IPD's P3 Engine Flash Tunes

2021-04-30

IPD is very proud to announce the launch of our P3 tuning program for five and six cylinder turbocharged variants. This is the best upgrade available from the oldest and most trusted provider in the Volvo community. When it comes to something as complex as remapping the ECU in your car, why would you settle for anything less?

For nearly 30 years IPD has partnered with the most knowledgeable tuners in the business creating a broad and level power band which is the hallmark of our tunes. This allows the driver to control all the increased power with the simple application of the right foot. No modes, buttons or bolt-ons required. This is quite simply the way the car should have been built from the factory.

The waiting is over and you can get the performance you need with full diagnostics and factory drivability. There is no special equipment needed for installation and no trips to the dyno or additional data logs. Just remove the ECU from the vehicle and send it to our trusted and experienced tuning team to receive the performance and reliability that IPD has made the standard. IPD is simply the benchmark in the Volvo tuning segment. You can drive away with confidence knowing your car has been tuned properly.

Why an IPD upgrade?

Upgrading the tuning of the engine management software on your turbo Volvo is the most effective, and cost effective way to improve output. In fact, it is the only practical way to make significant performance changes on a vehicle with a torque request/demand system. You can expect to see realistic and measurable gains of up to 56 HP and even more importantly 80 pounds of torque. Since 1994 our engineers have designed the world's most effective and reliable upgrades. Our engineers develop performance calibrations optimized for the North American market that retain full factory functionality, drivability, diagnostics and emission levels.

IPD is famous for performance gains without sacrificing reliability or lifespan. If you do your homework, you will find that our upgrades provide superior real world performance and the reason is that we focus on developing the most area under the power curve with smooth linear power delivery. There is no point in big horsepower numbers that only exist at redline if you don’t run your car to the limits every day. Get the most from your bolt on performance upgrades.

Stage Zero?

When upgrading, it seems logical that you would want to make sure that the engine is in top tune, but this is often overlooked in the quest for instant performance gratification, which often results in poor performance from your upgrades. The increased loads can cause misfiring and other unpleasant issues. The Stage "ZERO" idea is simply that you should perform these steps before making upgrades to the engine in your Volvo if it is more than 5 years old or has more than 50,000 miles on it. These components may be functioning fine at stock performance levels but they may not at greater demand.

Stage ZERO Tuning List:

Spark plugs
Air, fuel and oil filter service
Trans fluid flush
Inspect & replace vacuum lines and IC piping rubber
Upgrade to silicone hoses where possible
Clean intercooler / intercooler plumbing
Compression and cylinder leak down test
Turbocharger health check

No Chips! No Soldering!

We have been flash upgrading Volvo ECUs since 1994 and we still offer you the security and reliability that flash upgrading provides. Just like the factory, no soldering, no wire cutting or piggy back connectors required. Literally just install, drive and enjoy.

Where do I begin?

Call or email IPD for any technical questions and to arrange an appointment, payment and shipping details. To avoid handling issues, please do not ship the ECU to IPD before making these arrangements.

The ECU in your car is in the wiper well and will take a few minutes for removal and reinstall. The ECU is located under the black plastic wiper tray. You will need to remove the locking clips along the front edge of the wiper tray and battery box covers. With the cover lifted the ECU is held in place with two latched harness connectors and 2 release buttons.

You will need to remove the ECU from the vehicle and send it to IPD for flash upgrading. The vehicle will not be functional with the ECU removed so this should be done in a secure location that is convenient for a little time.

Sending Your ECU To IPD For Upgrading

The ECU in these models is digitally serialized to the car. This means that no other ECU will work in your car, so care is critical. We can normally get a flash tune completed for your car in 12-36 hours not including the shipping time. The whole process is usually completed in 3-5 days with shipping. We recommend priority insured shipping methods both ways to protect your investment.

What is a Torque Request system and why is that different?

Back in the 80’s when forced induction vehicles came to the mainstream the systems used to operate them were pretty crude. The boost level was entirely controlled by a pneumatic system. The fuel system hardly acknowledged the additional fuel demands, and didn’t do much to assure they were correct. The ignition system operated in its own little world that barely recognized the other systems were even involved. Turbochargers had a very short service life because they ran so hot (and had such poor cooling and materials) that they would frequently glow bright orange with self destructive results. This was a dysfunctional union with too many systems and the low performance levels were the result of this strained relationship. Pushing the power train farther could quickly result in damage that may mean the end of your vehicle.

In modern torque request systems (applies to most Volvos since 1999) the equation is different. For starters, all of those systems are controlled by one processor which contains maps that consider the way the systems interact. In the old days the boost would go up and there was a hope that the other systems would react appropriately, but this wasn’t really linked, assured or checked. In the new world, all these systems receive their instructions from the same map and the reaction and outputs are cross checked to make sure the requested actions were actually completed (and the resulting outputs were as expected). If the results are not as expected, the processor will make appropriate adjustments to correct or, even more importantly, protect the power train from damage. Since there is a built in safety net, the engineers feel more comfortable with pushing the engine closer to design limits and this has resulted in production cars delivering higher performance levels.

In the process of bringing all of these controls “in house” there was also a shift in the way the engineers thought about the output in general. In the past they would specify the boost, fuel and ignition limits but the resulting output was simply the result of those inputs and ambient conditions. That result would change depending on air quality, temperature and fuel quality (among other variables). In the brave new world the engineers proactively decide what the output (result) should be and allow the processor to make whatever adjustments are needed (within preset limits) to hit this target with the least amount of effort. The path that the processor chooses to hit the target may (and will) change according to current operating conditions. This is very logical from an engineering standpoint since there will be times that you can accomplish the goal (output torque level) with less effort (boost and fuel). A win/win proposition.

But there is a problem in this modern harmonious feel good engineering world. This problem is especially troubling for the performance enthusiast.

The enthusiast makes changes to the vehicle with the expectation that performance will be improved. For example, an exhaust system is added with the expectation that the additional exhaust flow will allow/induce greater performance. However, the entire system is set to hit a specific target measured in output. So installing a better exhaust may help the vehicle reach that target faster or with less effort, but the performance will not go beyond the target (and the vehicle could probably hit the target without the exhaust upgrade). Faster to target but still the same target.

In a nutshell, you may improve the performance under the curve (a little) with less resistance to flow but the maximum number (as measured on a wheel dyno) will not change. In fact the vehicle may run less aggressively since it can hit the target more easily. This explains why some people notice fuel economy improvements when they make performance upgrades. But that wasn’t really their goal, was it?

So the short version here is pretty simple. If you do not install a proper tune with new specified torque targets you will not see significant maximum performance improvements. All of these bolt on parts make it easier to hit a higher target but do not change the existing target. Your car needs to want to make more power and only proper adjustments to the map will do that.

Let’s throw in one more twist here. If you manually override a system (such as a manual boost controller) the processor will actually make changes to attempt to bring the car back to target. Even if this generates a higher boost figure it will probably actually be slower on the wheel dyno. Many times people will confuse the spikes in performance caused by these corrections with actual power gains. More often the case is that the vehicle is making less power and simply delivering power in a very poor curve while trying to override the manual changes. Sudden boost spikes/surges are actually a bad thing.