Questions on engine upgrade

[Jco5]

Is there a way to upgrade our 3.4 l engines to get more H.P.

ford sho 3.4 l 245 hp
volvo xc 90 4.4 l 311 hp
volvo polestar 5.0l 650 hp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Taurus_SHO#Third_generation_.281996.E2.80.931999.29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_B8444S_engine
http://blog.caranddriver.com/the-ya...rs-muscle-show-5-0-liter-race-engine-revving/

Boring a 3.4l sho to a 5.0l
http://v8sho.com/SHO/50LV8SHO.htm

The above engines are either a Ford Sho 3.4 l engine or a variation of that engine by Volvo. What I was trying to find out is there as any to upgrade our engine to a h.p similar to the Volvo motors. If I take the cams, heads, valve, rods, crank, or any other part from the XC 90. Is there a way to bore out the motor add parts any help would be useful.

 

[stephen newberg]

Joe, to my knowledge, no, there is not. Over he years a lot of things have been suggested and a few tried, but as it came from the factory the Yamaha 3.4L engine was already run up about as far as it was able to go at any rational cost. There are a few HP to be gained from an under drive pulley. You can grab a few via a more open and cold air intake. Those two seem to operate across the RPM spectrum. Then there is messing about with the exhaust, which seems to let you gain a few HP at one place in the curve at the cost of losing it somewhere else. So, in general, it seems there is just not a huge amount there to get short of changing out the engine completely.

pax, smn

 

[luigisho]

Don't waste your time trying to modify this motor. There is no plug and play option so you would have to do all the development yourself and need extra motors in case things go boom. This is such a small run motor that, that kind of stuff is really impractical. You can do it as a vanity project but I would not throw that kind of cash at it. It would be better spent putting aside for a vehicle that has the performance you are looking for from the start. Even if you got over 300hp and a bunch more torque you will probably have to have several replacement transmissions on hand.

 

[rubydist]

There are a few HP to be gained from an under drive pulley. You can grab a few via a more open and cold air intake. Those two seem to operate across the RPM spectrum.

pax, smn

The cold air intake thing is a commonly misunderstood modification. Yes, it is true that a cold air intake has the potential to provide a little more peak horsepower if you can actually get colder air into the engine.

However, what is typically not understood is that this costs you power (you will have less net horsepower) at part throttle (which is where your daily driver spends 99% of its time). The reason is the same as why you get more power at wot - the air density. At part throttle, you are literally throttling the amount of air being drawn into the engine to limit the power output. If you are ingesting warm air into the engine, the throttle plate needs to be farther open to get the same mass of air compared to if you are ingesting cold air. The throttle being further closed (with cold air) results in increased pumping losses (it takes more energy to pull the piston down on the intake stroke due to higher vacuum) which costs you power. Now this change in power is typically not noticed because you only have to press on the gas pedal slightly further to get to the desired power output, but the expense of having to do that is reduced gas mileage. A careful examination of the air filter system on many newer vehicles will show you that quite a number of them have a bypass that allows warm air to be drawn into the air filter at part throttle (high vacuum) conditions, and that this bypass is closed off at full throttle (low vacuum) condition allowing cold air to be drawn in from the grille or wheel well area.

 

[gamefanatic]

Well they aren't direct replacements. In fact those engines are very different block designs and most certainly would not match in any way. Though I don't have an S40 taken apart right now to validate the heads, my thoughts are no... Of course there is nothing that a lot of elbow grease wouldn't do to fix putting one of those in the car. Just need to find a transmission or mounting plate, motor mounts and possibly some suspension modifications to make them work...

Your safest bet for upgrading this engine is with boost, SuperCharge, ProCharge, or TurboCharge. Though you will need many upgrades expect at least $2000-5000 for engine / fuel / boost, and another $2-3000 for transmission upgrades. Keep in mind the most complicated portion is designing the fuel delivery and the tuning. Everything else is just a matter of time and effort, it's all been done before. Costs are only saved if you have access to machine shops and dyno's that you can get things done for free...

There are a few who have gone down the road of installing the 4.6L from the two year models of town car's that utilized our front wheel drive. Their bell housings would align, but again a custom wiring install and tune or splicing in the computer from those cars would be required. From what I have gathered from those that have accomplished some movement with this effort that cooling and suspension upgrades are a must...

 

[luigisho]

The volvo v8 is designed by yamaha which is why they look similar but they are different. The v8 has a seperate balance shaft in the valley of the block and that bearing is prone to failure and guess what? Just like cam walking on our cars SHOboom on those. I've seen boosted v8 SHO's and not one of them was a daily driver. Too quirky. Can it ever be done? Sure with enough time and money anything is possible. Can it be done with your particular wallet and skillset? Don't know.

What i've learned over many years with cars is if you want more boost modify a car built for it. If you want more n/a power go get that vehicle. I bet the boosted GenIV's are dropping in price quickly by now. They are starting to get out of warranty.