Tuning the Volvo D5244

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Volvo D5244 engine!"

We often are getting emails inquiring about getting more power from the D5244 and wanting to know what are the optimum D5244 power upgrades. So let us look into Volvo D5244 parts and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

Here we look at D5244 tuning and show the premier modifications for your car. Volvo D5244 provide a fun base for your project and with the right performance enhancements like remapping, turbo kits and camshafts you will dramatically maximize your driving opportunities.

Just because particular mods are popular with D5244 owners it doesn't mean it is good, instead we'll optimum mods that will give your D5244 the best power gain for you money.

Altering your D5244 cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine torque. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the torque accordingly.

NB: Fast road cams normally raise the bhp through the rev range, you may sacrifice a little bottom end bhp but higher rpm power will be lifted.

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

On a car used daily must carefully try to match your engines power to your cars usage.

I would be surprised if you have found a D5244 Motorsport and race camshaft is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Different D5244 engines respond better to extreme camshaft durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The map and injectors and fuel pump also will make differences on the torque gains you'll achieve.

Altering valve durations can alter the torque 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.

D5244 Best Tuning Mods & Upgrades

Please watch TorqueCars Video tutorial on car tuning. And be sure to subscribe and support our new channel.

Tuning Stages

Stage 1 D5244 modifications: Sports exhaust manifold, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Intake headers, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Fast road camshaft, Panel air filters.

Stage 2 D5244 modifications: Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, high flow fuel injectors, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, induction kit, fuel pump upgrades.

Stage 3 D5244 modifications: Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Competition cam.

A remap helps unlock the full potential of all the mods you've done to your D5244.

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

Pushing fuel and air into the D5244 engine is the aim to any engine upgrade job.

Intake manifold flow the air from the intake filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The shape and flow characteristics of the Plenum can make a large improvement to fuel engine efficiency on the D5244.

Most plenum chambers are ripe for motorsport parts, although a few manufacturers provide reasonably good plenum chambers.

Adding a D5244 larger valve kit, doing some port work and head flowing will also improve bhp, & more importantly will afford you a better bhp increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades for the D5244

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 D5244

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

When your car is turbocharged, tuning mods are going to net you a larger power gain and we find turbocharged engines will have harder and stronger components.

There are reliable limits for every engine, with some being over specified and some only able to handle stock power

We recommend you find these restrictions and upgrade to higher quality components to utilize the power.

We've seen guys spending a a stack of money on turbo upgrades on the D5244 only to see the engine block catastrophically fail just after it's been finished.

Larger capacity turbo chargers will usually experience low end lag, and low capacity turbo chargers spool up more quickly but won't have the peak rpm torque gains.

Thanks to progress the range of turbos is always increasing and we are seeing variable vane turbos, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbos divert the exhaust flow into two channels and feed these at differently angled vanes in the turbo charger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there is a restriction in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the D5244 when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

Going up you'll find 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large performance gains, although more challenging to configure. We have this in depth look at twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating D5244 fuel injectors

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to look at the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a torque increase.We would recommend you to be generous with your injector capacity.

The rule of thumb is to add 20% to the flow rate when specifying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and allows a bit of spare capacity should the engine need 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 D5244 performance exhausts

You should look to improve your exhaust if your exhaust is creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the flow rate is still good 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 balance the flow of gases through the engine.

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

Typically exhaust restrictions typically happen through the catalyst and or DPF filters which manufacturers fit, especially as they start to get worn and carbon builds up, so adding a higher flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Specs and bhp power for the D5244

• 2.4D I5178 hp D5244T8
• 2.4L D5 turbocharged I5 (161 hp) D5244T9
• 2.4L D5 turbocharged I5 (161 hp) D5244T9
• 2.4L D5 turbocharged I5 (180 hp) D5244T13

Problems and issues to look out for on the D5244

The D5244 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the D5244, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your D5244 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our D5244 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help to complete and improve this page, so do give us your feedback in the comments box below.

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 D5244 guides and tips are kept up to date.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

Click to accept YouTube Cookies & Play.

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.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.