Lee's Garage

[lee303]

Lee, thanks mate, does the bench constantly fail, flatter to decive, build up your hopes and then fade and die, and actullay fail on occasions to represent the purpose its there for, only then can it be a west ham bench

man you sound bitter

WOW

Just spent the last few months reading this thread (I did do other stuff, honest) and very impressed with your nova Lee, especially the power you have managed to get from the 1.8 without forced induction.

What sort of power do you think this engine is capable of and still be a daily driver?

I am in the middle of reading some books and hoping to rebuild a 1.8 engine next year at some point for my astra, need to sort out brakes, suspension and a few other things first though.

hi mate, cheers for the comments

as for your q, i think you could make a nice 200 bhp engine with some less extreme pistons and hydraulic spec cams, and no dry sump etc, less revs, mine is actually very well behaved in traffic, but i wouldn't want to call it a daily

oh and if you're reading, i can recommend four stroke performance tuning by A. Graham Bell, great book

[Brian_S]

Learning to weld stainless has been fun! It's great when everything is cut square and fits fine, and is rubbish if it isn't!

Was a great day up the garage!

[spanishfly]

Good work

[Bubbauk]

hi mate, cheers for the comments

as for your q, i think you could make a nice 200 bhp engine with some less extreme pistons and hydraulic spec cams, and no dry sump etc, less revs, mine is actually very well behaved in traffic, but i wouldn't want to call it a daily

oh and if you're reading, i can recommend four stroke performance tuning by A. Graham Bell, great book

Cheers, I am reading that book now and it is a very good read, learning lots but also some stuff is going over my head so will probably read it a couple more times before attempting anything.

How much do you think it would cost to get 200bhp out of the 1.8? I will be doing it all myself as its something I want to learn about and have no problems taking my time, I will probably buy a new engine as they are pretty cheap anyway and this means I can rebuild it in the shed then when its ready to go just swap engines and sell the old one.

[lee303]

there is another version of the four stroke book that is a bit more basic, not to try to insult you but it might be a good idea to search that out too, as its a good grounding for the second book

as for costs, no idea tbh, you could go the pocketed piston route to get the cams in to make it cheaper, but i haven't investigated it much as i would always want to build something with rods and pistons swapped, as you can get a real good advantage from reducing the rod angle and increase your squish at the same time,
warren g(warren1800corsa on here iirc) will have an engine together soon with pocketed pistons on 1600 gm rods(stronger than the 1800s) which has cams, headwork and tbs, be interesting to see what he can get out of it, of my money he should see 200 or thereabouts, and good torque too

[MikeITB]

My z18xe is running just shy of 180bhp with ITBs, Shrick cams, Piper exhaust system and a 7500 rev limit. I'm sure with a polished head and possibly slightly higher lift cams (more but not so as to need pocketed pistons) I'd be knocking on 200bhp's door. Fine as a "daily driver" too

Looking forward to see the Nurburgundy in all it's glory, coming along nicely

[lee303]

righty, more burgundy work!!

willay popped up, on a weekday evening no less!! to eat a shish kebab, and also so we could remove the dashboard prior top the cage fitting this weekend…


looks great with it all out tbh!! not too sure what that big bar is gonna have to say with the cage fittment, but we shall see, i do have a grinder after all


made a nice cable tie spec dash for his drive home

lots of weight in the shiny rear section of the sunroof, and seeing as that had to go to fit the roll hoop, said grinder got an airing!!

all out!!


so, cage next!!

[Kev_G]

cracking work

[Carneyste]

Good work. Did the dash come out OK over the steering column, mine was a nightmare to do. You might have issues trying to get rid of that metal bar with the steering rack being held up by it but given your fabrication skills I doubt it will be too much of a problem. As long as there is a cross bar on the cage, somewhere to support the steering coumn and somewhere to attach the wiring loom onto to stop it dropping down I cant see removing it being an issue

A mk4 interior in that state looks quite familiar tho

[lee303]

no the column was a pain tbh, but it came out!! the bar may get fabricated into being part of the cage, i'll see whats what when i get the grinder in my hand...

[jr@corsasport]

Scary man

how good is your wiring ability btw, i have had a scary idea...............

[lee303]

what, wire the xe up on the stand and fire it up?

[spanishfly]

what, wire the xe up on the stand and fire it up?

As it's not doing anything. Can you get on the thrust ring that sits behind the crank pully. I need one desperate as thats all thats holding engine up now

[lee303]

yeah no worries, will be the weekend now though, come home ill, doctors orders to rest...

[jr@corsasport]

No NO NO you are not stealing parts of my engine

and no lee it invloves unpicking looms, i have intructions

[spanishfly]

No NO NO you are not stealing parts of my engine

and no lee it invloves unpicking looms, i have intructions

Instructions being wiring diagrams? Look at you getting all into this now!

However on a mk4 astra i'm sure there's loads of weight to be lost in the loom!

[jr@corsasport]

Its vw based, i can bolt stuff together, but making it run is using wiring as the deciding factor worries me

and no rob no wiring diagrams , moddification instructions

[lee303]

is this for your motorised ball polisher? and its ok, i'm not stealing off your engine, i'm stealing off brians...

[jr@corsasport]

oh good, and no the small red vw based car

[lee303]

stop being secret squirrel and tell me what it is then!!!

[William]

Finish the lupo before germany

[jr@corsasport]

Lupo 1.416v

Want to fit the AFH engine, same mounts a box but 100bhp and an iron block as apose to the ally one which has a few well known issues

the issue is the wiring, bloke who has done the conversion says :

hey jr, basically the engine loom can be split in to two parts when you untape it, i took out the loom for the management for the 1.0, and from the polo loom i did the same then put the polo management part of the loom with the lupo/ arosa lighting / wipers etc loom.

at the fuse box end i chopped the wires for the 1 litre management and left a good length on the wires to the plugs, did the same on the polo loom so i had the wires going all the way up to the plugs for the fuse box then just soldered the polo wires onto the arosa plugs.

the only reason i had the dash out was the loom is a complete nightmare to remove without taking the dash out.

so to summarise the only part of the polo loom i used was the management loom that i split from the polo lighting loom

[jr@corsasport]

Finish the lupo before germany

you know there are a few things stopping that currently

[lee303]

so, cut it in half, randomly solder some wires then chuck it at brian when it doesn't run??

[William]

you know there are a few things stopping that currently

cuz u like 2 drift init