I've Saved Moon Monkeys Cavalier !!!

[MANTAMAN]

Not too much done just recently,sorted out the lighting,had to solder connectors onto the earths in the headlamps as the original ones crumbled when disconnected,i've also got the polisher at it and given it a go over with Autoglym colour restorer,much kinder to paint than T-cut type products as its not got an abrasive nature.

Here is the bonnet,one side done,the other to be polished.

Polished (not in every corner) and posing for the camera,there is much cosmetic work to do,like the front valance,clean the wheels properly etc.

I've got piles of all sorts of Manta parts,i might even have something you need!

surplus parts bought,whole cars considerd. M/B 07947 640505

OMOC Member number 2658F

Ian Virco,area rep,Beds Herts and North Bucks.

[MANTAMAN]

Custard went for its MOT on friday morning and it.... FAILED! faults- leaking brake pipe,perished tire,rust hole and emissions off the scale!

Back to the workshop and got stuck into the faults,putting another wheel on i'd got spare cured the tire problem and tightening properly the new brake pipe i'd put on cured the leak.Out with the angry grinder and the rust was soon cut away and fresh metal let in,next time i'll hide the MOT examiners little hammer before he starts tapping!at the start of this thread there is a photo of a rust bubble on the chassis leg with the capton 'no poking with a screw driver!'this is how it looks now-

A bit of underseal and its all good again,now for the emissions,this could be trickier,there is nothing wrong the innards of the engine so its carb ajustment and you can play with this for ages,after all the sh1te tis lump has given me perhaps i should have XE'd it !

I've got piles of all sorts of Manta parts,i might even have something you need!

surplus parts bought,whole cars considerd. M/B 07947 640505

OMOC Member number 2658F

Ian Virco,area rep,Beds Herts and North Bucks.

[keith1200]

emissions!!! ouch!! don't know if this trick will help?

Remove the airfilter before the re-test, It worked for me with my chevs and Viva (but they were just over the emissions test)

I've had personnal experience of emissions probs! and its a bloody nightmare.

maybe get hold of a good cab or the one on your blue manta? just to get it through its Mot.

[MANTAMAN]

The problem is over fuelling,so i cant nick a carb off a Manta because they are all set up for 1.9L/2.0L Engines which means they to would be putting too much fuel into a 1.6L.

What i might do is set the tappets agian or swop to a different set of hyrolic ones and take it back to the MOT garage and tell them to set the carb up,they are a good family garage that do a lot of work on various local classic Cars and i havn't really got the time for spending ages guessing if i've got it set up right.

I've got piles of all sorts of Manta parts,i might even have something you need!

surplus parts bought,whole cars considerd. M/B 07947 640505

OMOC Member number 2658F

Ian Virco,area rep,Beds Herts and North Bucks.

[mantadoc]

Deleted

Edited September 26, 2017 by mantadoc

[paul1393]

Ian I'm surprised you got away with that lower shock absorber rubber bush! In the photo it looks a bit worn out- if you get a bit of a knock from the front nearside you'd will be wise to change it.

Paul Holtom omoc #412

[MANTAMAN]

Right this Cavalier is now very,very close to getting a RIGHT GOOD KICKING!!

The engine has gone wrong again,AGAIN! This time a fault seemingly unconnected with the previous troubles,there is no oil getting to the top of the engine.when i put the engine back together the last time i know oil was flowing around the cylinder head as i tried to put in and adjust hydrolic tappets which failed so the solid ones went back in.in an effert to cure the rattle from the top end i put back in the hydrolic tappets i had replaced with the worn solid tappets with only to disscover on trying to adjust them no oil flowing around the cylinder head.

The oil pump is working because the oil light goes out when the engine is started so there must be a blockage between the bottom end and the head and yes it has got a sump full of oil!,what on earth this could be i cant even imagine but it looks like the engine will have to come apart yet again,i am really getting fed up with this,its a simple 1.6 CIH engine but it would have been less work to put in a 16 valve turbo!

It's extra inconvenient because i could do with it taxed and on the road because its taking up space that i could do with in my current storage crisis.I think i might have to give up with this engine as all its problems could stem from being mechined beyond its limits,i'll have to see what 2.0L engines i have lurking about,anything but take this apart again,its driving me nuts!

I've got piles of all sorts of Manta parts,i might even have something you need!

surplus parts bought,whole cars considerd. M/B 07947 640505

OMOC Member number 2658F

Ian Virco,area rep,Beds Herts and North Bucks.

[paul1393]

Ian, It must have crossed your mind but here goes any way...Is there more than one head gasket for a 1600 CIH could there be an early one for say Ascona/Manta A and a later one for the B with a slightly different oil way hole? Just a thought!

[Shug]

quote:Originally posted by paul1393

Ian, It must have crossed your mind but here goes any way...Is there more than one head gasket for a 1600 CIH could there be an early one for say Ascona/Manta A and a later one for the B

---

id="quote">id="quote">

There is.

There was a 1.6 and a 1.6S. The S was used in late manta A's onwards.

Dunno about oil holes tho, but the 1.6S gasket set I have is very specific on the engine its for suggesting its different to 1.6

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OMOC #5988

hmackay at opel-manta.com

Be the change you want to see in the world - Gandhi, India

Quit whining and shift yer **** - Shug, Edinburgh

[Snowy]

The head is off a 1600s manta A as that is what i sold to Pat to put on it when he was building the engine back up. Along with a CAM that was almost brand new.

Never knew there were different gaskets though.

Hope this helps Ian

[MANTAMAN]

The problem is not the Gasket,the oil was flowing well when i first tried the hydrolic tappets,been swopping tappets about but the head has remained on the engine but now no oil is getting up to the head,cant imagine whats gone wrong with it now.

Snowy- there seems to be some history of trouble with this engine,you say you sent a Pat a nearly new cam to put in yet when i first took the engine apart the cam was ruined by overheating (blue'ing) of the lobes and bearings due to it running dry of oil.there could be a re-occuring fault that i haven't traced,could even explain the cam timing jumping due to no oil pressure for the cam chain tensioner.

I've got piles of all sorts of Manta parts,i might even have something you need!

surplus parts bought,whole cars considerd. M/B 07947 640505

OMOC Member number 2658F

Ian Virco,area rep,Beds Herts and North Bucks.

[pat]

at a guess i would say a unknown engine fault is correct , there must be some intermittent blockage or some such as the car had the front 2 lobes worn initially but no evident oil pressure issues or lack of oil feed to the head , the replacement head was assembled with the as new cam & set up by charlie mac , ran very well , so that cam would appear to have self destructed in a short period of time.

That's about all the info i can provide regarding engine history.

hope that helps a little

based in crewe , cheshire

[Snowy]

Well all i can say is that the head was fine on the manta a it came from.

The only reason the 1600 came out of that car was to replace it with a 1900 Cih.

So the problem must be in the block somewhere??

[pat]

i'd definately agree with you there Snowy[]

based in crewe , cheshire

[paulmanta]

I bet the oil pressure bypass valve is sticking open, this is possibly unsticking sometimes and when it works you get oil flow.

it is usually in the timing case and is on the drivers side behind a big bolt head, its not in the oil pump head.

[MANTAMAN]

The head coming from a Manta does explain why a 45k miles engine has had its valve guides replaced.

I will have to investigate the oil pressure issue,either relief valve or bypass valve as is seems that this could be the route of the engines problems over the last few years.need to find something wrong that i can cure because this engine is doing my head in!

Just to add insult to my car injuries yesterday i took the Bedford for its retest which it passed,as i drove it out of the MOT bay and parked it up to pay and get the certificate the hand brake cable snapped!so the Bedford was a legal and usable for about 30 meters! and now i find that the handbrake cables are no onger made,a local parts supplier has one on thier computer which they hope to get in for tomorrow,if this turn outs to be a stock list mistake i'm sunk.

Paranoid? no they really are out to get me!

I've got piles of all sorts of Manta parts,i might even have something you need!

surplus parts bought,whole cars considerd. M/B 07947 640505

OMOC Member number 2658F

Ian Virco,area rep,Beds Herts and North Bucks.

[Joe]

There are still places that make one-off cables to pattern Ian. I was looking at adverts for two in Practical Classics yesterday in fact, so don't despair.

Try http://www.speedograph-richfield.com

or http://www.speedycables.com

Cheers,

Joe.

Please log into this site from the Home page folks. It helps to keep it as the first Manta site listed on Google.

[MANTAMAN]

Just looked and discovered that its been more than a year since i put anything about this 'blasted' Cavalier.

I say 'blasted' because there has been problem after problem getting the engine running,the oil pressure problem was caused by cam shaft types,one type has a grove around the front bearing on the cam to provide a pathway for the oil to reach the rest of the cylinder head,the other type has a plain bearing and a grove in the bearing shell in the head to allow the oil to flow past it to the rest of the head,i'd mixed a plain cam with a plain bearing head cutting the oil off to rest of the head,the local engine machine shop machined a grove in the cam for me and that was that problem solved.

But it would still not run properly because it backfired throught the carb,not just a bit but flames leaping out toward the bonnet!i looked for everything,wrong cam timing,wrong ignition timing,inlet valve not seated properly or seat damaged/chipped,inlet valve sticking open,hyrolic tappet(s) pumping up and holding an inlet valve open(tried a solid set of tappets) Checked for a hole in the bottom of the inlet manifold where its bolted to the exhaust. In all with the previous oil pressure troubles in total i've had the head off this engine TEN TIMES!

Thinking there might be something all but untraceable wrong with the head i took a spare head i had to the local Engine Machine shop to have it checked for flat and have hardend valve seats put in,the owner of the business,a true Engine Grand Master of 35 years experience suggested that the exhaust might be blocked.

Now as some of you will know that for the last few months my health has not been all it should be but as i've been getting alot better since Christmas i thought its about time i started looking at the vast backlog of car repairs i need to attend to. So on friday 30th january i set about Custard the Cavalier, i seperated the exhaust infront of the silencer boxes and started the engine (the noise,OH YES!) and no matter how you revved it,blipped the throatle etc there were no backfires from the carb.i now need to put just the first silencer box back and run the engine,if it backfires agian than that silencer box is the problem,of it doesn't then its the rear box thats blocked.

I say blocked but i think its partially blocked,because the engine would start and tick over OK but would backfire if the revs were increased in any way,so there was enough flow through the silencer(s) to cope with the amount of exhaust gas on tick over but as soon as the engine revs were increased the extra amount of gas couldn't force its way out so built up pressure in the exhaust,the only escape it could find was back out of the inlet manifold/carb on the valve overlap (the point the inlet and exhaust valves are open at the same time) the hot exhaust gas would then ignite the incoming fuel vapour causing flames to errupt from the carb.

I had other things to do over the weekend so couldn't do more to Custard and of corse today it sits under a foot of snow! which may stay for the week,it will soon be two years between rescuing it and getting Custard back on the road!

[keith1200]

Ian? I don't have the answer to your problem

All I can say? if you lived North of Berwick? the lads would get a 'A' or 'B' team together and help you oot

[MANTAMAN]

I've found a photo of the timing chain end of both types of camshaft,showing the oilway grove round the old cam and lack of grove round the replacement cam (this type of cam should have a grove round the corrisponing bearing shell)

I have also found a picture of the door lock i repaired. the white plastic end had broken off the lock,i had another lock in an old door but no key for it,i reasoned that the lock must come apart somehow so had a poke about.i've found out that if you change the sprung brass sliders you can convert a lock to another key,usefull to prevent having lots of different keys for one car.

[MANTAMAN]

Here's the reason why there hasn't been much progress with Custard,even i dont work on cars in a foot of snow! What do you recon? Custard & Cream!

[lamchop77]

Ian

Are you still having problems with the motor not running right? If you are i might know what is wrong. If the block and head have been machined significantly this will throw out the engine timing by up to 9 deg (i think!!) even though the timing marks look right. The length of the timing chain will also be too long which is probably why it skipped a tooth. You will probably need to get a vernier timing gear to sort out the timing problem, as for the tensioning of the chain you can geta 4mm disc welded onto the end of the tensioner plunger to take up the slack in the chain. Got this info off Opel gt forum where alot of the guys in yankee land have had this problem, check this out because theres more in depth dicussions on there.

HTH

Chris

[cam.in.head]

hi there.please forgive me as ive just read throu this project quickly & may have missed something but if your cav is a 1.6 then those cams in the pictures` are from a 2 litre. 1.6 cams are only a 3 bearing cam & only used with solid lifters.the 2 litre cams(r90090582)may well be different enough in terms of opening/closing angles etc to be not suitable.just a thought.

[MANTAMAN]

Lamchop, dont think there has been too much machined off the head,unable to explain what was wrong with the engine the compression ratio was one thought,but of course now it turns out its a blocked exhaust!

Cam-in-head, interesting about the cam type, i'm sure all heads/cams have the same number of bearings so each type of cam will pyshically fit each type of head. The 'new' cam in the photo was 'new old stock' bought as a 1.6 cam off e-bay. i'm using hydrolic lifters for quite running so these might match the cam & i'm going to see if i can set it up with arrangement as i'm not going to take the head off again if can help it!

[cam.in.head]

the cams /head on the 1.6 only has three bearings & is marked `A` on the end from a casting number of 8 930 350.so assuming that the valve opening /closing angles are reasonably similar then a 2 litre cam could physically be fitted in a 1.6 head & may run ok.a 1.6 cam could never be fitted to a 2 litre thou because you would have a cam bearing running on nothing.hence very low oil pressure.all the cams are different(1.6,2litre carb,2 litre inj,2.2,2.4)gm made them all different for a reason.the same reason why a gte dizzy will work on a carbed car but should realy be from a late chrome bumpered or carlton 83-86 non injection. same principle.gm made them slightly different for a reason.