Find out about "B8444S Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Volvo B8444S

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Volvo B8444S engine!"

Our friends at TorqueCars often are seeing threads asking how to improve the B8444S from people wanting to know what are the optimum B8444S mods that work. So let us look into Volvo B8444S parts and outline the best upgrades on this great engine and point out some frequent tuning mistakes along the way.

The Volvo B8444S make a good tuning project and with carefully chosen tuning parts like remaps, turbo kits and camshafts you will maximise your driving opportunities.

In this article we detail the best approach to B8444S tuning and report on the greatest modifications for your car.

Just because particular parts are appear in lots of B8444S projects it doesn't mean its worth having, we shall concentrate on the best parts that will give your B8444S the best power gain for you spend.

Without us subscribing to the popular myth of 'if it's shiny and makes more noise it must be good' you seem to get in many tuning magazines and on car forums'.

Improving air intake on the B8444S

You need fuel and air for an engine to work. If there is not enough fuel then it will run lean, if there is not enough 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 Pulling more fuel and air into your B8444S is vital to any engine performance tuning task.

It is not unusual that there is a limitation in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the B8444S when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

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

Air Intake manifolds flow the during the engines suck phase from the filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine and mixed with fuel.

Structure and flow characteristics of the Air Intake manifolds can make a big improvement to fuel atomisation on the B8444S.

On popular production engines intake manifold are crying out for motorsport parts, although some car makers provide reasonably good intake manifold.

Fitting big valve kits, getting B8444S port enlargement and head flowing will also lift bhp and torque, this will afford you an improved bhp and torque increase on other modifications.

B8444S performance cam tips.

Each engine responds better to mild cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The ecu map and fuel pump and injectors also have a large bearing on the torque gains you'll hit.

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.

Altering your B8444S camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine engines power. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the engines power accordingly.

NB: Fast road camshafts tend to push up the bhp and torque through the rpm band, you could drop a little low end bhp but your high end rpm power will improve.

Motorsport and race camshafts, push up the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Competition cam won't do well if driving in heavy traffic.

You should ideally optimize your torque band to your usage of the car so for a car driven daily stick with a fast road B8444S cam

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the B8444S

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 B8444S parts:

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

Stage 2 B8444S parts:

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

Stage 3 B8444S parts:

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

Remapping will help release the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your B8444S.

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 mileage often vary depending on the upgrades you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the B8444S

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 B8444S.

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

When an engine is fitted with a turbocharger mods are more reliable and most turbocharged engines are made using stronger components.

There are weak spots for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only able to handle stock power

See where you'll find these limitations and fit better quality crank and pistons to handle the power.

There are many car owners spending a loads of money on turbocharger upgrades on the B8444S only to see the B8444S throw a rod when it's first rolling road session.

Larger capacity turbo chargers commonly suffer no power at low rpm, and little turbo chargers spool up really quickly but do not have the high rpm engines power gains.

Thanks to new tech the world of turbo units is always improving and we now see variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and push these at differently angled vanes in the turbo charger. 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 torque gains, although more difficult to setup. We have this in depth look at twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the B8444S

Don't forget to pay attention to the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty. Care modifiers usually say to be generous with your injector capacity.

The rule of thumb is to add 15% capacity when fitting an injector, this takes into account injector deterioration and affords a bit of 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 B8444S performance exhaust upgrades

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

On most factory exhausts you'll find your flow rate is still ok 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.

Note that with the largest exhaust you can buy you'll slow the exhaust rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between one and a half to two and half inches. Your exhaust design, the bend angles and construction are what have more effect on flow rates than your pipe width to a certain extent. So the exhaust design is a big factor.

The usual suspects causing problems in your exhaust flow rate come around the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a higher flowing sports 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 B8444S

Like most engines an B8444S, 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 B8444S, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned B8444S 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 B8444S why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about B8444S tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their B8444S.

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