toms daily runner J951 SNE nova 4 door loon

[tommy8252]

Thought I'd post this on here too for anyone interested.

Well here I am again, back in nova ownership and loving it. I'll list progress and details of the car here.

I acquired the car the other month and am really happy with it.

The spec of the car was great after the work the previous owner had done to it so all I need to do is add my own mods to put my mark on it.

Here's a quick run down of how I got it with some pictures.

Engine and transmission

E16se 1.6 8v from a same year gsi complete with f13
Unmolested original air box with K&N panel filter
Full magnex with stainless steel four branch extended by blue flame exhausts with diesel style tail pipe
Egr removed

Suspension
Vectra supertouring wheels just refurbed at f1 alloys in dark gun metal with brand new Uniroyal rain sport 2 on the front and rain sport 1 on the rear
Bilstein B8 with larger group a rear shocks, Spax Rsx rear spring and eibach front springs
Gsi front and rear anti roll bars
Plated bottom arms
Quaife quick rack the new rack ends
Rally designs polybushes through out
Five stud conversion using meriva front hubs in new nova bearings and cav v6 rear hubs
Ebc Vectra v6 288 front disks and green stuff pads
Goodrich braided brake lines
Rose jointed front tie bar mounts with gsi tie bars

Exterior

Unpainted gsi front bumper
Both front wings replaced the new hadrians items in July 2012
Four good doors sourced, delocked and painted in July 2012
Boot lid also replaced, delocked with a new gm item
Top tinted green screen, rear screen and front glass
Smoothed and painted rear panel
New headlights and indicators
NJC style red and clear rear lights with twin reverse and twin fog

Interior

Gsi clocks
Blue Sri front seats
Blue Sri sunvisors and heater knobs
Black flocked upper dash and a pillars
Rare four door electric windows and central locking
Sri steering wheel with blue ring

Security

Toad ai606 alarm
Remote central locking
Total closure on front windows
Hazard switch diode mod
Take me home head lights
Full delocked











So since I picked it up I have added a couple of things to personalise it:

Pioneer deh p80mp head unit
Vibe k series se69 6x9 speakers in the rear shelf
1000w 4 channel amp (unsure what make off the top of my head)
Unpainted GSi sideskirts modded for 4 door
Rear spoiler
Unvented laguna front splitter
Original reg back on the car with legal pressed plates and genuine opel dealership surrounds

So currently sits like this:











Future plans are:

Kent nvo62 cam
Big valve port polished head
Group N ecu (if I can find another one)
Tailpipe change
Tick type GTE digi dash
Lowered a little more
Blue check sri rear seats with rear headrests
twin 12" subs in the boot pwered by a 1200w Vibe monoblock amp (theres enough room for them )
Re trim the rear door cards to match the front
Paint interior plastics black and maybe a GSi or totally flocked dash

That should be all for the time being, may look into chucking an xe in in the future but no plans to for a bit yet.

[tommy8252]

Got a few bits and bobs done over the Christmas period notably fitted some plain black mudflaps due to be swapped for the vauxhall/opel dealer decalled ones. Fitted my momo steering wheel. Rigged up the interior light to work on the rear doors. Also fitted the boot lid cover that came with the car and wired in the leds that are fitted in it to come on as a boot light although I have some more led strips to fit on the back of the seats for complete illumination.

A few jobs still left to do are wire in the under bonnet light and replace the worn hub on the drivers side. The bottom pinch bolt had come loose and the resulting movement has worn the hub itself

I've also got to fit some bonnet lifters to the boot as the lid cover is made of fibreglass making it quite heavy so the original springs can no longer hold it up lol

Will get some pics at the weekend it for those interested.

I'm also picking up some gsi rear seats and the ford recaros that nath2905 had for sale so they'll need fitting too.

I've also had to change the rear speakers as I may have played them hard enough for the cones to pop off the rubber damper and I've also managed to blow the amp up so that needs replacing too.

[tommy8252]

Can someone edit the reg in the title to 951, I obviously don't even know my own reg yet.

[belmont_dazz]

Looks really smart that. Whats the spoiler from?

[tommy8252]

Rover 45

[TurboDan]

Love that, looks great.

Needs a nice tailpipe though. Maybe 3" outward rolled tip cut into the bumper slightly?

[tommy8252]

Love that, looks great.

Needs a nice tailpipe though. Maybe 3" outward rolled tip cut into the bumper slightly?

Cheers dan, yeah its on the 'to do' list, I was thinking 3.5" twin slash cut but that thought is slowly being replaced by a single 3 inch outwardly rolled tip on a straight through pipe with only a back box.

Picked up my new seats yesterday







The rears look like they've never been sat in and I'm massively surprised at how much comfier they are than nova recaros.

Only signs of wear are the fold down button surround and a tiny fag burn on the rear seat and a relatively small amount of bolster wear on one front seat.

[tommy8252]

Well tj has been off ill today so I had the day off. He was more than happy playing on the xbox so I set about swapping my interiors.

Had to modify the sri subframes to fit the recaros but a drill and a pair of mole grips did the job no problem.





may need to look into further modifying the fronts though as the seating position is a tad higher than the sri seats.

[Opel Vaux]

Love this Car , seats look mint mate now there fitted

[iangsi]

Looks to good for a daily runner, but I know cars are supposed to be used, what are your new seats from ?

[tommy8252]

Mk5 escort rs2000 afaik.

It's on full daily duties while I crack on with the cav then they'll share the honours.

[Cavalier342]

Does look fairly tidy but maybe a more square touring type spoiler would look better than a rounded one? So it matches the body.

[tommy8252]

Thats just the camera angle, the lines on it are actually very angular not curvy when in the flesh.

[Lowrider Dave]

Very nice, always fancied a saloon. Good job sir!

[tommy8252]

My wind deflectors turned up today so got them fitted tonight. (Will get better pics in the daylight)

[tommy8252]

In the daylight they're rounder and deeper than the heko ones I've had so at the minute I'm not 100% on them.

I'll leave them and see if they grow on me but if not the missus can have them for hers.

[tommy8252]

Well as the sun just about got out today I took the opportunity to clean the car and take some pictures





















That's just a selection of the 40 odd I took.

[TurboDan]

Looks really good

[5853moore]

Loving the nova tommy. You not on facebook anymore mate? its mike moore.

[tommy8252]

Loving the nova tommy. You not on facebook anymore mate? its mike moore.

cheers mike, no not on facebook no more, too much aggro but since I shut it off i'm back on the forums. All the car goodness with none of the hassle

[tommy8252]

Well been on with a few jobs and collecting more parts for the car over the last week.

Managed to get myself an nvo62 cam which I'm hoping to get fitted next weekend.

I also got tired of my rear door cards not matching the front so ordered some material and set about re-covering a spare set I had.





then got them fitted







I also got some new speakers after blowing the left front and left rear speakers lol

Got myself some vibe se60 6.5" (I think) front components and some vibe black air 6x9s for the rear





got a few other bits like the replacement mud flaps and picked myself some engellman mirrors which I've stripped down, painted and are awaiting fitment.












Also got my 80mm rear springs fitted and got a scuttle cover to pick up off greame.

thats about it for now

[tommy8252]

Well got my cam fitted today and while I was there gave it a service, cleaned the air filter, new bosch super 4s, fresh oil filter and oil, new thermostat and rad/heater matrix flush. Just got to do some minor adjustments on the ignition timing.

[tommy8252]

Well hit my first set of issues last week. Piston rings on number three gave out. That pressurised the oil system blowing the main breather pipe and the rocker cover to inlet breather spewing most of its oil out on the motorway. Managed to bodge the breathers back on a topped the oil back up and managed to limp to my destination (alder hey for an appointment for tj). So now I'm in the middle of sourcing another block/engine to throw in to get moving again.

Gonna use this as an excuse to do some engine mods though. I'm thinking overbore, headwork, larger valves, porting and full engine lightening and balancing.

[tommy8252]

Got the replacement engine delivered yesterday, cheers dgbnova#1:thumb: , came with the report of having arp rod bolts fitted so I got the sump whipped off the check. Also I changed the sump gasket while I was there.







Wasn't too keen on the red so wire brushed all the loose flaky stuff off and gave it a quick spray down and wipe with brake cleaner. Had some black high temp paint in the cupboard so a couple of coats of that were applied. Not a spectacular job but good enough to cover the red.

Stripped out the timing belt, water pump and pulled the top end off ready for fresh items to be put in.







Wanted to know the exact cause of the failure of the old engine so pulled the car in and pulled the head off that. Got quite a suprise when I did!!!!!!

Looks like the engines been running very lean as there's a nice hole melted into piston 3.



this buggers up my plans for using the block as a base to rebuild a further modified engine due to the groove its worn into the cylinder wall

But anyhow got the block and box pulled out and started swapping components over ready for it all to go back in.

[tommy8252]

got the new block and box built up and thrown back in the car without any issues, added my original head and my high lift cam. The head was tested while it was off for any damage to the valves and all checked out well and valves still sealing but gave them a quick relap whilst it was off.

Got all the ancillaries and wiring and piping back on the car. By this point it the light was starting to fade so I called it a night. Gonna go finish off today.





Once back together I'll thrown it on the emissions machine and check the situation with the co and adjust it. Will post up further progress later on.