Project Hungovernova [KET]

[TOZNOVA81]

Bought Balley's old 17TD SX [L393KET] about month or so ago and the poor thing is in desperate need of some major TLC!
Here's how KET currently stands before she gets stripped once again for a proper paint job and a major suspension/steering overhaul.
Ive already clocked up 4K miles since I bought her and is not fun to drive at the moment, rattles galore, its like driving a Ford Granada goes like stink but handles like a bus!

So the plan is to strip her back to her undies.
Complete Rewire
New Doors
New Wings
New Bumpers
New Paint [In & Out]
Install Front Upper & Lower Strut Braces & Front ARB [Why there is no front ARB on it I have no idea?]
Rear Strut Brace
New Suspension all round
Polybush All the suspension, Steering etc
Corsa Epas Column [It needs it!]
Exhaust
Refit the bulkhead sound deadening & install dynamat inside coz its noisy as ****! and probably loads more.....
It certainly wont look "Standard" anymore and hopefully will handle better than bus and be a lot quieter without the rattles

[jimbob-mcgrew]

strip her back to her undies

^

1.5 D to 1.7 TD was that ? .. must go pretty well

if your staying with the rally look, it could use big bugger mud flaps up the front too

unfortunatly nova's arent the queitest of cars, you might not be able to do a great deal about about the noise, but give it a go, it might help a bit.

does this only get worked on when your hungover by the way ? ... or are you always hungover, haha

[Johnny A]

Nice! Considering the weight up front a front ARB should be on the cards... either that or hard front suspension! But without one it may lean a lot but should grip well!

As for making it quiet and refined I can't confirm 100% that using a bucket of sound deadening will cure it. But I am doing the exact same thing, engine bay bulkhead sound deadening, cabin sound deadening (the stuff under the carpet that goes up the bulkhead) and finally a ton of the tar-style sound deadening. I am not using Dynamat but a local company to me, having had a lengthy conversion with them and seeing an example of a Mk2 Golf fitted with their stuff I think it will work wonders. Not only does the stuff kill the sound but drastically reduce rattling!!
I bought one of their full-car kits, I took just one of the 1x1ft tiles and slapped it onto the boot floor of my running XE Nova and went for a drive - with just one tile the exhaust noise from the boot was noticabily reduced! I can't wait to see what 42 tiles will do!

Also EPAS will be a massive improvement in refinement and drivability - both my Novas are fitted with Corsa-B columns.

[TOZNOVA81]

Jimbob She certainly does go well haha nah I've ditched those mudflaps now for genuine GM ones all round. Hungovernova is something my gf came up with

Johnny Ye there's so much oversteer its scary atm, the front grips like glue but the body roll is ridiculous. Ye the noise I cant stand, its driving me insane, its got solid engine mounts too which dont help at all with rattling the poor thing to bits haha so lots of soundproofing is a must.
I decided against the epas column and instead fitted a Corsa GSi rack and Saxo epas pump.

Did a bit over the weekend, modifying & installing the pas rack...

First I had to remove the inner track rods from the GSi rack and shorten them by an inch on each as the corsa has a wider wheelbase & re-thread them





Removed the old rack and laid them side by side to check they were now equal lengths





Old rack out, not much room with the engine still in there



Then figure out how much bigger I needed to make the hole in the bulkhead for the valve on the PAS rack to fit.



That should do it :P



It fits



Connected up to the standard nova column, I will tidy up the hole at some point.



The GSi bracket was an absolute **** to fit, ended up having to drop the rear gearbox mount & gear linkage off to squeeze it on, even then it was close.

[TOZNOVA81]

Rack pipes bolted on all snug
Just waiting for my local hydraulics place to make up my new hi pressure pipe then I shall be installing the pump

[Johnny A]

Nice progress, but why hydraulic over EPAS?

[TOZNOVA81]

Nice progress, but why hydraulic over EPAS?

Had the PAS rack just laying around collecting dust in the back of the garage, so thought sod it I'll use it

[Johnny A]

Fair play, will be interesting to hear your findings compared to EPAS

[craig green]

Hydraulic PAS or EPAS. Both a fair bit of fiddling to install. I had the hydraulic setup on my GSi, found it great apart from the whine of the pump.

Not sure if you have ordered your hoses yet, but I got ripped off by my local hydraulic hose specialist & got urged to use incredibly over specced piping. It was so stiff it was impossible to mount. After discarding it I ended up sourcing some far more suitable hose for a fraction of the cost.

[Johnny A]

I have never driven a Nova with hydraulic pas. I'd like to do a back to back comparison at a meet or something in the future