Hi all,
About 4 months ago i decided id buy myself an astra GSI with the intention of converting it to an LET
I had already started rebuilding an XE engine i had aquired, as an LET...
To begin with before i had even sourced an engine i had bought an inlet manifold as a starting point (strange i know but it gave me an incentive to start the project and keep adding to it when funds become available)
After that come the throttle body which i smoothed out and gave a sharp edge to the butterfly
I ported out and mirror polished an original tophat but decided to sell it and go with the 3" variety from TX Autosport
Injectors come next and i also managed to get hold of most sensors from a guy called CEMEX off migweb (highly recommended, top bloke)
Added my FSE adjustable FPR (mainly because it looks shiny) and gave it lots of red hoses to go with my red and black theme
The original cylinder head upon closer inspection wasn't much use to me as it was massed in tiny holes (poss pinking/Det) and it would need a massive skim which isnt ideal for a turbo setup.
About a month later i bought another head which looked like it hadnt ever seen a skim, it had also already been sleeved so no porous issues here...
I stripped it down completely and rebuilt it with the necessary turbo parts and XE inlet cam (still need to add a vernier pulley to my list)
The valves were all lapped in and i even gave the exhaust side a good polish
So basically now i have a stripped down block awaiting the Turbo pistons to be fitted along with all new bearings, rings, oil pump, water pump, etc...
As far as the car is concerned ive pretty much stripped out the old engine (sold the coscast head)
Fitted my frontera intercooler (just gotta re-mount rad slightly to the left)
Added bonnett lifters and cut out bits of the front bumper around the numberplate to aide airflow to the intercooler
About 4 months ago i decided id buy myself an astra GSI with the intention of converting it to an LET
I had already started rebuilding an XE engine i had aquired, as an LET...
To begin with before i had even sourced an engine i had bought an inlet manifold as a starting point (strange i know but it gave me an incentive to start the project and keep adding to it when funds become available)
After that come the throttle body which i smoothed out and gave a sharp edge to the butterfly
I ported out and mirror polished an original tophat but decided to sell it and go with the 3" variety from TX Autosport
Injectors come next and i also managed to get hold of most sensors from a guy called CEMEX off migweb (highly recommended, top bloke)
Added my FSE adjustable FPR (mainly because it looks shiny) and gave it lots of red hoses to go with my red and black theme
The original cylinder head upon closer inspection wasn't much use to me as it was massed in tiny holes (poss pinking/Det) and it would need a massive skim which isnt ideal for a turbo setup.
About a month later i bought another head which looked like it hadnt ever seen a skim, it had also already been sleeved so no porous issues here...
I stripped it down completely and rebuilt it with the necessary turbo parts and XE inlet cam (still need to add a vernier pulley to my list)
The valves were all lapped in and i even gave the exhaust side a good polish
So basically now i have a stripped down block awaiting the Turbo pistons to be fitted along with all new bearings, rings, oil pump, water pump, etc...
As far as the car is concerned ive pretty much stripped out the old engine (sold the coscast head)
Fitted my frontera intercooler (just gotta re-mount rad slightly to the left)
Added bonnett lifters and cut out bits of the front bumper around the numberplate to aide airflow to the intercooler
