3.0 Supercav!

[Envoy CDX]

Looking great Tony, it's all the little bits of attention to little details that are making this more enjoyable to see come together.
You're going to be very pushed for space in that bay though it seems.

[TurboDan]

Great work, all nice and shiney!

[himselfunknown]

Great work, all nice and shiney!

Nice work indeed. Looks minted

Cheers guys I'm dreading the first time I drive through a big puddle!!

Looking great Tony, it's all the little bits of attention to little details that are making this more enjoyable to see come together.
You're going to be very pushed for space in that bay though it seems.

Cheers Gary. I might be overdoing it perhaps, but I'm (generally!) enjoying it, and that's what it's all about, right?! There won't be a lot of room under there, but loads compared to a V6 Vectra, and maybe enough to get a supercharger in there in the future!

Fantastic work, it must nice to actually bolting stuff back together!

Yes, it is! Although I'm getting a bit bored of cracking the paint out, if I'm honest!

[himselfunknown]

Anyway, a bit of an update. Not a lot of photos as most of what I've been doing recently is plumbing in the LPG and engine in general, so nothing amazing going on. But other than the boring stuff, I finished off the oil cooler pipework:



And also got the rad in:





Made a start on the inlet plenum:





And this is how it stands this evening:



The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that this there is a different inlet on it - this is because the enlarged throttle body was in the post and I couldn't wait to hear it running....

Which is did last night!! After a 30 dry crank to get the oil around it a bit, it fired up first turn of the key!!

Ran a bit rough for a while while the lifters filled up and things generally bedded down, and it smoked like a trooper while the heat wrap on the exhaust dried off, but after about 10 minutes it was running fine. Had a small air leak and a couple of oil connections that needed nipping up, but other than that - faultless - not even an EML, which I was pleasantly surprised about. I did get some video, but as I'm currently using the slowest lap top in the world, I'm not able up upload it.

So, I'm well happy and motivated to get to the next stage, which is on the road and MOT'd ready for a track day evening session on 6th May for a pre-Nurburgring shakedown.

[TurboDan]

Its gonna look like brand new under then when your finished. Very nice

[btcctroy]

So, I'm well happy and motivated to get to the next stage, which is on the road and MOT'd ready for a track day evening session on 6th May for a pre-Nurburgring shakedown.

When my replica is complete I'll be happy to join your track day sessions.
Some lovely work on this car pal

[himselfunknown]

Its gonna look like brand new under then when your finished. Very nice

Well, maybe not brand new, but it's going to look pretty good. At least for a month or so!! Hopefully it will still look impressive for Billing!

So, I'm well happy and motivated to get to the next stage, which is on the road and MOT'd ready for a track day evening session on 6th May for a pre-Nurburgring shakedown.

When my replica is complete I'll be happy to join your track day sessions.
Some lovely work on this car pal

Yes mate, there are a few of us do semi-regular track days, and the more the merrier as they say
Drop me a PM when you're ready!

[Lowrider Dave]

A big progress step - well done, looking forwards to having a nosey round it at Billing.

[himselfunknown]

Been cracking on with some bits and pieces, despite several minor changes of plan and waiting for bits to be delivered!

Got my uprated throttle body in, off a guy on eBay. Enlarged from 62mm (iirc) to 68mm, and also had a spacer made up to delete the traction control butterfly:







So I got it fitted to the inlet plenum:



And finished painting the plenum:



The front bumper had some damage:



So I stripped it down, painted up the crash bar, and rebuilt it. I was a bit annoyed as one of the fog lights was damaged (broken mounting points) and the new bumper I had turned out to be a non-OEM one, so it wasn't quite the right shape and none of the fixing points lined up, so I decided to stick with the original bumper for now. Fixed the fog light, and built it all back up again:





These came in, which will be really helpful when I take it to the Nurburgring next month!:





So I made a start on these:




First gave them a clean down to remove all the grease and crud:



Then cracked on with a tidy up:

[Envoy CDX]

Looking goood!

[himselfunknown]

Been making some more progress on this. Got the wheels primered:



then flatted back and top-coated:





Got some new reg plates as the old ones were a bit shonky:



Had to re-route the oil cooler pipework to fit in the oil temp stat and oil temp sender. To do this I needed to remove the rad, battery, battery tray, so a bit of a case of two steps forward one step back. But now there will be no danger of over cooling on the autobahns!



Then got the front end built back up again, which was a complete pig of a job - whoever 'designed' the Cavalier front bumper, mounting points and access to the mounting points needs a very good kicking - trying to line everything up and get it all bolted on was a mission. Done now, anyway:



Starting to look more like a car now!

[Lowrider Dave]

[Envoy CDX]

Looking good!

Bumpers sitting a bit low though...

(Runs away).

[himselfunknown]

Looking good!

Bumpers sitting a bit low though...

(Runs away).

Bumper is fine Gary, it's the camera angle

The bumpers might not be on the car long, as I'm tempted to put my GSI body kit on it, and some other subtle upgrades. But then I do like the sleeper look. Choices!

Anyway, bit of an update. Got lots of niggly tidy up jobs done on it Friday, and got it MOT'd on Saturday. I also got the semi slicks fitted to the 17"s.

People keep telling me it needs lowering, so I did - approximately 2 feet:





This was after a quick wash before the MOT - I was pleasantly surprised how nice it came up. It will be getting a full detailing in time though.

Having put some miles on it over the weekend, a few minor niggles have become apparent (to be expected really), and there are a few outstanding jobs I need to get done before Nurburgring in 2.5 weeks. And I want to get a track day in too so I can get a feel for the car at speed to reduce the chances of armco intimacy/death at Nurburgring!

[Lowrider Dave]

Looks a proper sleeper there, fantastic job! Don't forget to get plenty of pics at the 'ring.

[Robsey]

Looking good Tony.

Just the way I like cars...
A wolf in sheep's clothing.

[himselfunknown]

Looking good Tony.

Just the way I like cars...
A wolf in sheep's clothing.

Looks a proper sleeper there, fantastic job! Don't forget to get plenty of pics at the 'ring.

Yes, I do like the sleeper look, I have to admit. I've already had a Merc owner wondering why he spent all that cash on a car that couldn't lose a Cav, and made a bloke in a Mk4 Golf turbo look a bit silly.

Childish? Probably.
Fun? Definitely!

As for 'Ring photos, there will be plenty as this will be the one and only time this car goes there. If in-car camera's weren't banned from the 'ring, I'd also be getting lots of video footage too. But obviously I won't. Honest.

[Envoy CDX]

Well. I'm impressed
Looks good, nice colour too!

Bet you have a silly grin plastered all over your face.

[himselfunknown]

Well. I'm impressed
Looks good, nice colour too!

Bet you have a silly grin plastered all over your face.

Yes Gary, been doing a lot of stupid grinning lately - so much so my face is starting to ache!

[Ads]

really exellent progress thread, and some top notch work gone into the cav, love all the painting on the underside and engine bay, a man after my own heart, well done mate and enjoy the fruits of all your hard work, Ads

[himselfunknown]

Been a while since I updated this, so here goes. I've been having a fair mixed bag of results the past week or so.

After it passed the MOT and I got the semi's fitted to the Astra wheels, I fitted the Astra wheels to the car. While they fitted OK on the front, the rears caught, so had to come back off again.

The brakes aren't too hot and judder under heavy braking, so I suspect that the discs are warped or something - new discs and pads are on order, which I hope arrive before the 'ring.

Tried to get the uprated inlet fitted, but I've misplaced the T piece I need for the breather mod - again, another is on order and I hope to get that done before the 'ring.

I booked in for a track evening at Donington Park Monday just gone, the intention being to get some track time in, to familiarise myself with the car on track, and also give the car a shakedown.

Got a few laps in. As expected, the brakes weren't as good as I'd liked, so I was going fairly gentle, mainly concentrating on keeping the racing line and also getting used to the limited slip diff coming out of the corners. Here's a few photos:







Then this happened:



Basically, I'd got halfway around the track having just left the pits, when the back end went really light. Suspecting a puncture on a rear tyre, I hit the hazards and started crawling back to the pits. Then the oil pressure light came on, and stayed on, so I pulled onto the grass. Discovered that all the engine oil had dumped itself all over the track - and all over the nearside rear tyre, which is why it felt like it had punctured, as it had zero grip. Got it towed home. Not a happy bunny. Possibly the most expensive 5 laps I'm ever likely to do!

Here's how the nice clean engine bay looked early this evening:



Oil was even all over the outside of the wing:



Stripped out the battery, rad, battery tray (which is already by far the best mod I've done to this car!), and inspected the oil cooler pipework, and found this:



This was a hose I'd struggled to fit, and I kind of hope the reason it failed was that I damaged it while fitting it, rather than there being an overpressure issue or a problem with the hose rating.

Just about managed to get a new piece of hose in, and the car all reassembled before it went dark. A quick drive around has satisfied me that the engine doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from the incident, and as yet all the oil is staying where I want it to!

So, while I'm gutted that I hardly got any track time, and the engine bay is filthy with oil, I'm glad that the shakedown highlighted the issue, and it didn't happen to me halfway across Belgium, or even worse, on Nurburgring itself!!

The plan for tomorrow after work is to take it to a local garage who offer a steam cleaning service, to get the engine bay and underside cleaned up.

[ilovedmymantas]

Lovely car!
I agree with you, a good thrashing is what you need to highlight any problems you might encounter before a long journey (not forgetting the performance bit at the end ! )
Fingers crossed, that's it. Good luck with your adventure

[Envoy CDX]

Nightmare encounter. Hopefully, it isn't anything too serious that re-occurs.

[TurboDan]

I think some proper oil cooler pipework needs to be made up to be on the safe side. Take your pipes to "Pirtek" and they will make you some identical hoses bit with proper preasure clamps on etc..

[himselfunknown]

Nightmare encounter. Hopefully, it isn't anything too serious that re-occurs.

That's what I'm hoping Gary

Lovely car!
I agree with you, a good thrashing is what you need to highlight any problems you might encounter before a long journey (not forgetting the performance bit at the end ! )
Fingers crossed, that's it. Good luck with your adventure

You're right - everything has another level of stress on it on the track - RPM's hardly drop below 4k, rather than generally being below it! I've got fingers and everything else crossed!!

I think some proper oil cooler pipework needs to be made up to be on the safe side. Take your pipes to "Pirtek" and they will make you some identical hoses bit with proper preasure clamps on etc..

This is one of the things that's annoyed me Dan - I did go to Pirtek, and it is the hose that split that I got from them! I asked for proper crimped joints but they said I may as well use jubilee clips as that's all the hose is rated to anyway. I'll be massively p###ed off of I've been lied to - someone at Pirtek will be getting an enema with some Pirtek hose and whatever oil is left in the engine if it happens again!!