1994 Saloon Cav

[GP123]

Hi all,

Im back again. Well it didnt take long for me to get my hands on another cavalier. Having sold my V6 cav back in August last year, i actually did regret it due to the spec, engine and overall condition it was in and me and dad both said never get one like it again now.
Months went past anyway and i was always searching for one again. Not every day and night.. i had just said to myself IF one came up it was to be.

However one day it was right place at right time .. AGAIN. I was on gumtree and came across this one. Its a Feb 1994 LS 2.0 8v Saloon Cavalier. It has just turned over 20k miles.. YES 20k miles and going by pictures and descriptions by the seller i went for it. This involved the car being picked up in Southern England and being driven up to Liverpool port to then get the 8 HOUR (which i never knew took so long) Noahs ark across to Belfast port. It was then a simple task of taking the transporter down and collecting her.

Again i was nervous but had a gut feeling about it. So my friend got it home and straight onto the lift to assess the purchase and WOW. Everyone that was up was really impressed with it. The underneath is in awesome condition.. like as in new condition. I know theres loads of cars out there that have really low mileage but it also means nothing if the cars been sat outside in all the elements through the years etc. But this car must have been stored in a garage all its life up to now to be in the condition it is in.

The interior is like new also. Overall im so pleased and cant wait to get her MOT'd i think the last time it had a test was in 2010. Im the 3rd owner of it also. So far a GSI kit has been fitted to it and i have other bits and pieces coming for her that can only improve the appearance. Well to my linking anyway.

The only thing i didnt like about the V6 cav was the 5 stud pattern, this really made alloy choice difficult. But i do love the turbo alloys and got a set of them at the time. This time around for the new cav its 4 stud pattern and it opens up a far wider catalogue. I put a post up on a facebook group called Cavalier Corner and someone had replied that they had a set of 17" Momo Arrows they would sell. Obviously i jumped at this and they are here and all.

The arrows were dropped off today at my local alloy wheel refurbishment guys who will hopefully have them done in a week or 2 for me. I am getting x4 new 205/40/17 Toyo Proxes also to fit onto them.

Thats all for now and hopefully the pictures come up OK.

Thanks

[Mk3alan]

Great looking car! Now fill it up with anti corrosive wax!

Alan

[iangsi]

Nice find The GSI kit really suits a saloon cav, but I'm biased.

[Robsey]

Looks very nice.
And a fantastic colour too.

Are you keeping it 2.0 litre, or will you be going V6 again?
I only ask, as you would ideally need to go back to 5 stud wheels for a V6 upgrade.

[GP123]

Thanks lads!
Ah im not sure what to do. The V6 lump is really good in my opinion. Really makes a cavalier shift AND its n/a

I would however want to keep the 4 studs. I shall see. If Ian wants to sell me his V6 hatch it would be a great swap indeed as all is there needed to do it.

[Envoy CDX]

Nice looking cav.

[GP123]

Hi lads.

Got the Arrows back today, they turned out awesome. Like brand new again. Just waiting on my 205/40/17 Toyo Proxes tyres coming in and then i got vauxhall centre cap badges to go on also.

The sunroof bubble and front wind deflectors landed in the post also which was a nice surprise also.





I have also been thinking about the engine side of things. It was between a redtop, V6 or B204. But the more i think about the C20NE and it having just 20k miles on it!! The more im thinking keep it and go about the TURBO route?? What do yous think.

Its different from the usual redtop etc and no messing about with taking engines out and so on.

I was reading about how the C20NE has pistons which suit a bit of boost. Roughly 0.6 to 0.7 bar gets it up to 150/160bhp.

I am really considering this option now as anything around 150 or so bhp is more than enough for a cav and a C20NE 8v Turbo would be different... I know it HAS been done but you know what i mean for nowadays its rare!

Let me know your thoughts.?!

Also is there any old skool kits still knocking about for doing this conversion does anyone know?

Thanks for viewing.

[vexorg]

A c20xe will probably be cheaper and much simple for the same power.

If you go v6, then it should be 3.0 or 3.2, the 2.5 is a bit gutless compared to them

[GP123]

bit of an update on the C20NE 8v Turbo route..

I have since found someone with a turbo technics turbo kit for this engine from back in the day.. and its for buttons. All the main bits are there, exhaust manifold, downpipe, turbo itself, oil feed line, oil return and tapped sump for return line. The oil feed goes into an unused screw round near oil filter i think it is.

The turbo has a bit of play so ill rebuild that even if it wasnt just for peace of mind really anyway.

the C20NE standard ecu can manage up to 0.6/0.7 bar of boost which equates to 170bhp or near 200bhp.

I can either use this and run an adjustable fuel pressure reg set at 3 bar and use x20xev 2.0 injectors.

Or else you go the sensible route of aftermarket ecu but then this is where the money starts.

It has been done and proven before however because the NE engine has a compression similar to that of an C20LET from what ive read in my research.

[Robsey]

Ah okay...
It is all beyond me, however I did read on my travels about fitting an SEH Camshaft, and XE pistons.

Being an old fart that I am, I would normally say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it...", but then we know any vehicle over 15 years old becomes quite needy of regular fixes anyway.

Then there is the usual de-cat exhaust, lightened fly-wheel -
convert from fluid power steering to electric power steering -
standard crank pulley rather than the weighted pulley -
All the usual stuff that the younger folk like to fit / remove.. ha ha.

[iangsi]

There's a guy on astra MK2 forum that's done this conversion might be worth looking at.

[ilovedmymantas]

What a great low mileage find, especially with a gsi body kit . How's the interior?

Daft question. Why two wind deflectors and not four

[vexorg]

Even the cheap megasquirt has gotten really expensive, it's no longer the homebrew it used to be.
Standalone would need fully mapped as I doubt you'll have a standard map for that configuration.

Not sure if the afm can handle the higher airflow, or how it will manage boost control, suppose a 0.7bar actuator would do it.

[GP123]

Thanks. Ilovedmymantas i have to save up for the back 2 lol. No, its just i dont like them on the back windows for some reason. I think just the front 2 with nice deep deflectors is better looking.

Im in no rush yet to do all this. It will just be a matter of getting bits and pieces as the weeks go by. I have however just purchased a set of refurbed red injectors that are 220cc.

Once i get the turbo kit ill be posting the turbo off to get refreshed also.

Its a start anyway.

TBH. If the ecu cant cope with it ill just get a LINK Monsoon and then i have it for whatever engine. If anything happens the C20NE engine i will probably go B204 and go all out.

Thanks.

[GP123]

The 17" Momo Arrows are TIRED.

[GP123]

10/4/21 Update

Now that the 17" Momo Arrows have their new tyres on, all that was needed was a set of fresh centre caps to finish them off. So got these put on earlier and slicked the tyres awaiting the cav which is getting a full stage polish by a mate at this moment.






Hes also spraying the wing mirrors the same colour as the car instead of the black which doesnt look good IMO. Also the grill mesh is being sprayed black as i dont like the "wirey" colour lol.

The laguna splitter is also going on the front and a pair of rear GM mudflaps being installed.

When it was up at his yard its also had a new timing belt put on along with new fan belt tensioner, new fan belt, 5 year red coolant and new water pump.

While it was on the lift it was checked over for MOT.. he was amazed at its condition which is excellent news. He just freed up the back brakes and that was about it. Ready to rock on roll on that front. The MOTs are still a nightmare here in NI getting a date booked due to the backlogs from last year. But its booked in for middle of May.

Once its back home here i have the wind deflectors to go on and sunroof bubble along with new oil filter, oil, air filter, fuel filter, spark plugs and fresh leads.

Thats about all for now.

[James McGrath]

Just reading this post for the first time, congrats on the new family member!
Welcome back into the fold, looks like a real gem you've found there.

Sounds like you've got some exciting plans for her. Good luck with the turbo conversion, I'll be very interested to see how this develops.

[GP123]

Thanks James and co.

Well today i got a right bit done.

Oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, spark plugs and leads.

Also wind deflectors, sunroof bubble and Arrows fitted!

Now shes looking noice.



Thanks

[iangsi]

Job done, nothing left to do but drive it

[Robsey]

It is looking fantastic.
And a stunning colour.

[GP123]

Thanks lads. The stage 3 buff really awakened the true colour of her again. There seems to be a bit of glitter in the colour when the sun is out..

I took the rubber floor matts out to give them a clean and theres Vauxhall badges stamped on them? Ive never seen these before just the rare carpet vauxhall ones.



Anyways cleaned the interior seats etc and done the boot floor and boot lid inside. Both came up like new again.





Still looking for front fog lights. As whatever is fitted to the bumper at the minute def isnt right as their not sitting out flush.

Thanks.

[GP123]

Also is anyone good with the standard radio codes? I disconnected the battery and its gone. Woops. Asking for code now

[Robsey]

There are lots of online decoding agencies out there.
Typically it will cost under £20.

You will need to remove your radio, and note down the serial number stamped into the side of the casing.

Provide this serial number to the decoding website.

Have you checked all your documents for a car pass.
I would expect a car that is so well looked after will still have all of it's documentation.

[James McGrath]

Those rubber mats are the proper Cavalier ones sold by Vauxhall dealers at the time.
They too are rather rare now but are far more hard wearing than the carpet ones.
They are the ones you want basically.

[GP123]

Hi. Thanks for the info Robsey and James.

I dont think it matters about the radio now robsey as the bloody pixels on the 3rd and 4th digits are missing pieces lol. This wee unit pops out though. I wonder is it fixable just to keep it original.

Anyways update is i hooked a wee electric fuel pump up to a old battery i had lying around and drained all the petrol out. As i have no idea how old it is and i filled a 25 litre jar and a bit.






Excuse the dirt in the plastic trays that was already there. But yeah the petrol was a bit orange on it

So glad i got that out of her.so then it was a matter of buying nice fresh stuff. Also threw in a shot of petrol additive for good measure.



So now that this was sorted i started her up and let it warm up properly. This was the first time i done it anyway.
It wasnt long before i had started to notice i bit of hazey smoke coming from around the fan shroud on the radiator.



I guess the red antifreeze helps here as she was bleeding red blood!

This is what i get for not putting a new radiator in for piece of mind when i was talking about it to my mate. As im always worried about these parked up cars having blocked up inside.

So no biggie ive ordered a new rad. It does look easy to do as theres a load of space in there alot more than what you have with a V6 lump!

I also never done the thermostat. I think ill order one of these too. Are they easy enough changed??

Thanks for looking.