XE questions & bad news

[womble sri]

i took my car to have the ever leaking sump gasket done as i know these are prone to breaking within two weeks so i didnt want to attempt it myself despite it being quite a straight forward job. my mechanic who basically built my red sr, does all of my mates cars and used to build rally cars fixed the sump and found a few other leaks as well as a small petrol leak. i pick the car up blah blah blah and on the way to work the sump plig fell out as it wasnt tight enough! so i pulled over as soon as i heard a tapping as this is when i noticed. got towed home took it round to his he was very apologetic and embarrased said not to pay for the works he has done etc. he topped it up with oil and the tapping from the lifters went.
10 mins later a rattling begins :cry: as this starts i turn round and go back to his he was kicking himself and i wasnt to pleased but as i am getting a free rebuild im not to bothered i.e crank reground new conrod pistons dipped and new rings with a quick hone and everything else being checked over.


anyway enough of the novel and onto the questions

1. the tie bar brackets the mount to the crossmembers. one of mine has been welded up as if to be lowered i have had a look around and cant see any reason for them to be? will this effect the handling? also it looks as though one of the shafts has been rubbing on the inside of the car i think under full lock?

2. the car used to be a turbo and has had extensive welding could the turbo of pulled the shell to pieces?

3. i also want a strut brace as i reckon this will help a lot with handeling what ones fit with an xe i have the ecotec hoses on for some reason but will prob get a powercap qanyone know why his used ecto tec rather than the sfi or are they standard as the engine is from an astra gsi.

4. finally, the engine sits quite far back and im wondering if his lined the engine up badly as the inlet near enough fouls the heater matrix radiatior.

any help will be deeply appreciated as i would like to get these bits out of the way while the engine is out.


cheers neil

[Lee H]

1. the tie bar brackets the mount to the crossmembers. one of mine has been welded up as if to be lowered i have had a look around and cant see any reason for them to be? will this effect the handling? also it looks as though one of the shafts has been rubbing on the inside of the car i think under full lock?

2. the car used to be a turbo and has had extensive welding could the turbo of pulled the shell to pieces?

3. i also want a strut brace as i reckon this will help a lot with handeling what ones fit with an xe i have the ecotec hoses on for some reason but will prob get a powercap qanyone know why his used ecto tec rather than the sfi or are they standard as the engine is from an astra gsi.

4. finally, the engine sits quite far back and im wondering if his lined the engine up badly as the inlet near enough fouls the heater matrix radiatior.



1.Is it the passenger tie bar thats been lowered? If so maybe the car used to run an F28 gearbox as you have to lower the tie bar then although the front gearbox mount would have had to be changed.

2.Depends how good the welding was and how good the turbo engine conversion was I suppose.

3.He we have used the Ecotec pipe as to fit the SFi box you either have to cut it or bend the top of the bulkhead back slightly. Don't bother with a powercrap!!

4.The drivers side matrix pipe should have been cut shorter than the passenger one in order to stop the hose runbbing on the inlet. Maybe this hasn't been done.

[womble sri]

what wrong with the powercaps? and what strut brace will fit an xe? it is the drivers tie bar that is modded think ill get some rosejointed ones or just replace them with standard ones

[Stuart]

"powercaps" lose you power lol

[Philsutton]

Like said 1 +2 are linked, if it had a turbo it no doubt had a F28 an the tie bars need to be lowered in order to clear the box, however they should both be lowered, just one isnt doing you any good.

Now about those power caps, I have always said they utter crap an dont give you any power blah blah. Anyway when we first got the rolling road that was one of the first things we played with, I regret to say this but we did lots an lots of runs with an without one on an the out come was an average of 8bhp over the sfi box. I havent said anything about that as I still think they arent worth it lol.

[Dar]

"powercaps" lose you power lol
Back of the class:p lol


I regret to say this but we did lots an lots of runs with an without one on an the out come was an average of 8bhp over the sfi box

I also don't think that they are worth the money but they do get rid of the SFI box and that frees up alot of space making things eaiser.

[Stuart]

did it lose any in the lower end of the rev range though? a peak 8bhp gain is nothing if you lose 8-10bhp lower down as the area of the graph is still the same lol

[Philsutton]

At the end of the day they work well in a corsa due to the bulk head but thats about it.

[womble sri]

so its really as space issue but what about the ecotec pipes? are they what under the sfi box or a replacement? sorry im new to the world of xe's lol