Project 16v

[Mantaboy83]

Just a bit of boring background history to start (please skip to present day for the new stuff):

I bought my Manta off this website from a chap by the name of Vulpine way back in Oct '05. He'd already done the hard work of putting in a 2.0 16v Astra GTE engine, lowered suspension & uprated brakes, but sold it as a rolling project because he couldn't seem to get it to run right. Once I got her home I started looking for the cause of the rough running. With some guidance from my friend Darren (who knows a fair bit about Red Top engines) we found the problem to be the wrong spec spark plugs and HT leads. Lucky for me Daz had a spare GM set lying around so we fitted them, fired her up and she ran perfectly!

Just over a month later and disaster struck. On my way home from work a radiator hose developed a leak. After losing all the coolant the engine overheated and warped the head (the temp guage never rose above half way so had no warning of the impending doom)

I got her rocovered home where she sat on my drive for 9 months. I sourced a new head and while it was off decided to give it a clean, port polish and re-grind the valves.

With the new head fitted all that was left to do was insure & tax her. When her MOT expired in November '06 I took her off the road for 8 months until July '07. I took her for an MOT and she passed after needing a patch of welding and the emissions adjusted. That year I went to the Ultimate Street Car Show at Santa Pod Raceway, which was a really good weekend.

I used her for a good six months until her tax ran out at which point I took her off the road again. With the loss of my job she sat on my drive for 18 months.

Present Day:

With a new job comfortably settled in to and money flowing back into my bank account my attentions once again turned to my Manta looking a bit forlorn on my drive. After numerous attempts to start her it was discovered the the fuel pump & filter were kaput. Luckily my mate Daz was breaking a Calibra 16v and had the parts I needed. After a swift swap over she fired up, but after a long period lying dormant sounded like a 1.1 Fiesta with no oil in it! After about 20 mins running she quitened down though.

A good check over, a few niggles ironed out, a thorough clearout (as I was using her as a spare parts storage shed!) and a bucket of suds thrown at her it was time to book her in for an MOT.

On Tuesday she went to my local garage for the MOT. She failed on:

Two tyres perished and unsafe

Offside rear sill corroded near seatbelt mount

Emmissions too high

I knew the tyres wouldn't pass, so sourced some nice 15" alloys and got four brand new 195/45/15 tyres fitted. They look a bit thin on the rims! - Pics will follow for your opinions!

The tester showed me the emmissions screen. At idle she was pumping out 9.5% co2 - the acceptable level is below 3.5%! I checked all the usual things and found nothing, then noticed the power cap was not bolted down tighly. Problem solved - or so I thought! The machine was still reading 9.5! After a few moment's head scratching the tester suggeted turning the adjuster screw on the mass air flow meter. Almost a whole turn anti-clockwise resulted in the co2 dropping to a very respectable 2.5%. Phew!

I left the tester to do the welding and picked her up yesterday £160 lighter but with a big grin on my face!

I've just got off the phone to an insurance company who have insured me fully comp for 12 months on a classic car, limited mileage policy for the grand sum of £245!

Last on the list is Tax which I'm hoping to get today then she's back on the road again ready for the Performance Vauxhall Show next weekend, then Ultimate Street Car and Billing!