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Now CrazyTim's 1980 Vauxhall Chevette Wagon


mikuni

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Page 2: Engine Conversion

Engine

After running through a large list of possible engine conversions for the wagon I finally decided on a twincam Opel motor. This engine is used extensively over in the UK and is known as the C20XE (which is often shortened to XE or redtop)

motor_c20xe.jpg

The head was designed and manufactured by cosworth and the engine often achieves output in excess of 250hp in NA form.

Unfortunately the motor is difficult to come by in New Zealand, as it was only produced from around 1989 to 1995. Further to this it was only available in Opel Calibras and Vectra GSi's so you can expect to pay upwards of $1800 for one, in unknown condition.

I weighed up my options again and decided to go for the later model engine, which was released in 1996 and was an updated version of the XE. This motor is called an X20XEV or ecotec and was found in almost all 4 cylinder Vectras from 1996 onwards (Vectra B). There are different capacities up to 2.2L, but I opted for the 2.0L version.

motor_x20xev.jpg

A 1996 Vectra B was bought late last year but I found the sump of the motor didn't measure up well for the Chevette. I decided to change it with the earlier model sump but upon doing this I found a massive oil pump that runs from the crank sitting down inside the sump. I looked into moving this but was directed away from that avenue so I onsold the car for a slight profit and continued looking into the conversion.

The earlier Vectra A came equipt with an 8 valve single cam motor with a rear sump setup that appeared to fit over the chevette crossmember so I looked into the possibly of putting a twincam head onto a singlecam block. It all seemed feasable so I bought an X20XEV and a C20NE from a Vectra A.

corsa-b-c20ne.jpg

Gearbox

Next came the hassle of the gearbox because I am changing the engine from a front wheel drive layout into a rear wheel drive one. A couple of options were looked at but I found that VN comodores once came out with a 4 cylinder engine. As luck would have it, it was the same C20NE pile of arse that was available in the Vectra A so I guessed the gearbox would bolt on.

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Workshop

Now that all the parts were aquired it was time to stick it all together. Everything was sent down to Kelvin at Car Tune to wait untill he had enough time to put it all together. This took a little while longer than I had hoped, so I'm on a very tight schedule for trackday.

Engine Construction/Combination

I went down to Car Tune last week after work and Kelvin and I got to work. Its so great to work in a workshop and have ALL the tools you could possibly need on hand.

We started at 7pm and by 10pm we had both engines stripped down. We were going slowly and placing everything in appropriately coloured boxes (red = singlecam, green = twincam) in groups of what would be required and what probably wouldn't. Apparantly the trick is to keep EVERYTHING, especially the parts that you think you won't need because those are the bits that you will need just after you through them away!

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We went through checking the differences between the two engines. Hopefully all aspects were looked at from pulleys to pistons, dipstick to water galleries, etc etc.

By midnight we had the engine dummied together and all was looking pretty good. The pulleys all bolted onto the singlecam block from the twincam one and we hadn't run into any major obsticles. :)

Fitment

The car went in on friday and we got to work first thing saturday morning, after a 3am finish from drinking and putting springs back in a chevette sedan the night before. :lol:

First the filthy little 1256 was pulled out, then the engine bay was degreased and water blasted. What a great job that is.

1256

11256donk.jpg

1256 out

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Engine bay cleaned a little. It could be better, but I'm not really a show quality type of person.

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Vauxhall with missing engine.

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^ Note gigantisaur gearbox! Its not often that a gearbox is dwarfed by a drinkbottle but chevettes have surprised me with alot of things that you don't see often.. for good and for bad..

:oops::lol:

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After several months it was finally time to do what I have been waiting for... dummy fit the engine! I was quite nervous, as all the research was done by me, so if it doesn't work theres only one person to blame :oops:

We dropped the engine in and sat it on the crossmember. So far so good. Some big engine positioning lifts were used to get it sitting about where it should (which is on quite a steep angle to the passengers side) and the gearbox was then bolted up.

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It looks so good in there and all the mounting points lined up perfectly. We just had to chop off the Chevettes existing gearbox crossmember mounts then squeeze the big box up in there.. mmmm :wink: It all sits good in the tunnel but we will be a tiny bit of massaging with a hammer just to make sure it can move around in there a little.

One issue was found regarding the steering rack. The engine literally sits on it and needs to come down a little more. I was hoping a Gemini rack was going to be lower and give me the clearance I required, but it is actually even less suitable.

7steeringrack.jpg7sump.jpg

Currently we are investigating options and my favourite one is lowering the steering rack, as I don't think we will be able to get the clearance required from chopping up the sump.

The fabrication engineer is going to be talking to a more race orientated engineer this week to discuss the implications of lowering the rack and potentially changing the steering geometery. Hopefully that is doable.

So thats pretty much where we are at with the progress at the moment. Its all gone pretty fast considering we have only spent less than 2 days on it but I can see there is still a long way to go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

With the engine resting on the steering and still sitting high in the bay its clear something needs to be altered to get it sitting down nearer to the cross member.

I looked into my options of modifying the steering or sump to suit. Neither option was easy or cheap, so it was looking a little grim.

On the way back from a job at work we stopped in breifly at Te Awamutu Auto Wreckers in Kihikihi. I was really just looking for Chevette/Gemini/Piazza parts but as luck would have it, I would find alot more. While looking at a little AA63 Carina I looked to the side to see this.

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I didn't quite know what it was because of the lights, and the "Berlinetta" someone had stencilled on the side.

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Then as I saw the rear hatch I realised it was actually an Opel Manta B. The very car that people use parts from for the XE conversion in the UK. I had rulled out any chance of finding one as a parts car so when I saw this one I was over the moon!

This car has sump, mounts, gearbox, driveshaft, speedo cable and diff, (not to mention other stuff that I'm not yet aware of) that has the potential to help with the conversion.

It is fitted with a "big wing" sump that sits right up high against the block to clear the steering and the cross member, then drops down just behind it to still have a large oil capacity.

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The mounts also appear to be perfect so I nabbed them aswell.

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Massive thanks goes out to Mike-e for helping me out with the Manta parts recovery mission. It was an epic day fulled with bog, socks, grease and thorns, but we got the job done in the end (and even got to push the boggy Manta off its perch on top of that filthy Challenger :D ).

After acquisition of the sump and a few other parts it was time to check fitment on the ecotec.

As you can see below, the twincam blocks cradle sits too low to allow the sump to go on but thats fine, as I'm using a singlecam block.

ecoblockcradle.jpg

I didn't manage to get any pics at the time but I fitted up the Manta sump and it went on perfectly. The engine is sitting nice and low on the steering.

Next we got it sitting back in the engine back so that the mounts lined up and just used a few 25mm pipe sections on each side to space the mounts out to suit. It worked well and the engine is dummy mounted to check gearbox clearance etc.

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The other good thing about the Manta sump is that it is a RWD sump, rather than a FWD one. This means the engine will sit in a more upright position so its looking a little bit better now.

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The gearbox was sitting a little tight, so I took to the tunnel with a hammer, gently massaging it into shape :lol: Chris (aka sexyminor) came and gave me abit of a hand/advice while doing this, which was much appreciated. Unfortunately my handy work with wacking shit isn't up to scratch, so Rob from Cartune bashed the shit out of it the following day and now it looks good. Well, as good as a bashed tunnel can look anyway. Its amazine how much more room he got without destroying it too much.

Now that clearances were pretty much sorted it was time to look at the intake.

We have a few options for mounting the 20 valve throttles. I considered cutting the flanges off one of the two ecotec intake manifolds but they were far from suitable for this.

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Instead I'm getting some S/S plates fabricated in the same dimensions as the standard 20 valve intake with hole drilled for the alignment dowels etc.

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The 20 valve throttles were a good option and I realised this when I saw the simplicity of the linkages and the fact that they all operate off the throttles themselves and don't rely on any external mounts or the intake manifold itself.

eco-20vthrottles.jpg

And I found the reason why people don't use factory 20 valve trumpets.

20vtrumplen.jpg20vtrum.jpg

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At this stage I'm just waiting :cry: and its frustrating the fuck out of me.

I have a spare head getting rebuilt and we just need to get a couple of little things sorted out/measured up, then we can whip the block out and get them both down to the engine shop to swap the parts over and do the rebuild.

The exhaust manifold flange, intake manifold flange and the 20 valve throttle flange are being cut from mild steel and stainless steel respectively and should be ready tomorrow.

Hopefully before we pull the block out tomorrow we will have sorted out a little clearance issue to do with the back of the head vs. my brake lines :) Then I can get the guys from ATL Ballancing down to measure up the drive shaft and take the very overweight flywheel away to be lightened and balanced.

I am talking to a guy this afternoon about a custom fuel cell which will bolt in, in place of my standard tank and that will mean I won't need to muck around with my old tank, a pick up pump or a surge tank, which will take away alot of the hassle of the fuel system. Then we can just mount that and the VL pump and run some lines through.

Wiring should be relatively straight forward also. I've already received my link G3 and I know they aren't ultra difficult to wire in.

There will be a couple of little issues through there, probably relating to the wiring and getting the thing started and running right so I just want to get it together asap, so we have a few days to iron them out before I take it to thrash it on a track :D:D:D:D:D:D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not the big update I was hoping for, that is still to come.

Car has been out at Sinco Customs getting fabrication work done. This includes fuel cell, fuel lines, brake lines, mounting fuel pump, intake manifold and exhaust manifold. There was a couple of extra things I wanted to get done but unfortunately time isn't on my side at the moment.

I'm still unsure about a few things including diff and rear shock set up so I'm working through that at the moment.

My flywheel is getting lightened and the driveshaft has been made.

Today I spent most of the morning wrecking a parts car at some random dudes house.

chevetparts.jpgchevetteparts.jpg

I got heaaaaps of parts, more than in the pic... all for $80 so thats cool.

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For Chevette and Gemini new comers, when pulling out springs remove sway bar mount, bottom shock bolt and the big bolt that goes through the whole lot and lower the arm as in pic below. Its the fastest and best way. Popping the balljoints can be faster, but it is ultimately gay and will wreck them.

springthing.jpg

I found these at a wreckers. I want to get them for the slicks to race on but the dude wants $300 and they are only 6inch so I probably won't get them. They look cool though.

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AND.... sneak peak into the engine fabrication side of things.

ecoquadsintake.jpg

Opel ecotec sucking on quads yo :doubt::D

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This is actually the work I did prior to it going out for the Fabrication work. Was going to wait until I got engine in to do a big update but I'm tired and bored.

This is the clearance of the dirty Opel Manta B Sump.

dirtysumpclearance.jpg

I saw it was cast alloy so decided to clean it up. It came up blinging. This is it next to the twincam ecotec sump and the singlecam sump. You should be able to tell which is which, and you can plainly see why I can't use the twincam sump. Also, you can see that the Manta sump can't be used with the cradle of the twincam block.

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Tunnel was tight, so it got the bash

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We put the engine together in complete dummy form, missing pistons and all, to do all the Fabrication work and so I could also get my real engine rebuilt while the other work was going on.

ecodummy.jpgtwincamdummy.jpg

Fitted radiator with dummy engine in place. It looks good sitting right up against the radiator support panel and well out of the way. Just need to change one pipe over and do afew other little things.

ecodummyrad.jpg

The water system is actually abit of a cunt, requiring heaps of fabrication, changing from a weird plastic radiator in a FWD vectra to a filthy torana one in a RWD chevette makes things a little harder haha.. but we don't need to go into that just yet.

This is the best thing ever. OrganiZOR

organizor-1.jpg

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Engine rebuild pics.

Now that I have pulled both engines down I've found that I pretty much could have used the twincam block. I would have just needed to remove the cradle and block up a hole where the dip stick used to go. I'm a little bit frustrated about this, but it hasn't really set me back at all because the engines getting rebuilt anyway.

As with most modern heads, these ports were very well designed and a good size. There is very little increase in power if any, in enlarging them so I opted against it and just got them cleaned up a little.

intake.jpgexhaust.jpg

He took the EGR part out of the bottom of the exhaust port, just to allow it to flow a little better. This has been matched on the extractors also.

Before

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AFter

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The pistons were quite different

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but the rods had journal size, which is good.

singlecamvstwincamrods.jpg

And just some general pictures of the head looking nice.

ecoheadrebuilt.jpg

ecoexhaustport.jpg

And another pic of the dummy engine..

ecoindummy.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thread updates leaned out towards the end because of obvious time constraints.

Got driveshaft back. It was abit of a killer as the gearbox is a solid mount, just like the torque tube universal, so instead of just changing and end like I was planning, they basically designed a whole new driveshaft. This cost quite abit.

DS.jpg

The expensive part is the slipper yoke, which can be seen here - one of these things is not like the other etc

DScloseup1.jpgDScloseup2.jpg

On tuesday we got the engine back. Unfortunately it was all timed up wrong from the engine shop, which is a little concerning. Kelvin was on to it though and got it back right when I was just thinking it looks abit off, but ahwell.

Put my bits on and made sure it all looked alright.

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Mounted the link and did some other stuff inside the car - pics are just of mess, thats not the link mounted or anything.

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Stuck fuel shit together a little bit ruggedly on a shit of Ali, but seems to do the trick. Spent aaggggeeeessss doing it haha

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Mounted the Gemini throttle pedal, using an R32 skyline cable because it bolts onto the firewall easily.

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Rigged up throttle linkages to test.

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Got to Tuesday and the motor still isn't even in the car. We were getting the blanking plates sorted. Had to route a hole for the water to pass along the back of the engine and come out the intake manifold for the heater/temp sensor return. There were some issues here including me grinding into the oil gallery/head bolt area.. twice :( lol.. fuck its thin. Got it welded up though :D

Also got flywheel back and mounted all that up. After a little issue with having the wrong clutch plate (because we could choose from around 10) it went on.

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More water shit made and Rob fixed up the mounts nicely also.

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Started doing some late night wiring. Its not the one.

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Theres just something about AE86's that make a workshop look like a proper "performance shop"

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Anyway, back to work. We wipped out the dummy engine finally.

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And dropped in the real engine for good

:D

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We had issues on Wednesday with the extractors and got them remade to sit higher. Unfortunately this didn't quite work and they had to be redone again on thursday along with a section of the exhaust, which ended up sitting to low to run the 13's :cry:

Bolted up gearbox. The Chevette cable went straight in to the Comodore box.. who would have guessed :)

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Unfortunately when the guys checked the movement of the thrust pinion/bearing they found it wasn't even going near the pressure plate.

Turns out the combination of Vectra flywheel and Daewoo :oops::oops: clutch/pressure plate set up that we were using was different to that of the Opel engined commodore, the thrust bearing that we got to suit the box wasn't going to work.

Kelvin sorted a stepped one which did the trick, meaning I don't have to use the HUUUGGGGEEE 30lb+ flywheel from the comodore.

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________________________________________________________________________

Now it came to the final hours. Around about 9 at night and everyone was going hard on the car. Sooooo impressive, 2-3 people doing wiring, 1-2 doing fabrication stuff and a few others offering verbal encouragement and tidying all the many loose ends. I counted 9 at one stage, but didn't get any photos.

Kelvin and hayden busy at work in the engine bay. Sam, Rydawg and Rob hiding from the Camera.

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Stuck the interior back in. Yay, almost looking like a car again!

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Time for fuel! It was around 2am and I was kind of wondering what the hell we were doing.

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Bit of down time so took some photos of the carpark. Kelvin is less than impressed with our selection of cars :D

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Time to test for spark. (Notice Vectra coil pack)

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Its weak, but its there.

^ don't ask about the voxtak. Sleep deprived peoples find even the simplest things funny it seems....

Fucking little cunt of an arse just didn't wanna start. Made some really loud bangs though!!!

Kelvin came up with another idea consisting of 4 individual Nissan VQ30DI coil packs.

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After cooking 2 of them and filling the workshop with the tasty smell of burning coils, we found it wasn't going to work. Only one coil was firing and Kelvin wasn't keen to fuck around trying to find out why.

Off they came and on went the Mitsubishi coil pack.

Ignition! Straight away, first turn of the key, 7:00am in the morning haha. What a great day

:D

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Smacked other wheels on and we were off on the first of a few tuning runs.

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Fuel tank leaked hard, as the sender wasn't in properly. Rob got that sorted. Car didn't turn off, had to pull out main relay, kelvin fixed that with my big and obvious kill switch :lol:

After we found that the Bellet had a blown head gasket (again) it was suggested that perhaps we could trailer it down to Taupo to get it there and just drive the Chevette. I was more than happy with that idea, so thats what we did.

Umm.. I think thats nearly everything.

________________________________________________________________________

Only thing left is to get emo and thank all these cunts that helped me out in the last month!

Thankyous are epicly gay I know, but fuck it. Heaps of cunts put in heaps of effort for a fuckin Chevette, and that shit doesn't happen very often, so here goes!

Massive thanks to Kelvin, Rob, JB and the other Cartune boys, not only for going along with my stupid ideas but also for putting in so many late nights /all nighters.

Thanks also to Sam (loceda) for helping out so much and then taking on a huge project a month out from os nats and working on it so much harder than me, meaning I had to get mine done otherwise I'd be a homo!

Same goes to rydawg (nobumps) and sloth for putting in the hard yards on thursday .. big night, chur boes :)

GM/T boys are next, cheers for help and parts on request (burntrubber, prozac, cul8r etc). Cheers Leon you bastard, I'm pretty sure it was you who said using a C20XE might be an option when I was oh so set on Toyota goodness. :D

Cheers to Oldschool fellas too, especially Mike-e for epic manta and chevette diff mish's and spence and sexychevette for cruises to pickup/dropoff car.

lol fuck thats enough...

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The Makes/Models that my car now consists of:

Body - Vauxhall Chevette Estate

Head - Holden/Opel Vectra B

Block - Holden/Opel Vectra A

Sump - Opel Manta B

Engine Mounts (engine) - Opel Manta B (modified)

Engine Mounts (crossmember) - Ford Cortina

Radiator - Holden Torana (modified)

Radiator Overflow - Nissan Bluebird

Fuel Pump - Holden Commodore

Coils - Misubishi Lancer

Leads - Mitsubishi Lancer (modified)

Throttle Pedal - Holden/Isuzu Gemini

Throttle Cable - Nissan Skyline

Throttle Bodies - Toyota Levin

Gearbox - Holden/Opel Commodore/Senator

Flywheel - Holden/Opel Vectra B (lightened)

Clutch Plate - Holden Camira

Pressure Plate - Daewoo Leganza

Thrust Bearing - Nissan Skyline (possibly)

Clutch Cable - Vauxhall Chevette

Speedo Cable - Opel Manta B (modified)

Differential - Vauxhall Chevette (original)

Rear Shocks - Holden HG Ute

Front Shocks - Suzuki SJ41 (modified attach.)

Front Brakes - Isuzu Piazza

Rear Brakes - Vauxhall Chevette

Front Bushes - Holden/Isuzu Gemini Nolathane

Front Swaybar - Holden/Isuzu Gemini Uprated

Front Springs - Holden Torana (modified)

Rear Springs - Misc (modified)

And heaps of custom bits too. Its going to be confusing when things start to need replacing.

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Just clearing out a couple of other photos etc

Need to bash tunnel and play cutty cutty to get shifter in good position. Shifter also needs to be modified which makes it prone to falling apart, read: loosing drive on Taupo Race Track :cry:

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The Manta oil return/dip stick thing makes things easier aswell, because it has a flexi hose and the dip stick is mounted in the right spot. Just needs to be bent abit.

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More water shit. I stuck the radiator in nice and tucked away and ran a remote filler cap. Overflow bottle is from a Nissan U12 Poobird.

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Link hiding under dash and abit of wiring of fuses/relays etc that will get hiden in years to come.

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And a super duper hoover remoover vacuum collector thingy to try and get what little vacuum there is and regulate it a little for the MAP Sensor referance and brake booster.

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And heres some pics of the intake manifold/fuel rail/injectors for those that were asking. Its real hard to see whats going on as its extremely cramped in there.

man.jpg

man1.jpg

man2.jpg

You can see the fuel rail in the top pics with the pink writing on it and the injectors are shown in the last one.

This is why we couldn't stick them on top with the current setup. I may look at making a longer, higher manifold in the future that sits the throttles right out away from everything and put the injectors back in the top but this seems to be working well at the moment.

mthrot1.jpg

mthrot2.jpg

And...

I decided I will focus on getting a cert pretty soon... :cry::lol:

fggf.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 years later...

ATTN ADMIN: Don't delete or tell me off, this thread has officially been purchased by Crazy-me

Right some/most of you will know by now that I bought this beast... picked her up today finally! Been paying Brad some $$$ each month since January.

Still have some more $ to pay but reached an agreed ammount where I take possession.

Ear to ear grin after taking her for a wee blat around the back roads of muriwai... got it home and unloaded and immediately dove in and bolted in a drivers seat and of course had to try on the wide steels (was on some temp wheels) as I have never seen them in person on car (well OK I have but only briefly a few years ago)

Anyway heres some pics, hopefully I can sort out getting the thing legal ASAP!

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  • 2 weeks later...

IMG_2562.jpg

First modification made... although the rims were supplied by Brad. Still feels like I'm storing it for him rather than owning it, time and more $$$ dropped into her will change that. The 14" Manta rims raised her well over an inch which is great as it was around 50mm @ the sump with the widened steels on. Will not be selling or disposing of the steels, just can't run them all the time. and certainly not when attempting to get car legal!

Got a good deal on some near new 185/55/14 Yokohama GP's on the rear and some Bridgestones on the front $85ea from Tyrebusters in Glenfield the owner Peter loved the car, especially the widened rims :lol: he is into his old cars and has a MK1 Cortina Racecar himself.

Anyhow plans are to clean up the Manta GSi seats Brad supplied, fit rails onto Chevette rail frame, (strange set up in Chevettes) tidy up interior, install rear seat belts, remove heater fan and seal up firewall- (coil packs mounted in a cutout in heater box, other option is have heater box modified to accomodate coil packs and keep heater...) find someone to modify stockj Gemini wagon gas tank to accomodate supplied Vectra in tank fuel pump and remove the fuel cell, try and fit the supplied BMW Airbox and maybe try for a WoF so I can get around in it until $$ recovers enough to put through compliance. Oh yeah, needs some paint touch ups... will need to get onto some of these ASAP. Might even look into reinstalling some iof the absent stereo equipment... although this isn't a priority!

Having multiple projects is a terrible idea and slows things down a lot... however as this is the nearest to completion I think it deserves some time/money spent on it...

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As the engine bay is now... plans are to tidy it slightly, eventually repaint bay and smooth out holes brackets not used... hide coil packs behind heater cover and a few other boring things, maybe relocate battery just to maintain a clean empty engine bay, we shall see.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 6 months later...

Right... some news.

Finally got sick of my cunt mate not coming and finihing repairs of his shitty MR2 in my good garage and have pulled Chevette to pieces in my shit garage. Not impressed but was unwilling to wait any longer.

Unimpressed I have found some rust too... but it is a Chevette, WTF was I expecting?

The crossmember dropped after using an angle grinder on it, at some stage some monkey (sorry if it were you Boe-Rad) has replaced a bolt with a stud on a fixture which can only drop down vertically... chopped the crossmember at this stage, may be able to bend new fixture to slide over said stud and bash it flat again... may even get someone out here to pull stud out and tap new thread... we'll see.

Have Gemini crossmember ready to pull down. Dbl wishbone suspension is cunty to remove springs from. So I took it to my mates and we ran a gas torch thru em. The springs in the Chevette are so small once you release shock they fall out. Love it.

Anyway job for today is get spare x member on bench and strip it down, scrape off excess gunk and steam clean it, wire wheel it, steam again and go buy some type of paint for it. Hoping I can have it back together by this evening, photo's will be taken and posted when the busyness halts...

Right now I have a Chuv which needs it's wheels so to the rescue I go!

PS: Forgot to mention sump... oh dear. Scrapey scraped pretty bad, sump plug is ground down hardcore, is at back of sump on an angle so is missing the hole corner off the hexagon if ya know what I mean. Will replace when wide steels come off which will be as soon as I mash on my 14s (after replacing one of the tyres heheh)

As you were!

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PPS: Forgot to mention undercarriage... exhaust was much better than I thought it may be... mild scrapes, havn't smashed off a muffler or anything bad. Floor pan is another story altogether... lots of carnage gone on there. Bashed up all over the show... Thank god this one is carpeted (well kinda...) it would irritate me like mad! Also so low it has popped most of the rubber floor bungs out so now I know where some of the wet stuff is from when I drive in the rain (very rarely... car is DANGER in the rain!)

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