2016 V60 Polestar Build Thread: Oscar II Vehicle

I’d like to open this post by stating that I am a biased reviewer. I’ve been associated with Elevate Cars off and on over the last few years and my relationship started even before I purchased my P*, back when I was assisting my son with his C30 (https://www.instagram.com/levolvolagt/). My car was the test fit model for the development of this product, and you will see my car on the Elevate Website.

After three years of research and production development, Elevate has released a high performance aluminum intake manifold for the Volvo T6 engine. The individual who did the majority of the design work and CAD software development, as well as runs the CNC machine that cuts out the manifold, previously did intakes for several well known motor-sport teams. The part is a direct bolt on replacement and will take the average owner about thirty minutes to install. This intake comes with a new pipe for the connection between the throttle body and the IC hose, as the intake portion of the manifold is now centered to the runners, unlike the OEM unit which is offset to the right, creating an unbalanced flow right off the bat. The intake also includes titanium fasteners. The intake is available in a variety of finishes w/ or w/o the Elevate logo. Machined from solid billet aluminum, the unit has very high quality fit and finish.

I encourage you to do some online research of easily found information on the engineering behind performance intake manifolds, and then visit the Elevate website (link below) to see their extensive explanation of the design engineering behind this product, as you will see that Elevate followed many of the generally accepted best practices in intake design to produce this product.

I am running this intake on my 2016 P* T6 engine which is equipped with; a Ferritta DP, Elevate “J” intake pipe with the Elevate dual port eCRV and waste gate, OEM ECU (no tune or chip), OEM wave plastic intake and OEM filter box equipped with a BCM high flow filter.

I’ve had the intake on about three weeks and have driven a combination of city, freeway and canyon roads. My immediate, and lasting first impression is all about the immediate throttle response. Gone is the historic slight hesitation when accelerating, the engine just surges immediately and the revs just climb effortlessly. Literally the engine just lights off when you get on it. The sound is wonderful. I am not sure if I’m hearing it from the tailpipe or the engine bay, or both, but the audio feedback simply sounds amazing. The engine is so “racy”, you’ll keep looking for opportunities to get on it so you can listen to the notes and watch the revs fly. It’s that good. And this is without any aftermarket ECU tuning. I think the intake and a DP is a marriage made in heaven, which makes total sense, high flow in/high flow out, they compliment each other.

Of course people are asking about HP gains. Elevate has decided to be conservative in this area, and let the owners post results. As for me, I intend to install a Mark’s Auto Performance inter-cooler (https://www.facebook.com/marksautoperformance/) and a Hilton Tune (https://hiltontuning.com/), both already purchased, and see where I land. But truly it doesn’t matter, because like my DP, I would never give this intake up, because of how well the engine performs when its onboard. It’s that good. No CEL’s, no ECU integration issues. In the compariosn photos below it looks the Elevate intake is twice the size of the OEM, and would never fit. But trust me it does, and the increase in plenum space is part of the magic.

Elevate T6 Intake Manifold by Oscar Pair, on Flickr