New to this as well, depending on what your planning to do with the car Hilton is the best option all around. They seem to be able to tune for everything you may try to do.

 

Aero options and packages on a daily are moot. High speeds are needed for you to take advantage of them. If you like the aggressive styling then go for it. This of course would be counter productive toward your (sleeper) goal.

Down pipe and exhaust mods work together and a turbo can never spool quick enough. Let it breathe as freely as you can on both intake and exhaust sides.

CAI is only a CAI if you are grabbing air from outside the engine bay. Unless you are ready to start cutting up your ride, that leaves you with intake piping and a good high flow closed filter system or a good high flow drop in.

Upgrading the FMIC is going to give a better bang for the buck.

If you are thinking about the end links you might as well upgrade the sway as well.
TurboSmart is what you’ll want for the gate and DPBOV. Forget about upgrading the TCV. Stick to the Pierburg type snd relocate it away from the turbo with fresh silicone tubing.
Make sure you serviceCV(I would add a check valve/catch can) so you’re not pushing/sucking oil into the intake or manifold. Plugs, fluids, coils, etc.(stage zip)
Rob will steer you in the right direction as far as MAF upgrade injectors etc. if you go pushing a bunch of boost I highly recommend water/meth and gapping your plugs a couple thou tighter. You will also want to switch your charge piping to silicone.

 

Hi and welcome.

Let's start with the rear diffuser. Do it. There is absolutely no aerodynamic benefit to doing it, so forget that. However, it looks perfect and transforms the rear of the car. I got mine for $275 shipped from a dealer in Texas. The Viva performance one was simply too pricey to ship. With this, I'd do the OEM RD style spoiler. I got mine on Ebay, and it is indistinguishable from the real thing. Now, my car looks like an R design from the rear.

Here's the thing tuning-wise: you're very limited by the size of the turbo. The most modified T6 that I know of is BuiltforSpeed on YouTube, who puts down 350hp and 500tq at the wheels. Every possible bolt-on, he's done.

For my build, I passed on the P* tune, and did the GFB DV+ and the TDI box. I do have reason to believe that the P* will give more power on top of the TDI since the TDI is piggyback. Either way, it's pretty pricey just to get 25 more horsepower.

I'm not going to say don't buy a CAI, but they are wildly expensive for the P3 cars and don't pay off on the dyno. As @paradoxicallymodified stated above, it's only a CAI if it is actually pulling cold air. Sure, the factory airbox might be restrictive, but it is pulling cold air through a duct behind the grille. Don't get me wrong, a CAI might enhance the sound from stock, which may be worth it to you.

4C is a nice party trick but seems to become a headache at higher mileage. I'd rather go without it and drop some aftermarket coils and dampers on the car. Handling mods are strictly for feel, not road holding, so I'll be holding off. I have heard that the IPD swy bar is a good bang for your buck in the feel department, and most importantly doesn't compromise ride quality.

Bottom line: Audi A4's are dead easy to beat up on as they are super slow. A Volvo is going to have zero chance against a tuned or FBO WRX Subaru however. You can squeeze a bit more out of the T6 but it won't go crazy. It seems like you need a BMW 335i.

 

Here's the thing tuning-wise: you're very limited by the size of the turbo. The most modified T6 that I know of is BuiltforSpeed on YouTube, who puts down 350hp and 500tq at the wheels. Every possible bolt-on, he's done.

I agree he has most bolt ons, but from what I seen on BuiltforSpeed he had intercooler piping and was exploring going with a methanol kit. The piping might not net much at all but methanol could be night and day difference, in his video he thought he would break 400whp/600ft-lbs on methanol. He is tuned for 92 octane if I recall, some folks can get 93/94, e85 is 107-110 octane and its possible he would get more from going full e85 over just adding methanol injection.

After that he was talking about taking a stock turbo but upgrading the compressor wheels, I think the claim is 25% more power with those.

Then there is also the bigger turbo option if more was desired.

Hilton can tune for all these things things np. I have not kept up with WRX's but quick scan of later model FBO WRX are at most similar whp # but their torque is similar to whp not 500 or 600.

Just communicating that there is more headroom than his current car is using - if you want. How reliable this is I have no idea still new to Volvo's, but I read somewhere the T6 factory engine build is good for 600whp, its more the trans that becomes the weak link.

 

I'll be watching intently when he goes to methanol. I really do appreciate that he is pushing the envelope on these cars. Regarding the transmission at 600 lb-ft, I'm curious to see what happens. From what I've heard, TF80 internals are rock solid, but the valve bodies are questionable. If that's the case, however, it's not the power that is killing them, it's Volvo's awful transmission tuning.

I'm surprised he hasn't yet gone to a bigger turbo. It seems that the mods he does are adding to the midrange torque, but I'd love to see his actual dyno sheet to know if he's getting power up top.

The fuel question is interesting. It is to my understanding that you can mix a bit of Ethanol with normal gas to get a higher octane rating. At low enough concentrations, it shouldn't hurt the fuel delivery system too much. I'd love to see how this works out on the T6, because I am a Californian, meaning I have zero access to 93 octane. I'd love to be able to drop a couple of gallons of E85 in my tank and run a 93 tune. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Either way, his entire build tab is not cheap. I love the T6, but you can get a BMW N54 to those types of numbers with very minimal effort, not to mention there is considerably more tuning support and a larger community.

I have also heard that the T6 internals are good for 600+. I think the stock turbo will explode before the engine internals give out.

 

I'll be watching intently when he goes to methanol. I really do appreciate that he is pushing the envelope on these cars. Regarding the transmission at 600 lb-ft, I'm curious to see what happens. From what I've heard, TF80 internals are rock solid, but the valve bodies are questionable. If that's the case, however, it's not the power that is killing them, it's Volvo's awful transmission tuning.

I'm surprised he hasn't yet gone to a bigger turbo. It seems that the mods he does are adding to the midrange torque, but I'd love to see his actual dyno sheet to know if he's getting power up top.

The fuel question is interesting. It is to my understanding that you can mix a bit of Ethanol with normal gas to get a higher octane rating. At low enough concentrations, it shouldn't hurt the fuel delivery system too much. I'd love to see how this works out on the T6, because I am a Californian, meaning I have zero access to 93 octane. I'd love to be able to drop a couple of gallons of E85 in my tank and run a 93 tune. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Either way, his entire build tab is not cheap. I love the T6, but you can get a BMW N54 to those types of numbers with very minimal effort, not to mention there is considerably more tuning support and a larger community.

I have also heard that the T6 internals are good for 600+. I think the stock turbo will explode before the engine internals give out.

Yes I am curious to see his results also, and I suspect he may go to a big turbo but is running the gambit with other things first. His power up top is not building like you would expect, guessing its the turbo running out of steam at this point. Or it could just be an inherent trait of the engine, perhaps a cams change would raise the RPM ceiling but I don't know they are offered anywhere (though some companies can build you more aggressive cams from the factory ones).

Full e85 can be hard on the fuel system if not designed for it, but if you really wanted to run it all the time you could replace fuel lines and so forth.

The other issue with e85 is that you need to a run a richer air/fuel mixture, you need more e85 and less air. Example if your running 12:1 air/fuel with gas, it probably is best at 9:1 on e85. So this really requires tuning, but it also taxes your fuel injector and pumps capacities. I am not sure where the limits are for the injectors and pump on the T6, but in most vehicles there is enough to run some blend of e85 with gas like up to e30 or e40 before you need to change something out.

For the fuel lines and such it seems like most people can get away with running e30 or so, even in vehicles not meant to run more than e10/e15 - now how long term this I am not sure. My friend had an ecoboost Mustang running e30 most of the time and got about 90k miles on that motor before it dropped (and he drag raced it a lot). He has a new motor and intends to run full e85 but I have not heard him talk about the fuel lines and such, he did upgrade injectors and pump though.

For running various mixes of e85 and regular gas to bump the octane, you can use a calculator like:

BREW CITY BOOST - ETHANOL CALCULATOR

Calculate expected ethanol % for e20 / e30 / e50 tunes. Tools to measure ethanol content.

www.brewcityboost.com

Ethanol Fuel Mixture Calculator | GetMtuned

www.getmtuned.com

There are apps and others that may be more useful than the ones above.

If you wanted to run this most of the time, getting tuned for e30 would probably make it easy to maintain with calculations. 5 gal of (true) e85 in 17.8g tank with 12.8g of 91 octane should net around 95 octane depending on how good the e85 is (some of its e50/60/70/85/90). If you use the same pumps you may get away with not needing to be a chemist to know the eXX value, but if you travel and use different pumps you might want to get one of these or similar to test e value:

https://www.amazon.com/REV-X-Super-Tester-Flex-Ethanol/dp/B073HLSVHX/ref=asc_df_B073HLSVHX/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312029767170&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3463146495371653382&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026097&hvtargid=pla-568587015246&psc=1

Your tuner will let you know what sort of tolerance there is with the tune, a chart I found interesting:

I agree also there are some other platforms with more support and headroom in the components, but for me I like to be a little different - I have been around drag strips and race tracks often in my life, hardly ever a Volvo there. Considering that with a downpipe and a good tune for pump gas (I have 93 here) these cars can run 12's I feel that is a fairly strong start, I suspect a few other tweaks and running e85 or methanol could get one into the 11's because with more octane you can run timing with your boost - this is where big #'s come from. And that is before a bigger turbo. Nobody expects a 4 door Volvo to run those times. I am cut from the same cloth as my ecoboost Mustang friend, he ran a low 12 on essentially e30 and tuning and made 377whp/455ftlbs at the wheels - even FBO Coyote V8'a were not faster than him, the only ones that were was supercharged (and they were substantially faster). He now has a full build expected to break 600whp, perhaps 650 on e85, he made 492whp on e30 with a tune that was bouncing from 100% to 30% throttle above 5000RPM. He has cams so should be able to run into the 7000RPM range with power when the tuning is sorted, he also had a weak head gasket on that run - all said I suspect his e30 tune will land around 540whp when dialed in. But in going with bigger turbo his torque # is not as strong obviously, the power band is higher, he does have some lag when driving where he never did before so its all a trade off.

 

I have upgraded my 2012 V60 T6 with do88 intercooler and piping, 3” downpipe, Polestar tune, GFB DV+ and a TDI Box calibrated for Polestar.

We have a Volvo dyno day coming up in Melbourne Australia in July so will see what it puts down.

I agree the intakes for this are expensive, but I want more sound and am looking for a catback soon.

 

I have upgraded my 2012 V60 T6 with do88 intercooler and piping, 3" downpipe, Polestar tune, GFB DV+ and a TDI Box calibrated for Polestar.

We have a Volvo dyno day coming up in Melbourne Australia in July so will see what it puts down.

I agree the intakes for this are expensive, but I want more sound and am looking for a catback soon.

I'd love to know what it puts down!

 

Thank you for this information! I'd found an article online, and the info that most cars should be able to run E20-E30 without modifications. The thing that caught my eye was the case of diminishing returns, meaning mixing just a small amount of Ethanol into the tank can greatly increase knock resistance (going from E10 to E30), but up at the upper end (from E70-E90), you'll see less of an effect. However, the fuel injector taxing is linearly proportional to concentration, meaning those bigger numbers are going to call for very different AFRs and more fuel delivery, as you stated. As such, it seems like the best way to boost the octane a bit is to run a pretty tame mix.

The dream is to have one of those setups where you get that inline fuel sensor that can detect and switch maps accordingly. I would love to be able to run whatever I like and not have to fiddle with stuff. I haven't yet seen a kit like that for these cars.

I actually did see a cam for a T6 a while back but can't seem to locate it now. I'll keep looking. I would imagine that the lack of power up top could only be due to the cam or turbo, or both.

 

Thank you for this information! I'd found an article online, and the info that most cars should be able to run E20-E30 without modifications. The thing that caught my eye was the case of diminishing returns, meaning mixing just a small amount of Ethanol into the tank can greatly increase knock resistance (going from E10 to E30), but up at the upper end (from E70-E90), you'll see less of an effect. However, the fuel injector taxing is linearly proportional to concentration, meaning those bigger numbers are going to call for very different AFRs and more fuel delivery, as you stated. As such, it seems like the best way to boost the octane a bit is to run a pretty tame mix.

The dream is to have one of those setups where you get that inline fuel sensor that can detect and switch maps accordingly. I would love to be able to run whatever I like and not have to fiddle with stuff. I haven't yet seen a kit like that for these cars.

I actually did see a cam for a T6 a while back but can't seem to locate it now. I'll keep looking. I would imagine that the lack of power up top could only be due to the cam or turbo, or both.

Yeah, its always best to be tuned for whatever octane your using to get the most benefit from it, and when going with ethanol blends also to make sure the air/fuel ratio is good as the % goes up. E85 and various %'s is great, but like you I do wish it was easier to utilize via measuring % and the mapping adapting but its not something that is common - might be more common if you upgrade to stand alone programmable ECU but that is another rabbit hole. If I go the eXX route I have thought about buying a barrel of e85 so I can just test it once and know what is going into the tank, 1 barrel for e30 would be almost 8 tanks worth (5.34 gal e85 + 12.46g 93).

One other top end RPM limiter, could be due to the head flow - but I am sure there are shops that can massage the head, if nothing else extrude honing can often dramatically increase flow rate. But I would still like to see a turbo upgrade and what happens to the power up top to see more where the limitation is coming from, building torque peak at 2100RPM for the factory engine I have to assume the turbo is quite undersized in proportion to the engine flow demands or it otherwise would not spool so quickly.

 

It's sounding to me like turbo sizing. It spools so darn fast, it must be very small. One thought is that the P* has a bigger turbo, correct? So that may be what allows it to make a bit more power over the RD. I wonder if that could be purchased anywhere, as I'd imagine it would be bolt on, plus a custom tune.

Also, any thoughts on this?
Volvo P3 3.0L 6-Cylinder Turbocharger Upgrade, Stage 1

 

It's sounding to me like turbo sizing. It spools so darn fast, it must be very small. One thought is that the P* has a bigger turbo, correct? So that may be what allows it to make a bit more power over the RD. I wonder if that could be purchased anywhere, as I'd imagine it would be bolt on, plus a custom tune.

Also, any thoughts on this?
Volvo P3 3.0L 6-Cylinder Turbocharger Upgrade, Stage 1

I think the P and R are simply tunes, if I recall standard T6 is limited to 13psi and P/R is 14.5psi (but they must update max torque limits also, which makes it perform better than just 1.5psi increase). The P/R tunes are better but still leave a lot on the table vs say Hilton.

I seen that and think it would be great if your ok with the powerband from the stock engine, if you wanted to move the RPM up a larger turbo would be better, but this is probably where I would go before going "big turbo" myself since its a direct bolt in and claims 25% power increase. I suspect this is the one BuiltForSpeed was talking about using, so might be able to vicariously get insight on how useful an upgrade it is or is not at some point.

 

Either way, I'm very happy with my car on just the TDI box. I think I'll probably stop here mod-wise. I'll be looking into an Audi 3.0T engine or a BMW N55 in the near future. I don't hate the Aisin, but I'd love to have a ZF gearbox with paddles, and the ability to make 400hp without much effort as both of those engines do.

 

I hear you, decent cars to build, but also don't caught up in hp over torque. Torque is what moves the vehicle and if you use that correctly with shifts, your speed is really about the average torque through the RPM ranges your using more than horsepower. This is why my friends 2.3L ecoboost mustang was outrunning the 5.0L coyote's, he made 455ft-lbs at the wheels, most coyotes with FBO make low 400's torque at the wheels even on e85 and its over a much narrower range. They make a lot more whp than him but if you use the torque properly with shift points its always about that more than peak hp. It is also the reason why when he went from 377whp to 492whp the car was running similar times - he is having to learn how to effectively shift, launch, and use the new torque curve (he put a transbrake in to help launch, figuring that out by itself is not easy and his 60fts dropped by 1sec on those initial runs). It will be faster once the launch is worked out no doubt, but its a lot more complicated to launch - his old build was simple with mountains of power at the start which made it easy to net a 1.6XX 60ft time, and he had shift points dialed in so it was easy to go fast and go fast consistently.

Keep in mind I am not saying the Audi 3.0T or N55 don't make torque, but from quick scans of graphs it seems like they make more whp but lower torque unless your running e85 and so forth - but they are both great engines that do have a lot more tuning and support, so those building them will have a lot more room to go vs Volvo for sure. Also trans and differential gearing play big roles in keeping the engines in the torque (effective torque moving the car is torque x ratio of gear and differential gearing and tire height) and I suspect they are well engineered there as well. So definitely not trying to say they aren't great cars, they are and as you mentioned paddle shifters and so forth are great there are many good reasons to want one.

But for me, being outside the norm is interesting. I'll never forget all the coyote, challenger, and camaro V8 guys, and even some newer vettes that came over to see what my friend had under the hood after being beat - only to think it was not the same car that beat them, or who would just shake their heads and walk away without talking. Granted some of that is driving skill more than power perhaps, and don't get me wrong I love V8 cars and especially love the V8 sound, one day I will build one myself but its cool to be fast outside the normal builds everyone else is doing. Fast is fast, and again for me I have not seen many Volvo's at any tracks so its just a different variety of fast to explore.

 

Totally right on that, I'll never forget when I first heard "Horsepower sells cars, but torque wins races." Maybe my analysis isn't quite right, but it seems to me that the torque delivery of the T6 isn't quite being utilized by the gearbox, and there's nothing we can really do about that.

For me, when I put the T6 in Geartronic mode and zip around at 3-5k RPM, the car feels properly fast. However, when that kick down is activated via that little switch under the gas pedal, the car is actually somewhat underwhelming at 5-6.5k. This brings up the topic of shift points. First, I wonder if you need to press the kick down switch to get full throttle, or if managing gearing on my own and holding the pedal just above it will give the same effect. If I'm on the highway going 80 and want to take off, I'm pretty sure the car is better suited to do it in 4th, not 3rd.

I wish I had a track day to really see where the best shift points are. I was noticing on a YouTube video with the S60 P* that the shift points are actually earlier than in the RD and T6! Given that the P* has a bigger turbo (which I have since verified), I'd expect them to be higher if anything! My car will rev out to 6500 unless I shift early.

The ZF8 in the Audi 3.0t is perfectly mated to the engine, which helps those cars accelerate faster than they should given their power to weight ratio. I do like the fact that I drive a Volvo however, it's somewhat a sleeper, surprises unsuspecting 328i and gen10 Accord 2.0 owners on the daily when they get their doors blown off by what appears to be a normal white Volvo sedan. I like to believe that it's also less of a ticket magnet than those other cars as well.