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Nellys Astra Sport 2.0

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JeomNP

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Hi guys,

Back again with another mk3. What love i have for them cars!

Have had the car since June last year, will be keeping thread updated as things move forward etc, lots of ideas. Working shift work will be the limiting factor, plus having another baby on the way!

Started with me completly standard, was a 300 mile round trip to collect her, originally she was to play donor to my now gone Calibra project, she impressed so much on the way back from Surrey she was just nowhere near ready for breaking! Have all her history, started life as a Vauxhall fleet car so she couldn't have gotten off to a better start in life!

A pic to get the ball rolling...



:)

Regards
 
Is that a crease on the pass door??
Looks like the archs are good!!
 
yeah a small crease on the passengers side door been there since i hve had it not brokem the paint tho
 
Welcome back :)
 
Z20LET intake manifold fitted, very interesting change to the way it drives tbh! Alot more pull feels alot more like my old redtop I had many years ago (memory of an old man mind!), along with the rear bumper from a GSi, next to do sort the exhaust so it hangs correctly, and replace the rear brake discs/pads so they can come off life support (not much left on them)

Neil
 
Thats interesting about the z20let inlet manifold as i know a few people have discussed it before but never done it
 
absolutely, very small difference lower down the range, from about 4k though is absolutely fantastic pull, considering the reputation the ecotec has very pleased with the end result
 
JeomNP said:
absolutely, very small difference lower down the range, from about 4k though is absolutely fantastic pull, considering the reputation the ecotec has very pleased with the end result
Click to expand...

I was looking at one of them inlets (before the throttle bodies). But, I don't actually think the standard dual track inlet was a bad thing... Yes you will probably gain a little top end but will be substituted by loosing power low down-
I hit 171.8BHP with the standard inlet (AND standard GM paper element air filter). The power curve was straight up! no flat spots.

263605_2159138535514_6347717_n.jpg
 
What other mods have you planned? Are you likely to do a power run soon (would be interesting to see what the graph looks like)?
 
Also worth noting that I changed the exhaust manifold on mine and it made a BIG difference. The engine was a lot more rev happy.

Infact, with 4 branch exhaust manifold, cams, headwork and raised fuel pressure I managed that 171.8BHP. After that it was pretty much a brick wall and had to go standalone to get more out of the X20XEV
 
going to be looking at a redtop exhaust manifold with the ecotec flange mounted, reading through various threads etc seems to indicate that the redtop kit is alot better than the stuff made for ecotecs, plus due to age should be alot more reasonable examples of parts knocking around. Other things in the pipeline atm are 288mm brakes, cavalier cesaro alloys, suspension rebuild, uprated arb and strut braces to try and desperately sort out the handling. My c1 runaround seems to handle better haha
 
I would agree that the dual tract manifold isn't bad at all, for day to day use would definately be the better of the choices imo between that and the turbo manifold for sure, not a great deal of lower down loss in terms of torque but it is noticable would need to be very well behaved to make sure oil temps were correct before making use of the rev range where the kick is!
 
JeomNP said:
I would agree that the dual tract manifold isn't bad at all, for day to day use would definately be the better of the choices imo between that and the turbo manifold for sure, not a great deal of lower down loss in terms of torque but it is noticable would need to be very well behaved to make sure oil temps were correct before making use of the rev range where the kick is!
Click to expand...

X20XEVs do seem to run hotter than other engines.... I've fitted an oilcooler and cool running stat to mine, seems to keep the temps down now :)

As for the manifold, yeah c20xes are cheap and its been done before chopping and getting them to fit. Think theres even exhaust manifold plates on e-bay (and inlets too) so its worth a play when the C20XE's so cheap.
My 4 branch cost me a fair bit lol, bought it new at £380 I think it was. Exhaust does hold the X20XEV back though so it would be high on my list of things to change!
 
I've got a blank x20xev exhaust manifold flange for sale if you're interested :)

I wouldn't use a standard c20xe 4 branch tho tbh as there skinny and crap lol! I'd try finding a aftermarket thicker one and use that tbh?
 


As some may know, X20XEV's from 1996 on have the dual track manifold, not a bad piece of kit but the z20 one flows alot better at higher revs, and since im going to be tinkering with this little car anything i've lost lower down for town driving i have my fingers crossed i'll gain back later on down the road. Read between the lines when I say that the car spends little time in the lower part of the rev range lol.

So, where was I. The manifold is attached, but still the pesky problem of the loom from the solinoid etc changing tract on the intake manifold mid rev range. Disconnecting this completly shoots up the EML light which clearly is no good. The loom for the dual tract manifold comprises two plugs.



The grey one can stay disconnected and will show no EML, leaving the black one not connected with bring up a fault code on the dash.

The black one connects to a small unit with 2 vacuum hoses coming from it, not needing it anymore I salvaged the hoses (more on the in abit) and chopped off the ends. This is the solution i devised for mounting it so i had nothing dangling (haha)



nice and neat!

The final small problem was the car was idling like a bag of s***! The Z20LET manifold has a vacuum pipe for the FPR on the manifold, whereas i believe the vacuum pipe connects to the throttle body on the X20's, the pipework carefully adapted from what i extracted from the system to operate the variable tract manifold prooved a ideal solution for this.



Thats where were at. More soon

Neil
 
Ta, luckily I have a citroen c1 for poodling around in, there is nothing economical about ecotecs anymore in comparision
 
JeomNP said:
Ta, luckily I have a citroen c1 for poodling around in, there is nothing economical about ecotecs anymore in comparision
Click to expand...

You want to see the miles I get out of mine (or rather the lack of!!!!). Bigger injectors, bigger cams, throttle bodies all = big smiles but low miles
 
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