The 3.0 V6 Calibra :)

Right, as i've now had a chance to get christmas out of the way i'm now starting my modding up again on the Calibra so thought i'd get a thread together as this will be an ongoing thing.

As a few of you know she already has a shed load done to engine to get it up to 237.2bhp Which isn't bad at all considering its normally asperated and theres loads of room left for improvement. But in the size car it is, a 0-60 of 5.54 seconds isn't bad at all.

I bought the car from 200 miles away from where I live as I knew there was something special about this old gal. From the advert I already knew it had a 3.0 engine conversion from Courtenay Sport, plus a few other bits and since i've had it have done roughly about £2000 worth of work to get it up to the bhp mark it is now.

So when I set off to collect the car I had already convinced the chappy to come down from £1200 to £900. So I arrived and convinced him to let me pay £850 due to the fuel flap being broken and the piece of body kit missing. Jobs a good'n I thought.... until it came to TRYING to get it back home. Got on to the motor way about 5 miles down the road, and she chucked out so much smoke i lost my friend behind me. So drove back to the chaps house and we found out the engine had 2ltrs too much oil in :( So we drained it off, i made a call to see how much the damage was going to cost and told the chap to give me £150 back or he could forget it. So he did and haven't had a problem since. £700 bargain

So just to recap for you that haven't seen my thread, heres the list of the things that have been done so far:-

Tuned 3.0ltr engine from Courtenay Sport
Courtenay Light weight Flywheel
Courtenay uprated clutch
Courtenay 4 bar fuel pressure regulator
Uprated fuel pump
uprated injectors
Courtenay panel filter
Courtenay centre section
Equal length drive shafts (next best thing to a LSD)
Cool running thermostat
Larger radiator
25mm lowering springs
And remapped at Courtenay to 237.2bhp and 261lb of torque ( I love the Vauxhall 3.0 for the torque lol)

And heres what the old gal looked like when I first got it. Pretty much a wolf in sheeps clothing.

newcar1.jpg

Graphic1.jpg

Graphic.jpg


Soo, as i've now had my Kent Cams delivered (it's gonna sound incredible when it's done) I decided I want to start finding bits for the outside of the car. So after a bit of web hunting I found a red Calibra thats was being stripped and was 5 miles away. Went to have a butchers and ended up stripping most of the car for him if he would pay me in parts. So I ended up with a genuine Irmscher spoiler worth a few £££'s, a Rage back box which fits really well and also managed to buy his red fuel flap to replace my snapped one. Oh and the body kit pice.

You can't see very well but heres a shot of the spoiler in place aswell as the fuel falp on, I love the spoiler to bits a fortunatly is part of the Irmscher body kit I want.

NewSpoiler.jpg


I'll get some better picks tomorrow when the back box is fitted aswell. I just need to find a set of 45mm drop coilovers and a set of genuine Irmscher 17" wheels which are not easy to come by for under £300 second hand.
 
Last edited:
Click to expand...
Half way through the last onew now mate ;) They are a little longer than the first vid and i'm uploading all 3 one after the other
 
Hi guys.

Not got the video's running right yet as they seem to be a bit jumpy from the ride in the car. The motion is fine it's just like a scratched CD though. I'm trying to render them again so i'll try and get em asap. Sorry for the delay. I can however show you a wee vid on the lane leading down the Mallory. Should have that ready in about half hour.
 
Right, luckily managed to get one of the track vids working ok. It's only the 1st vid of 3 so no scooby race in this one but gives you an idea of the car.

 
Little update. Managed to get hold of the primer, paint and laquor for the wheels. Also have ordered a set of g-max lowering springs at 40mm drop so will be fitting these at the weekend. The set I had and was going to fit around xmas were for a Turbo and couldn't take the extra weight at the front so have sold those and bought these V6 ones instead. Will get some piccies up when done ;)
 
Actually not mate hehe. There are 2 very good set-ups for the Calibra available and not over priced either. The 2 kits are, Eiback Pro Sport spring set and Bilstien B4 black shocks (which if some of you remember I bought that exact se-up for the 2.5 V6 Calibra) the other setup is G-max Shocks and Springs and are very highly recommended for 3.0 Conversions as the shocks are good for the torque of the 3.0.

So as I already have g-max shocks and 25mm lowring soprings, all I need to do is buy shorter stiffer springs which work out to £86 for the set, which i'm not gonna complain about. Then next of the list is the complete entire set of Powerflex bushes all round on the engine and suspension which will make the ride very nice.

So you see MA, there is sense to my madness lol.
 
Another small update today guys. Managed to find a nice twin cone filter to replace the uprated panel filter. So proceeded today to remove the old filter and fit the new one. Off with the old:-

filter1.jpg

filter2.jpg


Once the new filter was fitted, I decided to nip out for a quick blast. Very very happy with the resaults. Better throttle response, smoother flat sport @ 3450rpms and seems to suit the exhaust system quite well as the breathing of the car is pretty much sorted already. So with the straight through and the filter, you can really hear the difference in air flow.

Heres a quick vid from when I got back with the new filter on:-



Funny thing is, now the filter is on, you can see the back end dipping from the torque of the engine just from revving it lmao! So all I need to do now if to fit the top half of the air box back on to stop any heat soak from the engine. There is very little as it is due to the filter sitting in the air box very well, so just need to seal it up:)

What ya reckon then peeps?

P.S. oh and by the way, the Volvo next to mine is the one thats coming to Mod Nats ;)
 
Last edited:
LMAO, its very random indeed, and as mine surename is actually Badger, all my mates think I made it lol.
 
Well hard at it today for about 3 hours removing all the crap from the engine. Had to take a few bits of just to get the thick grime off lol. But looks all the better for it anyway. Still nowhere near finished yet as I want to remove the bonnet carpet and most of the inlet pipe, battery tray and some ancilleries so I can give the red paint a realy nice t-cut and get the engine bay spanking.

But progress so far... Started like this:-

cleanbay1.jpg

cleanbay15.jpg


3 hours later and looks something like so:-

cleanbay2.jpg

cleanbay25.jpg


As said, still loads to do but i'll get onto later or do it tomorrow as the midday sun is getting a tad warm on my back lol
 
Quite a transformation! will be working on mine next weekend so hoping to achieve similar results, ;)
 
Yeh quitew alot of elbow grease, alloye wheel brush, 1 tub of Meguires Tyre gel (drys up and leaves no streaks or fake shinyness, 4 valeting cloths, 1 tub of silicone sealer (i use this on plugs that can get water in around where the cable attatches to the sensor/plug, and keeps them nice and dry and also stops the wire braking off so easily) and about 3 nours of you time is all thats needed.

Next step is to remove the battery, battery tray, all inlet piping and plastic from the back of the engine bay so I can clean the paint work up and try and get it as mint as the outside. Dont like chrome sticker crap that goes on the underside of the bonnet so will be removing the carpet and polishing the paint.

Next will be to remove the throttle body, traction control unit, inlet manifold and exhaust heat shield. Heat shield will be painted in heat proof chrome paint, and the rest will all be done in heat proof black exhaust manifold paint. Also need to get myself a pair of Vectra 3.2 Cam covers as they are metal and dont warp and leak like the standard plastic covers, you can see the metal ones in the pic below. I want to get it to look something similar to how I did my 2.5 V6 which looked like this:-

Sealed57i.jpg


Posting this pic again of the 3.0 engine so you can see the difference a bit easier.

cleanbay2.jpg


I'm part way there as I've already sealed the air filter, but would rather another carbon fibre cover like on the pic above of the 2.5. Plus I've replaced most of the inlet consertiened rubber with smooth piping, so just need to replace the last little bit of that, and get painting hehe.
 
Last edited:
this gunna soud fooked Badger seeing as you runing tha beast but i was told to speak to you. can you suggest any good engine mods for a calibra c20ne ??????????
 
ooh, yeh, spend £250 on a V6 and put it in. Unfortunatly mate the 2.0 8v engine has only one thing going for it when it in a Calibra, the fact they are bullet proof, thats it but 115bhp is really too little for this size car. So if you want to keep the c20ne, get yourself the camshaft from the old Cavalier SRi 130. They are the same engine but the cam knocks it up to 130bhp. Then get yourself an uprated exahsut system from the block-back. And also get a nice enlarged inlet and throttle body, once remapped should see you around the 140-145bhp area but will cost alot more than a 170bhp 2.5 v6 engine.
 
Get yourself the turbo kit then mate. Think its about £600-700 and will knock the car up to about 170-180bhp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
M Opel Calibra V6 Gallery for members only 44
I My Opel Calibra 2.0 16V Gallery for members only 12

Similar threads


Please watch this on my YouTube channel & Subscribe.


Back
Top