The Lowdown on "B5254T7 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Volvo B5254T7

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Volvo B5254T7 engine!"

Our friends at TorqueCars are frequently getting posts asking how to improve the B5254T7 from people inquiring about getting more power from the B5254T7 and wanting to know what are the optimum B5254T7 mods that work.

So let us look into Volvo B5254T7 parts and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some frequent tuning mistakes along the way.

Therefore we look into B5254T7 tuning and highlight the ultimate upgrades. Volvo B5254T7 are popular engines and with carefully picked motorsport mods like remaps, turbo kits and camshafts you will certainly maximize your driving fun.

The top B5254T7 tuning mods on an engine are obviously the ones that give the best gains for your money.

We won't be swayed by popular B5254T7 tuning mods, they need to be cost effective.

Improving air intake on the B5254T7

You need air matched to fuel for an engine to work. If there is too little fuel then it will run lean, if there is little flow of air it runs rich resulting in lost power which risks damage to the B5254T7. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So it's important to any engine performance tuning 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 limitation in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the B5254T7 when considerably more air is being pulled into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped power at a much lower level.

Engine intake manifolds flow the air from the air filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Structure and flow characteristics of the Intake headers can make a substantial effect on to fuel atomisation on the B5254T7.

We often see air intake manifolds are in dire need of aftermarket tuning parts, although some OEM provide decently flowing air intake manifolds.

Larger B5254T7 valves, getting port matching and head flowing will also increase torque, and significantly will raise potential for raising the torque increase on other tuning mods.

B5254T7 performance cam tips.

Different B5254T7 engines respond better to less aggressive cam durations than others.

The engine timing and fuelling also will say much on the bhp gains you'll make.

Longer valve durations can alter the bhp 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 B5254T7 can be made from camshaft upgrades. Changing the camshaft profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the torque and power output.

NB: Fast road camshafts commonly bump the torque over the rev range, you might lose a little low end power but the higher rpm power will be lifted.

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

In a car driven daily you should ideally to match your engines power to your cars usage.

I'd be shocked if you find a B5254T7 Race camshaft is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the B5254T7

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 B5254T7 parts:

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

Stage 2 B5254T7 parts:

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

Stage 3 B5254T7 parts:

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

A remap should help to to establish the full potential of all the tuning mods you've done to your B5254T7.

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 your results may rely on the tuning mods you've applied and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the B5254T7

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 B5254T7.

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

If the engine is fitted with a turbo modifications are more reliable and most turbo engines are built with stronger components.

However engines have weakspots

Discover these restrictions and install better pistons and crank to survive the power.

We see many tuners spending a loads on turbo charger upgrades on the B5254T7 only to experience the motor go up in smoke just after it's been finished.

Large upgraded turbochargers tend to suffer a bottom end lag, and low capacity turbochargers spool up much more quickly but won't have the peak rpm bhp gains.

Thanks to progress the range of turbochargers is always improving and we commonly find variable vane turbochargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end performance.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust flow into two channels and flow these at differently profiled vanes in the turbo. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large performance gains, although more challenging to install. We have this article on twincharging if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the B5254T7

Don't omit to uprate the fuel system when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty. Experienced mechanics will tell you to over specify your flow rate on the injectors.

The rule of thumb is to add 15% capacity when specifying an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and provides some spare capacity should the engine need 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 B5254T7 performance exhaust upgrades

You may need to uprate your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the current exhaust is creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you should find that your flow rate is fine 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 can help balance the flow of gases through the engine.

But if the exhaust is too big, ie: over two and a half inches diameter, you will lose a great deal of your flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

The usual suspects causing problems in your exhaust flow rate can be located the filters installed, so adding a better flowing race 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 B5254T7

Like most engines an B5254T7, 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 B5254T7, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned B5254T7 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 B5254T7 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about B5254T7 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their B5254T7.

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This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: engine, Volvo
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