Modifying SNABB’s XC70 Boost Charge Pipe To Work With XC90s | SwedeSpeed

First & foremost, this is in no way endorsed or sanctioned by SNABB & could very well void any warranty given by SNABB.

I did this almost 2 years ago, & I don’t necessarily have access to our 2.5T to verify measurements, so I’m doing this the best I can from memory & receipts.

When buying our 2.5T, it was a little stodgy on acceleration, but that was to be expected with a 110k, 15yr old vehicle. Every turbo vehicle I’ve owned that uses a recirculation valve has needed it replaced around the 10yr/100k mark, & Forge’s TD04 CBV made a huge difference in the acceleration, especially since I also replaced the MAF to turbo piping with SNABB’s solution. I’m a huge fan of replacing old plastic with metal pieces & silicone couplers, & SNABB has given me almost 5 years of trouble free use AND significantly better throttle modulation, I can’t recommend them enough if parts are available.

But the turbo was still getting covered in crud & it turned out the metal collar from the boost charge pipe/over the engine pipe had actually fallen out of the pipe after getting too much heat, & since the collar wasn’t there to protect the plastic pipe’s integrity, it was crimped a bit & losing air as well as oil vapors that were supposed to be getting burnt. I found a replacement from a junkyard but resolved to eliminate an obvious weak point since many boost pipes I’ve found have had the same “collar falling out” failures. Nobody makes an XC90 solution, not that I could find, so I picked up SNABB’s XC70 kit thinking “how different can it be?”. It was too different to work 🤪😅. Part of my issue could have been the phenolic spacer pushing the intake manifold off the block by roughly ⅛+ inch, but as the kit came, the main pipe would butt into the fan, & the second pipe was too long to meet the elbow once it was connected to the main pipe. I left it on the shelf unfinished for a few years.

Fast forward to 3ish years later, & I have a radiator fail from the metal collar backing out of hot plastic yet again 🤪

Since I had to take the fan out to get the radiator out, I took the opportunity to get a new fan since the existing one had been damaged along the way. It turned out I could no longer order the exact fan that appeared to be OE (top) as it had been superceded by a new version (bottom).

After buttoning up the radiator & fan, I realized I had more room to retry the boost pipe since the new fan didn’t have a “cage” on the back of it & everything kinda lined up! & this was where “some modifications were required”

While fitting everything as it was, the turbo to pipe coupler needed to slip almost one inch further down onto the turbo than it was supposed to sit for the M5 bolt that held it to the manifold to line up. So one inch got trimmed off the turbo leg of the coupler.

The additional straight length of 2.5″ tubing ended below the provided 90⁰ reducing coupler AND the 90⁰ 2.5″ -> 2.25″ wasn’t long enough to fit in the path of the piping while connected to the intercooler anyway. These were the 2 challenge areas, but I have zero doubt they work correctly for the XC70 given every SNABB product I’ve used has worked correctly for its stated application.

To solve the challenge of the coupler from the intercooler to the pipe not being long enough to get into the path of the metal piping, I used a 90⁰ bending reducer from Upgr8 since it’s legs looked long enough that I could trim them down needed. It looks like Ebay might be the easiest place to source this specific piece from.

Once the elbow from the intercooler was likely solved, I had to sort out how to connect the elbow to the over the engine pipe since the included piece was too long & would have distorted the elbow even if it was shorter. So I picked up some 2.5″ piping with 4″ legs.

The 4″ legs were too long, so a rough fit suggested one inch needed to come off each side.

With all the couplers attached, but not firmly clamped in place, the silicone elbow from the intercooler needed angled slightly down, & the 45⁰ pipe needed angled slightly to connect, but it was successful in lining up!

Roll a bead into each side of the 45⁰ pipe

& reassemble & celebrate 😀

Or so I thought. Once everything was tightened down, I didn’t like how much pressure was being put on the power steering line, & the turbo coupler felt a bit stressed as well. Undoing the M5 bolt at the top corner of the manifold that held the pipe in place allowed it to float to its most natural placement & that was about ½ an inch above the manifold & an inch or 2 left of the bolt hole. The inelegant solution was to simply cut down some ¼” bar stock, stack it, & then drill & tap it.

It’s been in place for a little over 2 years with no issues now, so while it’s very “home-engineered”, meh, it’s working.

Before tightening everything down, I made sure the oil cap & funnel adapter fit w/o needing to remove the pipe & once those were sorted, it was done 👍

Aside from the homebrew stand off for the pipe leg, my critiques are the leg for the 45⁰ piece could be shorter when connecting to the reducing coupler for the intercooler & the reducing coupler could clearly be trimmed there as well. I’ve left them as is b/c “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”, but if anyone else tries this, those are some areas for experimenting. I’ve run this for almost 2 years & maybe 15,000 miles with zero issues regardless of who was driving. The SUV has also done a few 1200 mile trips in under 24hrs with zero issues & can still do high 20/low 30mpg if it’s kept around 65-75mph. So far, I’m unsure of any negative other than possibly upsetting a trusted vendor of the community by modifying their product 🙃.