Dan's X25XE Nova.

[Balley]

Hi all, well I sold the TD earlier this year. As some of you know I also bought Stu pots/Brown Bears saloon last year as the 'new' project.
Well I have always wanted a V6 Nova so I thought I may as well have one now I can afford to insure one.
When I bought the car it was fitted with a very broken X16XE, as I had a 20XE lieing about I decided I may aswell fit it until I source the Vee lump.

Well late September I picked up a nice x25xe fairly local.

I will let the pictures do the talking.

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First major thing I did when the XE was in was to polly bush the car, fit big ram billys and progressive heavy duty -35mm springs.

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and 2ltr brakes ofcource.

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It was/is also running a home made 2.5inch exhaust system with a 1.75 tail pipe for the sleeper look.

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Any way the other day I got bored and decided to start rubbing down the bay (ready for the vee)

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[Balley]

That lead to this though.









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[Balley]

The new engine.



Decided to do the gaskets and belts while she was out too.





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We all know the rear manifold is huge so I had to make a new one to clear the rack.









Chop

[Balley]

Even managed to use the old heat shield etc




Now I know they don't just bolt in, so before I painted the bay I had a trial fit.. (wow so glad I did!)

[Balley]

Now I am going to add I want to keep the car looking standard and I really don't want to be cutting up the car too much but I have had to make a few compromises. First off all there is no way on earth the front inlet would fit with out removing the slam panel completely..
Chop!


Luckily enough for me I have recently taught my self to ally weld.



So yeah the front inlet has lost a bit of size but I have made it as big and well shaped as possible, if it doesn't run right back to the drawing board but I have spoken to a few folk who don't think I will notice a difference. We will see.

Next was the radiator. This one easy.



Move it forward an inch on the O/S.

With inlet, rad and exhaust all fitted.



Where I drilled the spot welds on the front panel I have made up some mounts to bolt the slam panel too.

I had to cut a fair bit of the slam panel away so I have had to reinforce the under side a little.

[Balley]

The next big problem is the wiring loom, if runs to the N/s on a vectra and doesn't have a round grommet like the C engines. So I have run the loom through the n/s of the servo and have fitted a X16 loom grommet.



ECU will mount behind the glove box.

The front panel now. The dip stick also had to be moved about 6 inches



I had to wire up a VSS and a transponder so I used a old loom for the right colour wires. Made a lovely little loom up and looks nice and oe. Not 100% done as I need to put the dash in etc to complete.




Still needs tapeing up completely.

Feeds from fuse box.



I also had to cut a section out the under side of the bonnet





Mount isn't finished. I will strengthen it once the engine is out. Everything is trial fit still.



Another problem was I could use the standard bonnet stay so I made this up.



That is it for now though. I need to weld up the old loom holes and the slam stay mount then ready to come back out and paint the bay etc. I have tested the loom, cranked the engine and the fuel pump pumped so the immobilizer is working correctly. I cant start it though as the fuel lines are too short ( cant get to them until the engine is out)

I will keep you updated!

[corsakid]

awesome loving this

[Balley]

Thank you.

[Martin.p]

Well done, your making it look easy. Exhaust work looks great. I though the bulk head needed cutting back to clear rear bank.
Or have you tilted engine forward ? And that's why you've cut slam panel?
will be following this with intrest

[Martin.p]

Also intrested in your comment on Ali welding. I'd like to give it a go myself. What equipment do you use? How you going about it?