wondered why it was missing a little

[valvercorsa]

well i have had my nova 1600 16v on the road for 2 wks now and have loved every minite of it much more fun than the c20xe that i removed. but on sunday was on way home from my parents house after a loverly sunday lunch lol , when car started to miss so i pulled over and had a look under bonnet but it run fine once got back into the car. so drove home thinking it was just a dodgy lead or plug. pulled into the drive and without touching anything the car stopped dead :eek:

i tried to restart but starter kept sticking so i removed it and greased it up but still no luck, i thought well this isnt good engine must be seized but had plenty of oil and had no light on so removed the head thinking it had dropped a valve but it was much worse


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/valvercorsa/DSC00252.jpg

it snapped 2 :cry: but that wasnt the worse part

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/valvercorsa/DSC00253.jpg

no wonder i couldnt turn engine over lol

[let_nova]

nom nom nom bugger!!!

[Plug]

christ

[valvercorsa]

and thats why i build my own engines lol kid who i got it off had it rebuilt no more than a year ago buy a toy company by looks lmao

[Graeme]

Good luck rebuilding that one

[valvercorsa]

hahaha picking up a c16xe 2moz :)

[AlexW]

Nice!

[valvercorsa]

i no :)

[wwmnw]

Wut? Wait! There should be a piston in there surely :confused: lol :cry: I dread something like this happening to mine when its done, as I've spent a****ignlot and can not afford to do it again.

[blue_peg_16v]

hungry crank

[brainsnova]

looks like the head kent14sr got sent lol

[nova-taken]

now that looks nasty!!

hope that never happens to me!!

[burgo]

good effort +rep

[Nobby]

and thats why you should of stayed with redtops lol

[Rich]

Thats what you get when you play with silly little engines lol

[Sloth]

yet another smallblock xe chooses hari-kiri instead of a decent life. shows theyre crap imho.

[Ben]

Thats proper ****ed!

They are **** engines!

[Mike]

Valves got NOMed lol

[Aragorn]

I wouldnt say they're **** engines, they're more sturdy than the other small blocks due to things like the fractured rods.

They also have around 90% of the valve area of a 20xe even though its only got 80% of the capacity, so they can also make pretty good power.

I dont however see the point of replacing a 20XE with one. There is this perception that the 20xe weighs about 495kgs more than a small block and as such fitting one will destroy what handling the car has.

I've had a fully dressed 20XE and F20 on a scale and it weighed 190kgs, and a similarly dressed 1.2 8v SPI motor with F13 which weighed 160kgs.

30kgs really isnt going to transform a perfect handling car into a ditchfinder in the way people try to claim, and a 16XE will weigh more than a 1.2 8v!

[saloonwoody]

in the words of the farmer boys......PRAPER JAAAAABBBBB lol

[Ben]

They are not very reliable when being driven hard, there are a number of common faults on them and all of which require dismantling to repair.

In comparison to the c20 xe they are a headache.

[Aragorn]

Care to elaborate?

The motor is very similar to the other small engines, and they get ragged day in day out without problems in all levels of trim...

So unless theres an issue with the cylinder head itself i cant see the problem?

[Ben]

Well the valve stem seals are the one that seems to spring to mind.

[Aragorn]

Yet the same stem seals are used across a whole range of ecotec motors, including both the 1.4 and 1.6 16v, the 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2 big blocks and even the V6 engines...

[Sloth]

the fact that the coolant passages in the head are known to be too small, the fact that lotus designed the engine, had it running at 140bhp and vaux de tuned it. the crank keyways snap off, and the blocks corrode around the waterways. i weighed a x16xe from a 1997 corsa sport, and it weighed 185 kg, with a f13. the late dis pak xe that replaced it weighed 167kg with an f20.

[burgo]

sloth your scales must be dodgy

[Aragorn]

Well your scales are shot then!

I've had a 1.2 8v and 2.0 16v weighed on the same day on the same spring balance. 1.2 8v with F13 box fully dressed was 160kg, and the 20xe with F20 was 190kg.

The 20XE is larger in every dimension, so trying to claim its lighter is just madness. I imagine a 16XE will be somewhere around 170-175kgs.

As for the blocks, you dont hear people with 1.6 8v motors moaning about waterway corrosion, so imo its either misstreatment (ie lack of antifreeze) or made up.
Cranks are also the same as 8v items, and again unless some muppet doesnt tighten the pulley properly they're fine.
The fact that the engine made 140hp then was detuned is a bonus, it means its very easy to extract more power from them.

Dont get me wrong, if i was building a fast Nova/Corsa i'd be using a C20XE or X20XEV (or a LET), but thats not because the 16XE is crap, its simply because it makes sense to install the larger engine from the off. The larger capacity means the engines more tractable at low revs and is generally nicer to drive, whereas the 16XE needs to be revved like a goodun to make it go because its a small motor that makes no power in the midrange.

[Sloth]

Well your scales are shot then!
electronic wheighbride, before and after conversion.


I've had a 1.2 8v and 2.0 16v weighed on the same day on the same spring balance. 1.2 8v with F13 box fully dressed was 160kg, and the 20xe with F20 was 190kg.

The 20XE is larger in every dimension, so trying to claim its lighter is just madness. I imagine a 16XE will be somewhere around 170-175kgs.
so why does a c20xe engined corsa have more room around it than a x16xe engined one??

As for the blocks, you dont hear people with 1.6 8v motors moaning about waterway corrosion, so imo its either misstreatment (ie lack of antifreeze) or made up.
the later x16szr's suffered too, thats basically a 1.6 8v spi. later blocks must be cast from different metal
Cranks are also the same as 8v items, and again unless some muppet doesnt tighten the pulley properly they're fine.
actually there was a recall for post 97 corsas to re torque the bottom pullley bolts.
The fact that the engine made 140hp then was detuned is a bonus, it means its very easy to extract more power from them.
couldnt argree more, but as you say, its a rev happy engine, but torque is better.

Dont get me wrong, if i was building a fast Nova/Corsa i'd be using a C20XE or X20XEV (or a LET), but thats not because the 16XE is crap, its simply because it makes sense to install the larger engine from the off. The larger capacity means the engines more tractable at low revs and is generally nicer to drive, whereas the 16XE needs to be revved like a goodun to make it go because its a small motor that makes no power in the midrange.
which imo completely negates even thinking of fitting the smallblock xe's..:thumb:

[valvercorsa]

Dont get me wrong, if i was building a fast Nova/Corsa i'd be using a C20XE or X20XEV (or a LET), but thats not because the 16XE is crap, its simply because it makes sense to install the larger engine from the off. The larger capacity means the engines more tractable at low revs and is generally nicer to drive, whereas the 16XE needs to be revved like a goodun to make it go because its a small motor that makes no power in the midrange.


sorry but i disagree, my c20xe was rolling roaded at 186bhp and 162lb/ft
spec was; standard rebuilt, lightened and balanced, shot pinned rod's, arp rod bolts, ported, polished and port matched head, and a set of bogg bro's R1 bike carbs was fast but dont regret takin it out.
love the way the small block pick's up its feet and f**ks off. loads more fun than the redtop.

[Aragorn]

So your trying to claim that having nearly 70hp LESS power means its quicker...

A 16XE nova isnt a fast car, our bog standard Audi A4 1.8T can match it in accelleration and would nom it once into the triple figures, and its a big boring estate car...

Once you get up around 150hp in a nova it starts to become reasonably quick.

[valvercorsa]

no mean its more fun lol
each to there own :) redtops are fun but was bored of it and fancied something different. i building a v6 corsa aswell now lol

[Adam]

Sloth, because a x16 has a stupid inlet/tb setup etc, and more emissions ****e than a xe is the reason it crowds out a corsa bay more.
A XE is a much more "basic" engine compared to a 1600 16v, in terms of emissions garbage....


And ive lost count how many times ive said this, i had a reasonable 130hp 1.6 16v, and now a 150-160hp xe, and in NO WAY is the 1.6 better/more fun. Id never go back to a small block, unless it was turbo'd

[AlexW]

I was about to say bout the stuff in the engine bay, Most C20XE'ed ones dont have Aircon and powersteering some times, thats a lot of differance.

Plus the inlet etc is ****ing long on a baby xe, powerbox makes more space for sure.

[valvercorsa]

everybody goes for the easy power, i bet a 150 bhp 16xe would do a standard 20xe.

we all could argue all day about this lol

[Nobby]

everybody goes for the easy power, i bet a 150 bhp 16xe would do a standard 20xe.


till it blew up lol

[wwmnw]

till it blew up lol

Pfft 1.6 16v is good for 250 bhp before it goes pop.

[Aragorn]

The problem is a 150hp 16xe is going to end up very peaky, but becuase it has no midrange it wouldnt be very nice to drive on the road.

Because the 20xe is in a moderately low level of tune, it has a nice wide spread of power. A 150hp 16xe will have all its power jammed into a very small range at the top of the rev range which makes it far more wearing to drive as your always having to stir the box to keep it on song.

if you compared it with a similarly tuned 200hp 20XE for example, the 20XE would also become peaky, but because of its larger capacity, the midrange has plenty of go anyway, so its got the power when you are giving it full bore, but is still perfectly tractable as an everyday car.

I had a 1.6 16v in my nova back in the day but having driven that, and then driven a 2.0 ecotec nova, the 2.0 is the far better car, simply because it has effortless power when your just pottering around, and "yeehaa" power when you do decide to give it the full bhoona.

[Sloth]

everybody goes for the easy power, i bet a 150 bhp 16xe would do a standard 20xe.

we all could argue all day about this lol

you kidding? the torque would be no whwere the same, and seen as the xe delivers it in a more linear form its by design the better engine. and your telling me an xe'd nova that spins up in 3rd and into 4th aint fun? how many s/b xe's do that? and tbh adams comment validates my argument, seen as he has had both setups.:thumb:

[alan b]

christ!

[Angus Closier]

Not sure why people allways argue about this, some people like small block some like big, my idear of fun is not allways going to be yours, or the next person. Its a FACT big block will be faster (NOT round a track) The whole weight arguement is just boring to be honest lets face it novas never handled very well (standard) whatever engine was in it. To make it handle well (whatever engine is now in it) you have to set it up right! bb xe's are known for sh****t handeling because most people run sh**t suspension etc! you get what you pay for in the end! +++ There is no replacement for displacement! anyway bad luck on that engine fella hope the new one dont do the same!

[valvercorsa]

nice :)

cheers mate, i hope it dont go pop aswell lol