My 1999 Vectra GSi 2.5 V6 complete change (PIC HEAVY)...

Hi guys.

Been a while lol ;) But from a request or 2 I am popping up a build thread of my Vectra GSi.

Now for those that know me will know I am a Vauxhall man at heart. Had a couple of scoobies but never again! lol. Plus, i'm a buggar for not being able to resist a bit of modding.

This time is no exception and is probably the furtherst I have ever taken a V6 engine and i'm not quite finished yet hehe. There are 3 main things left but will list those later in the post.

After getting fed up of the last Subaru costing a fortune to run, I decided to go back to Vauxhall and as I was using the Scooby to part ex, the ball was in my court for being able to find a special one. Didn't take me long to settle for an ex-press car (1 of 9 vectras used for What Car, Top Gear, Auto Express etc). Very well looked after and the engine had been rebuilt only 20,000 previous to me buying it so knew all the major bits and bobs of the engine were sweet.

I also had never had a black car and really wanted one this time round and was very tidy but covered in swirl marks when the sun hit it which did make it look a it's age. That didn't take me long and within 3 days I had done a full paint restoration :)

When I got the car it had a few nice touches here and there like blue silicones, VXR wheels, blue brakes and couple of other bits and I really liked it but had to make my mark of course. Heres the old girl the day after I picked it up...


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And as mentioned first things first was the paint restoration...


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More to come momenterally...
 
First on the list was to get rid of the none standard wheels and found a set of orignal prefacelift GSi wheel with tyres for £50!!! Not in the best of condition but didn't mind that as I was reconditioning them anyway. And as some of you may remember, i'm a dab hand with a spray can when doing this as I did it to my old scoobies wheels. So as the saying goes "a picture speaks a thousand words", I let them do the talking...


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£25 spent at Halfrauds...


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And let the magic commense...


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At the same time of fitting the wheels. I had in my head an image of what I wanted the car to look like without looking like every other vectra. So chose kawasaki green and this would be the highligh colour through out the whole car. So did the brakes first at the same time of fitting the new wheels...


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More to come momenterally...
 
Next on the list was to fit a strut brace and get rid of all the blue under the bonnet and went with the kawasaki green for all the hoses. This is how it looked after I added a bit of engine bling and the strut brace...


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The after I had replaced all the cheap tacky plastic hose coverings, replace the cable conduit with brand new black pipe, and added a bit more bling along with the silicones...


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More to come...
 
So once I was happy with how she was looking, I set about getting the important stuff done such as handling and tuning :)

First of, a small fortune had to be spent lol. So bought the FK coilovers, Brembo drilled and dimpled disks with uprated mintex pads (good combo for the vectra). New drop links, new lower arms, new whiteline rear anti role bar and polu bushes all round.

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More to come...
 
Car had to come off the road for a couple of weeks as the aux belt tensioner decided to explode and took the belt with it aswell. I was just very lucky it didn't wrap around the crank pully and wipe out the engine.

Here the new and old pully next to each other...


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And this is what was left of the belt lol...


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So once she was put back on the road, It was time to start with the serious stuff on the engine. It already had a straight through race system (1/4 inch larger bore) from cat back so a 150 cel sports cat was fitted to help with the breathing.

Thing is with these engines, they are amazing if you spend the time to make them breath properly on the inlet and the exhaust. So went onto Courtenay sport and bought a pair of CS10 heads, which are basically entirely reworked and made 10% larger. Didn't have a pic of these going in but certainly can show you where my money was spent with a shot after they had been reworked and sent back to me...


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Then work started on the inlet system. So got hold a 3.0 lower devider which connects the lower plenum to the heads, and a spare 2.5 lower plenum to start the porting and polishing...


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And heres before I started the port matching. You can clearly see there is a decent ledge all the way round that needs to be blended in for the 2.5 plenum to match the 3.0 devider. You can clearly see the big ridge that runs down either side of the devider ports that had to come off aswell...


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I then set about porting a smothing out the plenum and devider (it still almosts looks like there is still a large ledge on the plenum, that is just where the flash caught the fresh metal, but I assure they are ported nicely ;) ) ...

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Here you clearly see how i've opened out the devider and removed the ridges...


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So next task now is to remove the devider whcih will allow me to get the drimmel right in and finish the blending in as theres still a afir bit to come out yet, which i'll be uploading pics of later this afternoon but very impressed so far and it's alot easier to do that originally thought. Just gotta grow a pair and get in there with the drimmel (hence why I bought a spare set to work on just incase.

I decided to give the plenum and fuel rail and good clean down and also gave the plenum a nice fresh coat of paint...


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As mentioned I'll get the finished porting pics a bit later on, but what do ya reckon then guys?
 
So as Needed to seperate the devider and plenum and working on opening the plenum up heres one showing the difference and even in this pic you can clearly see it's been opened out...


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As I was doing this properly I thought I may aswell go all the way and have not only ported and enlarged to the devider, I have decided to polish the rest of the tube to remove the weld grooves and imperfections all the way. Looks stunning in the flesh and well chuffed how it's turning out.

In these couple of pics, all of the ports are matched to the devider, just needing to be opened out through the plenum tubes, but you can clearly see 2 of the tubes are looking sweet now they are ported, enlarged and polished :) :)...


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Measured before and after and have taken roughly 2.3 - 2.4mm off the entire wall from end to end and blending it over the length of 4 inches to the size of the 3.0 devider. Could not have gone right through if I didn't have the flexible extension for the drimmel which allow me to go at it from either end to reach the middle.

But heres the finished article with 6 beautifully ported, enlarged and polished plenum pipes...


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Hard to see cuz of the light but looking straight down one of the tubes and is way noticably bigger :)


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Opposite end of the pipes before, and if you look closely you can see the start of the lip on either side where the 2 pieces are welded together that runs both sides of each pipe from ened to end and that had to go...


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And after, with no welding lip...


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All that was used to do this was just 3 or 4 different bits for the drimmel.

- Square ended cylinder stone to remove the big ridge on the devider.
- Dome ended stone to get the port matching right.
- Very rough sand paper inserts to enlarge the pipes.
- Fine sand paper inserts using the drimmel very lightlly to polish the surface of the pipes.
- And one brass wire brush to clean the gasket surface and polish off the swarf when finished ;) ...

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Most definatly worth doing properly. Very time consuming but a careful job means a proper job ;)

I managed to bore out the tubes quite a bit more to finish them off and had lots of time so set about fitting the new parts.

A good strip down of the parts. String is very handy at this point to tie the parts out of the way, that way you dont have to take them off the engine and can leave all ancilleries :) ...


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Heres a shot of the 2 plenums side by side and you can clearly see the difference...


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Old...


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New...


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Here's the new and old devider compared to each other and in these you can really see how much has been taken out just to remove the ridge on either side of the ports...


Old one removed...


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New one fitted...


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Took me a couple of atemptes to get the devider lined up perfectly but here you can see just how close the opened out 3.0 devider is to the ports of the CS10, 2.5 heads and is a very close match without having to machine it so will do nicely for now ...


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Plenum and new injectors refitted...


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Injector rail and loom back on...


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Once the engine was back together it was time for test run and jesus christ was I impressed. So after speaking to one of my old friends it was journey up to the midlands for a day on the rollers to get the best out of everything that was on the car.

Handy doing the fuel system as the injectors and FPR had to be removed anyway and the walbro fuel pump only took 45 mins hehe.

She made amazing numbers for a 2.5 but there is still way more to come. Yet as there is a 3.2 bottom end , equal length tubular manifolds, downpipes and decat...


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Then another session on the rollers and should be seeing way past 250bhp. Then hopefully at the end of the year, a Jenvey throttle body conversion and stand alone management.

I'm currently opening out a spare top plenum from a 3.2 V6 and should be fitted with full progress pics in the next day or 2 to free up the top end that last little bits hehe.

Heres a vid of the old girl on tick over and low revs after it had been all mapped with the engine parts fitted. Sound chuffin eviiiilll!!! lol...

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So what you reckon so far peeps?
 
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Luckily no one has posted but I finished playing with my DA with some Meguires 105 and 205 but shes looking stunning. Puts a smile on my face everytime I look at it :) ...


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fantastic read through mate and as allways well detailed out
Cars also looking fantastic mate
I love megs 205 its such a glossy polish and easy to work with
 
That looks superb. Love the vec b gsi and what you've done with yours.

Fancy fitting the cambelt to my 3.2 siggie in september and earning a few quid?

Hey if you don't ask you don't get. (;->
 
Easiest mod for the Vec C to make em look nice is a facelift conversion and use the front bumper, wings, lights etc from the VXR model. They can look quite nice then. But I agree, I do have a soft spot for a nice Veccy B saloon :)
 
Aye - I had a dark green 2.6 SRI saloon back in the day and I loved it.

I was serious about the cambelt too, I would rather pay someone competent a decent price than get spanked by main dealer prices/.
 
You do realise i'm 260 miles away from Rugby lol? Or are you thinking of coming on holiday down here and I do it at the same time?
 
Marvellous, looking forward to the next exciting episode
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Next epsiode is about a day or 2 away mate. I'm opening right out, a spare top plenum (where the throttle body attaches) and so far have taken off 41 grams of metal, enlarged the opening where the enlarged throttle body attatches, removed both butterflies from the oppsite end. Also have taken the wall back about half of it's thckness and polished right the way through.

It's nearly finished so as soon as it is, there will be some more piccies ;)

The 3.2 V6 arrives in about a week and once I have bought a spare pair of exhaust flanges, i'll be porting and polishing the heads on that and will also get some pics of. Then once it's P&P'd I will be ordering the equal length tubular system :)
 
Love it! Them V6's are very nice looking engines. What was wrong with the Scoobies!? Surely a mighty 2.5 V6 is far thirstier then a 2ltr Subaru!?
 
Love it! Them V6's are very nice looking engines. What was wrong with the Scoobies!? Surely a mighty 2.5 V6 is far thirstier then a 2ltr Subaru!?


You are joking aren't you lol! Gimmie a V6 over a bloody scooby any day mate. Mine is running just shy of 240 without a turbo or supercharger or NOS which means it's more powerful than alot of standard scoobs. No turbo to wait for, just raw power. So to see the look on a WRX owners face as I pull away from him is hilarious lol.

Plus my Vectra averages about 29-31mpg depending, and the scooby was around 20-23mpg depending how it was driven and had to be run on Superunleaded aswell :(

Parts for the scooby were getting rediculous tbh mate and couldn't justify keeping it so took the plunge and used the oppotunity to come away with a very nice car, the money left started the modding off and the rest is history :)

Dont get me wrong, scoobies are fun but when the downs out weigh the ups, it was time to get sensible.
 
I see.. I only questioned as my brothers friend has my brothers Subaru. He isn't the wealthiest guy on the planet and he manages okay! Given he only drives it on the weekend. Both cars seem to drink a fair amount!
 
Insurance is a killer aswell. Part prices. and general running costs. Plus scoobies are common as muck now they are cheap to buy.
 
Fair enough! Shame though, I would love a Subaru. Regardless, the Vec is a one tasty looking motor mate. What do they drive like?
 
I guess it'll be the v6 off the omega you'll be fitting They look good too

Funnily enough no ;) Too much needs to be swapped over for the 2.5 parts due to the Omega being RWD. So using the 3.2 from the Vectra C GSi means all you need to use from the 2.5 engine is the inlet system, which i've just finished porting and polishing and the CS10 heads i have fitted and job done. You have to change the engine mounts, sump, manifolds, oil dip stick pipe, rocker covers for position of the oil cap if you use the Omega engine. Vectra version is already FWD ;)


Fair enough! Shame though, I would love a Subaru. Regardless, the Vec is a one tasty looking motor mate. What do they drive like?

They ok for what they are in standard form, but become extremely good if you put coilovers, poly bushes, uprated mounts, strut braces, cambre adjustment kit, uprated ARB and drop links and with a good set of tyres like I have ;)

I hate driving my 2.2 SRi vectra as that is standard and floats around all over the place in comparison lol.
 
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Got the wax on the old girl yesterday and as it was such a stunning evening I went out for some sunset shots...

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Your car looks stunning mate. I have same question as davalav, what wax do you use / prefer / recommend?

Cheers guys.

Well to be honest I have about 13 different ones depending on the finish I want ;)

You HAVE to do this stuff properly. No good just using a wax to remove swirls etc as all you are doing is filling the swirl marks with polymers which after a couple of washes looks like you haven't done a thing.

So, it's NOT just a case of what to use for polishing and waxing the car, you need to have good products for the washing and drying process aswell as any valator will confirm.

I'll give an example of the finish I did the other day for the recent sunset pics. Best resaults I find for my car is:-


- Jet wash/rinse the car off using warm water (barley luke warm but help melt the grease)
- Quick 5 min soak with a degreaser spray round the lower half of the car (bumpers bottom of doors etc)
- Another warm rinse off.
- Then attack the car using Cherry Snow Foam (which you need to buy the lance adaptor aswell) and leave to soak for 15 mins.
- Cold water rinse off.
- Full Clay bar kit over the car.
- Cold rinse off again and dry with Meguires micro fibre drying towel (loads better than a chammy leather)
- Meguires Paint cleaner.
- Meguires 105 for removing the swirls from the paint properly rather than filling them)
- Meguires 205 as it's smaller compounds and leaves a better finish.
- G3 paint restorer to remove any marring.
- 2 coats of Dodo juice resin polish, first by machine, then a second by hand using a foam applicator pad (second coat remains thicker due to less pressure from your hand ;)
- Cold rinse off and dry to remove any polish dust particles etc.
- 1 coat of Meguire NXT 2.0
- 1 coat of AutoGlym Ultra Deep shine which is amazing on dark cars.
- Finally finish it off with a brief rinse and dry removing all polsih/waxing dust from the seems grooves etc, and the results speak for them selves.

The all thats need to top it up is a cold wash with G3 detox shampoo and the same stuff you use from the clay bar kit which is Auto Glym quick detailer with microfibre cloths :) Repeat every 3 months with a decent waxing once a month and you have a tidy car ;)
 
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It can be but then again black can be one of the best looking colours if polished correctly and I do like a mirror/glass type finish :)
 
Right this light was crap taking sme of these over the progress, bloody raining or snowing so either couldn't get the exposure or the flash just keeps messing it up so just a couple of them are a bit off but most are good ;)

I started by making the devider of the centre wall like a knife edge which is a common mod for these engines to improve air flow.

It's now about half inch past the lump that the badge sits in which has had the corners blended about as far as I dare lol. But still, you get the idea where i'm heading with it, and will continue as far down the plenum that the length of the drimmil will allow will be about half way I reckon without the extention tool (snapped it doing the lower plenum lol).

Started the polishing and Knife edge created...


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It takes a fair while just to creat the knife edge due to how much metal is there lol so as you can imagine i've take a few grams of metal off already in these next 2 pics...


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Heres a few more pics to show how much more I took out on the next stage. Just waiting for my camera to charge and i'll get some more show thats it's now past the badge recess. However, you can see in these pics that ALOT has been taken out. The ridge on the badge recess has roughly 2mm left and thats remaining to start the smooth devide of the airflow. Also the corners of the badge recess have had alot taken off to again help with the flow...

Few more gone since the last pics and not really touched the corners of the badge recess yet...


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And a load more gone since the above pic and corners worked alot...


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You will see in the pics now that the wall is even futher down past the badge recess and corners blended a load more. I have decided to grow a pair and taken a shed load of metal off the corners of the badge recess and still feels like I might be able to flow it all nicely, so will keep you posted but here you go...


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Load more taken off, corners blended quite nicely aswell now. Just need to smooth out the knife edge to tidy it up and get a throttle body gasket to remove the 1.4mm ledge where the plenum is smaller than the throttle body...


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And heres the end product and this has taken me quite a while and didn't realise just how much i've taken out till I compared to a standard one lol. The knife edge wall is 2.31 inches back from where it started in the centre. Then curved up and down to help blend into the stupid recess for the badge. The corners of said recess have had loads taken off to smooth them into the plenum. The the side walls have had a load taken off aswell as the plan was to open out as much to make up for the nasty ledge that the plenum has imediatly after the throttle body, this has also had a load taken off and smoothed in. Then the whole of the inside, 7 inches through, and again at the opposite end has had roughly 0.8mm taken off the entire wall polishing it. Only thing is it's hard to see it at the mo as the most of the inside is covered with swarf and stone dust but will get more pics when it's painted and cleaned ;)

So with out further ado, here the pics. This first one shows the opening out of the throttle body to inlet port to match the 69mm throttle body, also you can see the wall on the right has had loads taken off just inside the plenum...

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Better shot of said wall...


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You can see in this one a bit better the smoothing of the nasty ledge, this has had about 1.2mm taken off and smoothed in...


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And a gook look down inside shows how much smoother the air flow will be. I've smoothed the edges of the badge holes aswell on the side just help a bit but all together, my paint scales show that I have taken 23 grams of metal off the top plenum alone, not including whats still stuck to the walls inside lol, so opened out and smoothed quite a bit me thinks lol...


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Bloody awkward to get the camera at the right angle but here you see how far the wall has been taken back and the smoothing and blending...


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I get some money through on Friday and will be painting the plenum silver so the engine bay will still look sweet and will get a video once the whole system is together of what shes like on the road ;)
 
Awesome! Only question is... Whats the point of knife edging the entrance to the inlet? Surely once the air passes, where it hasn't been smoothed will distort the air flow?

I am probably wrong or misinformed, but would like to know anyway. :)
 
The wall to start with is basically just a slightly rounded wall thats about 3mm thick. Knife edgeing it gives better air flow and less restriction as does removing the corners and side walls and then the polishing side gives the air no resistance in flow. Plus it's basic rule of thumb, the more space you create, the more air can travel through :)

Plus the whole chamber has been smoothed out, it's just hard to see in the above pics because it's all covered in swarf and sanding stone dust. You will get a better idea when it's painted and cleaned this weekend ;)
 
The wall to start with is basically just a slightly rounded wall thats about 3mm thick. Knife edgeing it gives better air flow and less restriction as does removing the corners and side walls and then the polishing side gives the air no resistance in flow. Plus it's basic rule of thumb, the more space you create, the more air can travel through :)

Plus the whole chamber has been smoothed out, it's just hard to see in the above pics because it's all covered in swarf and sanding stone dust. You will get a better idea when it's painted and cleaned this weekend ;)

Ah, I see... :embarrest:

So polishing removes the friction created once its been edged? Makes perfect sense! I suppose it's a worth while mod as V6's I think, tend to be a bit... sluggish? Is that the right word? The only V6 engined car I've ever been in was my uncles V6 Omega... lol!
 
Yeh they can feel a bit sluggish in standard 169bhp form. The GSi is same size just with 2 3.0 cams on the inlet which knocks it to 192bhp. The 3.0 is 210bhp and the 3.2 is 220. I suppose a lazy feeling would describe it but thats the thing with V engines, they tend to be a smooth delivery of power through the range.
 
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