Technical Features
Project 854R: Part III - Boosting Engine Performance
By By:George Achorn
Jan 3, 2002, 23:09

One can hardly critique the 850R for having a lack of power. As Volvo's performance flagship for three years, 850Rs have been surprising the errant muscle car owner all around the world. With that in mind, there's always room for improvement and we were quite anxious to raise the bar with Project 854R in the form of an ECU (Engine Control Unit) upgrade.

What Is an ECU or Chip Upgrade?
For years, purveyors of high performance parts have been offering ECU or "chip" upgrades to improve the performance and sometimes the fuel economy of an engine. As cars have become more advanced, more and more operations of the car are controlled by the ECU, making the upgrading process increasingly complicated from an engineering standpoint.

Nevertheless, upgrading an ECU is an affordable and relatively easy way to produce decent power gains. This is particularly true of a turbocharged car like our 854R where the ECU also controls the amount of boost and more recognizable gains can be had.

With all this in mind, it's important to not jump into choosing an upgrade lightly. While easily installed, a reprogrammed ECU or one with a chip installed can also cause a lot of headaches. Upgrades that haven't been well developed can cause annoying check engine lights or worse, decrease your car's longevity and cause damage to your engine.

Doing Our Homework
Before we began to choose an upgrade, we did a little research on our car, specifically about the inline 5-cylinder turbocharged motor and its own performance capabilities.

The 850R weighs in at 240hp straight from the factory, which is 20hp higher than the T-5 and Turbo models of the 850. Volvo realized these gains over the T-5/Turbo largely through the use of more aggressive ECU programming of their own.

With access to people who know these cars inside and out, we received it on very good word from several sources that the longevity of the I-5 motor, its internal componentry and the 4-speed automatic transmission found in North American 850s begin to come compromised when the power levels are elevated above 300 to 310-hp. At that point, we were told, it would be quite wise to consider additional upgrades to the motor, and probably the transmission as well.

Other limitations on the turbocharged 850 engines are placed on the car by the turbo itself. The turbine housing on the car's turbocharger unit is very small in order to bestow the car with quick boost response and to minimize turbo lag. The upside to this is quick and seamless performance. Because of this, the wastegate is leaking out boost due to the very high pressure (about 3 bar or 45 psi) in to the turbine. Another drawback to this quick-reacting setup is that all 850 turbo models except the GLT (Turbo, T-5, T-5R & 850R) are limited to 285hp by the flow capacity from the stock turbo, with the exception of the 850R with manual transmission. The 5-speed manual equipped 850R and 70-series cars, except for the 5-speed 70R are limited to 290-295hp. Our car is an automatic and we should note that manual-equipped 850R models are few and far between because they were not offered in the USA and were only sold in limited quantities in Canada for the North American marketplace.

Another question one might ask is if the owner of a turbocharged 850 could simply turn up the boost. The simple answer is no, because boost pressure is controlled by the ECU in order to calculate the most ideal settings for any driving situation. Simply turning up the boost pressure will cause the boost control valve to readjust the boost pressure back to the preset level in the ECU's programming. Should the boost pressure be turned up so much that the boost control valve can't compensate and return the boost to preset levels, the ECU will turn off the engine.

While one could mechanically override the ECU boost control, this can result in compressor surge, which usually ends with damage to the turbo itself. TME has seen cases of connecting rod failure over 1.05 bar (15 psi). Any system running more than this amount should not be considered unless an owner is willing to upgrade to stronger connecting rods.

One can safely use 1.0 bar (14.3 psi) of boost pressure on the 850-turbo engine, depending on the engine management program and fuel octane used. In the USA, 92 octane premium gasoline is the highest consumer octane level available in most cases and in broad distribution. With 92 octane, the maximum boost is .93 bar (13.3 psi). Using lower octane fuel on a motor could lead to knocking and engine degradation, so once you make the choice to upgrade, it is necessary to provide the car with proper fuel to ensure reliability.

The low-pressure turbo (LPT) setup found in the 850 GLT and subsequent GLT, XC and AWD models of the 70-series has thinner cylinder liners and a higher 9.0:1 compression ratio. Due to this, the boost pressure levels listed above do not apply to cars with the LPT engine.

It is important to remember that damage done to an engine directly by engine upgrades and modifications can void a factory warranty, though at this point, most 850 models are no longer under a factory warranty anyway. With this under consideration, one should note that, by law, the use of aftermarket high-performance products on a vehicle will not necessarily void the warranty. Further, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to prove that the aftermarket part directly caused any failure in question if warranty claims are denied.

The Magnuson Moss Act protects a vehicle owner's right to install aftermarket parts on his or her vehicle and maintain the factory warranty. Of course, this law is only applicable to owners who reside and operate their vehicles in the United States, so check your local laws if you are not currently in the USA.



Making Our Choice
In our search for an upgrade, we learned that the field of company providing products of this nature has significantly more choices than just years ago. With the automotive aftermarket growing stronger, and the Volvo aftermarket doing so as well, there was plenty to choose from.

One player in the Volvo aftermarket that isn't new to the field is IPD (International Product Development) of Portland, Oregon. IPD has been upgrading and maintaining Volvos for years and has developed a bulletproof reputation amongst American Volvophiles.

When IPD made the choice to get into the engine management business, they knew they had to do it in a way that would provide a solid upgrade for their customers and not tarnish their very good reputation. Acknowledging this, IPD chose to partner with TME, another well recognized Volvo performance company located in Sweden.

The resulting product of this relationship is the Motronic+ system available in North America through IPD.

While typical "chip" upgrades aren't compatible with the 850's transmission, the Motronic + System is a full ECU computer upgrade that encompasses all of the software in the Motronic 4.3 ECU equipped in the 850 from the factory. It upgrades that software without changing any physical internal componentry of the ECU.

The result is increased power with smooth delivery that comes without any stumble or hesitation. The power delivery almost feels as if it could have come from the factory that way.

Another aspect to the Motronic+ upgrade is that it is visibly impossible to tell that the ECU has been upgraded. TME claims that the changes are also invisible on the OBDII terminal at the dealership, though we have not tested that aspect.

Motronic+ realizes most of its power gains through raising boost pressure from a maximum of .67 bar to .95 bar, while at the same time they've maintained the original boost limiter settings for safety reasons.

One of the more intelligent features programmed into Motronic+ was one of deciding factors for us in our upgrade choice. IPD and TME have developed the ECU upgrades for cars with the automatic transmission to throttle back at shift points in an effort to maintain the longevity of the transmission; a proven weak link in the quest for performance. During shifting under full throttle, the transmission computer sends a signal to the ECU to lower the boost pressure during the shifting process.

TME claim the resulting horsepower to be 275hp at 5,600 rpm, and torque raises from 300Nm to 370 Nm at 3,300 rpm. TME also told us that the torque limiter in first gear and the top speed limiter on the 850's original programming have been removed. Having done this, a new top speed of 360 km/h is claimed.

The Motronic+ system has been developed for use with premium unleaded fuel. TME has also designed it for use with their freer flowing exhaust system, also sold by IPD. The Swedish company recommends that the chip not be used without the exhaust as it could lead to overheating of the catalytic converter and turbocharger due to the added thermal load on the engine.



As we planned to install the ECU upgrade prior to the exhaust, by several weeks, we wanted to make sure that damage would not be done to the turbo or the catalytic converter. IPD pointed out to us that the circumstances where such overheating is possible are during towing or long duration of full throttle (more than 30 seconds) without 5 to 10 minutes in between at lower throttle levels for cooling. Situations like this might be found in towing or traveling at speeds significantly higher than US highway posted limits, much like cruising on the autobahn in Germany.

This was an important factor to remember though, so we pushed up our plans to install the exhaust on the 854R as well.

With the Motronic+ System, it is also recommended that an owner use 5W-50 weight motor oil or better, fully synthetic motor oil and then to follow service intervals recommended by Volvo. TME recommends against the use of additives in the Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) and use of ATF recommended by Volvo, though they add that the ATF should be changed every 25,000 miles whereas Volvo does not have a recommended interval for changing the fluid.

Our 854R had begun to show some roughness in shifting, and after doing a little online research; we found that it is a common occurrence on the 850. Most owners recommended the change to synthetic ATF, which we instructed our dealer do while the car was in for routine maintenance. While it cost a little more, it also cleared up any evidence of rough shifting and helped prep the car for its expected higher performance levels.

Installing Motronic +
Changing the ECU takes virtually five minutes once you look at a diagram like the one found on IPD's website. Two clamps hold down the top of the highly accessible black plastic box in which the ECU is located. The box itself is located on the left hand of the engine bay. Once open, a simple lever unlocks the ECU from its place and it can be pulled out.

Having your ECU upgraded can be done in several ways. IPD can send you a new ECU with programming, and charges a $1000 core charge until you send them back your old ECU. This provides the owner with no downtime for their Volvo. The other option, which we elected to go for, is to ship your ECU to IPD. This costs a little bit more, especially if you opt for a rushed delivery like we did, but it allows you to retain your original ECU.

Please note, when you ship your ECU to IPD, be sure to purchase extra insurance on the package as the unit is worth more than $1000. For a more accurate price on the unit, contact your local Volvo dealer.

The Motronic + Performance Experience
Upgrading the ECU on our 854R has garnered some noticeable gains. Seat of the pants acceleration tests make it obvious that the car is hotter than it once was, though to casual first time pilots, driveability of the car has not been compromised.

Being an R model, our 850 was already a hot 240-hp from the factory, so the gains are not as noticeable as they would be for a Turbo or T-5 model with 20-less horsepower. We're happy with the result, though we would like more and think it best to upgrade the car's exhaust to match the ECU's more aggressive programming. We've already made plans for the installation of the new piping.

In the end, we're quite pleased with our choice and the performance levels it is providing. From our research, Motronic+ is neither the most powerful ECU or chip upgrade out there, nor is it the cheapest. However, reliable power was our main goal and we feel the IPD system is the best solution out there in that regard. Further, its power delivery feels much like Volvo would have made it had it decided to produce the cars with such levels. Such refinement is not a common quality in many aftermarket computer upgrades and we're happy we've found it with our new system.



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