940 Malmö Estate performance upgrade ?

Hello everyone. My name is Wim. I'm new here, but I've been reading the posts for quite a while now.

My current car is a '95 460 2.0i GLT, with 180.000k's on the clock, an still vivid as ever !
But within a few months I'm going to sell my baby (the car), and take over my dad's 1995 940 2.4TD Malmö
He bought it new 10 years ago, and it has always been services by Volvo - 'ACG' in Ghent, Belgium for the 'connaisseurs' ;-))
I've always loved the car, solid drive, great seats, and the 'mighty' sound of the engine when you fire it up on a chilly winters morning, lol.

But I do have some general questions, concerns, and I hope you guys can help me out.

My major problem with the car is that is somewhat misses 40 bhp if you ask me...It's an auto gearbox, and when you 'play' with the throttle, acceleration is fine for as long as you stay under 100 km/h
But once you hit the highway, it takes the car (to) long to hit +130km/h => it just creaps along...I'm no speadfreak, but (for safety issues) I like a car that has no prob to hit 160+ as if it's no big deal (like my 460 !)

Once you're doing 100 km/h, there is little respons when you push the throttle deeper...unless you floor it, causing the kickdown to shift to a lower (4th?) gear, then the engine just revs to 4.500rpm (smoke pukes out), but a part from the noise, there is no real gain in speed...The only option is having patience...That's all very fine when there is little or no traffic, but becomes dangerous when there are a lot of other cars/trucks on the road...

So...I would like to give my (future) car some more 'juice'...Surely, there more to get out of a 2.4 6cyl. TD then a humble 122 bhp, without having to rebuilt half the engine ??
I tried looking for a powerbox/chip manufacturer on the net, but no luck for my type of engine (D24TIC, right ?)

Then I read somewhere that you can fiddle with the pump => is this the fuel(or diesel) pump we are talking about ? If yes, what needs to be done ?

I also read something about an 'EGR' valve, my English is not good enough I'm afraid: can someone tell me what this valve is, and what it does ?

Any other tips/suggestions to give my tank some more beef are greatly appreciated !

Regards,
Wim

[Puddinghead]

Hi Wim,
Have you looked at this site whch gives lots of information on all aspects of Volvo cars , including faults and tune ups.

http://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/FAQSummary1.htm

Your English is excellent.

Good luck

[Peter Milnes]

There is a copy of the Brickboard FAQs on this website. It will not tell you very much about gaining an increase in power from your diesel, but will certainly give you some pointers towards regaining it's (quite healthy) 122bhp. It is the torque that will give the performance. If your car has EGR it would be better to totally disable the system. I suspect that the inlet has become clogged up with soot particles as a result of using EGR. If you have EGR and would like to get rid of it e-mail me and I will send you the details. Your car is likely to be suffering from partial blockages in the inlet tract, like blocked air filter, sooted up inlet manifold and blocked catalyser. Yes your diesel is fitted with one. I have ditched mine in favour of a two-box stainless steel system made up for the car. Mine has had the fuel pump "fiddled" with and produces in excess of 145bhp. The torque has been increased as a result and I find it hard to keep the car's speed down to 100kmh when towing my caravan on motorways in UK! This car surprises the local "boy racers" and often leaves them struggling behind.

Out of interest VW managed 225bhp from this engine (with a slight change to camshaft profiles), but 200bhp should be reachable without resorting to this drastic solution. First you need a tame diesel pump wizard with a rolling road.

As a possible partial cure I would advise you to use fuel cleaner in your fuel tank. After a couple of full tanks with this in, your injectors will be cleaner and giving a better spray pattern. The fuel filter should be changed every 60,000 miles (100,000km). The gearbox will benefit from a thorough flush and refill every 30,000 miles (48,000km).

Ditching the catalyser gained me some 10bhp and fitting an electric fan from a 960 has also given me a power gain. This has raised the useable hp to around 160bhp.

All the best, Peter.