I feel a project coming on

[opel2000]

FOR ONCE, JUST ONCE, I would like to perform an engine conversion/swap and have no damn issues with it.

Due to issues with GF coming out of hospital I've been at home over the last few days, so finished off the exhaust, what a damn nightmare it was crawling around on my back for the last 2 days,,,, "Aha if I cut and weld this bit here it will clear panhard rod, but then it hits chassis, so if I move it forward and alter that bit it will clear everything, NO it then hits the anti-roll bar etc etc et bloody cetera.

Finally have exhaust that fits well and clears everything, and it was while doing this exhaust that I reminded myself that I said I would never use a 2.5" system ever again, that extra 0.5" makes a hell of a difference, Eh ladies

So can finally run the engine at long long last as it has only been run for a second or two due to the noise with an open exhaust.

WHAT A BAG OF SHIT, lumpy as hell, almost as if it was firing on three cylinders, gently increased the revs until it smoothed itself out at approx 3000, then let the revs down until it cut out at approx 1200.

Then it wouldn't start, put on a good battery (4 months old off of the Corsa) and fired it up again, and what a bastard it was to start, previously it fired up as soon as key was turned. I wouldn't mind but I haven't fecking touched anything in the engine bay since I last turned the key for it's instant start, now it struggles like hell.

Initial thoughts were that now I'm actually trying to run it rather than just fire it up, that perhaps the followers have not primed up properly, as it simply would not idle at all at first, but having fired it up again and left my foot running it on a fast tickover and gently letting the revs drop I did get it to idle, but it is simply so fecking lumpy it is awful.

Now if this were a cih I would have instantly gone to the dizzy as it simply feels like the timing is way out, but without the luxury of being able to adjust things on these engines I simply cannot think of what could be causing the dreadful running, and ridiculously hard starting.

It's at times like this I simply wish I'd fitted a cam in head engine, absolutely fed up with doing so much work only to find that on one of the last hurdles everything looks to be going tits up yet again, absolutely fcuked off with this again now.

Edited June 2, 2011 by opel2000

[mickappy]

knock sensor and idle control valve plugs actullay fit each other, try swap em round they are really close to each other

and easy to get wrong, ive done it as have a few peaple i know. worth a punt mate.

[opel2000]

Cheers Mick... I did try that, and yes I can see how easy it can be to get them the wrong way round, I swapped them back after checking the wiring colours in the manual.

Many thanks for you reply though

All I can say now is......... This board will not permit the amount of smileys I want to put up.

on a turn of the key it idles.

I tap the accelerator and it spins up wonderfully, and will spin up better when run in.

Brakes are spot on,,,, Yes I've just drove it and it picks up absolutely brilliant, in fact it picks up better than I remember my old cally doing, possibly due to the gearing.

So what was the problem.....

I simply broke it back down to basics.... er, well it er may have been the fact that I spotted ex manifold outlets 2 and 4 not burning any paint off....

Some total fooking prat had been under the bonnet and re-arranged the plug leads in the wrong order. it was running 1-3-2-4 not the 1-3-4-2 it should ahve been.

So REALLY FOOKING HAPPY HERE

[mickappy]

i can do some more smilies for u mate

[rutts]

yes i know what you mean clive, bet he had a fag in his gob with smoke in his eyes when doing the plug leads

[Retro Power]

Nice one Clive, glad to hear the beast lives!!!! Hope alls well!! Txt me re work when u get chance

[rallycinq]

Hi Clive,

Likewise, when you get a chance to read my pm.

Cheers

D

[robah]

:D :D :D :D Nice one Clive. Happy Driving (No more than 10 Emoticons )

[Christ]

well done mate

Is that it then, ready for mot??

[steel]

happy ending nice 1 m8

[cdi200]

Excellent news clive,,,,,its always easy to overlook the obvious, ,,,and these 16v engines can be a bit of a mare to nail down running problems,,,,,,been there got the t_shirt,,,,,,,,have you got your ecu light wired up,,,?and checked if the ecu is storing any fault codes?;,,,,,,,,,,,

[opel2000]

Hello Craig, no not yet mate, only just sat down here, been a hell of a day today.

Just about to throw some piccies up but got a bit distracted by other posts.

[Rab]

Hi Clive,

Gid tae read yur noo up and running,hope awes well wi yae both.

cheers rab.

[opel2000]

Been pottering about on the Manta recently and was gonna throw a few random pics up, but fired the Manta up last night, and , , Hmm a little lumpy, no infact very lumpy, in fact really damn crap.

Went over a few obvious things this evening and nothing out of order and it is no better it's still running 5hit.

I did find though that the plugs were sooted up to high heaven, and basically the engine is most definately misfiring.

Simply do not get it, it was idling fine now it struggles and hunts, when running it this eve and revving to 1700 it evens/smooths out a bit but then after a second or 2 the revs suddenly try to drop before recovering.

Bloody bloody bast engine, starting to get a bit fecking miffed now with this

Forget the above........

Er, it suddenly, er, sort of, er, well, er, struck me as I finished typing that up that it went funny last night when I was cleaning the pulleys up with Scotchbrite, it was when the ex cam sprocket snatched the Scotchbrite out of my hand the pulley has jumped a tooth on the belt........... What a Pratt.....

Edited June 28, 2011 by opel2000

[opel2000]

Still sort of pottering about on this, had a bitch of a day on it on Friday just gone, (The Friday I would love to have been getting ready for a drive down to billing)

Reset the timing after my Scotchbrite incident Only to find the engine would fire up, run and then die, Grrrr'd a lot then decided I had enough cash to go and get a new rotor arm, dizzy cap, and plugs, the thinking being if there is any issue with the aforementioned it will clear up any problem especially as I had been wire brushing the plugs to clean them up.

Off to Halfords, stuck in Derby Village traffic past the leech farm, got back and went to fit the parts only to realise I'd picked up the wrong rotor arm, heck back to Halfords.

Eventually got back after Halfords cash register locked up for 20 mins whilst trying to get my item changed, to find washing machine had finally had enough of my bodged repair on it and flooded the kitchen and hallway, I now wish i hadn't spent that money on car parts but hey ho!

Fitted the parts only for the running condition to be getting worse, almost as if it was running out of fuel.......... DOH! It then struck me that the amount of time I'd been idling this and running up and down the street, I could have actually used up the petrol that was in the tank.

Went to get a Gallon of petrol (absolute bargain at £7.30 to fill a 5 litre can) all pumps were busy and some arse had pulled in just off of the road and sat there not queueing at any particular pump, not wanting to A, block the pavement and B, Queue where this nob decides I'm going to queue I just picked a row of pumps and queued up.

Next thing i know T0sser was blowing his horn and shouting at me, with the fffing day i'd been having I just had to put the pr1ck right, fffing moron.

Got back with petrol and car fired up and runs as sweet as a bloody nut, what a bloody day but result at the end.

Then got back on with messing about with heater box.

This is not 100% going to work, but feel I have a challenge thrown before me and the current idea is to cut the heater box down to clear the 16V dizzy so I retain most of the heater box and use a cable operated valve to cut the flow of hot water to the matrix http://www.t7design.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=69&products_id=196

Here's a pic of how tight it all is with the original heater box, the dizzy and leads would actually sit in the box itself.

Originally i had no tools to get stuck into this and ended up cutting away with a serrated edge knife out of the kitchen draw and used a Stanley knife blade to seperate the heater box mouldings.

This weekend however I made sure I had some tools with me, and got stuck in today in altering the first part of the box.

So with a bit of rusty steel, a CD case as a square and an angle grinder I got stuck in.

As you can see in the last pic there has been a hell of a drop in size and the more awkward job of the fan area is next to attack. I may try dismantling the dizzy to see if I can alter the connector on the dizzy by turning it around 180 degrees, as this will make things a lot easier.

Also there will then be the problem of fitting it all into place, pretty much think/know the head is in the way at the moment, but there may be ways around that, such as removing rocker cover and jacking car up and lowering engine etc.

Also not too pleased with the fabrication at the mo due to angel grinder running off a little, so a lot of neatening up is required before it all becomes a final item, that is if I can gain the space required by cutting and altering the fan section of heater box.

[rutts]

dont want to piss on your fire clive but why not convert it to dis pac and have non of the above problems, i wish i had with mine the heater box conversions are a night mare. polo heaters are good but dizzy still gets in the way.

ps saw your stuff on the 400r ascona at billing fantastic stuff hope all the bits sold also .

[opel2000]

TBH Andy DIS pack loom would have been a better option but really wanted to do this car on a tight budget, which basically I had no choice about anyway really.

I wanted to use the stuff I had lying around such as my old Calibra loom and ECU etc.

Also I've done a Polo heater conversion on a 16V before for someone and that was a lot of hard work and only just cleared the dizzy as you have said yourself.

Must say though, that if heater box conversion fails i will be needing a heater box and a DIS Pack loom I reckon.

As for the stuff on the Retropower stand at Billing, Nat Called me this morn (I had to get GF to a hospital appointment today) and basically not a lot of anything shifted at all

Also the Ascona 400r I thought was very tastefully done, superb understated engine bay, and having seen the underneath of the car with the work done by Nat and Callum I can honestly say is absolutely superb. then there is the smell of the leather of that interior.

Edited July 4, 2011 by opel2000

[MANTAMAN]

Hi Clive, been following this Manta with anticipation, what ever you produce always becomes a bench mark for the rest of us.

Looking at your heater box conversion and your use of steel, perhaps you might find it easier to use plastic, Model/Hobby shops (or internet suppliers) would sell plastic/styrene sheet in various thicknesses which could be glued into place, making an air tight seal of the join and modern glues melt plastics together so they never ever come apart.

[Rab]

Hi Clive,

Sorry you couldn`t manage down, took a chap over from Vaux Drivers to see nat regards work if possible by your good self for his Astra Coupe Turbo.

As to things selling one thing I did notice this year was not many folks walking around with items purchased as in past you always saw folks with arm fulls of panels and box loads owe bits,not this year.Also traders were closing up early on the Sunday around 2am ish that I have never seen before.

cheers rab.

[rutts]

if you decide to dis pac it later i have a loom and exhaust cam with sensor thingy. bits then needed would be ecu, maf, air intake temp sensor. can post dow to nat if you want it.

[opel2000]

Hi Clive, been following this Manta with anticipation, what ever you produce always becomes a bench mark for the rest of us.

Looking at your heater box conversion and your use of steel, perhaps you might find it easier to use plastic, Model/Hobby shops (or internet suppliers) would sell plastic/styrene sheet in various thicknesses which could be glued into place, making an air tight seal of the join and modern glues melt plastics together so they never ever come apart.

Thing for me is Ian, I can work steel easier than i can plastic, and although there are some good adhesves out there, there are still some plastics that do not lend themselves to be adhered with said adhesives, such as "Sticks like S**t" that is the name on the tube, it will glue steel beam to concrete, but won't lend itself to sticking heater box type of plastic, the heater box plastic I believe was bonded by ultrasonics or the method where the bonding edges are vibrated against each other to hermetically seal them together.

Hi Clive,

Sorry you couldn`t manage down, took a chap over from Vaux Drivers to see nat regards work if possible by your good self for his Astra Coupe Turbo.

As to things selling one thing I did notice this year was not many folks walking around with items purchased as in past you always saw folks with arm fulls of panels and box loads owe bits,not this year.Also traders were closing up early on the Sunday around 2am ish that I have never seen before.

cheers rab.

TBH Rab i think it is the sign of the times mate, things are very tight at the moment it seems, especially here in Derby village, just been watching the news saying that 900+ temp employess are due to be going from Bombardier, which is just down the road from me.

Been a couple of times i was due to go and work for Bombardier, last one was glueing trains together using Aluminium MIG, both times I decided against it due to the fact they are always laying off staff, was a few days into an induction for Bombardier and I was told just how huge the place used to be, and the amount of staff they used to have, all now gone.

As well as the ships, the steel, the coal, the car industry etc. etc.

if you decide to dis pac it later i have a loom and exhaust cam with sensor thingy. bits then needed would be ecu, maf, air intake temp sensor. can post dow to nat if you want it.

OOOOOH Mr. Rutter, now there is temptation thrown before me, very very tempted by this mate, but due to lack of cash I can't really take you up on this just yet, Cheers Buddy most appreciated.

[Christ]

DIS pac it mate, even a man with your skills is going to struggle to get that heater box looking neat, never mind what it's going to do to the already poor flow design.

Wish I'd junked the dizzy, makes the bay so much tidier.

[opel2000]

You know what Chris, I think that is the final comment that has thrown me to go for a DIS pack loom route, basically everything will just be too damn cramped up around the heater box cable, matrix pipes, the valve i need to fit, and the associated pipework, not to mention the efficiency of the heater once it is all in place.

Then of course I would like it all to look good, and knowing that naff all is actually going to bond to the heater box plastic it just compounds the whole job, just knowing it is going to look crap when finished gives little incentive to get it done at all.

Bloody nuiscance area

[pma]

Hi Clive,great work on the car! That fag lighter on the table,i've seen that before some where haven't i Mate,can you ring me when you get 5 please,cheers.

[opel2000]

Hi Clive,great work on the car! That fag lighter on the table,i've seen that before some where haven't i Mate,can you ring me when you get 5 please,cheers.

Will do mate