useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

[Davey J]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

Haven't read through entirely but you can achieve 42mph in first gear on a standard GTE 16v.

Also re: The Cosworth thang, I didn't realise they had a site in Wellingborough. i am from Northampton and Cosworth engineering are based in St James' End and have been for years.

[Davey J]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

Also early SFI boxes fitted to GTE 16vs are different to the later ones and fetch a premium second hand for those doing Nova conversions NOT wanting to use a power cap. Discovered this doing some business with Will Foy the other week. Edge towards the intake is tapered.............

[flatside]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

I'm relatively new on this forum, and as I'm off work today, (man flu) I thought I'd try and catch up, so I've just read this thread from beginning to end.

Very interesting but ...

Although I'm not sure about the astramax van all other astra variants have the same wheel base 2520mm or 99.5inches in old money (which is what the original range rover nearly had but someone rounded it up to 100 inches.). The Belmont floor pan is a hatch with a stretcher plate added to the rear, astra estate and the van (non-astramax) share a floor pan that is quite different at the tail end to the hatch and Belmont. The estate is 10mm longer than the Belmont, and 230mm longer than the hatch.

There are D plate 16V GTE's, but I'm not sure why (possibly a fleet of test vehicles sold off)

I have heard rumors about 1.8 16V astra's several times, to often to ignore and from people in the know (2 car dealers and an MOT tester among them) never seen one yet, thogh still looking, (there are a few Suzuki SJ's built by Santana in Spain that are registered as Land-Rovers - seen three of those - not relevant, but very trivial)

2.0 16V GTE's have the gear change inside the cabin to make room for the 4x4 gear that was never fitted.
I was once told by an AA patrolman (a Vauxhall man through and through) that the astramax was also to be available in some countries with 4x4.

Chrome and black late style badge lettering is shown on the cars in the 1985 Belmont brochure which also shows sunroofs, front and rear leccy windows and also headlamp washers as optional extras on the GLSi, GLS, GL and L models.

Hmm factory fit rear leccy windows, seen em on caby's but not on anything else, not ever (converted yes, but not factory) any one else seen genuine factory rear leccy's?

[Pigeonrat]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

Hmm factory fit rear leccy windows, seen em on caby's but not on anything else, not ever (converted yes, but not factory) any one else seen genuine factory rear leccy's?

Yes indeedy, only seem to be on the earliest cars. A neighbour had a very early five-door 1600 L Mk2 in the early 1990s, he bought it second-hand from an elderly friend who bought it as an ex-demonstrator from a Vauxhall dealer in 1985. It was the earliest Mk2 I've ever come across, registered in October '84, and unusually had black paint. Being an ex-demo car it had every single option available (including headlamp washers...on an L model!) and electric windows all round. The rear door cards had no winder holes and the switch was the genuine Vauxhall item with four rockers.

Also, my dad tells me that when he ordered his first Mk2 in the summer of 1985 (a 1300 L five-door) he fancied having central locking and electric windows, but the windows were expensive. He asked why they cost so much and the salesman told him that all four windows were electric, there was no option just to have the front ones electric on a 5-door Mk2 at that time. Sadly dad thought me and my brother would just break the rear electric windows so he didn't bother, we had windy ones all round

[DarrenH]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

re: 4x4 , i guess the astramax was the only version that would easily accept a rear prop and live axle since it didnt have trailing arms and beam in the way.

from what i read the larger tunnel was for the larger exhaust on 16v and shell rigidty. i mean, if it was a hangover from 4x4 R+D (which i agree they did, got an article on that too!!) youd have a lump out the passenger footwell for the transfer box, and the tunnel would need to be much larger for a prop imho. i cant say thats definate, but i've laid under a few cavalier turbos to know you wouldnt get a similar setup under a mk2 astra.

[Belmont turbo]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

ive went to look at an early belmont sri afew years back which had rear electric windows which were factory fitted. my belmont has rear electric window aswell but i fitted factory window mechs out of a SA imported belmont(opel monza) so you wouldn't know they weren't factory fitted lol

also where would the exhaust go on a mk2 if it had a prop? would have to be like on a cally and go down the passenger side footwell

[flatside]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

There were a couple of 4x4 astras built for rallying, but thats all I know about them.

[flatside]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

All Mk2 astras had the rear beam mounted offset to the drivers side by a several millimeters (except possibly the astramax van). Ive never known why, does anyone here know?

In the real world this means wheels are more likely to give clearance issues in the drivers side rear arch (on a RHD vehicle).

And cause more socket related problems when changing the drivers side rear beam bush.

[Astra Dan]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

I would say that's an issue on any car at all, anywhere. Just more 'obvious' on a beam car.

[flatside]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

I've owned a few cars that were, erm - you know, those other things, (not made by vuaxhall) -
Everything else has the rear centrally mounted, off setting it should muck up the handling, or at least make it crab slightly, but it just dosn't seem to, do any other vauxhalls have the same offset on the rear beam?
Does the Nexia?

[aussie astraGTE]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

daewoo cielo (nexia) glxi 5door has power windows & uses gm parts ,doors fit & if you remove the door handle the mk2 handle recess is under it & mk2 handle fits it also has a 16v 1.6 or 1.8 gm engine looks like echo tech engine ,don't see very many of them most were 1.5 corsa engine

[Ben K]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

hi
i believe the larger tunnel was to accomadate the cat as the late cabbies also had this shell and i had a german e plate cabbie that had the larger tunnel because the cat was introduced earlier in europe

cheers ben

[AncientSurfer]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

The red earlier edition has a lot more information and well worth getting. I picked one up from ebay for 69p plus postage the other day.

I got mine from a boot fair for 20p.

[Dario]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

Did you know that the first testing of the 16v xe engine gave about 170bhp, but was tuned down because Opel thought it was to strong for the Opel Kadett Gsi/Vauxhall Astra MkII. Mainly the Exhaust Manifold was re designed to lower the effect from the 16v powerplant...

Did you know that the rally car of Sepp Haider was bought by the Norwegian rally driver Steinar Joranli and he drove the Opel Kadett Gsi 16v to many victorys in rallycross and hill climbs fighting with cossie and Bmw M3 with almost twice as much horsepower.

Did you know that there are a promo video of Opel`s rally engagement with Gsi 16v, starring Sepp Haider`s Kadett gsi, and i got a vhs rip of it on dvd :P

[station]

Re: useless mk2 astra and engine trivia thread

All Mk2 astras had the rear beam mounted offset to the drivers side by a several millimeters (except possibly the astramax van). Ive never known why, does anyone here know?

There are a few Renaults that have that offset, and probably a few more.