Engine: T5/R BSR Stage 1

[02Anders]

Good evening Gents,

I'm seriously considering taking the plunge for the BSR Stage 1 kit.
It's claimed to boost power to 299HP and the torque to a whooping 427NM.
Very tempting...

However, what's your thoughts on this??
My C70 T5 has just short of 150k miles on her. She's really in amazingly good shape, but would I be stupid to be boosting the power so dramatically on a 17 year old unrestored engine with that mileage?
The pro's are easy to see, but which con's should I expect?

[byootox]

Well the engine needs to be in a good state of tune beforehand.
E.g. fully serviced and making sure it drives well already with no fault codes or other problems first.
Other things like a clear breather system, timing belt and boost hoses and clips in good condition etc.
I'm not sure exactly what the bsr stage 1 includes but 299bhp sounds a bit optimistic for a stage 1 tune on one of these.
Best bang for your buck is a remap with decent downpipe, that should free up an easy 40bhp over standard.
Don't get too hung up on exact bhp figures etc, real life driveability is far more important.
I got mine done about a year and a half ago and the only things I've had is rotten hoseclips burst with the extra pressure, but pennies to fix and easy.
The other thing to remember when you take it is fill the tank with super as that will help set a map better without pinking etc.
Not essential but best if the place thats doing it for you has a rolling road so you know what power your starting from.
Most people don't realise that there car will have lost some power since it came out the wrapper so to speak thus my comment about not worrying too much about power figures unless there is a drastic problem to start with.

[doingitsideways]

^^^^ What he said ^^^^

Full stage-0 first, including brakes. It's amazing how much quicker you run out of road when the boost gets upped!

BSR and Rica's claims are nothing short of hilarious at times.

Personally, I have an MTE map and exhaust on mine.
I have nothing but good things to say about them.
Their claims are realistic and their maps are nice and progressive, rather than whack all the boost in in one massive bang too early, bending a rod.
Mine's an auto too, a badly written map would have destroyed the 'box by now.

Don @ Kalmar Union is your man if you wanted to go down that road.

[02Anders]

Thank you very much for your in-depth input Gents! Much appreciated...

I have already gone very thoroughly through my C70 with a massive service including fresh fully-synthetic Castrol oil, new oil filter, fresh Castrol gearbox oil, fresh anti-freeze coolant, fresh brake fluid (system fully drained first), fresh servo fluid, new air filter, new fuel filter, 5 new NGK spark plugs, plus several other things that aren't related to the drivetrain such as a new heater matrix and so on...
Suspension and brakes have been thoroughly checked too and are really tip-top. My C70 has no fault codes or other problems.
However I haven't really checked boost hoses and accompanying clips yet, so that's certainly something I'll do first - thx for the tip.

To be honest, I'm not too fussed about the exact power output. If she ends up putting out less than 299HP then that's fine with me. My reason for including the actual figure in my first post here, is more from the perspective that IF it actually ends up producing all that BSR promises, then I want to be asking you guys for advice on reliability based on that power output. Makes sense???

They've told me that boost is up from the standard 0.9 bar to 1.2 bar. Further to that a heap of other parameters are adjusted such as fuel pump pressure, fuel injector pressure and the throttle openings.

I don't know how BSR are regarded in comparison with others such as Kalmar Union. I've actually never even tried a BSR tuned Volvo before, but back when I lived in Sweden, I did try two different BSR tuned Saab's, and they were honestly quite impressive. One was just a stage 1 and seemed very drivable yet still fast! The other was a stage umpteen and was just pure insanity!!

Anyway, my main concern is whether those with more experience with Volvo than I, recon that my 150k T5 engine would be up for this kind of power boost.
If no one has any horror stories to tell, then I think I'll go ahead and take the plunge!!

[02Anders]

Btw. byootox, you mention the downpipe. I've heard others mention this.
Is there a lot to be gained by swapping this for another item? And if so, which should I go for?
At the same time I'm considering the stainless steel Simons sports exhaust. But to the best of my knowledge, this does not include the downpipe...

[doingitsideways]

Can't comment on the Simons exhaust as I have no experience of them, but good gains are to be had with the DP replacement along with a cat of suitable quality.

Unlike a N/A which needs back pressure to run efficiently, as a general rule ANY restriction after the turbo on a turbocharged car is a bad thing.

To put things into perspective, I'll use my S70 T5 as an example.
2.3 T5, M4.4 management, so slightly different to yours, as that'll be ME7.

Standard turbo, 16t at it's limit now.
MTE 3" stainless exhaust inc. downpipe and cat,
MTE map,
Different injectors, Bosch light blues I think,
N/A cams,
Ported and flowed head
3" throttle body and machined manifold,

All this lot adds up to around 300bhp, but never had it on a dyno. Not much point really being an auto.

Mine is a reasonably low mileage car at 98k, but higher mileage doesn't really bother them as long as they're running properly.

[GMC]

Yes, I'm always skeptical about tuners claims too!

[02Anders]

Thx once again doingitsideways!
Heh Heh... with the spec on your T5 giving you approx 300HP, I can see why you are sceptical towards BSR achieving 299HP with just a remap...

Still, I can get the BSR Stage 1 remap for what I feel is quite cheap right now. So I may just go ahead and do it, and then save up for a better downpipe and full exhaust later in the year.

[byootox]

Being in the motor trade I've always been very sceptical of bolted on goodies power claims in general.
So I actually took the plunge on here last Autumn and bought an exhaust off of one of the guys on here.
The down pipe definitely makes a difference in the way the turbo spools up, car revs up noticeably quicker. this is the bit that actually impressed and surprised me the most apart from the remap itself.
My tuppens worth is unless you got the money just get the DP first after/or at the same time as your remap.
If your engine is in good order then it will handle the extra power just fine assuming a it's a decent remap.
The other thing is making sure the map is progressive rather than all fire and brimstone at low rpm and speeds.
I couldn't stop smiling driving mine back from the tuners lol

[kevvydude]

did you not need to upgrade the con rods at 300bhp ish .sure i read it on here a while ago.as they throw their rods ??