I have a 91 240 with the Borla cat back exhaust, K&N air filter, IPD sway bars, etc. I bought the car new and it now has 150,000 miles and burns about two quarts of oil between oil changes (5k miles). The interior and exterior are excellent and the car looks brand new. My wife likes the handling and short turning radias of the car, but complains of the lack of power. I think I can convince her to keep the car (it's her daily driver) if I can add about 50 hp to the engine. I would appreciate any suggestions for adding power without losing reliability. I realize that I can go to a ford V-8, but would prefer to stick with Volvo engine if I can.

Thanks to each of you for your suggestions. I'm really not sure just what I really want to do, but I just hate to lose this brick after having it almost 12 years. My best bet might just be to sell it and buy a clean used turbo. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

Stan

My 91-240 has 120K miles and burns no oil between changes about every 3K or so.

I wonder if you have other engine issues that cut the power you should have.

Just asking.

91-240

Yeah I was thinking about that as well. My 86 240 (204K) uses 1/2 qt between 3000 mile changes, with a noticeable rear main seal leak. My 88 740 (191K) uses nothing and leaks nothing. 2 qts in 5K is acceptable for most cars, but a lot for a Volvo (non-turbo anyway).
I think this car needs a compression and/or leakdown test. Might be some HP's just leakin' away.
Rob Bareiss, New London CT

You can install the IPD (or similar) performance cam, as well as the adjustable cam timing gear. Should cost about $400 if you do this yourself. Low end torque should be much improved, though I doubt you can realize more than a 20% power increase. Simply changing to a head from a 740/940 turbo will give you better breathing due to the slightly larger valves. Some head work ought to give another several percent increase in power.
The real power, with an original Volvo drivetrain, is in the turbo cars.
It's entirely possible, though it's not really an amateur project, to install a 740T/940T's B230FT right into your 240. You need a fairly complete 740/940 to get the entire wiring harness and computer, and you'll probably want the trans that it came with too, just to handle the extra power. It bolts in, lines up and connects to all the 240 parts. The wiring harness is a bit of work to get everything working because same parts are in different places in the two cars.
It is doable. I've driven the result.
It's on the street in Connecticut, and it's a blast to drive. 91 244GL + 92 940T engine/trans + sway bars, upper + lower strut bars... very quick, sounds cool, docile around town until you stomp on it... then hang on!
I'm NOT recommending it for everyone, just saying it's possible!
Rob Bareiss, New London CT

Rob, did you have to move the distributor from the rear position to the front? My understanding is that the 700/900 230 engines would not fit into the 240 engine bay becasue of the head-mounted distributor.

The turbo and non turbo heads and valve sizes are the same, and the turbo cam is actually lower performance. The complete turbo motor swap is a great one, though (the turbo motor works well with the turbo cam up to a certain point, at which a turbo spec MVP or Enem cam is a good choice).

50 hp is hard to come by without some expensive work or a turbo motor swap. The easy stuff won't quite get you there. My guess is that the electric fan, underdrive crank pulley, MVP or Enem cam, headers, larger cat, synthetic oil, larger cat back exhaust would get you to more like 140-150 hp and that to get more, you would have to go to a programmable engine management system and some port and combustion chamber work in the head, either of which might cost you as much or more than what you spent on the mods to get you to 140-150 hp.

Philip Bradley

Add an electric engine fan. Check out http://www.linkline.com/personal/dbarton/fanconversion/
Don't quote me on this but I think using synthetic oil in your engine as well as in your tranny my yeild a performance increase as well. These are both low cost options that will aid in the longevity and overall performance of you brick.