Vauxhall Cavalier GSI RestoMod Track Car

[Cocknose]

Next up was to get the head bolted on.

As I may have mentioned previously, a couple of years ago I managed to get hold of a COSCAST head. This has since been chemically cleaned, ported, polished, gas flowed and has had the valve seats recut.

Back from the head work



Torqued up with standard Victor Reinz head gasket


The ports



How it looks at the moment with all the mounts loosely bolted on. These are all off to be powder coated soon.


I'm pretty pleased with how it all came together. The piston ring end gaps were spot on, all at the lower end of tolerance and all alike. For some reason I thought I had a set of lifters in my box of parts, but I didn't. That being the case, I wasn't able to get the cams and the pulleys on which is a massive shame as it would have been good to maintain the momentum.

[Cocknose]

There is apparently a Frontera bottom end which will mate up with minimal fuss, but they're pretty rare. From what I've read, you need a 2.2 petrol version, and they only produced the petrol with a belt for a couple of years. The rally lot like them because you can bore them out to 2.4/2.5 so I'd guess most have gone that way.

I don't know if I've already mentioned it, but I do have a spare c20xe block which I'm planning on drip feeding money into once I've got the car up and running. Plan with that will be to build a decent spec bottom end, knife edged crank, honed to 87.5 etc and accrue some parts for the head to go 'full retard' with it.

[Cocknose]

Thanks mate.

You'll have to let me know when you get the Accord sorted and we'll get out on track together!

[Cocknose]

Another three weeks off, and some more progress with the engine.

Got home and cut some holes in the timing belt cover to enable adjustment of the Vernier pulleys;



Then dropped the timing belt cover, rocker cover, sump, fan cowling and all the engine mounts, off at the powdercoaters.

While they were getting done I added some bits which are not only new and clean, but lighter too! The lighter crank pulley I'm hoping will be noticeable.





Pulley mounts. This will definitely NOT be noticeable!





While I was waiting for the stuff to come back from the powdercoaters, I put in some stainless water inserts, one for the head and one for the block;



Also fitted some stainless manifold studs, (with plenty of copperslip).

[Cocknose]

Also got on with tidying up the bulkhead and the engine bay in preparation for refitting the engine and gearbox. Removed the last bits of sound deadening, no signs of cracking, some very minor surface rust which will be treated with POR15.

All in all, not too bad;



As you can see, the steering rack is missing. It's been sent off to Kiley Clinton in Birmingham for an overhaul. Removed the power steering lines, with my assistant;



Gave them a quick descale and a couple of coats of hammerite. These are hanging in the garage for the next few weeks so the paint should be nice and hard by the time I refit them.





Started trying out some paintjob ideas on the Tamiya bodyshell, too;




And a render done by a talented Brazilian lad who is Cavalier daft;

Edited by Cocknose on Saturday 10th October 10:04

[Cocknose]

Collected some freshly powdercoated bits; should freshen it up somewhat.



Fitted some bits. I need to highlight the writing on the spark plug cover in red, but haven't worked out how to do it neatly yet, I think it's a bit too white as it is. All the hoses will be red though, so that might be enough to break up the appearance.



Even the sump looks good. Stainless bolts used throughout, with a slather of copperslip on the threads.



And finally I got the ITB's test fitted





Pretty pleased with how it's all coming together. Not much left to do now before I can get the engine and box back in the car.

[Cocknose]

Sammo123 said:

This is going to be an absolute beast when it’s done! My boss is Jeff Allam so I’ll have to point him in the direction of your thread so he can see what you’re getting up to

Thanks bud, I'm hoping it'll be a decent machine when it's done.

Please do, clearly it'll be worlds away from the monsters that he and John Cleland piloted, but it was their exploits that inspired me to buy the thing. Those lads were my absolute heroes growing up.

[Cocknose]

RazerSauber said:

Loving the work on this.

I think you're right though, the plug cover could do with a bit of red on it.

Thanks mate, I appreciate that. Needs a bit of something to break up the white for sure.

scottos said:

He seems a really nice bloke Jeff Allam, the competition engine builders i help out at looked after his Group A SD1 for awhile. We took it down to the 100th anniversary Shelsley Walsh event back in 2005. I was 15 or so at the time and wasnt clued up 100% on who he was but at the end of the day he gave me £20 to get some food on the way home and it's always stuck with me. Saying that so has the noise of that car

Loving the progress, great detail going into it.

Where did you end up getting the head modified out of interest, i remember recommending the place i help out at way back when in the thread but do realise there are plenty of people doing a great job on these engines!

A group A SD1, now that's a thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJU_KllzUqM Something like this? Cool story too, I like it when our heroes turn out to be decent people.

Thanks for the comments, it's going to be in pretty mint condition but the thing is still going to get driven, hard. It's what I built it for.

I got the head done a few years ago now. AMAC were going to do all the rest of the work, which included refacing, boring and honing the bottom end, balancing the crank and converting the head to solid followers etc. Alistair reckoned on about 230bhp once they were finished with it. Sadly that's had to go on hold for now, a COVID related paycut amongst other COVID related things, has meant that it'll be going back together with the standard (refreshed) bottom end in it. The only non standard item in the bottom end are the ARP rod bolts.

I do have a spare block, and all being well I'll go 'full retard' with that once things have settled back down again. It'll be interesting to see what sort of power this one produces, as is.

Top work on your 2002 by the way, that thing is incredible!

[Cocknose]

scottos said:

Exactly like that yes but it was the TWR Bastos livery one, we've looked after a lot of group a cars around that kind of period (one of my favourites) that noise in that video brings back memories, it vibrates your rib cage, never been around another car that's done that.

Funnily enough I've just searched on YouTube and it appears to be the same car, it's got his name on it at least. Looks like it went to NZ after it left us!

https://youtu.be/VPehfYITgJI

Awesome, glad you've been in touch, Alistair is great and so is his son Alan. You might find you end up happy with your current set up anyway and find you've saved a packet of money too!

Thanks for the kind words on the 2002. I've done the same as you engine-wise, built up a mild-ish engine and then was going to do a daft one for it but I ended up selling all the daft bits. I'll do it one day but needed to draw a line, it felt never ending. I'm sure you can relate it'll be amazing once you're on the road with yours, such a great feeling!

Those Rover V8's do make one hell of a noise. I had one in an old Landy that I owned when I lived out in Egton Bridge. It had minimal silencing and made a glorious noise for an old Land Rover.

AMAC were great, really helpful. I badly wanted to put the work their way but I just can't commit to a chunk of money like that at the moment.

The 2002 looks fantastic, it really does. It's effortlessly cool and yet packs a punch. I know exactly what you mean about drawing a line under it, it would be easily possible to go to the nth degree with everything and hopelessly over-engineer it. It is mighty tempting because it's in bits and I've sort of convinced myself with a lot of it, that it's easier to do it now while it's off the road, in the garage, on stands, engine out etc etc

Having said all that, it's a massive relief now the engine is buttoned up and the car it's starting to come together. I've unwittingly drawn a line under it, and I feel better for it. I can't wait to get out over the Moors in the thing now.

[Cocknose]

After a busy few months with work/courses and Christmas, and finding no time to work on the car, I finally got back under there to finish off the engine bay and underside.

Before


And after



Also managed to finish off heatproofing and tidying up the bulkhead, much cleaner.


Next job will be to refit the subframe, struts and power steering rack. Then fit the LSD in the gearbox, mate it to the engine and drop the whole shebang in the car again - it's been a while!

[Cocknose]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Love this thread, what do you reckon the power to weight will be like when you’re done OP?

Thanks buddy. Honestly, I've got no idea. Google has it as a kerb weight of 1199kg as standard, but I've got no idea if it'll be heavier or lighter than that. I did a lot of work stripping it out but then lobbed a rollcage in it. It should develop around 200bhp with the engine as is.

A standard EP3 Civic Type R is (according to Parkers) 197bhp and 1204kg, so at a guess I'd say the Cavalier would be similar?

I need to get it to a weighbridge once it's rolling, so I can weigh it properly.

B'stard Child said:

Always happy to see this thread has an update - sometimes stuff takes time due to life being life

Thanks mate. Hopefully the next few will be really good ones now the hard miles are done. It feels like it's taking forever, but I work away so I'm only at home half the year and that time is split between family, chores and garage time! Oh, and the odd course for work etc

Killboy said:

Absolutely loving this! Beautiful work!

Thanks mate, kind words.

1602Mark said:

+1

Cheers!

Brian_996TT said:

Cool car and good work on the restoration, I had a white 1990 gsi back in 2003 and my heater duct disintegrated so i got one of a standard cavalier and it was made of plastic

Thanks mate. I did try and get hold of a plastic one, but getting someone to remove the dash so I could have the part proved a bit difficult.

[Cocknose]

Another three weeks at home, and another bit of progress towards getting this thing back on the road!

Subframe, refurbished steering rack, painted servo, rebuilt master cylinder, NOS master cylinder reservoir and header tanks (the original ones were decidedly manky) fitted to the car...




Touched up the lower part of the struts where they'd attracted some surface rust while the car was sat on the old drive...


And finally got it back on it's wheels.

[Cocknose]

Next up, the Quaife LSD.

The old one


The new one


And the new one with new taper bearings, new speedo drive and the crown wheel reattached. Ready to fit

[Cocknose]

A job I could no longer put off, reassembling the gearbox.

A couple (few) years ago now, I stripped, degreased and painted the casings. I just had to bolt it back to together.


Ordered a st load of zinc plated bolts of the same tensile strength


And with a smattering of RTV, it was back in one piece


Time to mate the gearbox to the engine. Lifted the engine of the stand


Bolted on the new TTV flywheel (4.2kg) using ARP bolts. Owing to the ITB's and standalone management I'm raising the rev limit so I was playing it safe here by upgrading the flywheel bolts.


A bit lighter than the original - 50% less!


And with that done, I bolted the gearbox back to the engine

[Cocknose]

BatForcePC said:

Really enjoying this build, nice to see a c20xe being used properly! It's an amazing engine, we used to run a QED variant in our hillclimb single seater - running methanol, a 9200 rpm limit and pushing approx 290bhp. It was glorious at full chat and very driveable - the c20xe is known for having bucket loads of torque!

Looking forward to seeing this finished!

Thanks chap. That sounds like quite a build! Do you have any videos of it going up the hills?

I do have another bottom end which I'm planning to have bored out to 87.5 etc. The plan is to build up another engine of a higher spec and swap them over once I've got the car set up and stuff.

[Cocknose]

With the engine and gearbox bolted together, they were taking up quite a lot of floorspace in the garage. Only one thing to do then, get it back in the car



With the throttle bodies, and bonnet reattached


I ditched the tacky chrome dipstick in favour of a standard GM one which I painted in silver VHT paint


And while I've been busy getting the engine back in the car, the exhaust manifold has been away having a ceramic coating applied

[Cocknose]

BatForcePC said:

I can send you a build sheet if you're interested - I have one somewhere I can dig out together with a dyno chart.

Here are a couple of videos from 2012 - we sold it soon afterwards, kind of regret that as its replacement hasn't been as much fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on2r3oKMsSo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAZhHIGtcg

I'd love to see the build sheet, it would be fascinating reading if nothing else. What would the longevity of the engine be, running that sort of power?

Thanks for the videos, you're right when you say it sounds glorious, what a noise!

ShampooEfficient said:

Brilliant updates, love to see this coming together.

Even if it means every time I lose an hour looking on eBay for a nice one that isn't from a certain dealer...

Thanks chap.

No matter how many times KTC change their name, they'll never shift that reputation. Decent GSI's do come up for sale every now and again, as is the way of the world now though, most appear on owners club pages or similar rather than ebay/AutoTrader.

[Cocknose]

scottos said:

Awesome updates matey, great to see the engine in the hole! Surely that felt like a big milestone!

Thanks Scott. It really does yeah, the engine has been on a stand for so long, it's great to see it installed. Also means I can get the gear linkage for the quick shifter sorted, the radiator and fan back in, silicone hoses installed etc. I'm loving the fact that the stock of parts that have lived on shelves for years, are finally migrating towards the car!

She's booked in for paint around June time as well. Exciting times!

How's that lovely 2002 of yours?

[CouncilFerrari]

With the car being booked in for it's respray in July, I thought I'd best get my finger out and get it ready. The paint on the roll cage welds was less than perfect because the car had sat outside in all weathers and had endured one thorough soaking when the cover was whipped off. I decided the right thing to do, would be to strip the paint off, take it all back to bare metal and do it again, properly. It's not a job I wanted to do post paint job because of the risk of overspray, so off I went.

First things first, I set about removing the rear glass, it didn't go well;



I rigged up a temporary screen in the garage to stop the aerosol dust (no idea what the technical term is) getting on the bikes



Then, I stripped it down to bare metal and gave it a few coats of acid etch primer;




And some colour and some clear coat



Then, after a couple of days of letting the solvents flash off, I rolled it outside to let it enjoy the good weather we've been having.

Paint shop is booked for early July, I am beyond excited.

[CouncilFerrari]

Batch 7.5R said:

I’m SURE I was following this on another thread that just went quiet?
Glad to see this coming along - the Cav is my iconic BTCC car, and 1995 the vintage season.

I had another thread - same car - under a different username a couple of years ago? I gave up on PH for a little while because there were so many idiots seeking to start arguments. I now just limit my exposure to the Readers Cars and regional sections.

Retro_Jim said:

I've just discovered the thread, the work you're doing is amazing!

Thanks mate, I'd by lying if I said it hadn't just got completely out of hand.