Isuzu turbo diesel tuning guide

[Davcohen]

A power run sounds ace. I'm looking forward to having an exhaust made for my Cavalier and seeing what it will boost up to.

the straight through i had on my corsa made the car rev so much smoother it was unbelieveable, boost came up quick and sounded like a petrol engine

what bore are you going for?

[Jack]

I've no idea TBH, don't even know what the bore is on the standard exhaust!

[Sin-Tech]

Great thread, alot of ye seem to know ye're stuff about td tuning..

At the moment i have a Vectra 1.7td, i have picked up a front mount intercooler for it and an N/A inlet manifold..Ive read somewhere that the n/a manifold needs to be modified??..Can anyone explain what i need to do and what else i need in order to get it up and running with the above setup.

Thanks
Sean

[it_cud]

Hi Sean, interested to know what made you go for a N/A inlet ?Mike.

[Sin-Tech]

Hi Sean, interested to know what made you go for a N/A inlet ?Mike.

It'll be easier to route the intercooler pipework.

[Jack]

And you don't have the in-necessary filter housing bit on the top.

[it_cud]

Doesn't take long with an angle grinder and alloy wheel to dispense with that !

[stealthstylz]

I need a bit of help with the induction setup for my Mk3 Astra TD.

The stock setup seems un-nescessarily long. Is there an inlet manifold that fits that just has a single air inlet on it? Or has anybody welded up the stock inlet manifold to create a solid airbox with only 1 inlet?

I basically only want 3 pipe runs - so air filter (pipercross cone) to turbo, turbo to intercooler, intercooler to inlet manifold.

Also are the head gasket sets available on ebay for £23.99 any good? Gonna rebuild the top end on my spare engine first, might port the head a bit too if I get bored.

Matt

[Jack]

Your current manifold will only have one air inlet. But you will have the filter housing on the top.

I personally wouldn't bother porting. Smaller ports increase the speed of the air entering the chamber which promotes more torque at lower RPM. I would only port a diesel if I was making a high-revving engine, and then why bother having a diesel engine?

[stealthstylz]

Can you just block the air filter housing off then? Or chop it off completely?

Matt

[it_cud]

Yes, chop it off. Doesn't take too long with an angle grinder.

[Jack]

Yeah, if you're moving the air filter then just lop it off.

[DutchNovaDiesel]

Headgaskets are steel layered items, original and aftermarket should be the same (the ones i've seen were all good).
Here's an even cheaper one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ISUZU-GEMINI-1...3A1|240%3A1318

What manifold is on your engine, does it have the plastic filter housing on top or is it all aluminium ?

Here's one from an early corsa, with some modifications: lmao

And what it looked like:


This is the one on later models: (this is from an n/a model, which has a single inlet on the driverside)

To fit this, you need to block the breather connection (see pic), and add the connection for the fuel pump (drill a 4mm hole, and swap or add a connection...just like in the first pic.)

[it_cud]

Do the gaskets come in different thicknesses ?

[Sin-Tech]

@ Dutch Nova..The inlet i have on the car now is aluminium but it is a twin inlet, im replacing it with the n/a inlet and doing similar to what is done in the pic above.

Thanks
Sean

[Hacula]

@ Dutch Nova..The inlet i have on the car now is aluminium but it is a twin inlet, im replacing it with the n/a inlet and doing similar to what is done in the pic above.

Thanks
Sean

I found a very easy way to do this. You need a TD inlet and a n/a inlet for this one.

• Take the bottom half of the TD inlet
• block the hole on the right (the one from where the compressed air comes in) with a little plate of metal (make sure it seals good).
• remove the metal plate that seperates the top from the bottom
• then mount the top half of the n/a inlet

This way you can keep the original hoses where they should be and you don't have to drill holes for the fuel pump.

[Sin-Tech]

Thanks alot, sounds like a better way of doing it.

[Davcohen]

This guy is running stupidly high boost is he not?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/modified-corsa...1%7C240%3A1318

[it_cud]

Hi Dutch, What effect does machining the std. flywheel , as seen on your site , have to power delivery / vibration etc. ? Thanks, MIke.

[duckruls]

This guy is running stupidly high boost is he not?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/modified-corsa...1%7C240%3A1318

I sent a question about this car (just out of interest) and the bhp figure is estimated and the 0-60 done with a stop watch

A little poetic licence I think lmao

[jjcymru]

it certainly looks like an isuzu/frontera 2.8 turbo will fit this engine, as the flange mounts are the same.

Also to throw a spanner in the works, what about fitting a 1.7 16v direct injection engine in a corsa with a mechanical bosch injection pump set up to the correct opening pressures etc.

Surely the direct injection newer ones in corsa c are better than the old trusty dinosaur 8v indirect turbo model

[Hacula]

it certainly looks like an isuzu/frontera 2.8 turbo will fit this engine, as the flange mounts are the same.

Also to throw a spanner in the works, what about fitting a 1.7 16v direct injection engine in a corsa with a mechanical bosch injection pump set up to the correct opening pressures etc.

Surely the direct injection newer ones in corsa c are better than the old trusty dinosaur 8v indirect turbo model

For me the whole idea of having a cheap boost of power would be lost. Why bother building a fast diesel who would get his ass kicked by a (definitely easier-,maybe even cheaper to build) C20LET anyway?

[Jack]

For me the whole idea of having a cheap boost of power would be lost. Why bother building a fast diesel who would get his ass kicked by a (definitely easier-,maybe even cheaper to build) C20LET anyway?

Why drive a tuned Vauxhall when you could buy an Evo second hand for the same money?

It's the same argument.

My argument is... why not?

[DutchNovaDiesel]

Headgaskets come in 3 different sizes, 1.40, 1.45 and 1.50mm if you look at the picture on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ISUZU-GEMINI-1...3A1|240%3A1318
there's a hole in the upper right corner, they come with no, 1 or 2 holes depending on thickness.
no hole = std 1.40mm, 1 hole = 1.45mm 2 holes = 1.50mm

Hi Dutch, What effect does machining the std. flywheel , as seen on your site , have to power delivery / vibration etc. ? Thanks, Mike.

The flywheels are both original and standard, the smaller one came from a 1.5, the big fat one is from a 1.7
apart from the weight and starter gear(ring) diameter they're the same.
I've only used the smaller one as it fits the F13, engine used to rev as free as a petrol one,
and as it was the original one idling, driving etc. was all fine. Only problem i had was the clutch,
it was an original 190mm plate from a 1.5D, and slipped occassionaly (when really thrashing it).

The mechanical 1.7 16V has been done, on a Y17DT from what i've heard (was in south europe),
don't have the exact details, but they got sick of pumps failing and decided to go mechanical.

[it_cud]

I'm running a 1.7 in my Westfield and don't suffer any slipping, not really surprising given the weight. I thought about machining some of the weight off the flywheel as it truly is a massive piece of kit. Decided to run as std. at first, to see how things went. Do you know if anybody has played about with wheel weights on the 1.7 ? Cheers, Mike