Tuning the Volvo B4184

"Comprehensive guide to performance parts and tuning the Volvo B4184 engine!"

We are regularly seeing threads inquiring about getting more power from the B4184 and wanting to know what are the best tips on B4184 upgrades. So let us look into Volvo B4184 parts and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

The Volvo B4184 are fantastic to work on and with the ultimate modified parts like remapping, turbo improvements and camshafts you will dramatically enhance your driving enjoyment.

In this article we review B4184 tuning and show the greatest upgrades.

When talking about the top parts for your B4184 engine, we are going to concentrate on the tuning parts that give the best power gain for you spend.

Altering your B4184 camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine power band. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the power band accordingly.

NB: Fast road camshafts tend to raise the performance over the rev range, you might lose a little low down power but the higher rpm power will be lifted.

Competition camshafts, raise the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Motorsport and race camshaft won't do well if in heavy traffic.

You should ideally optimize your torque band to your usage of the car so for a daily driver stick with a mild fast road B4184 camshaft

Different B4184 engines respond better to more aggressive cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The map and fuel pump and injectors also will say much on the bhp gains you'll get.

Longer valve durations can alter the bhp band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

B4184 Best Tuning Mods & Upgrades

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Tuning Stages

Stage 1 B4184 modifications: Panel air filters, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Fast road camshaft, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Intake headers, Sports exhaust manifold.

Stage 2 B4184 modifications: high flow fuel injectors, induction kit, fuel pump upgrades, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head.

Stage 3 B4184 modifications: Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Twin charging conversions, Competition cam.

Remaps allows a tuner to fully realize the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your B4184.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but figures achieved may depend much on the upgrades you've done and the condition of your engine.

It is the whole point to any car tuning project to get air and fuel into the B4184 engine

Headers take the air from the filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders.

Shape and flow rate of the Intake can make a big improvement to fuel atomisation and engine efficiency on the B4184.

It's not uncommon that intake manifold are begging for motorsport parts, although a few OEM provide reasonably good intake manifold.

Increasing the B4184 valve size, getting port matching and head flowing will also increase bhp, & more importantly will raise potential for increasing the bhp increase on other tuning mods.

Turbo upgrades for the B4184

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your B4184

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes impressive power gains.

If a car is turbocharged, upgrades are relatively easy and you will discover turbo charged engines are built using more solid components.

There are weak spots for every engine, with some being extremely strong and some only just able to handle stock power

Discover these restrictions and install more solid crank and pistons to survive the power.

We've seen drivers spending a lot of money on turbocharger upgrades on the B4184 only to experience the car go up in smoke when it's completed.

Larger upgraded turbochargers commonly experience low end lag, and low capacity turbochargers spool up quickly but do not have the high rpm power band gains.

Over the last 20 years the market of turbo units is always moving on and we now see variable vane turbo units, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end performance.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and direct these at differently designed vanes in the turbocharger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the B4184 when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

We note 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although more challenging to get working. We have this article on twincharging if you want to read more.

Uprating B4184 fuel injectors

Don't forget to improve the fuel system when you are increasing the torque - it makes the car more thirsty. Most tuners we speak with say to over specify your flow rate on the injectors.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when specifying an injector, this takes into account injector deterioration and gives some spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Best B4184 performance exhausts

Only look to boost your exhaust if your exhaust is actually causing a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you should find that the exhaust flow rate is still ok even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts can help increase the flow of gases through the engine.

But if the exhaust pipe is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the exhaust flow rate and end up losing power and torque.

Usual exhaust restrictions can be traced to the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a faster flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

B4184 Engine specs bhp power

• 1.8L I4 (125 bhp) B4184S2 B4184S11
• 1.8L I4 (125 bhp) B4184S2 B4184S8 Flexifuel

Problems and issues to look out for on the B4184

The B4184 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the B4184, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your B4184 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our B4184 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which parts were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our B4184 guides and tips are kept up to date.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Volvo. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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