Big power, small money, Tall order?

[Dod]

Right, i want big power for little money and bolt on mods from bigger Vaux's. Was dabbling with the idea of a 1600mpi engine or even an spi. Can i stick an 1800 carb on or should i go a completely different route? The reason is i've GSI and GTE kits and bits laying around and i wanna build something that'll generate a lot of interest when it comes to selling again. Things like Cavs and Astras are laying about every corner around here in various different forms so getting engines and bits wont be a problem. Any ideas?

[Stuart]

to be fair there isnt much you can do with a 1.6mpi and "bigger" engine mods, appart from maybe using the 2.0 8V throttle body if it fits.

and mods detract intrest when selling lol


cheapest way to get a faster car. n2o plain and simple

[johnny27]

Plain and simple, just do a 8valve 130 sri cav conversion. If your talking about 1600 or 1800 out of a astra or cav, u may aswell go for the 2.0 because the 1.6 and 1.8 are big blocks anyhow (unless you get the nova 1600) so you'll be changing stuff like engine mounts, bigblock boxes and driveshafts. Its not worthwhile converting an exsiting mpi to a carb you'll just be losing power unless your planning t40s, and don't even bother with SPi as they are slow and very soft engines. You know the score your self theres an abundance of sri cavs in ireland, you could buy a whole car for next 2 nothing for a full donor so you'd have all the looms ecu fuel pump and so on

[johnny27]

another option is the corsa 1600 gsi (its a small block i think) it would be a difficult messy conversion but 125bhp compared to a cav 130bhp, the power to weight ratio over the cav engine would be a great advantage.

[Dod]

e200 and you could drive a good 8valver home!! But is it much bother getting them bolted up and wired in/ And how does the drive shaft issue work?

[johnny27]

sorry, oh yeah, a v8 in the rear and another up front should be good lol:)

[Dod]

Well you do come on the odd 3.5l Range Rover in the Omagh Auction but i cant really see it being cheap though!!

[johnny27]

seriously though, everyone seems to go down the 1.4 or 1.6 16v route now, its great power for small engines and are'nt that expensive. Only real problem is the wiring loom, the orignal nova gearbox and driveshaft will do. If you ask someone on here about it that has done it b4 it should'nt be that hard of a conversion, compared to the big block engines.

[Snowface]

another option is the corsa 1600 gsi (its a small block i think) it would be a difficult messy conversion but 125bhp compared to a cav 130bhp, the power to weight ratio over the cav engine would be a great advantage.

The Corsa 1.6 16v GSI is 106bhp standard. (early C16XE's were 109bhp).
Not 125bhp lol.

Though they can be tuned to over 200bhp N/A with the right Money and knowledge.

[johnny27]

oh yeah i knew that all along, i i i (stutter) i was just testing you. lol i stand corrected.

[johnny27]

there was a rumor going around that it when it was orginaly being made or produced that it was making power not that far off from the 20xe in ratio of course, so it ended up they had to restrict it (things like the throttle body and restrictive injection air and fuel feed. Don't know how ture it is though.

[MC]

I do believe that is correct, it is restricted and possibly due to the fact that the late 2.0 16v's put out really low bhp.

MC

[alistairolsen]

vauxhall got lotus to build it, and lotus got over 150 brake on the dyno, so vaux stuck a huge restrctive inlet manifold on them so they wouldnt embarrass the larger engines. The wiring is easy. The advantage is you dont have to knock in the wing, or bugger around withh shafts, and your car will still handle afterwards.

If I was looking for dirt cheap Id be finding a low mileage 2l ecotec for 100 quid and usng that. most xes are buggered by now anyway, so the power difference isnt what people think it is.

Also, dont bother thinking about resale, no nova is worth a lot, everything possible has pretty much been done now. Just build the car as you want it, do it properly and enjoy it.

[Dod]

Right Enough, i can get an Ecotech Vectra for e200 complete, but wouldn't that be a bitch of a job fitting it, and how would it work for the Drive shafts?
The Nova's are still worth a brave few quid up here, cuz there aren't any around anymore so if i ccan, i'll capitalise on it.

[Aragorn]

the 1.6 16v doesnt JUST have a restrictive inlet

the cams the factory fitted are very mild profiles and the engine runs 11:1 compression ratio so running it on pump fuel is going to cause loads of det and hence timing retard which will sap the power

mine runs soo much nicer on superunleaded than it does on normal petrol

[johnny27]

If you go down the big block route like the 2L ecotec, then your going up against things like making new engine mounts, possibly fitting a big block box and shafts, plus as said your handling won't be as good. For the little more money and abit of trouble finding a 16xe it would def be worth it with all that tuning potential. I don't just think its entirely possible to get big power on very very little money. so the 16xe would be a good in between.