been offered a 1.2 nova with t and t for £75,and having owned an xe nova before quite fancy it again due to subaru and porsche baiting performance and 40mpg.however,my old nova had the conversion already done when i bought it,so im unaware of exactly everything required and where to buy it all from,can anyone point me in the right direction?want it done as cheap as possible without bodging it to death,any links or advice greatly appreciated.
oh im asking on here as i trust the advice rather than my earlier google search which brought up several different guides all differing etc...

 

Minimum you need off the top of my head is:

Donor parts:
xe complete and with loom, including an f16/f20 gearbox

Shafts:
set of nova gte driveshafts
mk2 1600 cavalier inner cv joints
OR
set of custom shafts
OR
big cv conversion and shafts (too expensive for what you want)

Mounts:
You can just space the engine mount down and use the original one for the engine, or chop the mounting location off the shell and move it down

Wiring:
Piece of cake, only half a dozen wires or so, its really trivial

Exhaust:
Use the manifold off the donor car but you'll need to get a custom exhaust (or buy a secondhand go faster nova gte one or similar and make it fit)


You want to be on the single v belt for clearance on the alternator and even then you'll need to bash or cut and weld the inner arch a bit for clearance

SFI box fits if you just push the firewall back a bit, you dont need a powercap or ecotec conversion pipe like lots of people say you do.




Thats pretty much all there is to it really, its not a very involved conversion.

 

interested in this as ive just bought a 1.0 1983 nova 3 door for a first car solid shell as well

 

chip,do i NEED to have the engine bay seam welded and plated?

 

Depends how long you want it to last, plating really isnt needed and if the shell is good you'll probably get away without welding either, but if you plan on putting hard suspension on it and trackdaying it then I would recomend the welding at least.

oh and FFS get the brakes off the donor too, I should have mentioned that sooner, they bolt straight on and ARE needed, lol

And likewise you really need some half decent shocks and springs, base model novas handle badly even without that extra weight in them!

 

yeah planning astra gte etc brakes as thats what i had on last one,will get some ebay springs and shocks too.cheers

 

Must admit, since my quick bottom end freshen up that me and the mrs did in an afternoon before bedford then ran it in on the way there (we were properly short on time due to work commitments, lol) I am loving my XE corsa again now, it had a bit of a bad breathing habbit before then and kept spewing oil out the dipstick etc but its really behaving well now and it was a total laugh at the wet bedford trackday recently with the throttle bodies snorting away etc and I chucked some steel rods I had laying about in too just to safeguard the bottom end so now Im not nervous about that either.

Literally took us about 4 or 5 hours start to finish to fit this lot (well other than 1 piston obviously, lol) and hone the bores:


They are just such amazingly simply engines to work on, Ive put aside 4 afternoons to do the same job on the clio that we did on the corsa in 1 and im still not confident it'll be enough and I might miss out on getting it done in time!

I really do fucking LOVE the XE engine, I know its a bit old and noisey and overweight by modern standards but so am I anyway

 

in all honesty it was the most fun car ive ever had,get in,turn the key,nail it EVERYWHERE, annoy subaru drivers by sitting on there rear bumper at 150mph indicated after sneering at me and telling his son to "watch this",still get 40mpg in that run,then go home not worrying about it blowing up,absolutely brilliant engine in that car,i never noticed any handling problems either

 

Loved mine, handled like a piece of shit though, but still SOOO much fun!!

 

I think I enjoyed my XE more than my LET nova when I swapped, as I loved the fact that like you said you could go EVERYWHERE at full throttle with the XE, where as the LET you were quickly doing speeds that were prison rather than license lost, lol

If you didnt notice any handling problems then you either had an unusually well setup one or you werent trying very hard, ive driven some fucking shockers over the years, lol

 

I want a XE Nova....I think


How much to build a 'fairly good' one Chipster?

 

or im used to crap handling cars like the saff cosworth etc lol

 

Probably better off buying one already done TBH mate.

Or better still go for a corsa, there isnt a lot of difference in weight really and its far easier to find a rot free one.

But realistically you need the best part of a couple of grand to do the job fairly well to build one including a decent exhaust and decent suspension and new disks and pads etc

IIIRC I think the cheapest we did one was 700 quid all in, but it was fucking terrible TBH, that was about 10 years ago though so wasnt very common at the time so the straight line performance seemed really good back then

That was:
300 quid for the nova sr which came with a magnex
200 quid for engine and box and brakes off a donor car (bought car for 300 and weighed in for 100 IIRC)
200 quid for the shafts and service items for the engine and some secondhand suspension spings on the standard shocks which werent very good


Handled like a whale on a sheet of ice but like I say it went like fuck for what it was, felt even faster before we did the tracking too cause it was all over the road with torquesteer like some shitty rs turbo when the tracking was out when we first built it

I mainly did it cause the SR engine was shite on fuel, it did 45mpg on the XE on the rare occasions I wasnt arse raping it around and actually drove steady for a change and even utterly kicking its face in on a long journey you would easily get 30mpg+ (thats at mainly 100mph+)

 

Ps

A standard 1500 quid clio 172 is a performance match for a nova/corsa XE by the way, and actually goes round corners too

But they werent available at the time for that sort of money, they are now though so you need to be a bit daft to still want to build a nova now

 

LOL...Cheers Chip!

Friend of mine used to have a yellow SR on old skool comp 5spokes....Looked nob on for a nova, I would love to have a yellow SR..

Friend of mine had a Corsa XE, engine was pretty standard & it went like fuck but now he has gone mad with it...Concourse Let turbo....in a Corsa lol

 

No need to stich weld a corsa bay either

 

Corsa definately the "sensible" (im using that term loosely, lol) option

 

The mrs?I'm lucky if I can get mine to help me bleed the bloody brakes!! From memory your other half is a bit of a looker as well?
Your a lucky man young chip!!!

Totally agree with that xe statement as well.I had a cav gsi about 6 years ago with a slightly fettled Coscast head on it.went like fuck and was superb on fuel,shame the bodywork was so wank on it!!!

The engine lives on in an astra estate in western Ireland,guy came over on the Swansea/cork ferry to collect it as apparently their like goldust over in the emerald isle?

 

I put 2.0 ltr 8v in mine on an f13 box which kept with mates 16v and was alot cheaper to build. Great fun but sold it for £200 to a mate to make room for my cosworh when I was 19

 

chip is it hard to fit the turbo engine or is it the same principle as ive always wanted a nova turbo lol

 

A ratty xe nova raped my Clio on the way to pod years ago, on the private road down there I backed off at 135 as it was leaving me.

My Clio didn't hang around either, it did a 14.7 with only a exhaust and a induction kit. Fucking nova did a 14.5!

Gavin.

 

yes mate she's ok looking, and I really enjoy being around her so I hope she sticks around for a while longer yet.


I know of some XE's that have been in literally half a dozen different cars now, lol

 

Basically the same but TBH you would be better with the F28 gearbox too which is a little more hassle to fit (only a little though, just needs a different mount at the front)
Wiring is just as simple, and the inlet fits more easily, only slight dificulty is finding somewhere to stick an intercooler really!

Ultimately a very easy way to get massive power to weight ratios for peanuts!

 

14.5 is about right for a good standard one

 

It was all made worse by the fact it had only cost him £500 to do including the car and I had just spent £9500 on the Clio!

I need something cheap and fast again now donnington has been re opened.

Gavin.

 

XE nova are cheap and fast at pod, but at donnington a 172 is a better bet as there are corners, lol

 

This is interesting,im goin to start putting a xe in my nova soon,didnt realise they were that quick with a standard engine 14.5!

 

Chip has listed everything required previously, awesome performance for not alot of money!!!!! The most important thing is getting a good shell, that will cope! Stich welding I have done on all my shells mainly
For piece of mInd if putting a let in it's a must as it will pull the front end off lol

 

Have you got any pics of the stitching you done? Or a photo of where the plating kit goes? Iv bought a plating kit for mine but it didnt come with instruction and i cnt work out where half of the plates go!

 

Chip forgot to mention you have to modify the gear linkage aswell

Big Wig074 I do believe you owned my old 2.0 16v nova
Laser blue get on speedlines with gsi interior?

 

Yeah, thats just a quick cut and weld job though, nothing that costs any money

 

Iv got a quickshift linkage from lmf vauxhall.Is this a direct fit then or does it need to be cut also?

 

if using an f20 no cutting is required just a flip of the nylon bush that connects to the gearbox, if f28 then cut and weld is required

 

I remember Carlo saying that his Nova Turbo was absolutely tits, it's so tempting to do for the bhp/per pound it offers.. but I really enjoy cornering too and I'm pretty sure that a 250+ Nova/Corsa is going to be a bit bollox on the twisty stuff.


Cheers,
Grant

 

Grant, you can get them to handle ok, but out of the box they arent as good as a clio and ultimately the weight distribution isnt as good as a clio.

There are some free and some cheap effective mods you can do though like grinding down the tie bars to move the wheels forward to increase castor and eccentric top mounts to bring the shocks back and achieve more of the same, it makes quite a noticeable difference if you do that.

Its not just about spending money.

 

yep i believe i did,no speedlines on it when i had it though,not sure what interior it had,this is what it looked like when i had it




loved it,sold it to boxxer on here,then he resold it,then the engine went in an escort i think

 

thats the 1 was mint when i had it i fitted the interior and suspension brakes etc
it was still a 1.6 8v though i then sold it and then got it back when my mate converted it to 2.0 16v

also owned a 1.6 8v Turbo White GSi at the same time which was ever so slightly quicker