Modding tuning and best performance upgrades on the Volvo B62 engine!

Fully Explore "B62 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Volvo B62

"Comprehensive guide to performance tuning the Volvo B62 engine!"

Popular tuning sites like TorqueCars often are getting posts asking about how to improve the B62 from people wanting to know what are the things tuners are recommending when it comes to B62 upgrades. So let us look into Volvo B62 modifications and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some frequent tuning mistakes along the way.

The Volvo B62 make a good tuning project and with the right uprated mods like a remap, turbo improvements and camshafts you will noticeably maximise your driving enjoyment.

Here we examine B62 tuning and summarise the optimum upgrades.

The greatest B62 upgrades on an engine are usually the ones that give the biggest return for your money.

We won't be swayed by popular B62 upgrades, they need to be cost effective.

B62 induction kits

Improving air intake on the B62

You need air matched to fuel for an engine to work. If there is little supply of fuel then it will run lean, if there is a lack of air it runs rich resulting in lost power and potentially damaging the engine. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So the aim to any engine modification project to pull more fuel and air into each cylinder but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

It is not unusual that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the B62 when considerably more air is being drawn into the engine.

We see 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped performance at a much lower level.

Intake manifolds flow the air from the air filter and allow it to be fed into the engine cylinders.

The size of bore and shape and flow characteristics of the Intake can make a noticeable effect on to fuel delivery on the B62.

We often see plenum chambers are begging for a performance upgrade, although a few makers provide reasonably well designed plenum chambers.

Big valve conversions on the B62, doing some port work and head flowing will also improve performance, & importantly will give you a greater performance increase on other tuning mods.

B62 performance cam tips.

Some B62 engines respond better to different camshaft durations than others.

The ecu map and injectors and fuel pump also will make differences on the torque gains you'll make.

A longer valve duration can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Significant air intake, and exhaust improvements on the B62 can be made from cam upgrades. Changing the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the engines power and power output.

NB: Fast road camshafts usually raise the bhp and torque through the rev range, you could drop a little bottom end power but higher rpm power will be lifted.

Competition camshafts, raise the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

On a daily driver you need to optimize your engines power to your cars usage.

I'd be amazed if you find a B62 Motorsport and race cam is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the B62

Before we break the best tuning upgrades down into stages of tune, let's list the most effective tuning upgrades for you.

  1. Suspension Upgrades - always improve your cars handling
  2. Brake Upgrades - Even before adding power improve those brakes
  3. Intake - make sure the intake is not restricted, use filters and intake upgrades to improve this
  4. Exhaust - as with 3 ensure there is not restriction in the exhaust, cats are the usual bottleneck
  5. Tunes - remapping, piggyback ECU's and aftermarket ECU's can all make decent gains
  6. Fuelling - when you've increased power you'll need to match this with more fuel
  7. Turbo upgrades - Improving the intake with a large turbo and better flowing intercooler will be the biggest power gain you'll see (but one of the most complex).

This video guide to tuning cars is a great starting point to work from in your project.

Stage 1 B62 parts:

Fast road camshaft, Intake headers, Panel air filters, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold, Remaps/piggy back ECU.

Tuning tips and articles Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

Stage 2 B62 parts:

high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, induction kit, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam.

Stage 3 B62 parts:

Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Competition cam, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression.

The B62 engines are fantastic to work on and thankfully there are increasing numbers of mods and tuning parts around.

ECU flashing will help release the full potential of all the parts you've done to your B62.

You will typically expect to see gains of approximately 20-30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but figures achieved usually vary depending on the parts you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the B62

To get a turbo working on a NASP engine there is a lot involved, from lowering compression ratio to improved fuel supply and mapping, so we have found a great guide to helpavoid the common pitfalls or end up with an unfinished project because you were not told what you were getting into by doing this on the B62.

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes massive power gains.

When an engine is turbo charged mods are more reliable and we find turbo charged engines are made with stronger components.

There are tuning limits for every engine, with some being over specified and some only able to handle stock power

It is important to find these restrictions and fit better pistons and crank to utilize the power.

It's not unheard of mechanics spending a loads of money on turbo upgrades on the B62 only to experience the motor catastrophically fail just after it's been finished.

Large upgraded turbos tend to suffer low end lag, and small turbos spool up much more quickly but do not have the peak end torque gains.

Thanks to progress the world of turbo chargers is always developing and we now see variable vane turbo chargers, where the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into two channels and push these at differently designed vanes in the turbo. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large bhp gains, although more complex to get working. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the B62

When you lift the bhp you will need to uprate to the fuel delivery.

More bhp needs more fuel. Don't forget to over specify your injector capacity.

The rule of thumb is to add 15% capacity when fitting an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and provides some spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

Don't forget that different fuel grades will usually require different settings, a high octane fuel will burn more efficiently than lower octane fuel for example. A car will trim fuel supply to keep within the ideal air fuel mix but at the extreme ends you may need to adjust your injector capacity, or the mapping or you'll get flat spots and potential lean or rich fuel issues..

Recommended B62 performance exhaust upgrades

You may need to upgrade your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your current exhaust is actually causing a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you should find that the exhaust flow rate is good even on modest power gains, but on a serious tuning project with a big boost in power you will certainly need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow through the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to one and a half to two and half inches as a rule of thumb.

The usual suspects causing problems in your exhaust flow rate are in the catalyst installed, so adding a faster flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Decats (NB:catalysts reduce harmful engine emissions) is illegal in most countries and regions.

Faults issues and things to look out for on the B62

Like most engines an B62, should have few issues if it gets properly serviced and looked after.

We cannot stress enough the need for oil changes with the correct grade of oil on the B62, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned B62 this is more important than ever and close attention should be paid to your maintenance schedule.

If you are interested in learning more or getting impartial tuning advice for your B62 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about B62 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their B62.

We need your help to complete and improve this page, so do give us your feedback in the comments box below.

We want to know your experiences with modifications on your B62, it helps us improve our tips and keeps us current so please use the comments box to drop a tip.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.

Check out TorqueCars new YouTube channel, and see their awesome new content...

Feedback

Please use our forums if you wish to ask a tuning question, and please note we do not sell parts or services, we are just an online magazine.

Help us improve, leave a suggestion or tip

Your Constructive comments on this article