C30 engine conversion from 2.0 petrol (08)

[fulham4eva]

Hi all,

New to the forum and new to Volvo's, Thought I'd try one after my Audi broke in a very expensive way.

So I bought a C30 2.0 with 160k on the clock, initially as a run about while I spent time fixing the Audi, However I've grown quite fond of the C30 and I'm thinking about selling the Audi once it's sorted and doing some mods to the C30.

So I'm hoping for some knowledgeable input.

I'm looking to change to something turbo charged obviously T5 ideally but I need to know whether I need a donor car or just engine/loom etc from a similar year car or could I get something older?

The idea is to make the conversion as straight forward as possible.

I would like to do a 4wd conversion at some point but struggling to find enough possible donor cars and info , But for now MORE POWER.

Cheers.

[ed-oorklep]

From what I've read so far this range of cars (V50, S40, C30, C70) is quite particular about the computer units used in the car.
So If you really really want to keep your body I believe you'd need a donor C30 T5 (complete) and switch over all modules.

My suggestion therefor is to see if you can just find a C30 T5.

Maybe a standalone ECU with a T5 engine may work but I don't know...

[fulham4eva]

Yeah that seems to be the feedback I've been getting. Looks like I'll have to start with a C30 T5 and go from there if I want to do a 4wd conversion.

I had a look through the C30 build threads and someone has attempted the 4wd conversion but the guy hasn't been on to share how it went.

Cheers.

[Moonpiemagic]

The engine conversion will be a very tough and expensive task that it would be cheaper to buy a T5 instead of swapping over the engine unit. The AWD conversion is a relatively straight forward task but you would be best looking for a V50 T5 AWD donar car but these are getting tougher and tougher to come by now. You will probably start coming across T5 AWD's that are now just FWD.

I would say, unless you are hunting over 400bhp you should be fine on the FWD platform but if you are looking for more grip you can get an LSD added.