C20XE mods

[m.d.]

just looking to see what people think is a good mod for the xe. i know a fair bit about engines so know what generally works but not spcifically for the XE.

ill put a list of the mods i know of and it would be great to see what people think of the mods or wheather they are worth doing at all.
and if there are any more that can be done.

cheep and external mods

1. cone filter
2. 2 1/4" streaght through exhaust system
3. cheese wedge removed from the throttle butterfly
4. performance exhaust manifold
5. powercap
6. superchip
7. power boost valve

more expensive and internal mods

8. cam kits and verniers
9. headwork
10. pocketing pistons
11. lightening and ballencing bottom end (inc arp bolts)
12. uprated pistons
13. uprated rods
14. carbs or throttle boddies
15. dry sump kits

any replys would be cool peeps as ive never played with an xe yet.
by the way the last ones are just out of interest as im planning on staying with the standard inlet and injection at first and seing what can be done like that. then moving on when funds permit

[Philsutton]

i had a set of QED q42h cams in mine with the standard injection, it gave a noticable difference but were quite mild. These are only 200 for the set, i also had a lightened flywheel which cost 50 to get machined down at an engineering shop.
Now i have some twin 45s and a quaife atm diff to go on, cant comment on them as i havent driven the car yet.

I would much rather spend the more on a set of cams than a power cap or any of those mods

[Nick]

not personal expirience, but from a few friends owning astra GSi's/GTE's

The powercaps have had mixed responses, some people see them as an improvment.

but i think there was a post ages ago about them, and alot of people were actually expiriencing power loss's on rolling roads before and after fitting a powercap.

A friend of mine with a GTE 16v, found he seemed to loose 2bhp after fitting a powercap.

[Philsutton]

personally i would put the money for a power cap aside for some carbs as they will give a big power increase an sound good to

[James B]

talking of the XE, would a boost valve still give the desired improvement if used with DTA management?

[Philsutton]

if your going to use DTA management you may as well go onto throttle bodies

[benji]

the biggest gains will be got from ditching the standard intake and going to carb's/tb's. no point spending money modding it only to sawp later, i.e. don't get a powercap.

if you get dta managment you can upgrade to tb's at a later date.

[James B]

i know throttle bodies are definately on the cards too...

[Glytch]

Is the breather mod worth doing?

And how do you go about removing the cheese wedge? not heard of that one before.

[Aragorn]

the powerboost valve is a waste of time if going mappable as u remap the engine to suit rather than trying to compensate by winding up the fuel pressure

however some (all?) tb kits require raised fuel pressure to attain enough fuel for the engine so it may be required in that case

superchips arent that great either tbh, if u want a chip then its gorra be unichip

powercap is nothing more than a clearance cap for making it easier to fit the engine into corsa/nova and u will lose power from fitting it

cone filters are arguable and normally cause powerloss in cavs/astras/callys compared to std airbox due to raised inlet temps

exhaust system - fair enough
manifold - the std xe one is pretty good, its tubular and possibly stainless too from the factory although ive hjeard fold saying it has some dodgy welds which could be doing with being smoothed out

[James B]

the powerboost valve is a waste of time if going mappable as u remap the engine to suit rather than trying to compensate by winding up the fuel pressure

however some (all?) tb kits require raised fuel pressure to attain enough fuel for the engine so it may be required in that case



thats what I was in two minds about.. you remap the ECU to suit the fuelling requirements, but would u need an FSE to run the TB's correctly??

James

[m.d.]

right ok from what ive worked out and also what you lot have said ive decided a few things.

im going to stay with the standard injection for a while but ill get the things that can be kept when later mods are done. i have a power boost valve kicking about somewhere so ill whack that on for good measure.
ill stay with the standard exhaust manifold and im going to take the car to longlife exhausts which is just arround the corner from where i will be fitting the engin. im going to leave the manifold as the standard astra shape and ask them to make a 2 1/4" stainless system to fit. that way i can purchase an astra performance manifold at a later date and it will be an easy swap.
cams will be the next mod but ill go for quite a lumpy set so i wont have to change them in the future, and finally engine mangement.
hopefully ill be able to just bolt on TBs then at a later date without problems, and would spread the cost out.

:D

[Glytch]

Cheers for this post M.D. if everyone agrees then i think i will follow in ur footsteps

[Austin_Nova16]

the biggest gains will be got from ditching the standard intake and going to carb's/tb's. no point spending money modding it only to sawp later, i.e. don't get a powercap.


Very true Benji.

I found that fitting a set of 45's to a standard lump gave such a massive improvement in the performance and made the car much more driveable than a standard valver or one with mild cams and chip.
Was hitting 135mph on the back straight of Goodwood, which is deffo not bad...

[Glytch]

Austin, u updated ur pics.
Wheres ur fuel tank gone? It looked sweet.