Astra progress.

[tomstickland]

Rob and myself spent a few hours fitting my tubular manifold yesterday. The manifold was supplied by Mattheus who shipped it from Brazil in return for some XE bits he needed.

Std manifold removed. Note the 1.8 distributer with oil catch tank nicely oiled up behind.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/exhaust%20manifold/exman01.jpg

The new manifold ended where the 4 pipes joined in the collector. The downpipe on the car was a Jetex one with differernt fitment from the std 8v system. The sprung loaded joint had been fitted by Powerflow exhausts when the original one rusted years ago. The rest of the system was by Longlife exhausts. So a right hotch potch of parts. Anyway, the plan was to cut the end of the existing downpipe and then match that up with the end of the new manifold. There was quite a big gap to make up - about 4". In order to get the parts in the right position then we welded two small strips on first, then lined everything up, then tacked the strips in the right position.

Like this:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/exhaust%20manifold/exman02.jpg

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/exhaust%20manifold/exman03.jpg

The tube was made by cutting two plates from sheet and then bending these into the approximate shape.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/exhaust%20manifold/exman04.jpg
The edges were trimmed until they made a reasonable fit. They were then welded on and hammered into shape as the welding progressed.

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/exhaust%20manifold/exman05.jpg

It was then all fitted into the car. Looks loads better than the original manifold.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/exhaust%20manifold/exman06.jpg

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/exhaust%20manifold/exman07.jpg
(more water than oil in that picture btw)

Then we went home because it was really really cold down the workshop.
We noticed a slight change in noise. We couldn't detect any change in performance. Not too bothered though; I want the jetting checked at high rpm, plus when I go for a 300 deg cam some time in the future, the manifold will be there ready to support the higher rpm power.

Thanks to Rob for doing the welding.

[REMUS]

are you going to get a turbo conversion done from that brazilian dude too? I didnt think they released the c20xe in brazil.

[tomstickland]

No turbo here. Might move up to 45s and a 300deg cam some time in the next year. For now keeping as is. Apart from pedal box conversion planned.

[_Steven_]

I would think twice about doing the pedal box.. Never really got it setup the way i wanted and i've dumped the pedal box and 4 pots to got back to standard disks, calipers and servo.

[REMUS]

what is the pedal box conversion? Steven why don't you do a v6 brake conversion or something?

[Jon S]

that old manifold looks nasteee , why not wrap the new one with a couple of layers of heat wrap
http://home2.highway.ne.jp/levino/tune/parts/wrap.jpg

[_Steven_]

A pedal box replaces the brake servo, so you loose all the assistance on the brakes.. It's supposed to give a better feel and most pedal boxes have adjustable brake bias.

I've got rid off the one i had along with Wilwood 4 pots and 335mm discs.. I'm going back to standard GTE stuff, plus once the new box turns up, it'll only be geared for about 100mph (maybe a little more) max with 14" wheels...

This is a good read..
http://www.zetecinside.com/xr2/brakes.htm

[tomstickland]

I'm done with exhaust wrap. It's horrible stuff that rips eventually.

Well I've got issues with the servo not clearing the triangulation welded into the engine bay. Hence servo is knackered.

[REMUS]

A pedal box replaces the brake servo, so you loose all the assistance on the brakes.. It's supposed to give a better feel and most pedal boxes have adjustable brake bias.

I've got rid off the one i had along with Wilwood 4 pots and 335mm discs.. I'm going back to standard GTE stuff, plus once the new box turns up, it'll only be geared for about 100mph (maybe a little more) max with 14" wheels...

This is a good read..
http://www.zetecinside.com/xr2/brakes.htm

thanks i'll read that when i get back home from work :)

[tomstickland]

Just ordered new set of bushes for the lower wishbones. Plus track rod ends and lower ball joints. Need to sort the wibble factor that's appeared in the steering in the last few months.

[tomstickland]

New manifold has improved the engine sound. The carbs seem to baaarrp a lot more crisply than before. Also, some proper pops, bangs and pings on the over run.

I called round the tuner's this afternoon. He really liked the look of the manifold. He offered to put it on the rollers right there. So we did. No major fuelling issues. He noted a dip in the torque output at around 5K. We didn't know whether this was a dip or either side was a peak.

With the engine on the rolling road I got to see how much vapour was coming out of the catch tank. Loads of it. Not healthy stuff either.

Now I was confident of the fuelling then I gave the car a proper high rpm work out. I wouldn't say that the manifold has made a significant difference in acceleration. The engine does seem to pull a bit better at from idle, and also seems to pull a bit better above 7K.

[weekenny]

I dunno if my 4-1 changed the engine note as I had a new system done at the same time I cant be sure which it was that changed the sound. When combined with a decent sized straight tho exhaust you should have taken the exhaust side as far as you can without look at tuned lenghts. Out of interest dia? and lenght? of those new pipes.

On the road mine only felt a little better but on the track were most of the time is spent high up the rev range I noted a significant difference in termial speed on the straights and lap times, but with a 4-1 the gains are up the top end of the range as expected.

[kickastra]

We went through a variety of exhaust system mods on the rally car when it had in the standard 2.0 8 valve engine in the quest for both power and "the right noise". When we got the car it had a standard manifold and system with an after-market back barrel. Car felt good but was very quiet. The back barrel was changed for a more free-flow type.It seems to have more oomph and better sound.We then took out the resonator and went with larger pipe from the flange junction just behind the gearbox to the back barrel. The car was then right on the noise limit,but felt a bit gutless. Torque seemed to have dropped off substantially, and it only really felt good from about 5800rpm onwards.Not the best when the rev limiter was 6500. A 0-60 check with the G-meter confirmed this.We then went back to the original pipe size,but still without the resonator.This was the best combination of power and noise.

[tomstickland]

Well, I'm happy with the combination of noise and go. The manifold has not caused any losses, and I think it goes a bit better at high rpm.

System is now a 4:1 manifold and then a 2" Stainless system with 2 free flowing silencers.

I also did some unscheduled rust proofing on Friday. I was driving along giving it some. When I pulled in at the end there was quite a lot of smoke from under the bonnet. Took a look and the oil filler cap had fallen off. Shut bonnet so that smoke wouldn't turn to fire. Thought about ways to block the hole up. Decided to have another look under bonnet. Filler cap was found down back of engine.

[tomstickland]

Little steps: went round panel shop and ordered a new clear side repeater.
Went to nut and bolt shop and bought two large bolts to use as bungs on the heater matrix pipe. The old spark plug is still in one as a temporary fix from 6 months ago.

Since I work from 11am-7pm at the moment then I'm going to go down to the workshop at 9.00am tomorrow and fit the bits and spray a minor rust spot under the bumper. Or lie in bed.

[DarrenH]

what did you see on the rollers then ?

[tomstickland]

No readout on rollers. Based on top speed attempt, I think it's 155-160BHP. Seems to level off at 6500rpm. Tuner says I want a 300deg cam. I tend to agree. It goes too well at 1000rpm and not well enough at 7000rpm.

[tomstickland]

Bias pedal box arrived today. Thanks to Joekont for the speedy postage.
Need to buy some fittings from Think Automotive before fitting it now.

[tomstickland]

Actually spent a day down the workshop today.
Since the new bushes haven't arrived, nor all the bits for the pedal box, then I spent the day doing silly little jobs that have been avoided for months.

Took bumper off. Had tow loop welded back on properly. Sorted a very minor bit of surface rust on the front sub frame. Fixed mesh in properly - it had worked loose at the top. Needed to put washers under the small screws holding the mesh in.

Removed old spark plugs on the redundant heater matrix pipes. Replaced with stainless bolts.

Flushed coolant system.

Had fire extinguisher bracket nuts welded onto exhaust tunnel in car - the holes I'd tapped out previosuly had pulled through.

Sorted out manky wiring. Removed loads of redundant wires that had been for the ECU diagnostics etc. Taped up remaining wires and used spiral wrap.

On the way home I was doing a bit of a high rpm work out when there was a bang, followed by smoke. Smoke? Nah, steam. Hmm, I think I know what that might be.

Pulled over under a street light. One of the shiney new plug bolts had blown off! Replaced with a screwdriver handle, added more water and drove home. Lesson learnt - the threaded bit of the bolt is good at holding the bolts in.

So that's now an unplanned steam cleam as well as two unrequested rust proofings (two unplanned engine oil spray sessions in last month)

[tomstickland]

Another busy day down the workshop.

Drove down with the screwdriver handle still blocking the water pipe.

Replaced the smooth bolts with the threaded section of the bolt on both the plugged pipes.

Then set to on a job that I'd been avoiding for weeks. I had decided that the cam belt tension was too high. There was also an issue with the cover rubbing the edge of the belt. Together this resulted in a slight whine that was quite noticeable when driving past walls or buildings. It took me about an hour and half to do the job properly. Made me feel better though.

In the afternoon I decided to sort the chequer plate out. The piece in the car looked like the A Team credits. I'd drilled loads of useless holes in one corner so it looked a mess. The piece was removed and a completely new part was cut up. It also extended further under the pedals. It took ages to bend the plate to about the right shape. It took a long time to bolt it down too. I had to start with long bolts, then once the plate was pulled down, I could move onto the correct bolts. I got there in the end. Better exercise than going to gym; kneel down, stretch, stand up, lie down on back, stand up, reach up, reach down, struggle.

Finally I took a power steering rack apart. The workings were very interesting. The main input shaft has a flexible section. This senses which way the wheel is being turned. Grooves in the shaft then direct the fluid into one or another port depending on which way it is being twisted. A complete intermediate assembly with seals then connects the left and right ports to the housing where the fluid is sent to the rack. Interesting but not needed. I used an angle grinder to remove the locking pin. Then I machined out the area near the flexi joint. I then had this all welded up. To convert the PAS rack into a manual rack.

I hope that this will provide a quickish rack that doesn't wear away like the Quickracks do. I'll be trying it out later this week.

[tomstickland]

Ordered the Dash-3 fittings to allow the pedal bias box to be fitted.

Also I got my test driver to do a top speed run on his private test track. He reported back that the top speed had increased from 138 indicated to 144 indicated and there were maybe another 1-2 units of speed to go. This would suggest that the power at the wheels had increased from the original 120BHP to:
120 * (144/138)^3 = 136BHP.
Sounds good. That's a 16BHP gain. That would suggest that flyhweel power had increased from 145BHP to around 160BHP, maybe a tad more. Good news indeed.

I've just run this data through the acceleration calculator.
It reckons I can manage a 1/4 mile time of 14.8s@95mph, 0-60 in just over 6s and 0-100 in just under 17s. We'll see on that.

If I refitted the 3.9 final drive then it says 1/4 mile of 14.7s@95.5mph, 0-60 in 6.3s and 0-100 in 16.2s.

[REMUS]

Tom have you thought about trying to source a 18E head? Since you seem to wish to stay 8v, although I suppose you already have had money spent on porting/polishing the current head havn't you?

[tomstickland]

It's a Blydenstein B+ head. Not polished. Bigger valves, 3 angle seats, worked ports. Sand blasted to make it rough as this helps with turbulence and torque.

[tomstickland]

Pipe fittings for the brake pedal box arrived today. The M8 thread didn't fit into the master cylinders. I measured the bolts that came with it and they were about 9mm OD.

Phoned up Think automotive and they said the thread was probably 3/8" UNF. So I ordered another set of Banjo fittings and washers in 3/8" UNF.

Phoned up Autovaux to ask where the bushes were. They were waiting for one of them to arrive. Should arrive by Friday they said.

[Kris]

Do you use this as an every day driver Tom ?.

[tomstickland]

Yes. Drive to work every day. About 30 miles total per day.

[tomstickland]

All the fittings for the pedal box arrived today.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_01.jpg
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_02.jpg
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_03.jpg
Hopefully I'm going to fit it tomorrow.

[Matheusc20xe]

Hello my friend Tom HighRevland!!!! :p


hummm..very pretty manifold Tom!!!!!!... :D

I guarantee, this manifold give good power in high rev, but need work with big downpipe, without restriction, for don't make backpressure in high rev.

Well, like Oddball said..need put your car in rollers Tom, i think will give a good surprise! You have a really nice setup!


And my last desire.. PLEASE.. clean this engine bay!!! :eek: hehehe

[weekenny]

that pedal box looks the business Tom :)

[tomstickland]

I had a relaxed morning. I made it to the workshop for about 2.30pm. It was desserted. Peace.

Standard set up.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_04.jpg

I soon had the servo out of the car. At this point I realised that fitting the pedal box was going to be quite simple since it had the same bolt pattern as the standard servo. Note the hammered sections on the servo.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_05.jpg

It took a minor bit of filing to get the parts to fit.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_06.jpg

I soon had it fitted in the car. I considered being lazy and just bolting the old pipe fittings onto the new Banjo fittings. Then I decided that that was tempting fate and might leek. So I hacksawed the ends off the pipe and spent ages fitting new Olives.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_07.jpg

Then the system was bled out.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_08.jpg

No fittings were supplied with the reservoirs. Good old cable ties. I plan to weld a plate onto the tube to make a tidier job.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_09.jpg

The pedal box has remote bias adjust. After a lot of indecisiveness I finally came up with a plan.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_10.jpg

The interior of the car is going to be sprayed this summer.

[tomstickland]

I had considered fitting the quickish rack. Here's the welded up shaft.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/quickish_rack.jpg
The part on the left is not needed anymore. The offset holes in the 3 tracks correspond to input, left turn and right turn. PAS fluid is pumped in via the centre track. Then the steering wheel is turned the the shaft flexes. The grooves in the shaft then divert the fluid to either the lh or rh track depending on which way the wheel is turned.

Anyway, I gave up on the quickish rack idea when I assembled it and noticed the housing flexing as I turned the shaft. Looks like the shaft had been distorted during welding.

At about 7.00 I was thinking about going home and drinking beer when Davey J arrived. He had started work on replacing the head gasket on his Golf GTi. I decided to hang around and help him. I didn't see why we couldn't get the job finished in the night.

First though, we went for a quick test drive. The non-servoed brakes meant a very stiff pedal. It has hardly any travel either. I found this a bit disconcerting at first. After a lot of trials I realised that as long as you press hard then it worked fine. We had an entertaining time; 45mph in 1st, 70mph in 2nd. 7.5K rpm anyway.

Anyway, no time for fun, back to the head gasket. Most of it was straighforward. Except getting the exhaust manifold seperated from the downpipe. This is done by removing six bolts. Three of which can easily be reached from underneath. The other three are very hard to get to. In the end I managed it by using a ratchet from above. On the worst I was managing only enough movement for one click each time. It took a long time to sort it, but once I'd managed five then I wasn't giving up.

After that hurdle it wasn't long until we had the head off.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/golf1.jpg

The Golf had blown the head gasket months ago. There was a lot of evidence of overheating. Once we had it apart then it was clear that the gasket had leaked pressure into the water ways. The bolts didn't seem particularly tight when I loosened them.

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/golf2.jpg

We spent a good while cleaning up the head and block. Then we had to reassemble everything. Getting the manifold bolts on wasn't as bad as getting them off. Bit by bit we sorted the various parts out.
Finally we had it ready to run. I looked at my watch: 1.30am. Hmm, didn't feel that late TBH.

It turned over but not for long. We suspected the battery so made a very long jump lead out of three jump leads. This didn't work too well. After a lot of dicking about we eventually used a decent battery and it turned over. It eventually fired and ran quite well. Loads of smoke out of th exhaust though.

I suspected the idle control valve. I removed it and held the pipe ends together. It then idled fast. We tried to open and close the idle valve by connecting 12v to the terminals both ways. Didn't seem to work. So in the end I drilled a hole through the idle control valve. This caused the engine to idle at about 3000rpm, so I stuck some tape over the inlet and made a few small holes until it idled at about 1000rpm.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/golf3.jpg

By now it was about 3.00am. So we went home.
I'm pretty pleased though, the Golf runs quite well now.

[Matheusc20xe]

Tell for you friend of Golf, that i have all perfomance parts for his VW engine..any..any parts.. and with a really good price.


changing the subject..


Tom, i saw in your webpage about the compressio ratio calculator.. You was put in the excel the C20NE head(standard, without skimmer) have 46cc of chamber, do you know how many is the C20XE chamber? I think have the same 46cc, because i was did a calculate, and for C20XE have 10,5:1 of CR using your pistons measure, need have the same chamber volume of standard C20NE head(46cc).
I tried a fluid test in my C20XE head, but i was got only ~42.5ml(the same of 42.5cc) in test, i think my C20XE head was skimmed by the former owner..because this, i don't know the standard C20XE head chamber volume.


cheers,


Matheus S. Almeida

[REMUS]

LOL why did you post a golf head gasket change on an astra group tom :confused: :p

[DarrenH]

cheers,


Matheus S. Almeida

20XE chambers are 43cc

[Matheusc20xe]

20XE chambers are 43cc

Thanks Oddfriend by information!

Then, i think my head are standard, 0,5cc of diference, maybe is the diference of viscosity of fluid in test.
But the Tom´s excel calulator table, have some mistake, because, with C20XE piston dats and 43cc chamber, give a compressio ratio of 11,12:1

I was think the 8V chamber are smaller than 16V ones..now, i see that is inverse.. very good to me, because i will run with high compressio ratio in alcohol! With 43cc chambes, my dome pistons will give to me CR around 12,6:1! :) 10bhp free!


cheers,


Matheus S. Almeida

[tomstickland]

8v and 16v pistons are different. Any mistakes will be due to an input number being incorrect. The maths is very simple. Check by hand if any doubt.

[tomstickland]

Brake bias update:
testing this weekend has revealed too little brake travel and too much force. So I had an idea. I'm going to move the connection point on the brake lever so that I get about 3 times more travel and about 1/3 force needed.

Essentially the master cylinder bores are too large in relation to the brake calliper bores. So I don't need to shift much fluid due to the small bore of the std callipers, plus the small bore means a lot of pressure is needed to generate the braking force.

[Matheusc20xe]

8v and 16v pistons are different. Any mistakes will be due to an input number being incorrect. The maths is very simple. Check by hand if any doubt.

Yes, i know about the diference in pistons.. but i was entered the 16V pistons measures in the table.

Look what i did:

http://www.megagaleria.com/pictures/Pic_3278_14.jpg

The red background is the 16V chamber(43cc like Oddfriend said) with standard 16V pistons, and gives 11,12:1 of CR, and not 10,5:1..

And i loved this excel table, i stay like a kid playing in it..hehehehe :D


Matheus S. Almeida

[_Steven_]

Brake bias update:
testing this weekend has revealed too little brake travel and too much force. So I had an idea. I'm going to move the connection point on the brake lever so that I get about 3 times more travel and about 1/3 force needed.

Essentially the master cylinder bores are too large in relation to the brake calliper bores. So I don't need to shift much fluid due to the small bore of the std callipers, plus the small bore means a lot of pressure is needed to generate the braking force.

I had a similar thing using Wilwood 4 pots even will carefully sized master cylinders. It basically didn't give the 'feel' i wanted.

This is an interesting read,
http://www.zetecinside.com/xr2/brakes.htm

This book is worth a read, if you don't have it
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1903706734/qid=1105971982/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-4902656-9897411

While i'm at it... this is a good party stopper :)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859608469/qid=1105972054/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/202-4902656-9897411

[tomstickland]

Yes, i know about the diference in pistons.. but i was entered the 16V pistons measures in the table.
Aha. OK, I remember now.
When I modelled an 8v head on the 16v block I got a CR of about 11:1. So I had my pistons machined to make it more like 10.6:1. At the time I assumed that the 16v head must have larger combustion chambers when compared with the 8v.

The results are very sensitive to the total volume at TDC. 46cc gives 10:1 whereas 43cc gives 11:1. So if it was 44.5cc then it's going to be somewhere inbetween.

Are we sure that a 16v head is 43cc std?

[tomstickland]

I had a similar thing using Wilwood 4 pots even will carefully sized master cylinders. It basically didn't give the 'feel' i wanted.

This is an interesting read,
http://www.zetecinside.com/xr2/brakes.htm

This book is worth a read, if you don't have it
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...4902656-9897411

While i'm at it... this is a good party stopper
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...4902656-9897411
Thanks for the links.
Looks like he had the same idea then!

Aug 10th '02: A first attempt to resolve the problem, and in order to increase the braking force of the system, I've modified the brake transfer bar to give me a mechanical advantage of x2. I've done this by shortening one of the levers from 60mm length, to 30mm. So the input force on the 60mm lever end of 714.2 lb is doubled on the 30mm end. Great news.

[Matheusc20xe]

Aha. OK, I remember now.
When I modelled an 8v head on the 16v block I got a CR of about 11:1. So I had my pistons machined to make it more like 10.6:1. At the time I assumed that the 16v head must have larger combustion chambers when compared with the 8v.

The results are very sensitive to the total volume at TDC. 46cc gives 10:1 whereas 43cc gives 11:1. So if it was 44.5cc then it's going to be somewhere inbetween.

Are we sure that a 16v head is 43cc std?.

Exactly!!

Then, i measured my XE chambers, and get 42.5ml.. but i don't know if my head never was skimmed. The Oddball said the XE chambers are 43cc, need see if Oddball have certain about this information..
I think the error stay in volume of XE pistons. I think the XE valve cutouts have more volume, but is hard to measure that.


Cheers,


Matheus S. Almeida

[DarrenH]

Are we sure that a 16v head is 43cc std?

43cc came off of a spreadsheet i saved off of mig ages ago, it had a bunch of measured constants (capacity, chamber size, piston dish, gasket thickness) and then a calculated section where it showed the chamber volume as 43cc. basically the maths in it goes, cylinder volume + chamber size + gasket volume + piston dish / chamber size + gasket volume + piston dish.

glaringly obvious there is the fact it doesnt account for the piston going above deck height.

ive tried entering correct standard 16v details in toms spreadsheet (bore as 86 dead, pistons as 85.95) and it suggests 16v chamber is more like 46cc.

[DarrenH]

oh and the figures it uses

cylinder volume = 499.5cc
chamber size = 43cc
gasket volume = 6.45
piston dish (inc valve cutouts) = 3.195

chamber size and piston dish are manually entered, the rest are calculated.

so then it goes 499.5 + 43 + 6.45 + 3.195 / 43 + 6.45 + 3.195

which equals 10.48 CR.

i know that tom had a go at measuring the 16v piston dish and got 3cc.

the numbers fit, and now my mind is numb. but atleast all the numbers are up here so we can sort it out.

[Matheusc20xe]

Thanks for the informations Odd!

But how can measure the valve cutouts?

[tomstickland]

I'm very confident about the piston volumes I measured. I measured them with oil from a pipette and also modelled them in a CAD package and queried the volume there.
Really we need someone to measure an abs std 16v head. From what Odders says, was that volume inferred from all the other known measurements?

btw, the pistons do stick out of the block slightly at TDC. Hence the use of - 0.7mm for the deck height. This is the height of the deck above the tops of the pistons. Now, I don't know if this is std, but it's what I measured on both the blocks I had. Obviously this number will radically effect the CR.

[DarrenH]

that volume inferred from all the other known measurements?

yeah exactly. with all else being correct, then fiddling the chamber volume to match 10.5:1 it meant using 43cc on this particular spreadsheet.

ok, so the spreadsheet i was using doesnt include the piston intruding above deck height. but by the same token i cant just subtract 1mm worth of piston from the equation because then you are effectively decreasing the swept volume by the same amount but not accounting for it.

[Matheusc20xe]

I'm very confident about the piston volumes I measured. I measured them with oil from a pipette and also modelled them in a CAD package and queried the volume there.

humm..then..its a mistery.. need talk with SBD especialists, i think they know exactly volume of standard XE head chambers.

If you measured the deck height in two blocks, then, i can't see error in this.. i don't think the former owners skimmed yours block in the same measure.
I can't measure the deck height of my block now, because stay without crank and rods.. but when i will fit the parts, i will measure for see.

I think the more probabily explanation stay in the head chambers, i think are the same of 8V ones.. around 46cc.


Cheers,


Matheus S. Almeida

[tomstickland]

ok, so the spreadsheet i was using doesnt include the piston intruding above deck height. but by the same token i cant just subtract 1mm worth of piston from the equation because then you are effectively decreasing the swept volume by the same amount but not accounting for it.
No, the swept volume stays the same. It only depends on the bore and stroke. The shape of the piston and the deck height etc have no effect on the swept volume.

Or do you mean the total volume at TDC? In which case I'd agree.

I think this is simple.
The 43cc for the 16v head was not measured. It was calculated in a spreadsheet.
I've measured the deck height and the pistons stick out. To make up for this 0.7mm of intrusion then the chamber volume must be higher.
By about the same volume as the piston intrusion. Which is:
pi()/4*86^2*0.7mm3 = 4066mm3=4.1cc. ie: You need to add about 4cc to the combustion chamber to counter act the 0.7mm of piston intrusion.
Which would make sense.

If the original spreadsheet ignored deck height then it's fine as long as all subsequent calculations ignore deck height also.

However, my spreadsheet includes deck height, so you must use the correct combustion chamber volume, not the one calculated in another spreadsheet that ignored deck height.

Then it will work!

[tomstickland]

ANYWAY!

I went down the workshop tonight. After spending half an hour breaking into the car that was blocking the workshop I got on with the job.
I removed the brake pedal. It was 3" between the pivot and the connection to the master cylinder. I reduced this down to 1.5" so I'd have twice as much pedal travel and half the force. Fitting it all back in the car involved lying upside down in the footwell with my feet in the air and my back pushing on the door bars and me swearing quite a lot but quite enjoying it in a peverse way.

Next I looked the master cylinders. One is a larger diameter than the other. Aha! I'd got them the wrong way round. So I disconnected the pipes. Then I thought about it a bit more. They were the right way round to start with. The front brakes should get the smaller diameter because this will provide more pressure for the same force. This helps bias the front brakes more. At least I think that's the way I want it.

So, having removed the pipes and then refitting them I had to bleed the system out again. Took a while and I wasn't best pleased because I hadn't managed to get the car fully into the workshop so I had to lie on a piece of wood on the wet muddy track when doing the back ones.

Anyway anyway. Trial time. I found that pedal travel had increased considerably. Maybe a bit of sponge in the fluid now. At first I wasn't convinced that brakes were acceptable. So on the way home I did a series of emergency stops to see if I could lock the wheels up. Yes I could. I set myself some challenges towards the end. Accelerate towards a marker and then cadence brake at the last minute and see if I could stop before I reached the marker. It worked time and time again.

So things are looking up.

[REMUS]

Pure dedication tom, bravo!

But is the pedal box modification worth the time and cash involved in fitting it?

[tomstickland]

50-50 at the moment!
I think what it will allow me is more progressive control of the braking with the ability to lock the wheels up if I really stand on the pedal. I need a few weeks to make my mind up. My thoughts at the moment are that for the money I'd probably just stick with the std servo. But from the toy point of view I rather like it.
I plan on doing a bit of fiddling around to get it just how I want it. It feels safe now at least.

[REMUS]

Hmm I thought so, you didn't sound over-joyed with the performance, but as you say from a toy point of veiw it's a very rare/unique feature. It sounds like it will come into it's own on the track since you never want to lock up the wheels in that senario.

[tomstickland]

You can lock the wheels up now. I think the advantage is that there is more progressive control of the braking rather than the on-off effect of severe servos.

[tomstickland]

MOT Fail list!
1)one side repeater not working - wiring issue.
2)exhaust manifold blowing. - New gasket needed.
3)Braided brake pipes insecure at various points - need some brackets and cable ties.
4)Too much pedal travel - Going to reengineer brake pivot back a bit and rebleed system.
5) One ball joint knackered. - Aha! That will be the phantom steering wobble source that I've been looking for unsucessfully.

So, not too sad.

[tomstickland]

1) Fixed. It was working. Bulb was wrong colour.
2) Gasket purchased. Fit tomorrow.
3) PClips purchased. Fit tomorrow.
4) Fix tomorrow.
5) Ball joint purchased. Fit tomorrow.

Tomorrow purchased. Fit tomorrow.

I also had a master plan. I've ordered the proper bracket to hold the brake reservoirs. I also ordered a spare reservoir so I can drill a hole in the lid and use it with the Easibleed kit.

I agree with the MOT tester; there is too much travel in the brake pedal. I'm currently at 2 x travel compared to std. I'm going to try 1.5 x next. The pedal feels too easy to push combined with having to push it too far. I want it to feel firmer. But not as firm as before.

[Matheusc20xe]

2) Gasket purchased. Fit tomorrow.

Did you put a new gasket in former fitment?

[tomstickland]

I've been driving the Jetta bus for the last few days.

When I climbed back into the Astra the first thing I noticed was how low the seats were. As I drove off I really appreciated the way I could drive it; I really know this car. Gear changes, using the the throttle to match the revs, the way it picks up, the way it accelerates. All felt so much better after 2 days in the bus. The handling is way better too; I can easily push this car round wet rounadbouts without scaring myself. Yeah, good fun.

After a late breakfast at Safeburies I made it down to the workshop for 3pm.

First job was to fit a new exhaust manifold gasket. Once I had the manifold off I took the opportunity to file the gasket faces a bit flatter. The new gasket was fitted and the bolts were done up tight. Very tight. The whole job took about 1.5 hours.

Next I fitted the new ball joint. The old one was wrecked. It had about 3mm of slop in it. No wonder the steering had been wandering around. Funny really, I'd got used to the car wobbling around.

Then on to the brakes. I drilled a hole in the new reservour lid and then connected the Easibleed up to it. In a short time I'd bled out the front circuit, then the rear circuit. I spilt quite a lot of brake fluid in this time. The paint on the pedal box was already coming off due to previous spillage. Oh well.

Then I took the pedal out and drilled another hole in it. This one was at about the 2/3 point. So compared with std it would increase pedal travel by about 1.5 times and reduce the force by about 2/3. This took me about 15 minutes total compared with 45 minutes last time. Just goes to show how much quicker a job is when you've done it before and also when you're in a dry workshop rather than half outside in the wet.

The pedal feel was encouraging. A good 2" of travel, but really firm too.

A major fail area on the MOT was to do with braided brake hoses not being fixed down. I'd bought a load of P clips from Maplin. I set to fixing the brake pipe down inside the car. I had to be really careful on the section over the fuel tank since there was only about 4mm of gap between the shell and the top of the tank. I had to cut the end off the self tapping screws.

I worked my way from rear to the front fixing the pipe down. It was a good fun job actually, I was very pleased with how it all looked. Should have done it ages ago.

Then I jacked the rear of the car up and fixed the braided brake pipes underneath the car. This involved drilling a small hole from underneath, tapping it, then threading a bolt down from above. The P clips was then fitted using a nut to hold it on, with a lock nut then wound on to hold it all together. Being on my own this could have been a difficult job. The first one was, I had to use Meole grips to hold the bolt steady whilst I was underneath. After that I sussed it so it became a proper one man job. Still, it took ages to fix all of the pipe down.

Because I was feeling pedantic I decided that the clips should be equally spaced on both sides. This meant one clips was right above the fuel pipes. Not that bad, but it took a good few goes to get the nut on from below.

I finished off by fixing the brake pipe down under the bonnet. I was going to drill some holes and add P clips, but in the end I just used cable ties. I'll see what the MOT tester says, but fixed is fixed as far as I'm concerned.

The reservoir bracket that was supplied is of no use at all. It's just a plate with two holes in it. There's nowhere I can fit is, so I'm going to have to make something myself.
I reckon that we'll be able to weld a U section on and then use large Jubilee clips to do it. A job for Monday night.

All that remains after that is to get 2 new front tyres and have it tracked up.


On the drive home I tested the brakes. I really think they're a lot better now. To make them work you have to push a bit harder than a servoed system. But not scarily so. I did an 80-30 test and it managed it fine. You just have to push quite hard to stop hard. I think it's about right now.

[Kris]

Its suprising how satisfying small jobs can be

[REMUS]

Definately, I love the before and after feeling.

[Kris]

Definately, I love the before and after feeling.

Even more so when you have done the work yourself :)

[REMUS]

The only work I don't do on my car's are things to do with ecu's, head skimming... etc

[Kris]

Ecu's are a bit beyond me and alot of electrical stuff ,i can barely set the video ,lol

[tomstickland]

New set of front tyres this morning. Tracking adjusted too. Steering felt a lot lighter out on the road.
I called round the nut&bolt place and got some nuts to fit on the bottom of the reservoirs. Also bought some angle iron from the Steel stockists.

This evening I went round to the workshop and made some brackets out of the angle iron. Hacksawed and filed them into shape. Very satisfying.
Then Pete turned up and welded the brackets into place. A relaxed job. Makes a changes from the full on epics.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/pedal_box_11.jpg

I tested the brakes a few more times tonight. 80-30 works really well. The brakes work a lot better than you expect.

I think that highly servoed brakes give you a false sense of security. You have to push these hard to get the full effect, but they do work.

[tomstickland]

MOT retest this morning.
Chappy had a look at the pipe improvements inside and under the car and seemed satisfied with them. Checked the side repeater. Looked at tyres.

Then he said "only the emissions I'm worried about".
We started it up and had a look at the output. Everything looked good except the HC levels. These kept on rising up.
Things weren't looking too good. But the man didn't seem to worried about it, he said we could sort the emissions out.

Things were alright once we raised the idle revs up a bit higher. I assume that the HC's are essentially due to unburnt petrol and the carbs are probably not very well metered at low rpm. The CO and CO2 leves were fine.

When he started writing out the certificate then I knew we were on to a winner.
He said to me "you've done a really tidy job on those brake fittings." Which was nice.

So I'm in a good mood now.

[DarrenH]

cool ! high hc's can be due to underfuelling or overfuelling. could be the cam overlap also.

[Jon S]

now that uve passed the mot whats the next mod for it

[REMUS]

olly hewitt is selling his steelies for £50 http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1845244&posted=1#post1845244

[DarrenH]

those are the ET42 5.5 inch wide ones. may impede future brake upgrades

[tomstickland]

Plans are to stop spending money for a bit.
More tidying up needed really.
Eventually I want bigger front brakes, more cam and 45s. Not now though.

[DarrenH]

no space for bigger venturis in the 40's ?

[tomstickland]

Correct. I'm running 34mm chokes in the 40s. Ideally I want 36mm chokes in 45s.

However, the current set up is very pleasant. It pulls very well from 1200rpm through to 7500rpm. The low end pull is the area that has improved the most noticeably. It really is pleasant to drive. It gets really going at 4000rpm and then just keeps on going to 7.5K. I really must get a rolling road printout to look at.

[DarrenH]

according to dave andrews site, both DCOE and DHLA 40's will take a max of 36mm venturi. :)

[tomstickland]

According to my tuner chap, 36s in a 40 are a bit cack and you need 45s.

[tomstickland]

Saturday: very minor day today. I thought that the car had been feeling a bit slower than usual recently. More noticeable pops and bangs on the over run too. So I checked the carb balance with the Carbtune. Wasn't far off, but wasn't perfect either. I tightened up the nuts holding the flexi washers. The balance then returned to normal.

I need to spend a day cleaning and painting the metal round the pedal box where brake fluid has done some damage.

The brakes are working well now. You have to press quite hard, but it's managable.

[Tom]

Tom, Ive enjoyed reading this whole thread and following your progress.

The amount of work and effort you`ve put in to your car really is impressive :)

[tomstickland]

I've been looking into front brake uprgrades. I've had a look round and the options are:
1) Decent pads and discs with the 16v brakes
2) V6 discs and callipers. These fit under 15" wheels.
3) Hi spec discs with adapter bracket to move 16v callipers out
4) Brake kit from somewhere like Rally Design.

My plan is to try 1) first and then move to 2) if I'm still not happy.

I've been offered some part worn decent pads courtesy of MIG member Novarallycar. Mintex 1155s.

I'm liking 2) a lot. Off the shelf fitment, relatively cheap.
16v brakes are 256mm diameter discs with 52mm pistons
v6 brakes are 288mm diameter with 57mm pistons

Useful picture from Mark T showing 16v, V6 284 and V6 288 pads:
http://www.mt006a0002.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/16V-V6pads1.JPG

I've also been offered a 16v rear beam complete with new discs, pads and handbrake cable for £30. I've got another rear beam in the garage that I rust treated and repainted a year or so ago. So I'll transfer the bits over to that.

Some useful info on brakes at http://www.stoptech.com/technical/

[DarrenH]

i dont think anyone has mentioned yet, v6 vectras are 5 stud.

[tomstickland]

Nah I know that. I can redrill to 4 stud and use spacer. What with MD selling V6 kits.

Or convert to 5 stud hubs. Might be a plan since wheel bearings have had a hard life.

[Ian T]

Don't forget you'll need to ream out the hole in the end of the beam if you're running a Mk2 one due to the ABS sensor connections.

Or fit a Mk3 beam.

Ian.

[Dan Gliballs]

Loads of good work going on here Tom.

I bet that thing sounds excellent mate :)

[tomstickland]

Don't forget you'll need to ream out the hole in the end of the beam if you're running a Mk2 one due to the ABS sensor connections.
What hole?
I'm fitting a non abs GTE 16v beam to a non abs GTE 8v.

I had the beam delivered tonight. For £30 I got a painted beam with callipers, new discs and pads. I just need to have a Copper pipe made up for the one side. I'm going to paint strip the callipers too since one has been painted a naff Red.

[Ian T]

Have a look at your Vectra hubs. They have round ABS sensors in them that need the GTE beam to make way for them as they mate up. Look into the end of a Mk3 beam and the hole's already there and of correct size.

Probably makes sense to use the nice stuff you've just got, but the Vectra hubs (I'm sure) require modification of the beam.

If you need 'em, let me know and I'll nip over to the lock up and take pictures.

Ian.

[tomstickland]

Aha, thanks, all makes sense now. I'm not doing a V6 conversion to the rear. I'm just sticking with GTE 16v bits on the back.

Do you know what the piston diameter is in the 16v rear brake callipers?

[REMUS]

why did you decide against v6 rears tom?

[tomstickland]

I want the front brakes to be better than the rears becase of bias issues.

[REMUS]

Wouldnt the load of been compensated for already in the v6 set up? And won't your set up lead to the front wheels locking up more?

[tomstickland]

Aye but running pedal bias box. I will do the maths to see what sort of bias I am going to get. Need to know the diameter of the 16v and V6 rear disc pistons.

[tomstickland]

I took delivery of a 16v rear beam on Wednesday. Complete with rear callipers, brand new discs and pads, and new handbrake cable. All for £30. Big thanks to AstraSir for those.
It's missing one brake line, so I need a Copper one made up from the motor factors.
One of the callipers has been painted disgusting Red, so I left it in a vat of old brake fluid to strip the paint off.

I fitted some used Mintex 1155 pads to the front tonight. These were sent for free by MIG user NovaRallyCar. The old pads had all cracked in the middle. I noticed that the replacement pads had a groove in them in the position where the old pads cracked.

I also tried to straighten out the exhaust manifold. This was bent when I fitted a new exhaust gasket and accidently left a bracket sticking out underneath. As I did the bolts up it distorted the whole manifold. I tried bending it back, and managed to move about 10mm, but more like 25mm is needed. So I'm going to sort if properly another day. I'm going to unbolt it and jam a piece of wood underneath and the do it up to bend it back.

On the road the front brakes were shockingly bad. I put this down to two things: 1) They need to bed in. 2) The front circuit needs rebleeding.

[tomstickland]

I bled the front circuit out this afternoon. That seemed to improve things slightly.
I'm still not impressed though. I'll see if the pads bed in any better; the discs were quite worn so there's a bit of matching up to do.

[tomstickland]

I've acquired a pair of Vectra V6 284mm discs and callipers, and disc spacers. I ordered some std Gsi pads from Vauxhall today (£45 items, though might be cheaper on trade club). All being well, I'm going to fit them tomorrow night.

[DarrenH]

:cool:

[Matheusc20xe]

Nice Tom! But the Vectra discs are 4 studs or 5 studs? Did you made 5 studs conversion in your car?

[Mark T]

make sure you get 288 mm (vec) discs and 57mm Calipers.

the Vectra GSI pads won't fit 284mm (cav) discs with 54mm Calipers.

[Mark T]

Aha, thanks, all makes sense now. I'm not doing a V6 conversion to the rear. I'm just sticking with GTE 16v bits on the back.

Do you know what the piston diameter is in the 16v rear brake callipers?

35mm, same as Vectra

[tomstickland]

Well, the pads I ordered were for Vectra 284mm discs. I was looking at the part numbers on a website and it listed both 284 and 288mm discs for the Vectra.

So, minor alarm bell ringing, I'll go round check whether the pads fit tonight.
I might hav Cav 284mm parts there. Will see.

The pads look mean. They have "police" written on them too, so they're the uprated spec.

Matheus: adapter ring and drill 4 holes in 5 stud discs.

[DarrenH]

so they have a thin hub sized shim that go behind the disk ? which locates the bigger disks ?

[tomstickland]

Disc locates on same flat surface. Spacer shim just centres the disc onto the smaller centre boss/stub.

I'm a bit concerned about which callipers/discs I have now. I asked for Vectra 284mm pads. Were the Vectra 284s the same as the Cavalier 284s?

[Kris]

Excuse me for being dumb but when measuring the disc size what part do you measure ?.

[weekenny]

Excuse me for being dumb but when measuring the disc size what part do you measure ?.

the overall diameter

[tomstickland]

What have overalls got to do with it?

[weekenny]

ok then the BIGGEST diameter for picky people :p

[Mark T]

Cavalier/Calibra V6 and Turbo up to 1996 are 284mm x 24mm
Calipers are 54mm
pads are:

10X SET,FRICTION PADS,BRAKE, C20LET,C25XE 1 90443873 16 05 855
ASBESTOS FREE (LESS MOUNTING
PARTS)
90443873

10X SET,FRICTION PADS,BRAKE, C20LET,C25XE 1 9192123 16 05 003
ASBESTOS FREE (LESS MOUNTING
PARTS) (AFTERMARKET
SPECIFICATION)
9192123




Vectra 5 stud, and Calibra V6/Turbo from 1996 are 288mm x 25mm
Calipers are 57mm
pads are:

6X SET,FRICTION PADS,BRAKE, C20SEL,X20XEV, 1 9198688 16 05 966
ASBESTOS FREE (EXCEPT C22SEL,Z22SE,X25XE,
VEHICLES WITH PLANT CODE L) Y26SE,Y22DTR
9198688

6X SET,FRICTION PADS,BRAKE, C20SEL,X20XEV, 1 (90512037) (16 05 912) @
ASBESTOS FREE (FOR VEHICLES C22SEL,X25XE
WITH PLANT CODE L) (NLS.- USE
9198688 16 05 966)
(90512037 )

6X SET,FRICTION PADS,BRAKE, C20SEL,X20XEV,X25XE 1 9195146 16 05 036
ASBESTOS FREE (AFTERMARKET
SPECIFICATION)
9195146

6X SET,FRICTION PADS,BRAKE, X25XE,Y26SE GSI 1 90544439 17 77 990
ASBESTOS FREE (FOR VAUXHALL)
90544439


The Caliper size is stamped in the caliper casting 54/24 for Cav, 57/25 for Vectra

[Mark T]

These are the spiggot rings:

http://www.mt006a0002.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/15-01-04.jpg

[tomstickland]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I got the wrong pads. Will be sorted tomorrow morning.
TBH, looking at the spec, the 288s are what I really need. But for the money, the 284s are going to do for now, see how I get on with them. The aftermarket pads really look the business. They look remarkably similar to the magical mystery pads I had the one time at band camp.

[Matheusc20xe]

Can use 4pot calipers in 288mm disc with 15 inch wheels?

[tomstickland]

Yes, just fit under the Vauxhall 15" alloys apparently.

I picked up the proper pads today. Once again they were labelled "police spec". They were £10 more expensive than the 288 ones.

[Mark T]

you'll find everything about 284s expensive!!

disks are £70 + VAT

288s are £42 + VAT including pads!!


They fit under some Vauxhall 15s, not CDX 6 spokes though, unless you fettle the calipers ;)

[tomstickland]

288 Callipers are £60 exchange though, which is a good price.

I was planning on fitting the callipers today.
However, I've been working hard at work (late hours too) so couldn't face getting out of bed before 9.00am. Then I spent the whole morning going round picking bits up: Vauxhal Gloucesterl to exchange the pads, new ones were in Cheltenham, motor factors for more brake fluid, gloves, Blue roll, Allcap for ear plugs, Motor factor no II for bit of Copper brake pipe for the rear beam (had to come back to collect), broke gear linkage in Jetta, went to scrapyard to look for replacement, then Vaux Cheltenham for the pads, then back to motor factors no II for the brake pipe.

So, all being well I'll be down the workshop earlyish tomorrow to fit the bits.
I could even fit the rear beam whilst I'm at it. Though probably just settle for front brakes tomorrow.

The Jetta has been getting a lot of action this week. It's a top car. Essentially a MK2 1.8 8v GTi but with 4 doors and a boot on it. It's faded, but not rusty or dented. Looks great IMO. It's good fun to drive too. The 1.8 engine doesn't feel like it's going to rip your head off, but it has got a bit of go. Think of Astra MK2 SRi. Go a lot better than you expect. The steering has way too many turns lock to lock and a massive wheel. But, once you find the correct "smoothly agressive" style of driving then it's very entertaining. Cheap tyres that lock up easily in the wet. Good toy. I spent most of the time driving it laughing about how cheap it was.

[tomstickland]

I went down to the workshop this morning.
Took front wheel off. Discs are not a pretty sight, worn badly, probably why the new pads aren't working very well.

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_01.jpg

I started cleaning up one of the v6 callipers. Then I put the pads in. I wasn't convinced that they were the right pads. I kept cleaning bits of surface rust off until things were looking better. Then I put both pads in but the disc wouldn't fit down the gap. I pushed both pads right to their limit, but the gap was still 2mm too short. It was 12.30, so I had a chance of getting round to Vauxhall before 1.00pm. Once there, I got them to check the part number. It was correct: Cavalier/Calibra V6. It even said it on the box. They also got some std pads out for me to check. They were identical in size. I could see a difference in the grain size of the pad material between std pads and uprated ones.

Then they found that early V6s brakes had a different pad again.

So do I have early callipers?

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_02.jpg

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_03.jpg

I've just looked at this picture and you can see that the middle pads (V6 284mm) don't have that curved part sticking out of the bottom.
However, the pads I've got do say V6 284, so there must have a changeover at some point.

http://www.mt006a0002.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/16V-V6pads1.JPG

[DarrenH]

what a ball ache ! so what you gonna do ? wait to try some early pads ?

[tomstickland]

Halfrauds have some of the old spec pads in which I'm going to try.
Then I have the option of some 288 bits.

[Mark T]

Have a look at my 288.308 How to.

there's pics on there of both types.

Replied on mig with pics.

http://82.34.51.160/sytemsandsoftwaredevelopment/systems/automotive/How_to/Cavalier3/288or308mmbrakes.htm

[tomstickland]

All sorted now!
I went through that long phase of "they're the wrong pads"..."nah they fit"....."no they don't, they're wrong"....."maybe they're right after all"....."no, they're wrong"

All makes sense now. I've got 1991-1996ish Calibra V6 2843mm bits. These need the non-eared (bell end I call it) pads. Really I should go to 288 bits because they're cheaper. All done for now however....

I went round Halfrauds along with a calliper. After getting the Halchav to search on the system we finally found 1994 Calibra 2.5 V6 pads. I recognised them straight away. No bell end on them.

So, it was back to the workshop with some suitable pads.
The callipers were cleaned up with a wire brush on a drill, brake cleaner and scotchbrite etc.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_04.jpg

On the discs, I drilled 3 new holes and elongated one existing hole with a file.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_05.jpg

I removed the existing callipers and found why the brakes had been less than impressive.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_06.jpg

After a trial fitment of discs and calliper all was looking good.
The crud guards were removed.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_07.jpg

The new bits were fitted. I was starting to get the horn over larger discs and pads by now.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_08.jpg

Nice and close to the wheels. I was informed that the 288's are about 2mm closer to the wheels than the 284's, though the maths was a secret.

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_09.jpg

It was quite a relaxational job fitting the brakes. Good job I didn't bother doing it Friday morning, as it took me a good few hours to get everything sorted properly.

A lot of brake fluid was lost whilst connecting up the pipes. A load of new stuff was poured in and then Easybleed kit brought out. Oddly, no fluid was being pushed through, even with both nipples opened. I'd changed from the original Banjo bolts over the ones that came with the V6 callipers, because they had a metric head on them. So I guessed that this was the cause and refitted the bolts that had been on my original callipers. That sorted it. Bleeding was very quick. The pedal was rock solid.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_10.jpg
Then I cleaned up and came home. The brakes felt a good bit better at first.
However, after a few tests I wasn't too impressed. I couldn't lock the wheels up.
I did quite a few 60-20 braking runs.
When I got home the discs were pretty hot. I left it to cool for a bit and then went for a short test drive. The brakes defintely felt better. I think after bedding then they will be really good.

[Tom]

Good stuff Tom, give them a bit longer and they`ll be bedded in nicely and look like mine. :) (apart from the red caliper lol ) :

http://img144.exs.cx/img144/7876/2840nb.jpg

[Kris]

Dude you need to clean the beast ;) :p



http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_10.jpg

[tomstickland]

I want to distance myself as far away as possible from show cars.

[Kris]

I want to distance myself as far away as possible from show cars.


Still got to show the old girl some love :)

[DarrenH]

top job dr. stickland.

dont suppose you got any picture of the correct early 284 pads? still a bit confused over the difference

[tomstickland]

Middle pads
http://www.mt006a0002.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/16V-V6pads1.JPG

[DarrenH]

ahh i just noticed the bulge in the ones you had, i couldnt see it, even though you said it was there. so the late 284 style are the same, but with a bulge like the 288 pads above, and are thicker. oh dear !

[tomstickland]

Correct. Three sorts of pad/calliper
-Early 284's
-Late 284's (1996 onwards)
-288's

The brakes are working well now. I finally managed to lock up the front wheels from a decent speed.

[tomstickland]

UPDATE:
1) the brakes blimming work!
2) I randomly turned the bias adjuster today. I had set it at maximum front bias, though there was some confustion as to which way was which. Anyway, I randomly turned it a bit to give some rear bias and then tried the brakes: definite improvement in braking. I'm well chuffed. I still think that the 288 callipers with the even bigger piston is the way to go though; I have to press quite hard to get proper stoppage.


I've been doing the maths on brakes. It's pretty simple; the force at the calliper is related to the force at the master cylinder in proportion with the piston areas. So a small master cylinder and large calliper pistons gives the most force at the calliper. If it's only the callipers that are being changed, then the force available at the pads scales with calliper piston area. Since area is proportional to diameter squared, then the force available at the calliper scales with diameter squared. ie: if you push the pedal with the same amount of force and fit callipers with pistons that are twice as big then you will get 4 times as much braking force. The pedal travel required will also increase with the diameter squared, since more fluid has to be moved.

The pistons sizes are:
std 2.0 16v 256mm brakes: 52mm
Cav/Calibra V6 284mm brakes: 54mm
Vectra V6 288mm brakes: 57mm

54s over 52s give 8% more force and travel
57s over 52s give 20% more force and travel.

At the discs, the force pushing onto the pads is converted into a braking force due to pad friction. The braking torque available is then governed by the force and the effective radius at which the force is applied. So larger discs will increase braking torque in proportion with the diameter.

Say that the effective radius at which the force is applied is abotu 20mm smaller than the OD of the discs. In that case, 288mm discs would have 124mm compared with 108mm for the 256mm discs. That's another 15% gain in braking.

So, overall, in moving to larger discs you could gain:
284mm set up: 15+8 = 23%
288mm set up:15+20=35%

[Mark T]

Have you got 16s?

If so get some cheap 288 Caliper bodies, then the LMF 308mm conversion kit for 5 stud.

redrill discs as before.

Works out a lot cheaper than buying the complete 308 kit for 4 stud.

[tomstickland]

15's. Going to be happy with 288s. Tidy job then.

If anyone wants any spigot rings, I can get them for £20 inc P&P.

[tomstickland]

I had a scenic drive to Wales this weekend. I managed 260miles on 10 gallons, so that's 26mpg on twisty roads giving it a bit.

I'm going to move up to 288mm brakes; with the pedal box the brakes still require too much pedal force to get to lock up. I need the larger diameter pistons of the 288 brakes.


Oh yes, on Sat morning, at about 6am whilst on the A5 I thought "I wonder if I can roll all the way to Betsw-y-Coed. So I turned the ignition off. 2 s later I thought "nah, stop being stupid" and turned the ignition back on. There was a mahoosive bang out the back of the exhaust. Ha ha, a new trick.

So on Sunday morning when I was slowly travelling past the Plas-y-Brenin training centre I turned the ignition off and counted to three before turning it back on. Definitely the longer you leave it, the bigger the bang. LOL, I was laughing for about a minute after that, it was hell of noise. Probably not good for the engine though, so not doing any more of it.

[stt]

I used to do that trick on my nova (xe with twin 45's) all the time - until one time i did it i blew the back box all to buggery!

Doesnt do any damage to the engine (other than possibly a bit of bore washing :~ )

Lol

[DarrenH]

lol ! used to do it on my old cavalier too. especially effective at night when you can see the fire ball in your rear view mirror !!

[Jon S]

Plas-y-Brenin ,isnt that north wales (LL24 OET) ? hope u had AA card

[tomstickland]

North Wales yes. No AA card.

[tomstickland]

Oops alert.
Alternator belt has been whining a bit recently. I had a look two days ago and couldn't see anything wrong. It was whining again today so I had another look.

Looks like the custom bracket had unbolted itself where it attaches to the cam box and then rubbed its way through 3mm of cam box making another oil leak source. Chemical metal here I come.

[tomstickland]

I'm going to fit the disc rear beam this afternoon. Also got all the bits to fix the various oil leaks. Spent some money on the Jetta also - new battery and manifold downpipe gasket. No point having a spare car if it doesn't work properly.

[tomstickland]

First tasks this afternoon were oil leak fixing. This is the hole that the alternator bracket machined into the cam housing.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/oil_leak/oil_leak04.jpg

I found out why the defunct crank sensor was leaking oil. It had been missing the O ring. I had thought that the Black plastic ring was the seal. But I had been wrong.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/oil_leak/oil_leak05.jpg

Hole was filled with two part chemical metal filler. I also fitted a new oil cap because the old one leaked.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/oil_leak/oil_leak06.jpg

So here's to an oil leak free future.

[tomstickland]

Then onto fitting the 16v rear beam.

Last view of the boring old drums.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs01.jpg

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs02.jpg

One of the callipers that came with the new beam had been painted Red. I really don't like painted callipers, so I'd left it in a tub of old brake fluid for a week. That bubbled up most of the paint. I finished it off with a wire brush and an old screw driver.

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs03.jpg

I had bought 27" of Copper brake pipe down the motor factors a few weeks ago. They flared the ends out for me. The rear beam came with new discs, pads and handbrake cable which was a result considering I paid £30 for the whole lot.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs04.jpg

The pipe received some artistic bending.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs05.jpg

Under the car I removed the handbrake cable. Then I had the joy of loosening the old brake pipe unions. I resorted to a light cooking with blow torch, then a few minutes of WD40, then the master bodge spanner.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs06.jpg

Then the shock bolts were removed and finally the bolts that hold the beam on. The powerflex bushes were up to their usual tricks. They were so stiff that the beam didn't hang down when I undid the shock absorber bolts. I had to hammer it round. Getting the beam out took a bit of wobbling around too. The car was supported on two axle stands under the sills, with sacrifical wood imbetween. Notice the old tyre safety pile under the car too.

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs07.jpg

The powerflex bushes were hammered out of the old beam and then hammered into the new beam. Loads of Copper slip was applied too.

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs08.jpg

[tomstickland]

Then I had the pleasure of fitting the new beam. It was a bit of a struggle getting it under the car and then lining up the holes. I had to use the jack under the beam and a large hammer to get the holes lined up.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs09.jpg

In the midst of all this I looped the handbrake cable round the wrong way, so had to remove the cable and route it properly. Then I connected the brake lines up. One was easy, the other took ages before I could get the union to thread in properly.

The Easybleed was used to push a load of new fluid through. Didn't take long. The wheels were refitted. Starting to look good now.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs10.jpg

I finished off by bleeding out the front brakes too.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/reardiscs/rdiscs11.jpg

A productive day overall. The brakes feel ever so slightly better. I'm not expected miracles in braking performance. I obviously prefer discs because they don't clog up like the drums.

I've got another painted 16v beam sat in my garage if anyone wants it. Plus a spare 16v anti roll bar.

[Tom]

Good stuff Tom.:)

[tomstickland]

Got into car to drive home. Windscreen wipers didn't work. Spent a while checking the fuses then gave up and drove home. It started raining about 2 miles from home. Cleaned windscreen with rag but rained up again very quickly. So just drove the last bit by continuously moving my head around to build up a picture of where I was going.

Spent a bit of time looking for the cause. Wasn't looking forwards to working on the car because it's cold and wet. Anyway, after some looking around I discovered that the self crapping screw holding the wiper motor down had crapped itself and sheared off. Hence no earth. Spent a long time trying to move the motor out of the way so I could remove the remnants of the screw. Fixed it in end.

[caul pope]

Great pics Tom, just whish I had the know-how, space and equipment to carry out such stuff as you do! Nice one

[tomstickland]

Aye thanks.

I just found that I have a bit less car than I thought. Managed to poke a small hole in the roof on the bit that sits under the tailgate. Think I'm going to pump it full of waxy sealant stuff.

[CraigGreen]

Your car looks oilier everytime I see it.

GRIMEY

[tomstickland]

Oil is a very good rust proofer. I do occasionally wash the car. But it's not a show car, it's for my driving entertainment ie: it's a workhorse.

[dethstar]

Oil is a very good rust proofer. I do occasionally wash the car. But it's not a show car, it's for my driving entertainment...

I like this thought.

[tomstickland]

The 288 brake bits arrived on Thursday.
I'm going to paint the Callipers (Black) and fit it next week sometime.

When I started the car this morning it ran for a moment then stopped. This sometimes happens. So I restarted it, giving it a few accelerator pumps at the same time. There was a minor bang and it wouldn't start. So I sat there for a moment holding the throttle right down.

Then I saw smoke coming from under the dash. Hmm, wiring fault?
Not taking any chances, I grabbed the fire extinguisher. Hmm, smoke from under the bonnet too.
I opened it up and had a look. Nahh, nothing exciting, just the air filter smouldering a bit. It had put itself out.

[caul pope]

Must have crapped yourself for a second Tom. I know I would have!

[tomstickland]

Well, I had a proper fire last year. Was very very lucky in putting it out.

Brake bits:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/brakes288_01.jpg

[tomstickland]

Scotland trip report.

I was originally getting a lift to Scotland. For sensible reasons like money and not breaking the car. Anyway, on Thursday my mate phoned up and said "I've got an idea why don't you drive up yourself". Which seemed like a good idea because I was itching for a decent drive.

So on Friday I did an oil and filter change and fixed the rear exhaust hanger. When loading the car with kit I noticed the large amount of mud collecting in the passenger's foot well. So I removed the rubber bung from the floor so it could shake itself clean.

2.15pm, sun shining,and in a holiday mood I set off. The plan was to do the obvious/boring motorway route as far as Glasgow, then take the A roads from Stirling to Fort William.

The motorway started off well enough, but within half an hour it was just an endless, dangerous, boring, queue of traffic in the outside lane doing 65-75mph with sporadic braking sessions. This was just about tolerable since I'd planned to do a steady 75mph (ish) the whole way.

Birmingham was complete arse. I spent about 25 minutes stuck at the M5/M6 junction. The overhead displays were all warning of delays on the M6 so I made a snap decision to go via Shrewsbury and up to Chester. The M54 to Shrewsbury was total arse. Dual carriageway with a never ending sucession of obstructions pulling out and overtaking lorries with a speed difference of 0.05mph, and then staying in the outside lane because there was another lorry about 2 miles ahead.

By this time I was starting to wonder why I hadn't stuck to my late night/early morning approach. The single carriageway road between Shresbury and Chester was arse. The motorway to Manchester was arse. The motorway north from Manchester was arse. One big dangerous queue in the outside lane. Boring, dangerous, annoying, frustrutating. When the outside lane is doing 55mph you start to wonder what the hell is going on.

The car also felt sluggish. There was a new annoying rattle, and cold air blowing up the bung hole in the floor was giving me cramp in my feet. When I'd fitted the new exhaust hanger the exhaust was now hitting the car and making an annoying rattle.

I made my first petrol stop at Tebay services (near Kendal). Good news. I'd done 320 miles on 45L of petrol. ie: 32mpg. This was for roughly 80mph down the motorway, with some foot to the floor 2nd/3rd gear overtaking etc. I refitted the plugs in the floor.

The weather was turning more and more cruddy. The sky got darker and darker. Over shap the motorway rose up into fog. But at least the amount of traffic thinned out and I could hold a steady speed. I was harassed by a lunatic Range Rover for a few miles. In the end the novelty of teasing it by pulling away wore off and I let it go. Same with the Monster Truck thing near Carlisle. Good plan. I was in the inside lane doing 75mph as the truck roared past me, with the patrol car on the bridge taking notes.

Not much happened on the way to Glasgow. I had some good fun on the twisty bits, but kept it sensible. At Glasgee I pulled into the services near Cumbernauld for a feed. I had to resort to Little Thief. I phoned up Alistair (MIG member) since we planned to meet up later for some scenic driving.
I fitted the new throttle cable that I'd carried around for weeks. I was worried that the old one was going to break again, plus the throttle pedal seemed to be getting harder to push.

From Stirling I was onto the A84 to Crianlarich. Quality quality road. I woke up once I was on this. All the way up the motorway I'd been thinking how badly suited the car was to 80mph cruisng. Even with ear plugs it was noisey, rattley and harsh. The new rattle was really annoying me too.
Anyway, as soon as I was onto the A road then I remembered what the car was all about. Oh yes.

I got caught in a convoy at the roadworks past Callander. I managed to overake this with some 2nd gear 7K revving. At the next town when I was doing 40mph I was caught up by the people carrier that had been in front of me in the convoy. Bearing in mind that it was dark, wet and I'd just driven 400 miles then I was not pushing too hard. However, I could not lose the people carrier, it was always close behing. Sometimes cunning is best, and I reasonsed that going through the hedge was not big or clever. So I didn't try too hard.

Anyway, the A84 is a great road when noone else is around. The twisty bits are good. The wide open sections are not so good. Too wide and straight to be entertaning. Quite efficient for 60ish cruising anyway. Crianlarich, Tyndrum, then down the A85. A new road to me. On to Taynuilt. It was about 10pm when I arrived there. Phoned up Alistair. After a 10 minute wait he was there in his Nova. 1.4SR in a very clean 1.2 shell.

After a bit of time looking at the cars it was time for the nocturnal scenic drive.
"your car is faster, but I'm going first because I know the roads" he said. Off we went. If you don't slow down for corners then a 1.4SR is surprisingly fast. I was following, but going into the corners a bit slower and then pulling round them to make up the difference. I was thinking about all the kit in the car plus my tiredness etc. Being cunning.

At Connel we turned north onto the A828. This goes North and joins onto the main Fort William road. It was more twisty than the A85 which suited me better. I was getting into the mood by now and having a good time revving the nuts off the car. Still surprised by how fast the Nova was.

I was starting to get the technique sorted now. It was dark, wet and I didn't know the roads. But I would stay reasonably close to the Nova and then brake when it did. I kept a reasonable distance away. TBH the speeds were too high for my frame of mind. On a long mission you burn yourself out if you push too hard.

Meanwhile I had to get to Fort William, so no time for being sentimental. The last bit of journey was really good. I wasn't being fast, but I wasn't being slow either. I sort of woke up and really got into the groove. 11pm, dark, twisty but flowing road. I like.

[tomstickland]

The return trip.....
I had thought about doing a day aroud the roads further North, but decided in the end that I could drive home and explore some of Northumberland.

I took the obvious route South from Fort William back to Stirling. via Crianlarich. These roads are great. TBH the straight bits aren't that interesting and quite a bit of the routes has been "improved" in the past. But the original remaning twisty bits are great. The A84 North of Callander is classic.

I did a tiny bit of motorway from Stirling towards Edinburg. Then I cut South down the A706, across the other motorway, South towards Lanark. Cut a corner off using the B7016, the worst surfaced road I've ever been on. Not suited to the car. Then the A721 South East to Peebles. What a road. Empty too.

At Peebles I stuffed my face with an excellent curry at the Crown Inn. After that I took some unknown B roads South. These turned out to be very narrow and winding, more lanes than B roads. They were desserted though, so it didn't matter. It was very scenic,but I wanted to making more progress really.

My plan by now was to work down the middle of England. From Hawick I moved onto bigger A roads. The A6088 and then the A68 South. The A68 is classic. Like a Welsh A road. Twisting, flowing, empty.

At Hexham (about level with Penrith) I had to refuel. This time I had managed about 28mpg. Not too bad considering.

The B6306 from Hexham to Stanhope was another good one. Desserted again. I was starting to tire of endless twisty roads by now. My original plan of making it through all of Yorkshire and onto the Peak district was starting to look over ambitious. It was only a rough plan anyway. I did one more section of B road, the B6278 to Barnard Castle. This was like the previous sections, over moor, no hedges, twisty. Like the Bala moor road in Wales.

It was about 6pm by time I made it to Barnard Castle and the novely had worn off now. I needed to get home. So I decided to go down the A1/M1 the boring way. The crappy A66 forced me to take a detour through Richmond to avoid any more boring traffic. Apart from that it was motorway all the way. Apart from Birmingham-Gloucester because the M5 had delays according to the message boards.

The car seemed to be running really well, plus I was well on target for more than 300 miles from the 10 gallon tank.

I worked out what the anoying rattle was on the way home. Mountain bike lock.
I also had an OD of petrol fumes, so I really need to sort the tank problem out. There is an occasional vapour leak.

[_Steven_]

Hexham is only a few miles along from where i live.. There's some real quality roads around the area.. All the motorbikers go crazy around there..

Just had this as an email.. looks interesting..
http://www.petrolhead.me.uk/borders_blat.htm

[Rob_S]

yeah i was thinking of going to the borders thing

[tomstickland]

Anyway.....plans for this weekend:

-sort the exhaust system out. Bend the manifold back to where it should be.
-paint some of the interior again/sort the water leak
-fit the 288mm brakes
-sort the fuel tank leak

[tomstickland]

Brace yourselves....I washed the car this afternoon. Then I was all set to polish it. Only I couldn't find the polishing cloth so I drove round to Halfrauds to buy a polish applicator and the cloth. Then I drove round to the workshop, the plan being to paint the 288 brake callipers. But then I got a bit too involved in the preparation and hunger set in before I could put any paint on.

Before
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_02.jpg

Cleaned up with wire brush attachement on angle grinder.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_03.jpg

[Kris]

The wire brush thing is one of my favorite toys in the garage ,did you say you cleaned it (faints)

[tomstickland]

Definitley a bit of a no hurry job this one. I called round the panel shop hoping to buy spray paint and underseal etc, but they were closed. After a leisurely lunch I made it round to the workshop. Painted the callipers with Black Hammershite.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_04.jpg

Then I drilled out the 288mm discs for 4 stud fitment.

After that I jacked the car up and spent an hour or so bending the exhaust manifold back. When I replaced the gasket for the MOT then I'd accidently done the bolts back up with the manifold pushing against the bracket underneath. This had bent the manifold. So today I tried to bend it back by loosening it off, then packing wooden blocks up against the chassis legs and then doing the bolts back up to bend the manifold back. This took ages and was a partial success. I finished the job off by bending the manifold upwards using the classic method of a jack and lifting the entire car's weight on it. Seemed to work quite well that.

You can see the increase in shell stiffness with a roll cage:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_05.jpg

The callipers were given a second coat of paint. Bit of a time spec creep here; the brakes can't be fitted until tomorrow and I might be out on the bike tomorrow.

Finally I got the spare fuel tank out of the storage unit and cleaned it up with the wire brush. I'm going to paint it with Schutz underseal paint before fitting it.

[Jon S]

hey i seen ur car for the first time today Tom . i think u were mountain biking .
and your car was parked up. i did want to say hi but a 45 minute wait put me off lol
when u up here again?

[tomstickland]

I'm going to Afan Argoed (Port Talbot) tomorrow.
Could meet up on the way back probably.

Meanwhile, this morning's progress.
Drilled disc with faggot ring fitted.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_06.jpg

Carrier fitted.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_07.jpg

Old trick to open up callipers to max.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_08.jpg

Ready to go.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_09.jpg

I bled the system out with the Easibleed. 5 minute job and then the pedal was rock solid.

First impressions on the road were that there was noticeable increase in pedal travel. The brakes seemed pretty good straight away and improved with use.

Without the servo it would probably surprise most people at how hard you have to press for a lock up, but the brakes do work well. It makes the car much better for driving because the brakes are progressive rather than an over the top on-off switch.

I also found that the anti roll bar nut was loose on the driver's side, so the ARB is probably not doing much at the moment.

[DarrenH]

thats some serious pad contact there !

[Allen Mead]

Looking good Tom.

[tomstickland]

Thanks. I'm pretty chuffed with how they work.
I'll wash the wheels and take a shiney clean picture. I have to recommend the 288 option as a cheap way to improve braking.

256mm brakes:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_01.jpg

284mm brakes:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/v6brakes_08.jpg

288mm brakes:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/wheels/v6brakes/288brakes_09.jpg

Respective pads:
http://www.mt006a0002.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/16V-V6pads1.JPG

[Allen Mead]

The 288 disk pads look almost twice the size of the standard ones!

[Kris]

What Vauxhalls do you get the 288mm brakes on ,also the 308mm ones ?

[Jon S]

no you must come back to cwmcarn forest drive where i live again! :D

[astrasteve23]

What Vauxhalls do you get the 288mm brakes on ,also the 308mm ones ?

288mm are from vectra V6, 308mm are from vectra V6GSI i think!?

[Kris]

288mm are from vectra V6, 308mm are from vectra V6GSI i think!?


What size do you get on the Omegas ?

[astrasteve23]

not sure probably the same as vectra's!

[tomstickland]

OK, tonight's activity is painting a fuel tank with Schutz underseal paint.

[Sipo]

lol your car doesnt look "Clean" in those pics :D ... by the way, whoever thought it was tom i saw drive past in stroud was probably right, im pretty sure it was that car. Looking good dude!

[tomstickland]

It was clean for one day. The unit is on a muddy farm so no chance of it looking clean once I've driven down there.

Mission Schutz spray is now complete.

[CraigGreen]

lol by the way, whoever thought it was tom i saw drive past in stroud was probably right, im pretty sure it was that car. Looking good dude!

Thankyaww ;)

[Mark T]

288s on all 5 stud Vectras and 96> 5stud Calibras

308s on 2.6 Vectra GSIs, and AstraG/Zafira Turbo (But calipers are different, and won't fit)

I have 308s on my V6 Cav, and my GTE ;)

[Mark T]

What size do you get on the Omegas ?


Omegas are 296mm, but the disc offset is a lot deeper than FWD discs (so they still fit under 15s)

[tomstickland]

I spent Sunday afternoon/evening painting. I painted the rear brake callipers and the centre of the discs with Black hammershite. Did it the lazy arse way: didn't bother removing the callipers, though I did take the pads out.
The rear beam was also repainted in a few places.
Some minor surface rust on the rear chassis leg was cleaned off and then sprayed with Shutz, followed by a can of wax sealer.

In the car the roll cage rear bar was cleaned up, masked and sprayed with Black paint. The front triangulation sections were also sprayed Black.

[tomstickland]

I've just had an email from Rob saying that he's "itching to do some welding". So some time in the next few weeks we're going to take time off work and weld up the rear of the Astra. More triangulation to be added. Then paint the interior properly with air gun. Might do some dash sorting too.

[caul pope]

Sounding good Tom. Us Astra owners seem to spend more time sorting the rust than driving the things!

[tomstickland]

No rust in the shell though. Apart from one arch that's got a few bubbles.
The shell was in very good condition when I bought it and since then I've filled it with Waxoyl, wax sealer, Schutz underseal, Hammershite, and proper paint.

[tomstickland]

Woke up this morning in Bristol. Walked down street. I couldn't see the wing mirrors of my car. As I kept walking up the street I still couldn't see them. When I finally reached the place where I had parked then I knew that the car had gone.

Funny thing; a chav on a scooter had shouted somethin at me the previous afternoon. Like "eeerrrgh Brisl errrugh llll GTE". It did cross my mind that it was "I'll have that". Follow me or something. So I had taken the necessary precautions to prevent the engine from running when I parked the car.

Now I was very confused that the car had gone completely. Either a clever thief or it had been towed away. Thinking about, thiefs aren't clever. Had I parked obstructing anything? No.

I wasfeeling quite philospohical about it. It might have gone. I always said that I'd keep the car until it's crashed or stolen. TBH if it was burnt out, I was ready to "move on" as they say. Thinking kit cars.

Update at 9.00am after calling the police: attempt was made to steal the car, the theives were disturbed, vehicle was then towed away by the recovery company. This is standard policy in Bristol.

Recovery company told me that there was damage to door, steering lock, ignition and cut in steering wheel!
Looks like immobilisation was a success.

Will pick up this evening after work.

A workmate and me went round and picked it up this afternoon. Took a while to find the unit because it was well hidden, but Multimap was correct. There were loads of burnt out bikes and cars outside, plus crashed cars. Anyway, after sorting the payment I was told to go and ring a doorbell and await being shown to the car. The chap came out and we followed him into a large unit that was full of recovered cars. The first thing I saw was a smashed up Red car and my heart blipped for a moment until I realised that I was looking at a Civic.

First impressions were good. They'd cut 1/4 of the steering wheel away and then joined all of the ignition switch wires together. The dash was still on.

My 2nd tool box had gone. I asked the guy and he said he'd removed it because the police had told him that the car was to be scrapped! They hadn't found a registered owner or keeper so had instructed the recovery company to scrap it! Either he was talking rubbish or they had, for some reason, not bothered checking the details. Put it this way, when I went past a speed camera in Wales there was no problem in tracing me. I was pretty mad when I was told this. He said that it would have gone that afternoon if I hadn't phoned up.

Once I had my toolbox back then I removed the ignition switch. I then tried reconnecting the wires but it was taking too long to work out which wire went where.
Individually the fuel pump was working and it turned over. So I just connected the permanent live and started it by holding the starter wire onto the live terminal. It was looking promising. Finally I repeated the starting, this time with my foot on the accelerator pedal. It started no problems.

We then bent the door back a bit.

Then I drove home, feeling pretty angry about the scrapping thing. I mean, WTF are they to decide to scrap a car they lifted off the road. I don't think they even bothered to check for an owner. What if I'd gone away for a few days and not known it had been taken? Makes me wonder.

The damage boils down to:
1-door bent
2-steering wheel knackered
3-steering column a bit stiff
4-ignition barrel knackered
5-krook lock nicked

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/photos/crime_01.jpg
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/photos/crime_02.jpg

[_Steven_]

That's pretty shitty.. but it's good you got it back.

[DarrenH]

so was it nicked ? or just towed ?

[tomstickland]

Attempted theft.
Police notified.
Car towed away.

[DarrenH]

just thinking most of that damage couldve been some dodgy back street recovery attempt

[tomstickland]

Could be. I'm pretty convinced that it was a genuine attempt to steal it, what with the various wires joined together etc. Recovery company were pretty well organised outfit.

[Gander]

Thats a shitter Tom, Bristol really is the Devil's Arsehole imho!

[tomstickland]

I've phoned the police vehicle recovery division and they're going to get back to me in 10-15 minutes with the details of what happened.

[tomstickland]

The guy has phoned me back with an update.

The car was found by local security guards (probably University security) with the lights and windscreen wipers on. It was assumed that the car had been stolen and dumped. They hadn't realised that it had never actually moved. Hence it was criminally damaged, not abandoned. But they didn't know that and reported the car as being abandoned.

The stolen vehicle man I've been speaking to was very sympathetic. He's now contacting Hintons to ask why they said they were scrapping it. He said that normal procedure is to keep the vehicle for a number of days if a registered keeper can't be found. My details are correct and I am listed as the registered keeper.

He's going to phone back again after speaking to Hintons. I'm really appreciating the help from the police.

BTW, check this out for a sense of humour Click (http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/plod/)

[tomstickland]

Another update:
Car was broken into in the early hours; at around 2am. So it was only stored from the morning until when I picked it up at 5.30pm.

He's spoken to Hintons, but because it's the weekend, there's only skeleton staff and they haven't been too helpful. The police did everything correctly and did not say anything like "scrap it".

The problem seems to have happened at the Hinton's end.
Either the bloke was joking, or he didn't know what he was talking about, or Hinton's had been misinformed. I'm going to contact them on Monday to talk about it.

[Ian T]

Tom that's really rough. Sounds like they haven't irrepairably spoiled it though...

Hopefully.

Ian.

[Gander]

Tim (astramaxed) Works for Hinton rescue, Have a chat with him, he may be able to help:)

[Tony25]

Little shit heads, I remember that feeling walking along looking for your car where you left it, and it not being there, I wasn't so lucky my nova was never seen again :mad: So are you going to claim for the damage or just sort it yourself??

[tomstickland]

Well I sorted out the ignition switch wires today. Removed the lock barrel and found that it was cracked. They must have used the steering lock as a lever to brake the lock. I need a new column because it's stiff about the straight ahead position. From now on called my stiff column problem.
I've acquired another barrel and lock. Also found a steering wheel quite cheap.

Noticed that they'd scratched the paint on the top of the door surround when they levered the door open.

[cielo20]

well tom i dont think that the scratches on the door bother you so much! if i were you i would only be worried if they took the engine/pedal box! But at least you got your car back!

[Sipo]

Aye Tom its not a good idea leaving a GTE around my neck of the woods! I get away with it generally outside my house cus i know a lot of the little ****ers this way but there are plenty out there to take it. Ive had both my mopeds nicked and my lookalike got broken into endless amounts of times. Before i bought my lookalike it was sat on the guys driveway who i helped piece it together with and got nicked. Luckily old bill spotted him abusing it and started chasing him - he realised it wasnt a GTE and just literally pulled over ... slapped wrist, off you go. Little ****ers. Out of wondering, where abouts did you park it?

[tomstickland]

Well I've just phoned up Hintons recovery.
They told me that they'd been ask to pick the vehicle up as a "car clear" job. This means they were told to dispose of it as a low value dumped vehicle.
It was assumed abandoned because when they picked it up (early hours of the mornign) it had not been reported stolen.

It would have been crushed.

I asked them what would have happened if I'd gone away on holiday and therefore would not have known that it had been stolen. They replied that that was something I needed to talk to the police about.

I asked why it wasn't obvious to them that the car was not some abandoned vehicle ie: it had a roll cage, bucket seats and other tuning parts in clear view. "I haven't seen the vehicle" was the response.

I've been given the vehicle recovery liason officer's details:
Bob Radford on 01275 816 904

So to summarise so far: my car would have been crushed if I'd not reported the theft within one day because it was deemed to be of little value and had been abandoned.

[tomstickland]

101 Removal Scheme – This scheme relies upon the police to identify and check vehicles. However, it is run and funded by the local authority who collect and dispose of the vehicles. This scheme applies to vandalised or abandoned vehicles that present a danger to the public and as such, vehicles are removed within 24 hours of identification. The scheme is given its title after Section 101 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 which identifies the categories of vehicle which the police and local authority may use their powers to remove. Included within these vehicles are those which have been abandoned in such a position, condition or circumstances, as are likely to cause damage to other road users. This allows the scheme to immediately remove vehicles which are vandalised, abandoned or at risk of such, and dispose of them as they see fit. Between February and December 2002, 3000 vehicles have been removed under this scheme.

http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/car_clear/car_clear_main.asp

[Orange Peel]

So to summarise so far: my car would have been crushed if I'd not reported the theft within one day because it was deemed to be of little value and had been abandoned.

What a crock of sh*t!! I'm disgusted to hear that they would have crushed your car without contacting you!!

If it was my Astra (which at the moment does look 'of little value') I'd be devistated!!

[Sipo]

The police forcs around this way really are assholes in my opinion. They seem to have been fairly helpfull in your case but in general they really dont give a toss when it comes to car crime etc. Twice when my car has been broken into the police have known and not done anything about it, the first time they drove past slowly to watch my fiddeling with the ignition barrel to get it started (Withought doing anything about it when i could have been anyone) and the second time i found my window smashed with not a single thing nicked so kicked my door in (Not adviseable for "feeel good factor" in the morning) ... On another occasion i ran out after them and got in my car to chase them (1.4 Saxo so i was sure i would have caught him) and who do they stop and threaten to take to court for driving with undue care and attention? Me obviously!! They really do not give a shit about car crime around here, there is too much of it. NO GO AREAS - Knowle, St Pauls, Hartcliffe, Bedminster, Withywood, Oldbury Court and generally nowhere near the centre or in dark alleys. To cut a long story short you are better off parking outside of Bristol and getting yourself on a park and ride bus! Or if anyone needs to they can use my garage / driveway for an evening and get themselves on a bus. It really is that crap around here though lads and if you dont know the areas, parking can be a tough decision so ask me 1st!

[Sipo]

Oh yea, anything out Barton Hill way, St Annes, up by the showcase cinema complex isnt any better, so like i said, if anytime you out any of those ways and you are expected to park out that way, DONT. Oh and Southmead, old market, Eastville and there are a couple more on my tongue ... lol I will stop now. Bristol is a large place and there are quite a few nice areas ie Saltford, Keynsham and so on (Places basically heading away from Bristol towards Bath and outher outskirting areas) but i really wouldnt bother ;eaving a MK2 astra in many places. Mine goes outside my house, in the garage or is left in the storage area at my office. Company car gets taken most places tbh

[tomstickland]

Thanks for the info! Pretty much all of Bristol really. There's loads of expensive cars on the streets up Clifton way though.

I'm not taking my car to Bristol overnight again. I'm not so worried about the car being taken because I can imobilise it pretty well. I'm more worried about someone breaking in and then the car being towed away as abandoned.

[Sipo]

Oh right it was parked up Clifton, Ive left my car there a few times while out for the night. Like you said, there is normally Ferrari's, Lambo's Porches etc up that way. It comes down to the fact that your car is pretty much stripped totally inside and just looks like an easy steal. Anyways enough of me moaning about my city, this is your "project page" so i hope you get it all sorted etc

[tomstickland]

I've just spoken to the liason officer, Bob Radford. He was very helpful.
Looked through the records.

Essentially an error was made by the police in their communication with the recovery company. Because it wasn't reported stolen at that moment the duty inspector could not have it removed as a stolen vehicle, but it could be classified as an abandoned vehicle because of its condition. Somewhere along the lines the word 101 was mentioned and then the recovery company thought it was a "101 car clear" dumped car.

The police have admitted their mistake and I could have recovered money through the claims process of the car had been disposed of.

He was refreshingly honest about the whole thing.

I still think that the recovery company might be taking advantage slightly, since it doesn't look like an abandoned old wreck.

I was advised that Clifton was a bad area for car crime. As is the whole of Bristol really. Not taking the Astra there again!

[tomstickland]

Put the Jetta in for MOT this morning.

Picked up lock barrel kit. This includes a new petrol tank cap. Hopefully this will solve the fuel smell problem that has been getting worse and worse recently.
If it doesn't then I suspect the tank next. I've got another tank that I sprayed with Schutz a few weeks ago, ready to go on.

Also been an issue of a bit of smoke when starting the engine. Just when I first crank it over. No more after that, none seen during driving.

I'm wondering if the carbs are out of balance and this is pulling a bit of oil through or something.

[Ian T]

More likely to be stem seals on an old one? If you leave it idling for a bit then blip the throttle does it puff a tiny bit of smoke?

Ian.

[tomstickland]

All stem seals were replaced 30K ago.

I took the car down to the workshop tonight. Rob and myself did a few tests.
Firstly checked the carb balance. It was reasonable. There has been a disrepancy between 3&4 for a while now, and since the carb balancing only allows 1&2 to be adjusted relative to 3&4 then there's nothing we could do about it.

I did notice more smoke from the exhaust than I thought was normal.

Next we took the plugs out. Plug 1 looked a bit black. Plugs 2&3 were similar, a bit black. Plug 4 was black and a oily. Plus the plug was a bit burnt out really. Not good stuff.

I shone a torch down the plug holes. 1 was OK, 2&3 looked totally normal, 4 looked like an oily mess.

We did a compression test. Results were 150,160,150 & 150psi. Bear in mind that cranking speed and cam duration etc all effect the readings. All the same, 1&4 look a bit low. 160psi was the target number based on the last time it was tested.

We wanted to get the head off to have a look, but the engine was still warm. So we elected to do it tomorrow night.

I'm wondering if it's rings, valve stem seals, or whether the valves are bit burnt out, especially the exhaust valves which do seem to pit easily on the 8v engine. It's had 30K of hard use since the carbs were fitted. It's been taken to 7.5K a fair number of times, plus hours on the motorway at highish speeds.

So the Astra is off the road for a bit. No Castle Combe on Saturday, thoug I might go along for a social anyway. No Evo meet on Sunday either.

I'm not feeling bitter about it. Of course we could only wonder what we could do the engine now it was coming out for some more work. It did occur to me that I could put a 16v head on the bottom end and run that with twin 40s/45s.

[Mark T]

Old CVH Fords got this a lot.

Does sound like Valve stem seals as Ian suggests, Where they the right ones?

The oil seeps through the stem seals when the engine is left.

when you start up there's oil in the inlet and exhasut ports, and gets burnt off.

[tomstickland]

I'd put money on it being the valve stem seals. What with running a higher lift cam shaft. I can't remember for sure, but I think I've got a complete set of stem seals down there.
So I could get a head gasket set, rod bolts etc, and then go round and sort it tomorrow night in time for Castle Combe on Sat.
Maybe.

[tomstickland]

Went to see how the Jetta was doing today.
It's going to cost around £200 to get the Jetta through the MOT.
Basically new rear brake callipers, discs, pads, bearings.
Front brake flexi hoses replacing.
New downpipe.
Few other little things.
Then £90 for tax.

Thinking about doing all that to keep it for a spare car.

In a bit of a quandary with the Astra though.
Really I want to take the head off and have a look at what's going on.
The other idea is to put new plugs in it and run it in the oily state whilst I sort the Jetta out. Hmmm.
Nah, probably take the head off tonight.

[Astra Dan]

If you have a higher lift cam, could this be lifting the valves above the little wear/ dirt crusted ridge you get, where once the valves weren't lifted so high? So either really clean and polish the valve stems, or replace? 30k seems way too low to me for a new set to last, even under harsh driving. My Mk2 was on 155k when I replaced them, the Mk3 (also a 2.0) is now on 156k with it's original ones...

[tomstickland]

Yes, that's very possible. I expect stem seals to last 150K too. My cam is only 2mm higher lift than std, so 30K seems very low. I have been doing a fair amount of +7K running though.

I'm off down to the workshop now to take the head off. Taking camera.

[tomstickland]

Drove down to the workshop in the borrowed car tonight.
Stripped the carbs and other bits out of the way:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff01.jpg

The block. All 4 pistons a bit black. No4 oily. No 3 a bit oily.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff02.jpg

The head. All 4 a bit black. No 4 oily. No3 a bit oily.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff03.jpg

No 4 inlet valve. Source of oil.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff04.jpg

I took all of the valves out and had a look around. It looks like the valve stem seals on no4 and no3 were leaking. I found the packet of new valve stem seals that came with the Kent cam kit. They are green. I'm wondering if they are "uprated" stem seals or something.

I'm considering whether I should get the head inspected and skimmed if necessary. Also wonder if I should get new valves whilst I'm at it (these have done 80K of hard use), plus the guide tolerances checked and the seats recut if necessary. Would be worth it whilst it's all in bits.
Also wondering about going for some more cam now it's in bits. Current cam is a 270 something, would rather go up to 290ish. Want to retain hydraulic lifters really.

I've decided to not fix the Jetta for now; it's £250 I don't need to spend. I've been lent the 320 for a bit, so I'm going to transfer my insurance over to that for a week or two. I'm looking forwards to seeing what this RWD 320 is like.

[Sipo]

With your kent cams Tom is there any identifying marks to say they are uprated from standard? My car has a lunpy idle and i was told this was due to uprated cams, but am heading to my old mans garage tommorrow to have a little wander around the car, service it and do the belts etc and wouldnt mind checking if they are or no.

[tomstickland]

Well, all cams seem to have letters stamped on them, so you'd be able to identify an uprated cam by those. The timing of aftermarket cams often required a vernier pulley to sort out. Lumpy idle, well fast road cams can be a bit lumpy at idle.

Since my car has been running fine for a long time, I'm wondering if those pikey ****ers who tried to nick it are anything to do with the oil problem. Like they sat there cranking it over and over for ages.

[tomstickland]

I've been thinking about the engine. Im giving myself two options:
1)
Fix the ring problem and put the engine back together how it was.

2)
Get a 16v head, have Gary do headwork to it.
Fit std 16v pistons, pocketed to allow more cam
Inspect block and rehone if necessary
Fit SBD 220BHP style cams and titanium caps etc
Buy inlet manifold
buy Dellorto 45s

sell Dellorto 40s, B+ head, Kent cam kit, vernier pulley

Drive away with nigh on 200BHP.

[Tony25]

16v Option

[tomstickland]

16v it is then.

[tomstickland]

Jetta is for sale. Good fun car but I don't need the distraction.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4545287697&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/jetta.jpg

[Jon S]

16v it is then.
:eek: , what about the 8v stickers http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/exterior/badge1.jpg

[Sipo]

:eek: , what about the 8v stickers http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/exterior/badge1.jpg

Just keep it as a nice surprise for when another valver pulls alongside at the lights ;)

[tomstickland]

I finally made it down to the workshop by 3pm this afternoon. I wasn't feeling too keen on a long job. However, once I got going I was determined to get the block out of the car.

Things went quite well apart from the input shaft being very hard to move. I gave up in the end and decided to take the clutch off and then hammer the shaft out from the flywheel end once the engine was out. I had to remove more and more bits from the engine to get it to fit out, like the alternator and crank pulley. It still wouldn't budge. Took me a while to realise that the equal length drive shaft plate was still bolted on! There were a few bolts that had fallen out, like one gearbox bolt and the second bolt holding the drive shaft plate on.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff05.jpg

http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff06.jpg

I fitted the engine to a stand.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff07.jpg

Engine bay. Note multi coloured paintwork. The amount of crud down where the steering arms go through is noticeable. I don't want to clean the bay too well because a lot of that grime is oily and it's good for rust prevention. Depends on whether I have the bay sprayed.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff08.jpg

[Tony25]

Good progress, have you got the xe pistons and head yet??

[DarrenH]

mattj has a gary worked coscast head, with bronze valves. for sale. he also has a standard stainless gte16v exhaust manifold

[tomstickland]

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the 8v parts that I'm selling. B+ head, inlet manifold, twin 40s, 4:1 exhaust manifold and Kent cam kit, all on Ebay now.

Then I cleaned the oil and grease off the block.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff09.jpg

Finally I took the sump off and then took the pistons out.
I was a bit concerned about the scoring of the crank. Does this look normal? Engine has done 30K since rebuild.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff10.jpg

The bearing shells were a bit scored too, with some darker areas. Is this normal?
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff11.jpg

This one here is through to the Copper on one corner.
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff12.jpg

I couldn't find anything amiss with the rings on no4 piston. This is the oily bore. A bit of mystery as to the source of the oil then.

No1 piston was odd. It had a bright patch on it. See image:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff13.jpg

This had me confused. The shiney part looked like a different metal embeded in the piston. Very odd.

Until I prodded it with a screwdriver:
http://www.tomstickland.co.uk/astra/mods2/engine/headoff/headoff14.jpg

By now I was thinking what I good idea it was to take the engine apart.
For a piston to crack doesn't that suggest high temperatures or lack of lubrication. Bearing in mind how Black everthing was I'm thinking that the engines was being overfuelled. Bore wash? Can this lead to high temperatures as the oil is prevented from working properly?

[DarrenH]

you mean the strip between the upper and lower ring lands ? wtf is that doing there !

the scored crank pin (big end journal) looks average to me. the bearing is obviously worse for wear. worn around the locating tab on the thrust side.

[tomstickland]

It all suggests excess heat to me. I did have an issue with the oil pressure showing 1 bar down on the digi dash occasionally. It would happen at 4K sometimes, but it seemed to bear no logical relationship to rpm so I assumed that it was a gauge problem.

[Kris]

Thease are on ebay at the mo ,i dont know if £600 is pricey for this set up
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7969845038

[Sipo]

i didnt even realise it was possible to put that sort of air induction onto an XE, with the ECU running an air flow sensor etc. Looks the dogs.

[Kris]

You can get a decent amound of bhp from XE's running carbs

[astrasteve23]

i really want that kit but dont have the money! why do people generally go for 45's on an XE? whats wrong with 48's?

[DarrenH]

because the smallest venturi to fit 48's is 40mm. and youre generally looking at around a 36-38mm venturi on an otherwise stock 20XE.

basically 48's are too big

[DarrenH]

i didnt even realise it was possible to put that sort of air induction onto an XE, with the ECU running an air flow sensor etc. Looks the dogs.

you just have to convert to a standalone ignition and coil system, which that ebay link includes (usually from a carbed big block 8v engine like the mk2 cavalier)

the whole XE ecu and engine loom is binned.

[astrasteve23]

so would 48's be ok on a high spec engine? i wouldn't want to run 48's on a standard XE!

[DarrenH]

yeah thats it. you choose the carbs size by the venturis that will fit inside it. and you choose the venturis size by the amount of air the engine is processing, or power output potential basically.

[tomstickland]

As you might know, the engine was removed for inspection and found to be on the verge of blowing up. Cause not entirely known, but detonation suspected.

There's been loads of thoughts going through my head since then.

For starters, the engine. Options I am considering are:
-fitting a cheap std 20XE with the lightened flywheel. Could be on std injection, or more likely twin 45s. Drive until it blows up.
-rebuilding my bottom end and fitting 16v bits to it
-I've been offered a 225 spec engine that will be available the end of next month. This could be run on carbs or maybe throttle bodies.

TBH, I've had more than 100K of fun out the car and most of that was with 145BHP. I'd prefer an engine to last for 100K than to have excessive power. Unless the car gets removed from daily driving duties. Which could be happenening. Either way, it's off the road for a few months now.

Also Rob has suggested that we sort out the "bodges" as he calls them. Namely:
-paint the engine bay properly
-finish the welding
-spray the interior properly
-remove the loom and replace with new tidy wiring
-fit new door, bonnet and tail gate
-replace fuel tank

probably add to that plastic windows.

I'm driving a E reg BMW 320 at the moment. I've seen a 325 sport for sale for £1000 so I might make an offer on that.

I did consider selling the Astra shell for a while today, but I'm missing it already. The bits I'm missing are the bucket seats, quickrack, solid engine mounts and the brakes. The 320 brakes are miserable compared with my pedal boxed Vectra brakes.

Having said that, my motivation is feeling pretty low, I'm quite fancying an old 325 sport and just fitting a decent steering rack to it, maybe stiffer springs and then driving the bitch. If it's stolen/crashed then I replace it. Low effort motoring.

[dethstar]

I could do with rot free shell....

The 8v was impressive and im sure whatever engine you put your efforts into will be equally impressive. I for one read your website alot when i started fiddling with my first mk2.

The comment about the engine lasting is highly valid its all very well having an engine that goes really well but if you have to rebuild it every year or so its not so practical.

Its always difficult to decide what to do when you have spent alot of time (and money) on something, im having a similar debate about my bodyshell and car in general.

Personally my choice would gauged by cost and longevity, Hope it turns out good whatever way it goes. Learned alot from your diary.

[Jon S]

bagsy having the engine mounts! . i am sorry you have had to come to those desicions tom..


i say bang an xe in and keep her alive , waste of knowledge otherwise.

[tomstickland]

I was looking at the Astra tonight. I like the way it looks. I sat in it and liked the seats. But then again I've realised that I've finally grown bored with it. I've done 130K in it and in the early years it was an adrenalin rush, and adventure. Gradually I've lost the energy to just go out driving in it. Then again, since fitting the carbs I've been out in it every weekend, usually going mountain biking and having a great time. Then again, after about an hour of good roads then the novelty wears off. I think I've sort of grown up or something. The effort of getting to the good bits on scenic drives seems to outweigh the reward of the good bits.

The 320 is starting to hook me, so I'm dead keen on finding a 325 now. I'm totally sold on RWD too. The engine part and the steering part don't interfere with each other. As far as the steering feels, the car could as well being blown along by the wind. I like that. Today I've been experimenting with how much throttle the car will take on wet corners and I've been starting to get some minor drifts. A great feeling, already more interesting than hooning a fwd car round. Maybe it's all novelty, time will tell.

I'm not doing anything in a hurry. It did cross my mind that I could keep the Astra for a track car and trailer it around behind the 325. Or use it as a rally car and trailer it around. Or break it for bits and sell the shell, would be useful to someone since it's got more weld than car in it. Anyway, I don't want to make a rushed decision that I later regret.

I don't mind prospective vulturing. Things of interest on the car include:
-Vectra 288mm brakes
-pedal bias box with no servo and twin reservoirs. Direct braking.
-16v rear beam
-Powerflex rear bushes
-braided brake hoses throughout
-Facet Red top fuel pump
-Braided fuel lines through the car
-Sparco ultra seats on sliders
-seat tubes welded to shell
-quickrack
-battery relocated to behind passenger seat. New metal welded into orignal battery location
-6 point roll cage welded to shell
-additional roll cage into engine bay
-front end fully seam welded
-additional tube and box section in engine bay and behind front bumper

-triple skinned bulkhead
-double skinned turrets
-solid engine mounts
-lightened flywheel
-sbd oil pump and nylon pressure relief valve


I'd be quite happy to see the shell going to someone else who would have the enthusiasm to tidy it up and keep on using it.

I'm not making a decision for a while though. I might regret letting it go since 90% of the bits needed for a fast car are still there just waiting for an engine.

[astrasteve23]

what sort of price will you be looking to get for the shell if you do break it?

[astrasteve23]

i asked a price because a mate of mine is looking for a shell in any condition. i think you should keep it to rally or race!

[Kris]

Keep it ,you know you will just regret it no matter how sold on RWd you are .Im not saying get rid of the BM ,just have the Astra as track car .
It makes sence .

[Ross_Mk2]

If you do deside to get rid (hope you don't) i like the sound of some better brakes!! keep me posted

[Sipo]

Tom dude, turbo the bugger :D ... seriously though, do give yourself time before selling it. All the knowledge you have of the car, all the knowledge you have on how to drive at its limits etc etc will all be lost, along with all the hard work thats gone into it ... just to see it stripped and taken from you in pieces :(

While you are thinking about selling it, dont drive it at all and see how you get on. Dont even touch it lol. No fiddeling, no anything, just leave it sat there so it takes none of your time and just see how you feel about selling it once you havent been using it or spending any time on it.

btw, even with just a 16v lump in the car you will out race the 325 BMW, i have raced a few and my mate also has one on a K plate ... dont sell out, keep pissing them off :D :D

[REMUS]

don't mind prospective vulturing. Things of interest on the car include:
-Vectra 288mm brakes £?
-Facet Red top fuel pump £?
-lightened flywheel £?

Will this fit a 18E properly?

-sbd oil pump and nylon pressure relief valve £?

Those are the bit's i'm interested in, i'm pretty flush atm because i'm just down-graded my bass guitar amp and cab's from Trace Elliot to Ashdown EVO plus i'm about to be paid on the 30th.

What is the ride like on the car? The idea of buying the shell sounds nice but for a daily useage car... maybe a bit uncomfortable?

Also what about the 40's?

[tomstickland]

Probably keeping the car. Not going to do anything to it for a while.

[REMUS]

The E30 325i is a great car but from what I have seen and read without nitrous they are quite expensive and hard to tune but then again they are already produceing close to 170bhp stock I think.

So I take it you arn't going to break the car now, i've mixed feelings about this... I want to see what else you will do and you are a great resource for astra mk2 knowlage and we would sorely miss your knowlage. But I also like the idea of weber 40's on mine :D hehe!

Glad you reconsidered tom :)

[tomstickland]

Twin 40s and manifold are on Ebay. As is B+ head, Kent cam kit and Vernier pulley.

Here's my update on the land of RWD:

First up, I've started to love the 320 now. It's a hoot. When driving "normally" then it's normal. When on decent A or B road then every corner is a new set of fun. The "slowness" of the 320 is starting to grow normal now and it feels fast enough.

I went and looked at the 325 M Sport today. The model I looked at had two small oil leaks. Owner acknowledge that one was the crank seal seeping and the other was something else. He said the oil warning light came on every 4 weeks of every day driving. Doesn't sound too bad to me, plus I could fix the crank seal. The other thing was that I noticed a bit of wobble in the suspension; I suspect rear subframe bushes or something. There was some brown rust colour coming through on the White paintwork in a few places. Minor surface rust. Not "mint", but not a dog either.

Anyway, time fot the test drive. We started out on boring suburban roads, then tedious 40 limit A road until we finally made it to the top class B road that goes up to Castle Combe. Finally a chance to see what this was all about.

My verdict:........what a car! The acceleration is very good. Driving it reminded me of the first time I drove an Astra GTE. That sort of excitement coming back. He said that it was an M Sport model, hence 190BHP? Certainly went better than the 320. I explained that this was only the 3rd day driving a RWD car. I managed to provoke some minor drifts on the corners. Felt great. Loved it.

I told him I was interested and that I'd be back with ex BMW mechanic Pete in the next few days. TBH I'm prepared to buy it on a chance because it was that much fun to drive. I'm also prepared to sell the Astra to fund it. Just the way it is.

The other choice is to give Davey £500 for the 320. So it's £500 for a 320 5 door or £1200ono for a 325 M Sport.

[Brett]

A mate of mine wrote of a E30 325 recently. He then bought a E30 320 and has just finished putting the 325 lump into the new 320.. he loved it that much he just rebuilt and started again!

if you do break it and sell the shell Tom, I'd be interested although Im looking at a 'motorsport prepped' shell sometime next week heopefully so my interest isnt concrete!

[tomstickland]

Aye, thanks for all the support people. I'm still seriously considering selling the shell. It's a big decision as to how much to strip and how much to sell complete with the shell.

The dilemma I have is: if I sell the shell and parts will I then change my mind 4 weeks later and wish I had the whole lot back again. Then again, I can't really afford to insure two cars. Well, I can afford it, but I can't justify it. So if I kept the Astra I'd have to trailer it to track days. But I'd probably prefer to drive the RWD car anyway. The only other thing i could think of is using the car for road rallies. But it's all more money that I don't want to spend.

[_Steven_]

Ive done road rallies in my diesel estate and trust me, you need a good navigator before you need a fast car :)

[Allen Mead]

Ive done road rallies in my diesel estate and trust me, you need a good navigator before you need a fast car :)

Yeh, remember when a certain navigator said "hammer it!"

hehehehe :p

Sat nav 'meady's' an interesting option too....

[_Steven_]

Yes x 2.

[tomstickland]

Just running through what I would do if I did sell the car.

Quick evaluation of the shell and parts available:

Item/Worth/Would hope to sell for
Price is just an estimate, could be wrong either way.

Shell:
MK2 Astra GTE 8v shell. All sound proofing removed. Welded in safety devices 6 point roll cage, including door bars. One week's worth of seam welding. Bulkhead triple skinned, turrets double skinned, triangulation from roll cage to front suspension, box section welded into bulkhead and front of shell. Lower arms seam welded, all engine bay and front wings seam welded, front of sills seam welded. Bucket seat tubes welded to shell. All underside treated with Schutz and Waxoyl. Engine bay painted with enamal paint, Schutz, Waxoyl. Plate rivetted over sunroof hole. Chequer plate rivetted/bolted in driver's side.
/£hundreds/£500

Bits:
-Koni sport kit springs and dampers /£350/£150
-2 x Sparco Ultra bucket seats on Sparco sliders, attached to seat tubes. with 2 x clubman harnesses /£450/£200
-2.5 turn Quickrack /£110/£40
-TAS alloy rack mounts /£20/£10
-Twin cylinder brake bias pedal box /£250/£120
-fully braided brake hoses throughout/£250/£100
-braided fuel lines through inside of car/£200/£50
-Vectra 288 V6 front brakes, painted Black/£200/£100
-16v rear beam with new pads, discs and reconditioned callipers (painted Black)./£200/£50
-battery box/£30/£0
-rear beam on powerflex bushes/£30/£0
-front suspension rebuilt 12 months ago/£100/£0
-facet Red top pump/£70/£40
-fuel pressure reg/£20/£10
-2.0 16v 5Kg flywheel/£60/£50
-2.0 16v block with SBD oil pump gear and nylon pressure relief valve/£?/£10
-F20 gearbox/£50/£50
-equal length driveshafts 6 months old/£100/£50
-4 Cav Sri 15" 5 spoke Alloy wheels with reasonable F1 tyres./£450/£150
-3/4 of a Momo Apache steering wheel on Vauxhall box/0.75*120=£90/£10 for boss

Other: fully road legal with MOT until end of Feb 2006.

That lot comes to a sum of £1650! I wouldn't expect to sell the whole lot for that much though. I'd be happy to get £800 for the rolling shell with various bits still in it. Some bits, like the pedal box and seats are worth something on their own. But the braided lines, for example, would be best left in the shell.

Bad things:
Driver's door bent, bonnet has fire damage blister, driver's side rear arch has some rust bubbles. Tailgate has rust bubbles. Front passenger wing has small dent on front of it (wing bolts on).

Fuel tank has vapour leak. Spare tank ready to go, sprayed with Schutz. Engine bay and interior multi coloured (combinations of Hammerite brush on, Zinc Primer, Red Primer, Red spray paint, Schutz, original Vaux metal).

[Jon S]

well if u do let it all go . can i put my name on the brakes n braided pipes
and tas alloy rack mounts

[REMUS]

Well put it this way if you sell off the bits from your engine like you have, you can do some more work on the shell during your spare time and if you still arn't getting that whole "DOH!" feeling, then you can restart with an XE?


EDIT: Any chance of some linkage to your auctions? I'm searching for your stuff now tho.