylinder engine, or a 16V redblock, would then be a better choice to minimize rear displacement and make use of the extra space at the front of the engine bay for turbo plumbing, intercooling etc.

While this obviously isn't really an ideal road car conversion by any means, it mostly only involves simple sheet metal alteration and a fairly small amount of non-specialist general light engineering work.

There would probably be as much effort needed to install the engine controls and mate it to the 4WD MT75 (integral bellhousing) and adapting strut lower front suspension control as anything else, even the speedo calibration would be unaffected if the car used a non cable one!

Probably not an 8 week project though?