Snowy_Astra

Nice to see it commin along Rob

Paint looks mint

sbd16v

not done much been working late getting the boat ready to go to sea but have fitted the steering column now using a mk3 astra one as when compared to a mk2 looks like a much better item without a silly little push in cap at the bottom that falls out lol while fitting the column i also put the dash in around the correct position to check that while seated i could see it ok i also moved the column down about an inch and moved it to the right to make it feel better for my seating position with low side mounted seats






packed the car away now under cover in my mates workshop ready for when i get back from sea so

trevCOSS

iTrader: (6)

ah finally some progress good show mate, shame your off to sea! still me and rich can pop to robs and steal all your bits whilst your gone

Richie.

iTrader: (5)

sbd16v

well only progress i have is bits i have bought :help: :help: :help:


sold my t34 turbo on the look for a new one now that will allow me to see just over the other side of 400 bhp

but i cannot make my mind up between a good amount of power or going for the low lag fook knows think i will prob go for a t38

and here is the newest member to the family

JonnyBravo

That manifold is

sbd16v

well i still have not done much tryed my new lights in wont be to everyone taste but i think they look really good








as you can see thou she is looking a little worse for wear


well i went to get my new toy yesterday and i LOVE it so could not resist a little sneaky pic





i will be starting to do some serious work very soon have a week off work where i am going to attack it LOL

JonnyBravo

That looks small Rob

Maybe just maybe you'll keep up now

sbd16v

time for a update:

i am off work this week so thought it was time to start doing something to the gte.

so last week ordered the rest of the bits to build the engine inc some new arp bolts.

first off it was time to clean the engine and gearbox and then pop some paint on there








it was then time to get on with some real work

first thing was to remove the crank (needed to take off the internal triger as using a external one )



once this was out i could go about fitting my new arp mains studs




and there they are all fitted




there is just something about a set f stud's fitted thats just ummmm


after such good work it would have been rude to have stopped so while i had the go i got the rest of the bottom end together



so the bottom end is now all torqued up got all the oil pump and seals ready to go on

and my new management turned up



so a happy boy at the moment

NEEDFORSPEED

coolamasta

Looking Schweeeeeeeeeeeeeet mate

Will give you a ring in the week for a quick chat

sbd16v

i have not updated this thread in a while but was at the basingstoike meet last night and a few ppl were asking about it that could remeber the car so thought i would bring this one up to speed.


with getting married the end of last year i had alot more on my mind than the car last year so not much happened with it, but the start of this year i decided that was enough and i was going to get it on the road, so the work and spending started.

the car has been living outside for a while now, so i bought it a car cover

after getting back off my honeymoon some really bad weather while i was away ment this is what i came back to




unfortunatly over my leave period with all the bad weather it was blown off and with no one to put it back this is how it was found, now there was a reason for the car cover (its no show car so was not to protect the paint) it had no door seals or tailgate seal. so the car was in no way water tight.

so i decided that my first job was going to be to get rid of all the this is how i found the car inside.





i used a sponge to get rid of the water, and thought i would put it into a bucket and it filled a 5lt bucket :help: :help:

but its all gone now i also got rid of most of the oxidiation its like surface rust but just goes with a wipe or a little t-cut so that will be ok soon.

i also took all the windows out today so so that i can clean up all the window holes ready so the windows can be refitted an better sealed.

it was then time for some real work, yesterday i painted the coilovers




good ol hamerite smooth

and then was the moment to get fitting





because of the extra think top mounts fitted the the shell i may now have a problem add that to the thinkness of the alloy top mounts and it raises the car by around 50mm :dunno: :dunno:

the problem with this is the coilovers will no allow me to go low enough without bottoming out, so the plan at the moment is to look into building them up so the top mount is ABOVE the car part of the top mount then drilling the holes larger so instead of using 2 m8 bolts i will use 4 m10's and that should be more than enough to take any abuse that putting them ontop could cause.

sbd16v

i decided that going down the route of fitting the topmounts on top was not something i wanted to do.

so i put the leda coilovers in the cupboard (for sale) and got on the phone to gaz a month later and i had a full new coilover kit for a mk2 astra

sbd16v

after treating it to some new supsension i thought it would be rude not to make it stop properly now






decided that with the car being built for 400 bhp that vectra v6 brakes might not be good enough to stop the gte so new brakes were needed

sbd16v

as more and more bits arived more bits were trial fitted

i have started to get the smaller parts of the build now intercooler was one of the larger things i needed, i wanted to go as large as i could without cutting the bumper up to much.

i think i achieved the look i wanted

sbd16v

this is nearly upto date this is the end of last week

well the engine has been sat around far to long half built, and seeing as i now have a deadline i guess its time to get on with it.

spent yesterday and today sorting out twin plate clutch issues, finally got the clutch to fit inside the gearbox and thought right time to line up the clutch, to my surprise the gearbox went straight on


so i thought it would be rude to stop there got the rest of the clutch bolts in and then fitted the gearbox up.

head is now fitted and TQ'd down so she is ready to go in now.

depending if anyone is down the car club tomorrow will the decider if it goes in but if there is i shall put it in tommorrow.



[/

sbd16v

this is the end of last week so about the stage its at now


well with the engine done it would be rude to not get it fitted 8) 8)



fell in the engine bay i love putting a engine in a car it was designed for lol




its amazing how much room there is in a mk2 astra engine bay








so she is all bolted in now.


starting doing little jobs the kind that take time but you dont like doing, but they all need to be done so its all progress

TimC

iTrader: (1)

Cool Car

What size turbo did you go for?

sbd16v

gt3071r external gated mate


bit more progress

before i can start to wire the car i had to decide what to do about a dash.

my original alloy dash i made i was not to happy with it did not look tidy and when i turbo'd the car i had to more gauges to house, these ended up at the bottom of the dash on a piece of old number plate.

original dash



i first decided that i would totally loose the dash and just fit the clocks



however after putting them in and looking thought the screen it was quite clear that was going to be a bad idea as the white of the inside of the car ment the bar going across the car was right in the center of the windscreen.

so that idea was put to bed.

i decided that making a new alloy dash was going to be the best idea but with the knowledge of what did not work before and what i did not like i was in a much better situation to make my new one

so first was to cut some alloy and bend her up into shape.



once it was the correct shape it was time to start cutting holes.
because of the odd shape of the clocks there was not many ways to make the whole the best i could think of is to drill lots of wholes hacksaw them out then file it to the correct size
so out came the drill



once that whole was cut up and cleaned and filed, the clocks were fitted.



it was then time to fit some gauges fitted the wide band, fuel pressure and boost gauge, this was done with a 51mm hole saw bit and again a file



as you can see straight away glare from the alloy would be a big problem.

i had thought of these already and when out today picked up some hammerite matt black BBQ paint.





very happy with the results, i decided to refit the wiper stalks so dont have anywhere near the same amount of switchs as before there will just be a few to the right hand side of the dash.

trevCOSS

iTrader: (6)

looking good mate

sbd16v

Time for another update, ( i know i dont understand where all the enthusiam is coming from either but i LIKE it )


well after some more money to gaz and another set of shocks yesterday i finally got the correct ones

first things first i need to say my praise for GAZ suspension, it has been a pleasure dealing with them, just incase you dont know the story my dad by accedent sent the wrong legs to be converted to coilover, he sent small block ones. After getting these on a saturaday all i could do all weekend was try and think around the problem coming up with all ideas like the nova boys do with fitting weird and wonderfull bearings with maching.

however, one call to gaz and i was well on my way with the correct solution they said they would change the hubs over for around Ł100 bargin, a few days after i sent them i gave dave a call and he said because i wanted them a little shorter it was easyer for them to just make a whole new set and they were just machining the new parts, knowing the last set was Ł400 i expected them to be quite a bit, but correct dont come cheap so i did not even say anything.

anyway about a week later i get a call and there all done

Ł131 including postage back what can i say thats just such good customer service considering it was OUR **** up.

anyway lets have some pics



first thing to do was get the suspension fitted and brakes had the brakes for 2 weeks now in the front room gagging to fit them



when i fitted it all up i said to a mate i NEVER want to fit a wheel, they should not be hiden :help:


once the suspension and brakes was on it was time to start checking the brake clearance, on went the wheel and it all looked very good put some bolts in nipped them up and still had caliper clearance and the wheel could turn, however the next bit was not so good tightened the wheel up when to turn it over and it caught on the caliper and took some paint off must only hit by 1-2mm shame so after a bit of thinking about it im going to file a few mm off the caliper till they fit not to keen on spacers.

so off they came they was not going to spoil my fun for the day finished putting the other side on then got the rears on and droped it down on the floor.

im totally made up with the way the car sits im going the springs are as low as they can go but im going to fit some 1 inch shorter springs this will allow me to go down 1/4 inch on the drivers side to make it level with the passengers. and give 1/2 adjustment down for corner weighting.

the wishbones are just off level ( the correct side) and the steering arms are practically level (gaz also lowered them when they lowered the legs)






i think its a good result on the looks just needs to be set up and she will be all good to go suspension wise.


there have been other things happening on the scene at the moment,

i was not happy with the way my turbo sat so after talking to jay from NORTECH (01709888170) the bloke that made it he said he is happy to make me a new one how i want it, so with alot of chating we finally got what i wanted and here it is, this is the best pic i have one he sent me via txt message, but as my engine is in i wont get a better pic.



again more than happy with how it is now and once i get all this back its really going to start to take shape

TimC

iTrader: (1)

Loving the manifold. Would the exit of the external gate not of been better going back into the downpipe on an angle to help with flow though?

sbd16v

it would HOWEVER there are a few clearance issues when fitting into a FWD car LOL

NEEDFORSPEED

brilliant work mate

sbd16v

few more bits

new top hat


decided to go 2.5 inch as thats the same as my boost pipework


then it was turbo and manifold time







is a very tight fit but the rad just about goes in, turbo did touch the block but only on the power steering lug so i done some mods to that now it all fits.


cut the cambelt cover for pully adjustment without removing the cover (and because it looks good lol)




sent that off with a rocker cover to be powder coated, was going to have a black engine but after seeing the old red cover fitted i decided that red was still the way i wanted to go

Richie.

iTrader: (5)

Coming along well now Rob


Keep at it whilst you have the drive


That 'tophat' looks a big improvement over the standard one

Zetecfiesta

very nice car, quality thread!

gareths09

I don’t suppose you know of this Astra turbo?



It’s my old one and would love to know if it’s still about.

Awesome car by the way, makes me miss my one.

sbd16v

well its been a LONG time since i have updated this thread but here goes

as some of you will know the car is now mot'd tax'd and insured so its all on the road

not without drama's mind and there are still quite a few things to sort, but now its all mechanically together i can start with getting the little things donw instead of the big build things

a few pics from the vauxhall show i went to last weekend this was after it was cleaned for the first time in 3 years







anyway now the car is mostly in one piece i can start doing those little touches, the outside looks cleanish now so decided to start on the inside and here is the first

because i dont have any door cars the doors have always looked quite untidy




quick rub down and a few coats of satan black hamerite




the finish is more like the passengers side the drivers looks so shiny as its still wet

Munch

looks hard as nails

Richie.

iTrader: (5)

Looking good now its nearly finished


Love the stance

TimC

iTrader: (1)

Fancy updating this thread a bit please Rob?

Smartdj.

iTrader: (2)

top work m8

craigos

women

sbd16v

yeh i have been a little lapse lol, aint done alot so tbh dont bother with updates.

been a while since a update so here is one.

most of the work on the car atm has been making things stonger or better, when you build these cars it is always the case that some things get rushed first time around.

one of these things was my trigger wheel for the engine, on my engine i run an external trigger wheel, when i first went for mapping crank sensor errors stop'd the mapping and this was put down to a poor disc.

the dimensions of the original one was a tooth that was 4x4x4mm but the autronic is more happy with a 8x8x8mm tooth.

this was the original



at the start of august my training moved onto machine shop work PERFECT, so after a few weeks of learning lathe work it was time to start building my own stuff

first of was the trigger disc.

started with a lump of metal



and after some measuring and maching it begain to take shape.





the old trigger disc was totally flat that ment that the only thing that centralised it was the 2 bolts holding it on this was not good enough so this time i make a recess to hold the pully onto the disc.



i then drilled all 6 holes to hold it onto the crank bottom pully, on the vauxhall engine all the bolt hole spacing is different so the disc can now only ever go one one way.



next the teeth were milled using a dividing head to make sure the teeth were perfectly 180 degs opposed.

im afraid ive lost the pics of this .


but by then i was getting the hang of this machine work.

good job really as 2 days later i lost the ablity to release the cluth, because im running a twin plate cluch the release bearing needs to travel more than a standard clutch now when i was fitting the engine i had to make a temp fix my fixing 2 release bearings together.

this ended in tears LOL

upon taking the box off this is what i found





so back onto the lathe a new bearing was purchased.



again this needed to be extended but this time i had new skills.

so fired up the old lathe again and made a spacer to space the bearing..







this bearing set up works perfect im very happy with the feel of the clutch now .

sbd16v

well with most of the mechanical work done it was time to get the car ready for its first track day. one of the most important thing for me was to get the F/G bonnet on, due to it being a manta 400 rep one it has massive cut outs above the turbo which will help alot with keeping everything cool.



i also spent a few days tightening things up which has made a massive difference to the feeling from inside the car it now feels alot more solid less vibration and rattles.

onto the first track day combe eurofest.

suspension was setup with a tape measure as he ran out of time (was still bolting the gearbox on 3 days before and only got the tyres on that morning etc)
the engine was running a whopping .7bar of boost, and was in limp home mode due to a faulty MAP sensor.

chip det checked it with in-the-ear headphones hidden under my crash helmet ON the track.

however the day was a massive sucess, the car performed better in both handling and straight line speed than i expected it would, the handling is more like i expected it to be once set-up so for it to perform with the most basic of set-ups, was a real treat.

some pics of it on track







little wheel cocking going on

overall very impressed with the car, best lap of the day was a 1m24 not bad for a first day at combe.

couple of videos of the day


http://www.vauxhall-sport-forum.com/rob-combe.wmv

http://www.vauxhall-sport-forum.com/chip-combe.wmv

sbd16v

After a fantastic time at the weekend (eurofest at combe) i really wanted to know what power the car was putting down.

i was not to intersted in the actual number just what the number was for how it felt, just to give me a indication of what to expect when i get to the power figure i would like of 400.

i booked the car in for a power run session at jkm in portsmouth a very good set-up and the guys operating the rr know what there talking about and what there doing, very impressed with the set-up and the way they run it and id highly recomend them to anyone.






the car was run in 2 different boost settings the first was what i really wanted to know what it was at the weekend so the first run was done with .7 bar spring pressure as i have been driving it around.

this made 273bhp and 280ftlb of TQ these are both at the flywheel.

this was a little lower than i expected purly due to how the car drives, althou im not disapointed as the car goes very very well for what is such a low power reading.

we then made a very pikey boost controller (bleed type with a hole in a piece of brake pipe) this enabled us to achive 1.2 bar and another run was done at this boost level.

this made 309bhp and 330ftlb of TQ again at the fly. (261.3bhp and 280ftlb TQ @ the wheels)

some graphs of the day

BHP vs Torque



BHP vs boost



BHP vs AFR's




as you can see the car had no problems holding the boost and it makes the boost at a nice early rpm, im very happy with how soon it makes 300ftlb of tq (the final value we would like all across the range)

however due to the fact this is still a basic base map, with most of the adjustments being just making sure the car has no det, in part the timing has been removed to much this shows by how fast the TQ falls instead of there being timing in the map to bring this back up the map is far to retarded, this will however change once the engine is mapped.

it is also shown in the afr graphs how rich the engine is dropping well into the 10's above 6000 rpm.


so overall quite a bit to come from the mapping and obviously the fact it will just get more boost,

overall im very happy with the car at the moment the jigsaw is finally starting to come together.

Charlie Chalk

iTrader: (1)

Cool car Rob love it, Whats that dash, looks tidy! Got a link or something please mate?

sbd16v

wellllll ive been at it again LOL

there were some things i was not happy with, and with a looming trackday i thought started to attack them.

after looking into the inlet manifolds i found that the dis and let ones are quite different.

this is a let one



and this is a DIS one with the same gasket.



as you can see the DIS one is quite a bit smaller, so a new inlet is going on help free some ponys.

the turbo also needed to come off as the last time i was out i blow another manifold to turbo gasket ( that one lasted 10 miles) so the manifold needed a skim.




with just the engine bay being in bits it felt like i was spoiled for time so i started another job.

the car was totally re-wired last time the car was on the road, but the switch side of it was not completed, it was working to get it thou a mot but was nothing even close to the standard i wanted.

after cutting a few cable ties it showed the mess that was behind the dash :O



it was worse than i remebered so decided to cut out all the switches and redo from the relays back

this is how i left it tonight




good thing is every time it comes apart it gets a few steps better, once all this is done the car will be very close to finished, (as close as these cars ever get lol)