Making an old Volvo fuel efficient
 

I recently signed up here after reading the efficiency and hypermiling tips. I wanted to share the mods I did to my car and hope to get some good tips to further improve the MPG, or actually the kilometers per liter. Because I live in the Netherlands.

I drive a 1985 Volvo 360 sedan. I have the car for four years now, bought it as a first car when I just got my license. From there on I did what every 18 year old wants, I wanted to go faster! So after a while I started modding the car, for more power and better handeling.

Now four years later I'm sort of growing up and have developed an interest for better fuel economy instead of speed and power.


I don't know if I am allowed to post pictures of the car and the mods done on it so far, if I may then I will post them up!

Cheers!

Make 5 posts, then you can post pics.

I better start posting then! :)

Hi Joris, welcome.

You've set yourself a nice challenge. The Volvo 360 has some room for improvement on the economy side, to put it mildly :)
Especially since you have a 2.3 liter engine under the bonnet! That's not OEM, right?

One pic from Volvo 300 Series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia to show what we're talking about:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...360_1.4_GL.jpg

I'd say:
- raise tire pressure,
- smooth hubcaps,
- partial grill block except in summer,
- raise the back of the hood (does it hinge there?)
- Front 'splitter', basically anything that moves the lower end of the bumper forward.

It is nearly 30 years old, is it still in reasonable condition? Was it kept in a garage?

If you put your pictures somewhere on the WWW just paste the URL and a mod will turn it into a working picture link. Or post 4 more times and do it yourself ;)

Look forward to seeing it continue to develop. Welcome aboard!

Thank you, I thought it was time for another Dutchie to sign up. I just found the original EPA-numbers stated by Volvo, claiming 39 MPG at 55 MPH. Which is quite optimistic. I will try to beat those numbers though.

The next post I will tell some more about the changes to the car!

I will copy some pictures from another topic I have on the dutch Volvo forum. I guess many of you have never seen a Volvo 360 before.

In spite of the FWD plaftorms becoming mainstream nowadays, these good old RWD ones still provide lots of room for improvements. But I've seen at Wikipedia that the stock gearing is a limiting factor on the Volvo 300-series due to its kinda unusual setup.

Welcome. I used to be heavy into red and white blocks, so I might be help. What engine and transmission do you have.

Welcome! The Volvo 300 series, our Dutch pride :D

Some pictures, saves me from a couple thousand words! :) I'll try to keep it short!

When I bought the car, in all it's hideousness.
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-8X6XO3Q6-D.jpg

After a lot of welding and mending I changed the old worn down 2 liter carb'ed engine to a 2 liter injection engine.
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-LAZOJZ8L-D.jpg

Installed a vacuumgauge and oilpressuregauge together with some other things. Lowering springs, better shocks, poly bushes.
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-BX8NDFSB-D.jpg
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-HNZUJOYR-D.jpg

Two years later I wanted more power, so in came the 2.3 liter (b230fb) from a Volvo 940.
http://i42.tinypic.com/167a4g8.jpg

Then an electric fan for more power
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-H8NNHXEZ-D.jpg

Did some slalomming
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-6NP4KWPI-D.jpg

Then the eco interest showed up, so I made a front undertray
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-K4CZTPFY-D.jpg

And because the car narrows at the bottom, made some front tire deflectors
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-A4QIJ8TD-D.jpg

Started prepping for a grillblock, sealing the gaps in front of the rad
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-OVP7TAWM-D.jpg

Got some more gauges for oilpressure and volts
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-X4FCRRI7-D.jpg

And bmw 320 mirrors, which are a lot more aeroshaped then the original mirrors
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-UR8T7JX4-D.jpg
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-8ZDWDBUY-D.jpg
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-NGLUJNQX-D.jpg

so in short, some of the performance upgrades are also good for fuel economy.
The original carb differential happens to have the longest gearing available, together with the five-speed this is quite nice.
Lowered the car 2"
Electric fan instead of one on the crank
New engine with better management (lmm, lambda sensor)
Front undertray
Better mirrors

Future mods will be
Turbo camshaft, short duration, short overlap, small valve opening
Full undertray
Grillblock
Partial kamback
Engine cut-off switch

Hoping to break the 40 MPG!

Ah, the bonnet hitches in the front.
That is a pity, as though it makes it easier to raise it on the rear it also means there is nothing to catch it in a collision, so that easy raise would be quite dangerous unless you weld in a heavy slot beam or such.

Any chance for a longer gear ratio? How high does it rev in top gear at highway speed?
That 2.3 engine should have enough torque to power it under 1500 RPM at 100 kmph.

I wouldn't turbo, I'd do a b230kh. If you must have a turbo, find a b204ft.

I miss my 240 :(

He's talking about installing the turbo camshaft, not a full turbo. Interesting approach.

Neat car, I've never seen a 300 series before.

Force of habit, opps. A T cam is a good low lift approach, if you can't find an M. I would advance it a few degrees to take advantage of the tall gearing. What injection you running the k-jet, LH 2.0, 2.2, or 2.4? Edit, you said 940, so that'd be 2.4.

Yes, it's a b230fb with lh 2.4 management. I'm trying to find a T-cam but everybody wants to sell only the whole engine.

The b230hk was made for being fuel efficient, with high compression heron head en T-cam. So I can't wait to try that cam in my engine with better management. Only the 9.3 compression I have won't help.

Edit: it's at 2000 RPM at 50MPH or 80km/h, 2500 RPM at 60MPH or 100km/h and 3000 RPM at 70MPH or 115km/h.

On the highway I mostly try to stay under 60MPH.

Have you never considered a Diesel swap?

There are diesel versions of this car, called the volvo 340 diesel. These diesels get 40-45MPG. However, because of new tax rules it is way to expensive to drive an old diesel.

Did some tuft-testing yesterday.

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-LJTZIFTQ-D.jpg
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-EWU47W8Z-D.jpg

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-3C4QWYFL-D.jpg
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-6JPWE77R-D.jpg
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-JPDSDYX6-D.jpg
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-U6DSKVA6-D.jpg

As expected the back needs some sort of spoiler/kamback, and maybe extend the spoiler on the rear.

Front wasn't as bad as I expected it would be. Turbulence around the A-pillar, a high pressure zone in front of the windscreen. I think the new mirrors do help quite a lot.

Wat do you think? I have some short clips, if anyone is interested i'll put them on youtube.

Gotta hate what Europe is turning into by the so-called environmentalists who seem to ignore the environmental and social benefits from the enhanced resilience to lower-grade alternative fuels in the old Diesel beaters.

The old diesels have an appalling fine particle content in their exhaust gas, many times worse than gassers of their own age.
City centers get closed off for traffic if the rate goes up too high, several cities are seeking to ban lorries and 'old' cars or even all cars just to keep air pollution below the desired max level.

We've seen an import of old diesel cars as a means to evade road tax by the oldtimer law. That now has been stretched to older than 40 for diesel cars; now the old diesel market is in reverse, and the black cloud behind those cars is now a rare sight again.

I've driven an old diesel once, in its last days I tried to kill the engine before arriving and glide into the parking lot. Guess why? Not economy :o

I think it not a bad thing those old diesels are taken off the road. Especially when theye are driven daily.

Question for RedDevil, do you know if and where I can by coroplast? Getting large sheets of aluminium is quite expensive, although easy to work with.

I second that, so do my lungs.

Do a google search for "polypropeen kanaalplaten".
For example: polypropeen

I could find some for free at my workplace, but maybe you are not so lucky.

BTW Nice to see a "DAF 77" here :D
DAF 77 - Wikipedia

I don't know, frankly. I have bought (& probably ruined) a sheet of Lexan.
I'd like to do some underbody mods with polypropene plates, but have not found the right stuff yet.

I've seen several plates of material in the regular DIY shops but nothing suitable.
I've bought a small welding kit and I will experiment on welding brackets & other stuff just to get a hang of it and find out what can be done and what not. If I ever get some free time on my hands...

Thanks! I'll keep looking. I have some sheets of sheetmetal and thick aluminium, but that is to heavy. Buying large, thin sheets of aluminium is to expensive. So I'll keep looking, keeping an eye on garbage containers :D

When I went to Uruguay last month I saw many old Diesels and only one was puffing a considerable amount of black smoke, but it was at a mechanic shop to get that issue solved. Anyway, due to their adaptability to cleaner-burning fuels such as biodiesel and vegetable oils (either straight or waste cooking oil) I'd still rather get an old Diesel instead of a hybrid. There is also the higher cetane rating in Diesel fuel nowadays that also reduces considerably the amount of soot.

Anyway, with heavier taxes on old Diesels and the reliability issues from the emissions-control devices in the newer ones, it's not hard to understand why CNG and biomethane are increasing its market share in Europe...

I made some short clips of the tuft testing, what do you guys think, are there areas that I didn't see?

[youtube]70XDEbDGQVw[/youtube]

The black smoke is not the same as the fine particle emission, which is invisible. The large particles are heavy so they disappear quickly from the air, making them less dangerous than the fine stuff.

Biodiesel gases also contain fine particles. Yet as biodiesel consists mainly of carbohydrates pollutants containing other elementas are absent.

Also see Diesel exhaust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What did you use to cut down fuel use?

Not much actually, I am planning a lot though! For now I have raised the tire pressure, a partial underbelly, modern mirrors, and a better driving style. Following the tips on the ecomodder homepage.

I have a brilliant idea: How about having all the people who don't like smoking diesels in the city just leave? Eventually, if it is that bad, people will leave the city and go to a cleaner one that suits their taste. Or, move to the country and forget about making big bucks and impressing neighbors.

I'm not aiming this directly at anybody...

The other side is that if it is really that big of a problem, the actual people who own smokey diesels should get them repaired or get another vehicle. Usually it is a case of both sides not doing what would be best and would alleviate the problem.

Do unto others as you'd want done to you...

You wiill only have clean cities to go to if they don't have unclean diesel engines so until that's sorted out I'm afraid your suggestion is not realizable.

I don't have a grudge against diesels, I would have bought another one if it did not fall though on the test drive.
I'm not too keen on getting cancer either - that's what we know fine particles are accountable for.

As for the old Volvo - it can profit from the oldtimer tax now, and it can't if it were a diesel; then it will get the extra high diesel road tax.
Here and now it is impossible to save money by converting that Volvo to diesel.

Is there any incentive to convert it to run on CNG?

2500 RPM @ 65 mph is plenty for a 2.3 liter engine.

I would try and adress that first.

Either the smallest engine available or the tallest gearing (which you apparently already have ...)

Maybe tall sidewall tires ?

What would be the gain on raising the back of the hood? Better airflow over the windscreen?

Yup, as it increases the pressure over the hood which makes the air start to move aside and up earlier.

However, safety is an issue. You don't want to have the hood penetrate the window in a collision.

Did you know about the aero template ?
It's in the tools.

Maybe you can alter the car here and there to better fit this.
Of course it is more prédominant if you have to drive faster.

I am already working on a kammback spoiler, there is a cardboard model in the shed at this moment! Based on the template.
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-7BY7ANRH-D.jpg

Today I made some rear tire deflectors, paint is already falling of :D
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-6IWVLJXF-D.jpg

I also used the light for the choke to indicate when the fan is on.
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-4J6M7YRY-D.jpg

Then I sealed the gaps left and right of the radiator and made a grillblock.
Turned out that the hole I left is still to big, so testing with clear tape now.
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-G8KDFURV-D.jpg

That's plenty good.

That being said, every aero improvement is gonna make your big engine works even easier ...

Where is your spend sensor taking info from ?
I am thinking taller tires would be a good improvement.

Speed sensor wasn't original on this car, there is a place behind the speedo where I was able to mount it.

I would like taller and smaller tires, but I recently bought new tires so that will have to wait.