Astra mk3 Arctic 1.6 8v to 3.0 24v build

[RallyMarshal]

Yay :-)

[Harvey]

Now covered 65 miles and no dramas to report, fluids all ok and it’s been opened up to 6k in a few gears and I can report it goes rather well. I’m now an old git, wasn’t when I started the project, the exhaust drones so it’s booked in for a tone down next Tuesday. I’m having the Magnaflow sports cat fitted and the largest rear box they can squeeze on it.

Had the a/c man round today and I can happily report its working lovely. Huge thanks Daryl so if you’re in the Notts/Derby area and require a mobile a/c technician he comes highly recommend as he really knows his stuff. For further info check out the AC/DC Air Conditioning website here, click me.

For future info the refrigerant weight for the beastly mk3 is 700g.

Yey, a/c rocks, the on/off button now firmly on.

[Harvey]

Popped out in the mk3 this afternoon to stick some more miles on it. I played shotgun so wifey could become more accustomed to her ‘new’ car. I thought we’d get some side on pics as the Technical Grey doesn’t show well under the car port.











Ride height shot. Quite happy with it as it’s running the Eibach Cavalier V6 front springs and Koni C20XE front shocks set to half way on the adjustment. The rears are C20XE Eibach springs and C20XE Koni shocks set to full soft. The ride is forgiving without being too firm.



Arty picture.



Now covered 90 miles and I’ve found the lower header tank hose is weeping so I’ve gone through my spares and found a random heat matrix hose that will fit.

[James C]

Glad you've got the thing going.

Is it an anti climax though now done? Sometimes these projects work out like that.

[Harvey]

Is it an anti climax though now done? Sometimes these projects work out like that.

I will admit I enjoy the building more than the actual driving but to answer your question no, not currently as I'm still on a high that it actually works. I've got a few tweaks lined up which I plan on doing over Winter but for the time being we'll get some mileage on before I change the oil and filter and get the stock Motronic 2.8.3 reflashed with a proper map take advantage of the performance parts that are fitted. Now it's running It has freed me off so I can actually do some house based DIY, which is a shame lol.

[RallyMarshal]

Awesome job Harvey. Pity I missed you yesterday as Im looking forward to a ride in the beast. You do realise its Amandas car not yours? :-)

Thought Id correct the following though...

..... Now it's running It has freed me off so I can actually do some more work on Pauls rallycar collection...

Only joking though dude..

Paul..

[DarrenH]

good work on the final push, it does seem a bit surreal for it to be finished !!

love thetop hat rivets for the sideskirts, are they proper vauxhall ones ? how did you manage to mark the sill correctly? fit clips to sideskirt, put blob of marker paint or something on clips then test fit to car, marking the sill ?

[Harvey]

The skirts are genuine Irmscher and came with fitting kit (rivets and clips). You get a cardboard template so you hold that along with a clip against the sill while your third hand marks the rivet drilling points, all very technical 90s stuff

[Harvey]

Car is with PD Gough today to have the exhaust toned down by replacing the rear box in addition to having the Magnaflow 200cpi cat fitted. After chatting with the guy who is making it we agreed a triple-flow rear box would be best for noise reduction and virtually no compromise to power unlike a baffled silencer. They are hand fabricating it from scratch, making it as big as possible. Found this description on the web and tweaked it for the UK language.

"A triple-flow (tri-flow, reverse flow or "turbo") silencer takes the exhaust gas on an S-shaped path through the silencer. The exhaust gas travels to one end of the silencer, is turned through 180 degrees and heads back to the first end. There, it is again turned through 180 degrees before it passes to the outlet. Triple-flow silencers normally have three internal chambers with the front and rear chamber hollow and the centre filled with waddling."

The picture I made below helps you understand this description.

[Harvey]

Got the car back, sounds a little different. Bit less booming and raw but still loud(ish) with smoother tone so a partial success. Hey hoo, it is what it is after some silly fool decided to stick a tuned V6 under the hood, stop looking and pointing at me everyone

New cat in place.



New triple-flow rear box on.

[RallyMarshal]

Nice work guv'nor

[mick g]

Goughs work is excellent eh, its a shame to hide it under the car

[Harvey]

After noticing the main header hose was weeping earlier in the week I set about sourcing another as it was a Vectra B V6 hose but they are NLS and even Genuine Parts Search couldn’t find me one. I rummaged through my stock and found one that might work, turned out to be an Astra mk3 header tank hose after checking the part number.

Top is Vectra hose and bottom is the Astra mk3 hose.



Used my hand pump to remove the coolant which worked well and not a drop spilt.





Hose fits well and curves around the ABS pump perfectly.



Sourced a brand new coolant level sensor thanks to Genuine Parts Search. Still available through Vauxhall but GPS were cheaper and I got free p&p as they refunded after failing with the Vectra hose.





Popped the car out to check the new hose was doing its job and grabbed this rather moody pic of the angel eyes.

[Harvey]

There was a patch of lacquer on the roof of the mk3 that wasn’t very pleasant so after discussions with the wife we decided to go down the cheaper route than a full respray and a plan was hatched. We had a look round and as the car is very shiny decided to go for a 5D gloss finish black carbon fibre look vinyl wrap. It’s very subtle and you wouldn’t notice it’s fitted but depending on the light it changers and the weave moves and looks very authentic giving a more grey than black look. Just something different from the normal 3D satin carbon vinyl which we felt would have looked out of place. Thanks to Ted at The Image Works for a super install as I supplied the vinyl after sourcing it from eBay, they had never seen it before and said it was superb quality. I’ve got quite a bit left over so might have a play covering a few bites and pieces around the house, lol.

The pictures don’t really do it justice but give an idea.

[Davey J]

Lovely stuff! If/when you get ECU Flashed could you point me in direction of tuner please? Running a B308 in the Cavalier which is on similar management.