MENUTuning the Volvo S90
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The S90 is a brilliant car modification project to execute. We see car enthusiasts wasting money on their S90 doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our hints to avoid making the common mistakes
Handling/Suspension upgrades
Improving the handling for lots of DIY modders first priority in your S90 tuning project.
Setting slight negative camber on the wheels and a few degrees of toe in to improve stability or toe out for better cornering, will usually improve your S90 in handling and cornering.
Drop the car by as much as 26mm - 35 mm. and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.
Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more bhp out of the top end.
Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.
Engine Tuning.
Typically these motorsport kits are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get going.
Getting the best modified upgrades for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.
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How to tune your car
- Improve the handling
Focus on Suspension improvements, such as coilovers and make sure the bushings are in good order and that the alignment is correct. Then focus on improving the brakes, with a big disk brake conversion kit and fast road brake pads.
- Remove restrictions
Focus on the intake and exhaust with filters being the common point of restriction in a tuned car. Intercoolers may also become restrictive on turbo engines so this may also need to be uprated.
- Burn more fuel & air
Increase the fuelling so it matches the air coming into the engine. The ratio is important so you need to improve the fuel pump and injectors, so the head mods, big valve conversions, fast road camshafts and forced induction upgrades extra supply of air is adequately met.
- Test and replace any weak parts
Weak areas are commonly the clutch, the turbocharger and pistons and crankshaft in a highly tuned engine. Makes sure these components will cope with your power aspirations.
- The Tune or Remap
A cars ECU controls the fuel, timing, spark and even the turbo in some cases, so to fully extract your gains you should remap the car last and this will fully release the power. Some cars are easy to map, and others require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project.
Modifying to Stage 1:
Alloy wheels, Suspension upgrade (drop 26mm - 35 mm.), Sports exhaust, Remap, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter.
Modifying to Stage 2:
Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Sports gearbox, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam.
Peak power is good on competition cars but for a daily driven car you need a long torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.
The whole aim of our pointers is to give a limited introduction of tuning upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your car tuning project, the best modified modifications and all aspects of modding cars.One of the best mechanical upgrades you can do on your NASP engine is to fit a fast road camshaft .
It maximises the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a competition cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.
Don't forget to look at the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.
Frequently power losses, and erratic idling after mods are done can usually be traced to fuelling or timing issues. To get sufficient fuel you may need to increase the injectors on your engine.
If you are increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
Breathing mods are usually next up. Induction kits are only beneficial to add power if the air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most low power engines will see LITTLE LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.
Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for S90 engines you should go with a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.
Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can buy this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.
Head work including a head port and polished and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. A good heavy duty fast road upgraded clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or ask a standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods in our opinion for your S90 are a remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.
NASP engines do not achieve big power gains if you remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A remapped turbo will give impressive power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block. Adding forced induction will see big power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it harder to map.
Superchargers will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is easier to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engines compression ratio .
Alloy wheel upgrades.
Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are generally lighter than steel ones. We can't go into too much detail here about tires but they are how the car puts the power down on the road so are a critical choice. track legal slick tires work well on S90, and make a big difference over budget tires. Large S90 alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.
Due to this try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases not going larger than 18 inches.
For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss S90 options in more detail with our S90 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Volvo tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.
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We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which mods work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.
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