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Elevate Cars High Performance Intake Manifold For T6 Polestar

17K views 53 replies 17 participants last post by  OscarII 
#1 ·
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

OEM-Elevate Comparison by Oscar Pair, on Flickr

OEM vs Elevate Intake Manifold by Oscar Pair, on Flickr

Elevate T6 Intake Manifold by Oscar Pair, on Flickr

https://www.elevatecars.com/store/v...nce-inlet-manifold-gloss-black-with-logo.html
 
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#2 ·
That is beautiful! I can honestly say that if you want to mod your P*, the MY 15.5 and 16 models are the way to go. Very nice!

I still wish there was a manual transmission swap that could be done...
 
#4 ·
Yeah, it sucks being on the 2.0L platform, theres nothing you can do to it really.

As for the transmission, it wouldnt quite be a authentic Volvo experience if we werent held by by the transmission :D Its Volvo tradition by now.

Anyway, with so many Volvo cars using the 2.0L platform now maybe in a couple more years we will see some performance parts...but by then we would have lost power due to carbon buildup from the Direct Injection.
 
#5 ·
IMHO, the 2.0L platform is great package out-of-the-box. I have no wish to mod so for me, this platform is just fine. =D

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year folks!
 
#6 ·
One of the cool little extras that is included in the Elevate Intake Manifold is the titanium fastners. The photos don't do them justice. Plus Elevate just announced 10% off everything, to the end of the year. If they are including the manifold in this promo (it only mentions "wheels excluded"), now is the time to place a deposit as they don't offer discounts very often. Happy Holidays!

The discount code is "EOY2019".
 
#9 ·
Re: Tranny. My thoughts on this: 1. The tranny is rated for peak intput, I think most of the time I shift before the engine reaches peak output, so even though the engine is capable of exceeding the trans max, will I ever feed it that? 2. Launching your car from a dead-stop is perhaps the worst thing you can do to an automatic transmission. I've never launch my car. 3. A technician from Aisin suggested lifting ever so slightly on the throttle when up shifting. I've worked on this a bit, the timing on the lift in relationship to the paddle input is tricky. When I have managed to get it right, the trans shifts instantly on the lift, and does so when the engine load is reduced. 4. I did not purchase the trans torque limit elimination feature (1st and 2nd gear) from Hilton. So the ECU should still be moderating input for those two gears.

I've been down some dead ends with my car, and managed to pay the price for some hard lessons learned. The combination of a Ferritta DP and Elevate intake manifold is pure magic, and super safe. Say you spend $3000 on the combo, own the car for five years. $3,000/5 years=$600 per year, $600/12 months=$50 a month for the magic. :)
 
#8 ·
Thanks for posting Jeff! It certainly is a beautiful piece. I'm torn between getting this or the e-CRV. I'd really love to see some dyno results before dropping a G on it. That and I'd be worried about the dealer killing my CPO if I was to get a tune on it.
 
#10 ·
My recommendation would be to get the intake manifold first. (Do you have a DP too?) The fast throttle response and high revving is related to the manifold/DP combo. For sure, the fast throttle response and high revving came after I installed the manifold, it did not behave this way with the DP alone. I'm pulling 19.5 psi of boost with a stock ECU, this may be related to the eCRV and wastegate setup, but I cannot prove that. (OEM is 17.6 psi) (Elevate told me that Volvo designing the OEM eCRV/wastegate combo to flutter under load is a way to limit torque.)

I can only share what my own experiences are, following the path I have taken. I will dyno the car after the tune, but that number is less important to me than how the car is behaving already.

As for the CPO, the dealer will be motivated to deny coverage for an expensive repair by citing the application of aftermarket parts. The Moss-Ferguson Act is supposed to prevent this, but you will be in a tangle with Volvo to hold them accountable. I think the Hilton Tune is much more undetectable than a hard part installed on the car.
 
#16 ·
Hi, new member here. I'm thinking about installing an Elevate manifold on my T6 XC70 pretty soon and I have a few questions for OscarII, or anyone else who has this manifold installed. Did you install it yourself? I'm curious how the valves looked when you had the manifold removed. I previously owned an Audi so carbon buildup on the valves of direct injection engines is something I'm curious about on the T6 engine. Does anybody have any pictures of the valves after removing the manifold? Last question: do you think this manifold is a worthwhile performance upgrade if I don't have a performance aftermarket downpipe?
 
#19 ·
Elevate Cars installed the manifold on my car for me, so I cannot share a personal experience installing it but if you look at it it is very straight forward unbolting of the OEM manifold and installation of the Elevate one. The titanium fasteners included with the kit are also quite nice. Performance wise, I can't say enough, there is nothing else like it. I have stated on many car forums that teaming this up with an aftermarket highflow downpipe is a marriage made in heaven. I would do these two mods before investing in any tunes, air intakes etc. I am running a OEM filter box with excellent results.
 
#22 ·
Stop it....u are gonna make me spend more money!! lol
 
#20 ·
You are not likely to see dyno numbers, please review the information regarding the engineering design of the intake manifold on the Elevate website. There is more than enough information there to assist you in making a purchase decision. Dyno's are just one way to measure performance, and are subject to numerous variables that can cloud results. In my opinion, the single greatest benefit of the manifold is the improvement to throttle response. There is zero and I mean zero, turbo lag with the manifold. Find anyone who has purchased the manifold that is asking for a refund, or has theirs up for sale.
 
#24 ·
Awesome! I love seeing people do builds on XC70s! Truth be told, I've been contemplating a do-over and would love to have my own S60 T6 mods on a more comfortable and bigger wagon. I see you haven't posted much on Swedespeed but I hope you intend to be more active here!
 
#26 ·
A nice surprise, FedEx delivered it two days early so I got right to work installing it. The components arrived in a box with lots of padding and bubble wrap and a good set of installation instructions with lots of pictures. I'm pretty comfortable wrenching on vehicles and everything is right there on the front of the engine with easy access. I made one big mistake that others should avoid: from my experience working on bicycles, titanium bolts require a little bit of anti-seize compound. So I put a small amount of copper anti-seize compound on the threads of the bolts for the throttle body. Anti-seize compound also lubricates the threads, so you cannot get accurate torque specifications with your torque wrench. I was kind of wondering about that just as I snapped one of the bolts off. Shyt. Luckily there was enough of the broken bolt sticking out that I could unscrew it with a vice-grip and the manifold threads were not damaged. Then I had to get an Uber to the hardware store and get some replacement bolts. So don't use anti-seize compound on the bolts. The other problem I had was not that bad, it was just a real hassle to get the silicone inlet tubing all aligned and tightened up with the supplied hose clamps. I wrestled with the tubing more than I expected to but eventually I got it all together.

Not counting the trip to the hardware store it probably took me two hours, and that's because I went very slow and read the directions carefully and just took my time. To be honest I didn't use the torque wrench on the 7 main bolts holding the manifold on. The location of two of the lower bolts make it hard to get a torque wrench on them even with a universal joint adapter so I just tightened all the bolts incrementally in the recommended pattern until they felt reasonably tight. The original manifold bolts didn't seem that tight when I took them off, but it's plastic, so I used that as a reference for how tight to turn the bolts, maybe just slightly tighter than the plastic manifold.

I was really happy to see that the intake valves were very clean. My car has a little over 63,000 miles so I was expecting to see at least some carbon buildup on the valves, but there was essentially none. Just a very light brown film, but that's all. Nothing to be concerned about and I definitely wouldn't bother cleaning the intake valves.

I've only driven it about 20 miles today since I finished the installation, and I notice a slight improvement in power but not a massive improvement. My car has the Polestar software upgrade and a Go Fast Bits DV+ diverter valve installed, so it already has a fair amount of get-up-and-go, and I tend to drive with enthusiasm. Acceleration is already pretty quick with Polestar, but so far I would say it's maybe about a 5% improvement in power and acceleration. Eventually I will install a performance downpipe and I think that will unlock some more magic.

Auto part


A broken bolt due to over-tightening:
Auto part Metal


Intake valves look pretty clean:
Auto part


View of the intake tubing attached to the throttle body:
Auto part Fuel line Pipe Engine Hose


All done:
Auto part Engine Vehicle Car Automotive engine part


A few more thoughts: I didn't see a massive difference after installing this manifold but I did notice a little more power. After reading all the information on Elevate's website regarding this product I am really impressed with the engineering that went into this manifold. Just looking at the location of the throttle body on the old manifold vs. this one and I have to wonder why Volvo didn't put more effort into engineering a better manifold like this one. The aerodynamic modeling of the old manifold looks like some of the cylinders could be burning richer or leaner than others because the airflow distribution is slightly uneven. Making the distribution of air more consistent and even seems like a really good idea to keep an engine running at optimum performance.

One more thought to share: after I ordered the manifold I didn't hear anything from Elevate for a week, just the initial order confirmation. Then I saw some really bad Google reviews about Elevate Cars from people saying they never received their orders, zero communication, etc. That made me pretty nervous so I emailed them and the owner Don Nicholson responded within about two hours saying that it was scheduled to ship in a few of days. So that made me feel a lot better, and sure enough it arrived in perfect condition. Overall I'm very happy and I'll post some more thoughts on the performance later on.
 
#27 ·
A nice surprise, FedEx delivered it two days early so I got right to work installing it. The components arrived in a box with lots of padding and bubble wrap and a good set of installation instructions with lots of pictures. I'm pretty comfortable wrenching on vehicles and everything is right there on the front of the engine with easy access. I made one big mistake that others should avoid: from my experience working on bicycles, titanium bolts require a little bit of anti-seize compound. So I put a small amount of copper anti-seize compound on the threads of the bolts for the throttle body. Anti-seize compound also lubricates the threads, so you cannot get accurate torque specifications with your torque wrench. I was kind of wondering about that just as I snapped one of the bolts off. Shyt. Luckily there was enough of the broken bolt sticking out that I could unscrew it with a vice-grip and the manifold threads were not damaged. Then I had to get an Uber to the hardware store and get some replacement bolts. So don't use anti-seize compound on the bolts. The other problem I had was not that bad, it was just a real hassle to get the silicone inlet tubing all aligned and tightened up with the supplied hose clamps. I wrestled with the tubing more than I expected to but eventually I got it all together.

Not counting the trip to the hardware store it probably took me two hours, and that's because I went very slow and read the directions carefully and just took my time. To be honest I didn't use the torque wrench on the 7 main bolts holding the manifold on. The location of two of the lower bolts make it hard to get a torque wrench on them even with a universal joint adapter so I just tightened all the bolts incrementally in the recommended pattern until they felt reasonably tight. The original manifold bolts didn't seem that tight when I took them off, but it's plastic, so I used that as a reference for how tight to turn the bolts, maybe just slightly tighter than the plastic manifold.

I was really happy to see that the intake valves were very clean. My car has a little over 63,000 miles so I was expecting to see at least some carbon buildup on the valves, but there was essentially none. Just a very light brown film, but that's all. Nothing to be concerned about and I definitely wouldn't bother cleaning the intake valves.

I've only driven it about 20 miles today since I finished the installation, and I notice a slight improvement in power but not a massive improvement. My car has the Polestar software upgrade and a Go Fast Bits DV+ diverter valve installed, so it already has a fair amount of get-up-and-go, and I tend to drive with enthusiasm. Acceleration is already pretty quick with Polestar, but so far I would say it's maybe about a 5% improvement in power and acceleration. Eventually I will install a performance downpipe and I think that will unlock some more magic.

View attachment 69549

A broken bolt due to over-tightening:
View attachment 69553

Intake valves look pretty clean:
View attachment 69557

View of the intake tubing attached to the throttle body:
View attachment 69559

All done:
View attachment 69561

A few more thoughts: I didn't see a massive difference after installing this manifold but I did notice a little more power. After reading all the information on Elevate's website regarding this product I am really impressed with the engineering that went into this manifold. Just looking at the location of the throttle body on the old manifold vs. this one and I have to wonder why Volvo didn't put more effort into engineering a better manifold like this one. The aerodynamic modeling of the old manifold looks like some of the cylinders could be burning richer or leaner than others because the airflow distribution is slightly uneven. Making the distribution of air more consistent and even seems like a really good idea to keep an engine running at optimum performance.

One more thought to share: after I ordered the manifold I didn't hear anything from Elevate for a week, just the initial order confirmation. Then I saw some really bad Google reviews about Elevate Cars from people saying they never received their orders, zero communication, etc. That made me pretty nervous so I emailed them and the owner Don Nicholson responded within about two hours saying that it was scheduled to ship in a few of days. So that made me feel a lot better, and sure enough it arrived in perfect condition. Overall I'm very happy and I'll post some more thoughts on the performance later on.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the manifold. I think adding an aftermarket downpipe will really unlock the potential of this product. As I have stated many times on numerous social media platforms, this intake and a aftermarket high flow downpipe is a marriage made in heaven. Also, compare the throttle response of the car with the manifold to the throttle response with the OEM unit, for me that was the real magic was the significant increase in throttle response. Enjoy!
 
#28 ·
Siskiyou Volvo, you state that you have the "Polestar software upgrade", is that the Polestar Optimization upgrade? Is your car an Engineered Polestar or an Optimized car? Because I never heard of a Polestar software upgrade for Engineered cars. Thanks for the detailed review!

 
#29 ·
Siskiyou Volvo, you state that you have the "Polestar software upgrade", is that the Polestar Optimization upgrade? Is your car an Engineered Polestar or an Optimized car? Because I never heard of a Polestar software upgrade for Engineered cars. Thanks for the detailed review!
Look at post #16 above... XC70 T6. Has to be Polestar Optimization.
 
#31 ·
Such a bummer, I didn't even get to drive 200 miles with this manifold installed and some guy slammed into me at an intersection and my car is a total loss. I swapped the OEM Volvo manifold back onto the engine before the car gets hauled away, so I might sell it or I might hang on to it if I can find a good T6 XC70 replacement. They are great cars and hard to find these days. I'm thankful nobody got hurt in the crash and my insurance is handling things swiftly.
 
#36 ·
Not to hi jack, I love that matt black logoless manifold, will be my choice shortly, but where did you get that engine cover? Also, did it have any issues with the intake pipework? Snabb one is it?

Love the work, keep it up.
The the CF engine cover was a one-off, it's not commercially available. RE: intake pipework: do you mean the cover or the manifold? I do not know if either the CF cover or the manifold will interface with the Snabb, but I seem to recall that one owner has the manifold and the Snabb intake piping together. I think you could make it work.
 
#53 ·
I normally keep my car free of branding but I made an exception for the Euro21 Car Show at the Peterson Auto Museum in Los Angeles where I will be displaying the @lcfpolestar.

Elevate Manifold by LCF Polestar, on Flickr
That looks great. I, too, like to keep things looking low key and OEM+ with a minimum of flash but I think I’d want the Elevate logo on a black IM like you have it. I noticed your IPD torque mount looks far less flashy than mine, and I’m curious how you achieved that result. I’m assuming road use will knock down the shine on the bright metal finish of my new mount but I would love to get the blue bushings to be black, or at least less blue like yours appear to be. What did you do to your torque mount? Powdercoat? Dye of some sort?
 
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