taylorblue5 Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 (edited) Hi folks. Finally finished my Ascona b VXR if anybody would be interested in the conversion. As a lot of you will know I bought the car from Callum Seviour a couple of years back.... time flies! and had the car put back on the road. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. I used the car as a daily driver for a good few months while it was running the 2.0 8v engine and enjoyed every minute of it but after having to give up my unit I decided to put the Z20leh engine plan into action. I had previous experience with this engine variant after havin bought a Manta that ran an early ecotec X20XEV engine so thought it would be simple.... seems things got a little more complicated as time progressed with the engines life span i.e new oil pump, counter balance shafts, fly by wire throttle and egr system. I had to tig weld up the holes in the head that used to feed the Egr system and have a special oil pickup pipe built by Retropower to guarantee a reliable feed. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. I decided to run the car on Megasquirt management and used a cable operated throttle body from an X20xev engine, Megasquirt being a good option to avoid hasstle with immobilizers etc plus gives unbelievable control over every aspect of the engine management. Edited December 28, 2015 by taylorblue5 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robah Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Very nice, do these engines run with the standard 1.8 Gearbox or is there a conversion? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylorblue5 Posted December 28, 2015 Author Share Posted December 28, 2015 Exact same engine block as an XE so a 1.8 gearbox fits although I went for an Omega gearbox conversion with quickshifter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianm Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Canny wait to see this out and about with the rest off the mantas and Mk1 cavs up here next year 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantamike Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 That's one quick 4 door! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylorblue5 Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Canny wait to see this out and about with the rest off the mantas and Mk1 cavs up here next year Its pretty much ready, just needs a little fine tuning to the fuel map. Bloody low tho with the 3" exhaust lol, can tell its going to be a right pain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylorblue5 Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Abbott Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Looks very nice that. Is that a modified ( no indicators) manta front bumper? I like 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylorblue5 Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 Yes Kev, I shortened the sides and deleted the indicator recesses, turned out well and fits the intercooler well now, 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®evo03 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Very nice, a first for xev, what kinda power...... only mod is the megasquirt. Any other mods needed to fit this engine? Using the omega box, what mods where needed. Are you running a standard opel axle? Lsd? Very, very nice car, spoiler looks ace!, health to you to enjoy. Best of luck 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylorblue5 Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 (edited) Very nice, a first for xev, what kinda power...... only mod is the megasquirt. Any other mods needed to fit this engine? Using the omega box, what mods where needed. Are you running a standard opel axle? Lsd? Very, very nice car, spoiler looks ace!, health to you to enjoy. Best of luck Hi Brady, Happy new year! There are a good few modifications needed to run these engines, The EGR system needs to be removed from the back of the cylinder head and the holes have to be sealed Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Most of the variants of these engines have counterbalance shafts which wont fit a rwd sump so these need removing and their oil supply feeds must be sealed, I cleaned and welded mine to seal them. Another issue you have is the oil pickup pipe as the fitting end is different that joins to the pump, retropower now sell these which helps a lot. You will need a cable operated throttle body as the original is a fly by wire unit and isn't compatible with megasquirt, unless you plan to use the original management system that is. If you did use the original management then you would have to find ways around all the immobilizer stuff and you would have to install the throttle pedal from one the engines, prob wouldn't be hard, I just wanted to be able to have a mapable car for future mods. Gearbox wise the Omega r25-26 boxes are well catered for by Retropower, the concentric release bearing needs a spacer behind it to bring it forward as the Omegas ran dual mass flywheels, these are £45. I bought their quickshifter set for the box which was around £150 cant remember off the top of my head. I cut off the nearside lower bell housing bolt to allow more space for my exhaust downpipe as its very tight and I cut off all the lugs and shaved the gearbox a bit to avoid any banging on the tranny tunnel. You will need a custom propshaft which are again supplied by Retropower for £330 The exhaust downpipe was made using an aftermarket vxr steel downpipe, I cut it and shaped it to run rearward rather than transverse like the fwd setup intended. It would have been so so much easier to fire in a c20let engine and forget about it but I fancied something different. I reckon the engine will produce 280bhp and 308ft of torque, I was lucky enough to find a guy on the locost forum who runs this same engine on the same Megasquirt system, he kindly donated his map to me so that saved me a costly trip to the mappers. I installed the same injectors that he used so the engine was as close to his spec as possible and now the car drives spot on. Next step will be a lsd when I have the money, this build has cost a lot of money so far, I reckon about £3.5k but was worth every penny when you floor it and it just squats down and goes for the horizon lol. I have mapped the car with switchable maps, after 40% throttle it switches onto a more aggressive and less fuel efficient map, otherwise its nice for daily driving and the best of both worlds. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Edited January 2, 2016 by taylorblue5 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robah Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 It would have been so so much easier to fire in a c20let engine and forget about it but I fancied something different. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. You defo have something different and unique there, well done 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary6303 Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Fantastic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Stanishev Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Looks very well done taylorblue. I am planning to put Z20LET on my Manta . I hope it ends at least as good as yours 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyc Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Spot on that, nice job Andy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryC400 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Nice motor! I guess you didn't straighten the original bonnet. Where can ascona parts be gotten from ? Rgds Gerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexMantaUA Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Hello! Interesting project and impressive results! I also fighting with similar project, trying put z20let engine to Manta B. We already coped with several issues but now we really stuck because turbine pipe which goes to intercooler abuts to engine mount. If anyone has experience with similar issues I would very appreciate some hints. The only way which I see so far is to replace exhaust manifold and turbo for something like https://dbilas-shop.com/en/manufacturers/opel/speedster/2-0-16v-147kw-z20let/4742/turbo-kit-for-retrofitting-opel-z20lel/z20ler/z20let/z20leh-with-gt28rs but this way is very expensive and also can bring some new issues with engine control, etc. Do I have any chance to left original K04 turbo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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