Not been around for a while, here why...

Here we are then guys. This is the journey to my quick Vectra lol. This is the 2.0 16v Calibra Turbo engine for the Vectra that i bought. Well the new engine is in and just waiting for 1 part which should be here tomorrow. The engine went in no problem and turns over with ease. We just need to sort the coil as the older engine hasn't got electronic ingnition.

So here's our journey to the stage I am at, at the mo

First things first, ROAD TRIP!!!

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Couple of shots of the new engine

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So then it was out with the old...

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Which left the poor Vectra without it's "Hamster in-a Wheel Power" lol

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Even my dog decided to lend a hand lol

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And then it was time to play with the real engine.

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I'm the one standing behind the engine by the way ;)

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Then it was time to clench buttocks as we lowered the new lump down to the gear box.

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Lots of rolling around on the floor which made our backs pretty soar lol

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Then Break time came

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Shot of the engine now fitted to the mounts properly, and my god was it a tight squeeze to get the intercooler, oil cooler and radiator down the front with the turbo in the way lol.

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And then we dragged another one of my mates into it aswell pmsl.

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Will get some more pics up when i've got it running after the coil arrives

The only thing i would say was a pain in the arse was the fact that we had to drive nearly 400miles round trip, just to pick it up lol, got it from Poole on the south coast in Dorset.
 
Cool - you've been busy. I seem to recall that you were happy with the car when you got it - I just knew you couldn't resist it. Will it be on the road in time for our Show? Keep up the good work m8ty!
 
I hoping it will be ready mate. Got it running today and my god does it shift lol.
 
Bit of an update for ya's.

Had a few little running in hick-ups such as water leaks, loss of power steering and also had a nice big stone go through the lower grill and wacked the oil cooler and split 6 of the 13 rows lol

Well I managed to win a nice reconditioned Oil Cooler (cleaned inside and out with new pipes) off ebay last night for £18 so well happy with that. Should be here tomorrow so the Veccy should be back on the road properly for the weekend. Managed to get a load more tidying done today and also fitted the sealed Pipercross induction kit, mounted the coil properly and is now virtually finished apart from the PAS fluid bottle. Still just need to hide the ECU in the bulk head where the original Veccy one was lol but it seems ok for now where it is. Doesn't get hot in the slightest.

This is how it looks now.

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Well done. Awesome job! Are you still up for a feature? It looks like everyone is having small issues at the moment with their projects. At least summer is now here and everyone is back on the road again!
 
Yes mate no prob's. I would rather do the feature on the Vectra though as I don't have any photo's of the 3.0 conversion process done on the Calibra other than before and after shot's.

I have some professionally taken photo's of the Vectra already aswell so just let me know what you need or you are more than welcome to use the "Progress" pic's from this thread aswell ;)

I have 1 video ready to upload of the Vectra when we first turned it over and i'm just waiting for the new oil cooler and i'll record another vid so you guy's can see/hear the difference.
 
Right then guy's got another update for you. Bit of a joint effort today from both me and my girlfriend. Turned her into a grease monkey aswell lol.

Well the nice reconditioned oil coiler from a Cav Turbo arrived today. Was so excited that after I signed the papaerwork I went straight outside in my boxer's started lining it up lol. Here's a shot of it.

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So after realising everything was all good and I had the right part I got some brekky down me and a good strong coffee and set to work with Lianne fitting the new oilcooler. Quite a pain in the ass really as I had to remove the radiator and intercooler just to undo the feed and return bolts lol. But luckily I had Lianne giving me a hand which made the work half as hard.

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After the new cooler had been fitted I needed to focus my attention on the power steering as those of you who have seen my power steering thread, I was having a problem working out how to connect the C20LET to the Vectra's power steering system. All I needed to do was to add a resovoir to the power steering system and beleive me, that wasn't as easy as it sounds. But managed to get one fitted no probs and the only thing that is slightly wrong with it is that the resovoir is sitting next to the air filter rather than behind the battery due to the lack of room lol.

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So when everything was done it was a case of having to tidy everything up again which gave Lianne the oppotunity to t-cut the underside of the bonnet and what a great job she did (can be seen in second pic) and I got on with adding the finishing touches to the engine such as hiding the last of the wires, black shoe polishing the black plastic areas etc and now people, the Sexy Vexy is finally finished :) YAHOOOOOO!!!

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Took out for a little spin about an hour ago to see how she's driving now and all I can say is WOW!!! We're so happy with it.


So what do ya think then guy's?
 
Cheers Jim. It just keeps getting better aswell. Cuz there one thing that I have to remind myself and that is that the engine is 15 years old and sat for 14 months before I bought it off the guy I had it off.

She's still running in which is great cuz you can feel a bit more power each time i drive it. Oh and my god do I need a Quaiffe LSD. keeps pulling to the right with the torque lol. So the LSD would allow both front wheels to spin rather than just the one. Plus it detect which wheel is spinnning quicker and transfers the power to the other wheel to even the delivery out.
 
Got a short vid together...

As above, managed to finish everything off, and have made a short vid to show you how she's running before I went out in it this morning. This vid is of her starting from cold. I don't take the revs any further than 3500rpms so I don't harm the engine, and she seems to take a couple of seconds to start but she starts instantly when warm.

She is also letting a little smoke out when she first turns over but after about 15 seconds that clears.

So here we are, she's not perfect yet but she's not far off.

http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k258/hunnimonster/?action=view&current=VideoDJ.flv
 
Yeh she goes like stink. If i'm not carefull she spins when the turbo kicks in in 1st, 2nd, and even 3rd if i give it some welly lol. Thats one of the nice things that I've done though which suprises most of my mates is that it over boosts in 1st gear.

There is a little switch that connects to the gear box and all I did was unplug it, cut the plug off the end and bind the 2 wires. Stops the ECU realising what gear it's in and boosts in every gear including reverse, which can be fun lol.
 
thats wicked mate, nice one. Do you want the shot of me and the girlfriend in front of the car for the article. Would allow people to see who I am.
 
More progress today guy's. Over the passed couple of days I noticed that the car wasn't running right at all. So after much tinkering I couldn't work it out. Then yesterday the water tank blew the cap off the top and I knew instantaly that it was the head gakst had gone and was forcing air from the piston into the water way.

So now that I have discovered what is wrong with the car, I didn't waste anytime on starting to strip the engine to remove the head. I've got the head gasket ready and it's a case of pulling the head out and then it's off the be skimmed, pressure tested and dipped in acid so it will come back like new :D

Very pleased with the condition of the top end. Here's a shot of the cam's, valves etc. just after the cam cover and first cam had been removed.

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For some reason the rear camshaft didn't want to come out so easily so will have to keep an eye on that when it comes to putting them back in. But got it out in the end. Here's one of the top of all 16 valves.

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When I finally removed the cams it gave me a chance to have a good look round them and was very pleased with the condition of them. There's no signs of scrapping on the valves or any build up of crap. And the seals seem to be pretty good aswell.

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Will get some more pic's when the head is off so you will be able to see the difference when I get it back ;)
 
Of corse. You have to look after your engine lol.

Neh it was placed over the top to stop any large particle falling inside the engine. Didn't really matter that much as the head was comin off anyway, but better safe than sorry ;)
 
Yeh i will be getting some RR resaults when the engine gets remapped so watch this space as far as that goes.

But anyway, bit off an update guy's. Finally got myself together and got the head sorted for the Vectra. and is now reconditioned and has been pressure tested. It looks like new as it's now been dipped. So with all the gaskets present My mate and I will be starting work over the weekend. So the Sexy Vexy shuld be back on the road by monday or tueday i reckon.

Couple of shots of the recond' head.

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Will post another update when all is working again ;)
 
Another update peeps.

Got the head back on now and the cams and cam caps are all in. Inlet manifold is now back together and mounted to the head.

So just a few more bit's to go now guys and she's back lol

I was recommended by a powder coated company to get some of this paint they said to use. Cheap yet very effective, well at least 50 times better than that crap you get from Halfrauds lol.

Pic's of where I am at now:

Heres the head back together -

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And here is the Turbo, Manifold and top hat painted in the recommended stuff. Looks well smart compared to what it was lol.

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Will get more up as soon as i've done some more work ;)
 
Right then guy's, finally got her finished.

She was up and running yesterday and when I took her a little ride out she blew the intercooler pipe off even though the jubilee was on tight, turned out to be a bit of grease was on the rim of the pipe which made it slip off lol. Massive thanks to my mate Petar for helpin me on that one ;)

Anyway, whilst i was doing a bit of tinkering this morning, I pulled off all the intake pipes, gave the ends a good clean so there was no sign of any grease and reconnected, and after a small blast this morning (not loads as the head gasket is bedding in) all seems to be well again.

I'm waiting for my video camera to charge and i'll get a small vid of her to see what shes like ;) but for now, heres a couple of shots from this morning after i'd finished. Still needs a little tidying but shes running lol

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Oh I was crappin myself mate. It wouldn't run at all for about half hour lol. Running sweet as.. now ;)
 
Well here we are then guy's. We have a 100% (apart from the spark plug cover and top hat cover lol) completed Vectra Turbo. The water system is running right, the revs are alot better, the engine runs 10 time smoother but the only thing letting it down at the mo is that it occasionally bogs ever so slightly when you rev it due to the air filter, but I have already ordered a new standard air box and uprated panel filter to sort that problem out ;)

So here is a vid of the old gal running this morning after i had been out for a little run. So she is up to temp already so don't worry about me revving it up to 1500rpms ;) if you listen when the camera goes round the back, you can hear it bog slightly.

http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k258/hunnimonster/?action=view&current=MOV00102.flv

So what do you reckon then guy's n' gals??
 
dont like vauxhall at all but gotta admit thats nice the white sets it off


you said the head had been dipped, what did you mean by that ?

take it its put in a slight acid sumthing like phosphoric to take the rust and crud off
 
meant to ask you said about cutting a wire to the gearbox to overboost in every gear.
does it work on the older (53 plate) astras if so what do you do?
mates got one and is always looking for cheap ways of increasing the boost
 
pgarner said:
meant to ask you said about cutting a wire to the gearbox to overboost in every gear.
does it work on the older (53 plate) astras if so what do you do?
mates got one and is always looking for cheap ways of increasing the boost

For starters, yes your right, being dipped does mean dipped in acid to take it right back to the original metal. Looks new when you have it done.

And as far as the 1st gear switch that runs to the gear box, all i can say is, tell ya friend to try it and see what happens. Worst that will happen is he'll have to reconnect it if messes the running of the car up.

I'm not as familiar with the Eco Tec version, too slow for me hense the Red Top version used in our conversion. But give it a go and see ;)
 
Hey guy's.

Well the looks of the engine are certainly gettin better now. As you may have spotted from my previous pics, I have already painted the top hat cover, the turbo, manifiold and top hat itself and it looks 10 times better (this is where it turns into how i was with the Calibra, just couldn't stop spending money on it lol)

So, I managed to get the spark plug cover alot earlier than expected and it look a treat.

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Just need to get the Rocker Cover powder coated and jobs a good n', but still unsure weather to go for White, Black or Charcoal Flake.

What do you guy's think?
 
black would make the chrome stand out more. although white would go with the car

id personnaly go with the black especially if it was possible to get a gloss finish to work with the chrome
 
What about red? White is hard to keep clean. Black will just make the engine bay look dark although the chrome will look great on it. :D
 
Yeh red has passed our minds but there is nothing else on the car that is gonna be red so there wouldn't be much point, but yeh your right, the chrome would look great against black.
 
Managed to get hold of a spare rocker cover the other day and a couple of spare gaskets which has allowed me to have a play to see what I like best. So here is the the Rocker in all it's glory done in white. I'm loving it so much i'm tempted to keep it lol

What do you think???

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