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Gutless XF auto 3.3 what to do?

5K views 16 replies 14 participants last post by  208_Fireball 
#1 ·
After swearing I'd never get a big car with auto and a small carby donk, I've recently taken on an '86 XF with the 3.3 carby engine. I don't mind the auto for a change, and the car cruises well once I'm up and running, but boy it's got no guts. I'm as toey as a Roman sandal about overtaking a lot of the time, and it's lazy taking off from the lights.

I'm thinking it's something to do with the secondary on the carby. Being a mechanical link it was easy enough to check it's opening as it should (seems to me to be way late in the process, but there you go), so I'm a bit stumped as to what I should be looking for.

I owned a 2.3 Volvo auto once that could cream this car for performance, so I'm sure I should be getting a lot more oomph than I am.

Any suggestions welcomed. ;-)
 
#2 ·
It's just poor power to weight ratio, those 3.3 are too small or the old XF.
My brother had a 5spd one a few years back, it ran 19s over the 400m.

Best option would be to flick the 3.3 and replace it with a 4.1.
Probably get one from a wrecker for $500.

Rick.
 
#3 ·
Give it the once over, check timing, spark plugs for wear, leads seen ok, distributer, air filter, accelerator cable is not stretched, it has a 2 barrel webber, do both barrels work, check fuel mixture, has some one leaned it right out for more economy, fuel pump delivering enough fuel.

Dellboy999
 
#4 ·
XFer said:
I owned a 2.3 Volvo auto once that could cream this car for performance, so I'm sure I should be getting a lot more oomph than I am.
Yikes! Now that is bad performance from the XF. The combination of small engine in a big car is never going to work well. Even if the 3.3 were running perfect you still wouldn't be impressed with the performance. I agree with Soxx, look into getting a 4.1, that should give it a good kick up the bum.

Ash
 
#5 ·
If this is an unleaded xf to check the timming the white two wire connector near brake booster needs to be bridged to check timing,also does the car have resonable power when finaly going as it my be torque convertor for auto if these are seized they will not allow motor to pull off the line.
 
#9 ·
Thanks folks,
I've only done the basics so far regarding truobleshooting, so as soon as I can I'll give it a thorough once over from the ground up and see if a full tune to specs changes things. The tranny is fine, the engine doesn't ping unless I'm on a hill and the car is fully loaded with a trailer on the back, so I'm honing in on the carby. Might put a kit thru it while I'm at it. Then in 6 months I'll sell it and get a 4.1. Problem solved!
PS Kenaz, you'd be surprised if you ever got behind the wheel of a properly tweaked Volvo.. they might look like a brick but that donk can do impressive stuff.
 
#10 ·
3.3 and 4.1

aparently there is some cool stuff you can do with the parts from both of these engines, the pistons from the 200 are flat tops, so if your looking to rebuild or go to a larger engine, use the 4.1 crank and rods with the 3.3 (flat top) pistons and you will get a higher compression ratio, which will give more grunt. i can't remember if the cylinder heads are different between the 2 engines but i'd say go with the unleaded coz the quality of fuel is better.

LRP is evil and must be destroyed.
 
#11 ·
v8.......hehehe
 
#12 ·
definitely fit the 4.1, the weber carbs aren't as bad as u may think but if u go for a holley a 320 is the go. Efi will always be better. U can pick up a efi engine with everything u need fairly cheap these days.
 
#13 ·
Check the Cat convertor under the car it vould be worn out and in need of replacement if these aren't working at all they can almost stop the car, a 3.3 needs a good cat convertor to make it go beleive me, we have a 3.3 and it flies for a small motor once we got the cat replaced, also oil additive works well too as well as trans additive.
 
#14 ·
RevHeadRon has a point about 3.3 pistons:

In the XE series there were two 3.3s available: "medium compression" and "high compression". Mine was a "high" compression donk according to the coding in the manual. It certainly was no ball-tearer though, even with a 5 speed, and it tended to ping a lot on LRP.

-Dave-

Night night time for me, bye all :)
 
#16 ·
i'm not sure if there is a difference between 4.1 and the 3.3 head but be careful if your going to go with efi you have to get the EFI head it has special ports for the injectors. and if you go with a carbie job the efi heads are meant to flow a bit better anyway. why use the commodore efi computer?
 
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