Pitstoppete's C20XE Cavalier Diplomat Saloon - Update Thread

[Pitstoppete]

Here's some details about my car, that has not been broken for spares as the previous owner suggested, has been rescued from the crusher at 94K and is actually still going strong as my daily driver. Now on 193k

Car(edited for latest spec):-
Early Facelift Cavalier Diplomat 2.0 C20NE registered in Nov.1992 so theres no pointless airbag to blow up in your face, nasty things.
Lovely, in most places! (apart from where some scumbag keyed it) Spectral blue pearlescent paint.

I bought this from eBay as a project, a fixer-upper really, it was gonna be scrapped/broken for spares by the seller because of a few silly faults, most of which we fixed within days or on the drive back home. Most of the bits I have put on it are from eBay too. I bought it to use just for commuting 90 miles a day to work really, instead of piling up all the miles on my other car.

This was a dealers demo car from new, so had all the available options. Now it has almost everything else too:-

The 2.0 8V engine was doing fine to start with for the first 2 years i owned it, but after a new radiator, a new heater matrix and the top hose blowing off every week kinda pointed towards a problem that turned out to be a cracked head, so we decided to do the decent thing and sort an XE for it. Could have gone for a LET, or just bought a manky Cav turbo, but as I also have an modified Lotus Esprit Turbo, so another thirsty turbo car was far from ideal. One is quite enough.

Modifications from std. spec. :-

Engine:- Astra GSi C20XE-LN late coil pack engine, lightly ported head, Lightened early flat type flywheel, decent quality clutch, pocketed Mahle forged pistons (so its a bit lower compression ratio, done for wilder cams and NOS (by the previous owner) later on maybe), ARP H/T rod bolts, ecotec sump/seal baffle plate, V-Tuning top hat/ecotec inlet pipe (came out of a Nova see) with Samco breather hoses and the ICV relocated for ease of access, some sort of big bore 4-2-1 manifold, stainless decat pipe with std late Cavalier Sri/V6 centre exhaust and rear sections - painted black, STD panel filter in the STD airbox, Omega cruise control. Regassed air-con with R12 replacement gas - RS 24. All the usual bits replaced/sorted to make it reliable.
Rolling roaded at a healthy 176 hp at only 5800rpm, 160 Lb/Ft at 2500 rpm rising to 173 lb/ft of torque at 5000rpm on 99 octane fuel. It sounds just right.

Economy:- 35-38 local commuting, 40-43+ on a run.

Transmission:- Std fitment 2.0 8V F16W, lovely ratios! 70 something in 2nd, bout 110 in third. 140 in 4th. Equal length driveshafts.
5 stud Calibra front hubs, Vectra B abs 5 stud rear hubs.

Suspension:- Lowered on a set of -50mm uprated springs, Koni sport top adjustable front dampers, ditto on the back.

Front Brakes:- Vectra B GSI 308mm discs and calipers, Saab 9-3 EBC Red ceramic pads with wear indicators, braided hoses.

Rear Brakes:- Vectra B 286mm discs with std. 35mm cavalier calipers and Mintex M1144 pads, with the larger spaced out Vectra B back plates (so the caliper sticks out to match the disc) redrilled upside down and swapped over to fit the opposite side to make the handbrake levers come to the top. Dot 5.1 fluid, braided hoses.

Wheels and Tyres:- STD white Vectra Supertouring 7" by 16" wheels fitted with 205/45/16 tyres, complete with home made flat alloy wheel centres finished with recessed Corsa B tailgate centre badges.

Exterior:- Turbo Cav front bumper, with cut down facelift Diplomat chrome strips fitted to match the rest of the car, SRi prefacelift boot spoiler with no badges or decals (leave them guessing I say) New std sized twin pin stripes in white. Poxy speed bumps down the road to work removed the mudflaps the day after we slammed it. Brink removeable neck towbar.

Interior:- Cavalier Turbo heated front leather seats, std split/fold Diplomat leather rears and door trims/wood etc. Omega preselect electric sunroof, std electric windows/mirrors etc, Momo Corse steering wheel, new gaitors and fluffy Diplomat overmats, optional keyless remote deadlocking with window closure, recalibrated fuel computer with outside temperature sensor, Euro spec Vectra A Digital dash, multi colour LED heater controls, Omega/Vectra cruise control/fuel computer stalks, centre rear headrest conversion, tiny Diplomat badge from Carlton, on ash tray. nice.

Lights:- 6000k HID dip/main conversion, LED front sidelights, new front indicators, new 95 model year rear light clusters/new matching rear panel.

ICE:- Kenwood MP3 CD tuner.
Infinity Kappa Reference 6.5" rear speakers, Std component front speakers/tweeters.

Performance:- Superb. Really pleased I went for the XE swap, it runs so well and it pulls like a train.
I'm glad i sorted the brakes first though. It goes very well and out handles almost everything i can find to chase and of course it stops really well now too. Because of the long ratio gearbox, it also seems to be indecently useful off the line at the traffic light grand-prix. I love surprising 50K sports cars, to55ers in hatchbacks, scoobys and MR2's etc, it's very hard not to hand out the punishment when you have built it all yourself....with a bit of MIG help.
It has to be said that I prefer driving this day to day than my Esprit really, Cavs are very under estimated/unloved car by many and a nice-ish one is a rare sight now.

Coming soon, time permitting!:- thrash it daily

cheers for all your help guys (South Central Miggers) heres a bit of a start to finish time line in pictures:-

[Pitstoppete]

Blatantly copy/pasted from the black hole that is page 11 of members cars, here is a XE diplomat updates thread,

Firstly,
I have been looking for a set of proper Cav turbo front seats for ages that are in nice condition, somewhere near the south of the country. finally the deed is done, today we have roared to Bristol at 40mpg for:-



and fooking superb they are too.

more soon

[specks]

3 years between updates,at least you still have it and making it better.

[Pitstoppete]

well, I have updated the original thread about 30 times when I have changed things, but any changes would be tricky to notice on an edited post!
at least here people can see the updates.
apart from a few little rusty spots and a dodgy cruise control wire, it's basically how I wanted it now.

[Benn]

That leather is sexy as funk.

[Pitstoppete]

These seats are superb, much better support around the sides when cornering, much better all round, back up to slightly higher up than Calibra seats so I can see the front of the bonnet again, both the heaters seem to work fine too.

carrying on with the interior theme, being a 2 car man, I decided to try a smaller diameter steering wheel on my Lotus Esprit. Realizing it's not a straight swap onto the Lotus and without power steering it would be a nightmare on my poor old wrists/thumbs, I tried it on the cavalier:-



and superb it is too!.

best bit is it's a total straight swap, 36 splines like the Vauxhall one, same type of horn switch/ring contact arrangement, same bit sticks out of the back to cancel the indicator, just a ground wire needed from the old wheel going from the horn switch to the metalwork of the boss behind, which of course is bolted to the hub, so makes the continuity.

If you fancy doing it, it's from a Lotus Elise/Exige. Series 2, although I don't see why the plain series 1 type shouldn't fit either, maybe even an Elan one, its the same old vauxhall column they use. They do 3 or 4 different colours too, this Grey alcantara one matches the Dippy/turbo door cards a treat. the black alcantara would be just as good, if not nicer.

[Benn]

ah sweet,
feel better in the old palms?

[Pitstoppete]

ah sweet,
feel better in the old palms?

always feels good in my palms bud.

yeah, its the shizzle and man on the bay is 46 nuggets up, I am 46 down.

[Benn]

sweet,
46 sheets down, 46 up in spec.

[P17FLD]

ah sweet,
feel better in the old palms?

Much better, and you can get them from egay for £65, if not we've got loads at work

[Pitstoppete]

£46 it was. some go for less, some are 150 on there, some are in bad nick, this is close to perfect cond..
i thought it was good money. if it was sh1t i thought it'll go back the bay easy enough.

[Jack]

That's the single sexiest thing I've ever ****ing seen.

Pitstoppete, you are a God among poverty Cavalier owners.

[Pitstoppete]

That's the single sexiest thing I've ever ****ing seen.

Pitstoppete, you are a God among poverty Cavalier owners.

lol.
glad it hits the spot.
makes me happy, I have a simple life....

[Jack]

Your cav is awesome, probably my favourite. No bollocks, no aiming for 600000bhp. A good old XE under the bonnet and some top quality refinements.

Top bombing.

[Pitstoppete]

cheers jack. shes coming on....
175hp seems enough.

as for the spec, had great fun last week raising the rear suspension at least 4 inches with the pump up rear shocks for a heavy tip run with half a tree and some rubble in bags, then back via B+Q for 6 heavy as fook bags of shingle and 300 litres of chipped bark, amongst other stuff. that lot brought it back down to std height again pretty quickly..
so even though cavs are seen as an old mans runaround/taxi, they are still just as useful as anything else.

what do you need for yours to spec it up a bit more. i have many bits here looking for a new home..

[Jack]

Everything! lmao

Electric front windows and a nice interior would be a good start! Some nice wheels, lowered 25mm or so...

I'm not looking to create a mobile living room, just make mine nice and comfy. I need to sort my speakers and my CD player out too.

On the face of it, it's not a bad car at all, I'm just looking to evolve it slowly.

[Pitstoppete]

a well maintained 1.7td has to be a good bet in this day and age the price of fuel an all. adding some spec seems like a nice idea. cant remember the last time i had to manually open a car window, or lock it with the key saying that, dunno how u cope!
have some illuminated visors i dont want. if u are going to commbe or trax i can give them to one of the south central lot to give to you...
i'll find some more bits i dont doubt

[Jack]

a well maintained 1.7td has to be a good bet in this day and age the price of fuel an all. adding some spec seems like a nice idea. cant remember the last time i had to manually open a car window, or lock it with the key saying that, dunno how u cope!
have some illuminated visors i dont want. if u are going to commbe or trax i can give them to one of the south central lot to give to you...
i'll find some more bits i dont doubt

It's not that slow either, which I quite like. It's not the fastest thing in the world, but it's not slow. It's plenty fast enough for me.

I don't mind manual windows. I don't like delying on gadgets if I can help it, electric windows just seems like one of those things that there's not much point to. Having said that, I'm sure once I actually have them, my opinion will change. lmao

The interior I've got at the moment is lovely and clean and tidy, so it seems a shame to bin the whole lot (obviously, it's got to match) just for the sake of fitting electric windows.

Dunno really. Some days I think "yeah, let's do it!" and then others I like it as it is.

[kieron_67]

looks good mate i like it. loving the steering wheel. whats it off??

[Jack]

If you fancy doing it, it's from a Lotus Elise/Exige. Series 2, although I don't see why the plain series 1 type shouldn't fit either, maybe even an Elan one, its the same old vauxhall column they use.

[Pitstoppete]

Quick update:- had another bloody puncture fixed last week. 2" long screw of all things.

Also:- changed rear pads for some proper new old stock M1144 Mintex from the lovely ebay for a tenner.. Superb they are too. much higher friction co-efficient, now matched to the fronts. seems awesome.

Also:- thanks to a 3way spare ECU swap around in the SC region between Benn, Joey B and myself, I now have the correct PL code Astra ECU, which seems different grunt wise, a bit better on idle too, (probably just the 99oct fuel I'm running though, I doubt the ECU map is different to a calibra/cavvy one) but has still not made the fuel computer wiring work. this we think is a faulty BR/BK wire in the loom to the computer. Another thing to fix in the spring I suppose.

Since the meet on Sunday, it's now on 148000, so plenty of life left in her yet.

Roll on the next rolling road day i say.

[Benn]

Sounds good dude.

[JoeyB]

FYI - I've got a series 1 wheel for the Corsa....not a straight swap though (well not on my airbag model Corsa anyways...)

It fits, but no indicator cancellation...

May source a series 2 wheel instead, they do look better!

Series 1 wheel was £32 off eBay!

[Pitstoppete]

Swift update, was gonna break the cav and buy an Omega, then I thought, get real you fattwat, she a beast, keep her, so fancied some sort of change, maybe a tired/dont care about it much commute mobile soon as my job is changing, so with help from Astra Dan and Sharon behind the wheel of the aircon Saab weapon, we drove to Brighton today to collect an eBay cavvy sri saloon, the reason may become obvious with pics....

Apologies for the watchers and bidders on eBay, but I had to have it(you snooze you lose peeps) got a months tax and MOT, a few tasty bits on it, 134000 miles on the superb SEH, drives ok. all the MOTs, all the tax discs etc, runs like a dream..

here she is-


can you see why i bought it yet?

perhaps this one will help, the new car next to my dippyXE on my new drive I dont actually own yet(another story)-


all is clear now i think-


apart from throwing the paperwork at the DVLA very soon to swap possibly the best cavvy number plate I have ever seen, i might well restore it and run it for a bit.

has an Irmscher steering wheel with comedy touch pad horn buttons and 622 RDS cassette player, possibly a bit rare we feel--


and some would say some minging 14" split rims, possibly worth more than the scrap value(for sale)-


I'm chuffed, thanks for the lift guys to fetch her, time will tell how bad the rust is near the strut tops etc to see if its savable. the number plate certainly is.

[bigwillie2000]

the red sri is awsome!