PROJECT
I sold Priscilla (my 850 T-5R)
in the late autumn 2000 and it happened so fast and I didn’t have the chance to
think it through before the selling was done. There I stood with money in my
hand and no car. I had only vaguely been thinking about selling her and when my
colleague took her home, I stood there quite lost to say the least. I needed a
car but what should I buy and how could I prevent falling into the same pattern
as before with spending lots of money on a car? I had sold Priscilla and this
time I was to buy a new car and I should not do anything with this one. It
should be driven for a year and then be sold and replaced with a new car and so
on…
I have said stupid things that my family and friends had laughed at, but this
time I was really the laughing stock for family, friends and colleagues! Nobody
thought that I would be able to do nothing with a new car.
I ordered a new solid black
Volvo S60 T5 with manual gearbox and all the option (except sunroof) that I had
got used to from Priscilla and by that I was convinced that I would really be
able to pull this of and drive this car for a year with only stock
options…maybe, just maybe I would buy a K&N air filter and just flash a new
program in the ECM and maybe I would mount a lowering kit…
I wasn’t even aware of it myself, but I had begun to fall already when I ordered
the car and there were some plans, but they were so “insignificant”!
I received the car in February
2001 and it was with a great disappointment that I parked the car outside my
home. With new 205/55-16 Gislaved NordFrost snow tires mounted on steel rims
(rims painted in black with grey edges) and a huge gap between wheel arches and
tires and only 250hp/330Nm, I can’t say that I was a happy new car owner.
God how I regretted the selling of Priscilla!
I drove 250-300km before I did
an oil change and mounted a K&N air filter and flashed a new SW calibration in
the ECM. Now I finally got some speed and with some 50Nm and 10-15hp extra the
engine characteristic was a real pleasure to use.
During spring 2001 many of my colleagues received their company cars, of course
solid black S60 T5’s with 17” Tethys rims and I my car felt very impersonal on
the Volvo parking.
Something had to be done immediately.
I sat down by the computer and used a picture of a black S60 and added some changes that I would like on my car. The 19" Radius R6 was only in my head at that moment and I didn't think that they would ever end up on my car. Grey down paint, black mid cunnings, lowered chassis, a sport tail pipe and just for fun I added an enormous wing á la Honda Accord Type-R. I knew then that a spoiler like that would never be mounted on my car, but it was fun doing the editing on the image.
The car was down painted with 177 Volvo grey metallic and black in the grill was painted with 177 grey met.. The mid cunnings was painted in 19 black and a 35mm/30mm lowering kit was installed and that gave the car a different profile. The road holding got more satisfying and the steering that I from the beginning felt un-precise got a more solid feel with more feedback.
Now that the car had got a more
personal look and the road holding had been pushed one step in the right
direction, the hunger for more torque and a more pleasant high end register
grew. Straight torque curves and lack of high end character will make no driver
happy in the long run.
To increase the torque would have been no problem, but the power was limited by
the high back pressure in the exhaust. High back pressure will create heat and
heat is dangerous for all components and to only increase the torque would have
given the engine a diesel characteristic.
Engine performance will feel flat and boring to drive when the power is not in harmony with the torque. In order to increase the power I had to modify the exhaust system. A 70mm rear exhaust system was ordered from TME and that made a huge difference for the look, the sound, the engine response and the power could be increased another 10-15hp. I wanted a more powerful sound and better flow, so one of the silencers was removed giving me another 3-5hp.
At this point when the car had begun moving the way I wanted and I had a chance to “play” with the functionality in the Bosch ME7-system, the drivability increased as new ideas was brought to life during the drives between home and work. Better low end torque at take-off was something that I wished for, quicker boost build up, more feeling of a naturally aspirated character (power increasing with revolution) and nicer accelerator pedal characteristics was on the wish list. New program was downloaded before driving to work and then I sat in the evening and looked at the measuring and made new calibration changes. This was a fun time and the car became more and more personalized and adapted to my driving style and my wishes.
When engine performance increased the need of better brakes became obvious…I missed the feeling and the brake performance from Priscilla. 16” or 305mm brakes on the 2000-2004 S60/V70/S80 are much better than the standard 280mm brakes from 850 and better than the 302mm brakes on the x70 1997-2000, but in comparison with the Volvo 17” Performance brakes on Priscilla they lacked brake performance, endurance and feeling. The S60 brakes were hard to moderate and if you weren’t cautious you ended up with the teeth in the steering wheel. Only a few people know that there’s a 17” brake Performance kit also for the S60/V70/S80 and Volvo has never showed its existence in any option advertise and most dealers doesn’t know that this option part is to be found in the VADIS/VIDA-system.
320mm brakes were mounted in front together with steel braided hoses in all four corners and AP 600 Racing brake fluid. The feeling in the brake pedal got to another level and now it was easy to control the brake force and the braking performance was a joy.
When the 18” Nebula was introduced for the P2-platform, the 17” Tethys felt much too small and I wanted bigger wheels. Radius R6 8x19” rims with ET45 was imported from Italy. The five spoke open design fitted my taste and the appearance of the car became completely different with these rims. 235/35-19 Pirelli PZero Rosso was mounted in front, but I wanted 245/35-19 in all four corners. Unfortunately this dimension doesn’t fit the front wheel house, so I chose 245/35-19 for the rear axle only and they fit the wheel houses very well and they also gives some extra stability to the rear.
Now when all my goals with the buying of a new S60 had been erased, I could as well go all the way and do what I did with Priscilla. A TME 3” downpipe with a metal race catalytic converter from Kemira was mounted together with a new exhaust manifold from B5254T4 (300hp S60R/V70R) and a new 19T turbocharger from B5244T2 (265hp V70R AWD MY2000). The existing software calibration in the ECM was then completely unusable. Boost build up was too fast and boost peak were all too high and there were no problems getting high boost not even at low revs. This type of calibration doesn’t fit my philosophy and it’s not good for the car either. The base calibration of the Bosch ME7-system that I had done earlier, now fell like a house of cards and I had to start from the beginning once again. After some test calibrations and late nights by the computer, the pieces were starting to fall into place and boost and torque was finally under control again. My guess is that during the years I have downloaded close to 50 different calibrations in the car in order to increase drivability, response, feeling and performance. Without flash technique this would have been if not impossible at least time consuming with high risk for electrical errors in the ECM.
When I saw the BMW M3 E46 for the first time I directly fell for the small lip on the trunk and I was thinking about mounting one on my S60. In high speeds the S60 tends to be a bit light over the rear axle, especially if the road is not flat and with a gurney-flap on the lid the character of the car changes both when it comes to stability and look. The rear of the car is now much more stable during high speed braking and it’s also more stable on the straight line. Design/look is very personal, but if you ask me I think that the look has been improved with this small detail without being able to point out exactly what it is right away. The S60R lid spoiler decreases the lifting forces with a claimed 20% and I think that the M3 ditto will decrease the lifting force with even more. Discrete, personal and with desired affect on both design and road holding, the gurney-flap is one perfect option.
The goal was to have a great response and torque at revs from idle to 1500-1600rpm. Thereafter the torque should build with control so that there’s a well balanced torque available between 2000rpm and 2500rpm. Another noticeable increase of the torque between 2500rpm and 3200rpm will give a nice feel of acceleration in this rev span and here you can have a straight torque curve to ~4000rpm. Between 4000rpm and 5000rpm there should appear a noticeable boost of torque and a character of a bigger naturally aspirated engine. Above 5000rpm I want the same sense of power, feeling and willingness to rev as you can find in many sporty engines for example BMW and Honda. Power should increase with engine revolution and maximum power should be found as close to the rev limiter as possible. With new hardware and calibration of the ECM I have this in my car and there’s more to found if I want to go further, but increasing the power forces me to mount a front mounted intercooler, new rods and I would guess a new clutch kit.
The downside with front wheel drive is that the traction is not sufficient for the potential that the engine holds and if you calibrate according to the possibilities that the boost control allows, the boost will increase so fast that the torque on the tires will cause hysterical wheel spin and it’s doesn’t matter that you have wide tires and a stiff chassis…wheel spin will still be the result. I have tried to increase the engine power at high revs, but I found that the drivability got damaged. When you accelerate from 3500rpm on a straight line in third gear and the DSTC-lamp starts flickering when the rev passes 5500rpm, then there’s too much power and it’s just not useful.
After some inquiry I had the opportunity to buy a S60 Challenge front spoiler. The S60 standard nose is a bit to “friendly” looking and it’s just to round and impersonal in the shape, if you ask me. With the Challenge spoiler and the color job the car looks more aggressive and has a more personal touch. The paint job follows the paint job on the lower cunnings on the door and the skirts. At the same time I mounted the new front spoiler I also mounted some extra air inlet to the air filter box and the inlet pipe from the MAF to the turbo was modified to a bigger diameter between the turbo connection and the crank house gas connection to increase the airflow and give better response and high flow at high revs.
Stock door mirrors has been a
subject of curses from the time the car was bought. Side windows has to take all
the dirt and water that the turbulence around the mirror causes during winter
time and during rain, so the side windows are always dirty. A change to the 2004
door mirrors solves this problem and it was also what the car needed for the
look and all problems with greasy windows are now gone.
There’s a door mirror kit available if you buy the foldable mirror option at the
same time and I strongly recommend all owner’s of S60/V70/S80 to consider this
option.
When I bought my S60 there were no Xenon light available, but I really wanted this feature. It’s a feature that will make the car look better, but when I first had a chance to drive a car with Xenon I was amazed about the light during night driving. People that are considering buying a new Volvo today and are thinking about skipping this option, re-think this option and for your own safety add the cost to your order! 2004 Bi-Xenon headlights made the front look much more up to date and the clear glass looks so much better then the old headlights.
The stock 395cc injectors have a hard time during full load and to prevent the injectors from being fully open at any point, I mounted the bigger 468cc injectors from the B5254T4 engine. ECM calibration was changed to fit the new injectors and I really didn’t think that I would feel any difference behind the steering wheel, but I feel that the engine runs smoother and has better response!? Mounting bigger injectors hasn’t ruined the fuel consumption or done anything noticeable too it and the car still run at ~11,5l/100km mixed driving (mostly 50-70km/h roads).
Performance was measured 5 of May 2004 with the speed signal from the ABS-sensor and time tolerance in thousands. Accelerator pedal is put to the floor at ~95km/h and acceleration 100-150km/h in third gear took 4.56s. The measuring is following up to just above 200km/h, but the accelerator pedal is on the way up from the floor from about 190km/h. 100-200km/h during these circumstances was with a careful gear change between third and forth gear 13,3s, which I guess can be polished a bit with a quicker gear change and the pedal to the floor beyond 200km/h.
As you can see all my goals with
this S60 has been crashed and the car didn’t remain stock and I didn’t sell it
after one year. Now there’s not so much I can do without first upgrade with new
rods, pistons, clutch, FWD differential etc. This would charge my account with
another 120000-150000kr and that is not reasonable!
The car is now as
personal as I can get it without risk of being forced to a mental institution by
the people, I think.
The steering rim has been replaced with the R-line ditto and an airbag from 2004 S60 and the inner door handles has been replaced with R-line leather covers and the car has the new 2005 taillights.
2005-06-16: A rear bumper from
the 2004 S60R, rear park assist system and removable towbar mounted.
2005-06-21: A new rear exhaust pipe with a dual 70mm outlet instead of the old
single 100mm is now mounted on the car and I will take some new pictures as soon
as possible.
2006-04-19: SAM kevlar rear brake pads mounted with new stock discs and handbrake pads. 2006 windshield wipers and IPD chrome rings for the combi instrument added to the car. New mid cunnings are waiting for paintjob and Pirelli tire pressure system will be mounted on the 19" wheels.
There's no place for a high flow
intercooler and in order to fit something that will work well, I will have to
re-work both intercooler and water cooler and that's just not worth the time or
the money. I would like to add another 30-35hp and if I could find a tuning
company with experience and skills concerning NOS...
Maybe
I'll try NOS instead to gain some extra performance.
The never ending story part II...
2006 December: An era has come to its end - Project S60 T5 Woth R-line Second Edition is sold!