Im currently undertaking an XE conversion on my nova. Ive owned her over two years now and she started live as a bog standard 1.4 8v luxe. Ive owned a few novas in my times so I already had loads to put on her as soon as I got her home. So she was treated to apex/bilstein shocks with apex 40mm lowering springs, digidash, SR interior, GSi bumpers, Astra GTE alloys in matt black and a full rally spec exhaust system. I drove it around terrorising the local area for about a year and a half. It was a super little car even with the 1.4 8v in. I scanned ebay and eventually found a redtop calibra for £290. I bought the car and the lump was removed and the shell scrapped.
The nova was fine until some dirty scrot bag reversed into me damaging the number plate light. The car was parked at the time and there was no visable damage apart from the light was shorting out causing fire everytime I had my lights on. After loads of messing about I took it off the road. Anyways pictures speak louder the words:
The milage as we fitted the digidash.
These were taken whilst she was still sporting the 8v.
The XE still in the Calibra.
I bought some cav slabs off of Ernie on png and had them refurbed and sprayed in gloss black.
So it begins.
Well getting the old one out was easy enough, lets hope the new one is just as easy...
And so the prepping began.
The XE got stuck in the ford( ) for a couple of days.
I NEED MORE POWER CAPTAIN!
Save hassling about, I bought a couple of new mounts off Chris Astley.
We lifted the car over the engine, it was a mission. Then we used a trolley jack to get the engine in postion before mouting it. Using a Hoist would have been cheating. It only took us about 4 hour and was extremely stressful and loads of hardwork.
We were a bit worried about clearence on the passenger wing and the gearbox. So we rammed a few spacers between the mount and the engine. We also had to cut down the bolt that runs throught the rubber part of the passenger side mount.
We removed the oil cooler sandwich plate.
Assembled the driveshafts (GTE shafts and outer CVs and cav mk2 1.6 inner CVs)
and as it sits today
I got a few more bits to complete; I need a three pipe that sits below the inlet manifold. Then I can get the inlet manifold on. I also need an MPI fuel tank and pump. Then it all need to be wired up, the fun bit Not long now!
Very keen I always admire people who do conversions like this outside. Your welds do look poor more heat needed and are you using a shielding gas? Or was it windy?
I live in High Wycombe near London about 25 miles east.
Alternatively, they were bought from a company called drivelink. Try your local motor factor.
I come from near Steve, Carlisle.
With regards to the welding mate, I know its pretty poor. Unfortantly it was my first time and I didnt really know what I was up to! I even got arc eye. I used some bagdad special MIG 105 amp welder I got from screw fix for £100. A couple of weeks later I met a local guy willing to lend me his pro welder - gutted. So i cut him a deal, when cracks occur Ill be straight up to his place for a patch up. Expect the worst and you cant go far wrong.
It moves. We rolled it foward to clear up some of the mess. It felt so good being in the driving seat!
We put the bonnet on and got abit closer to putting the clutch cable back in. The section that runs through the bulkhead needs a little bit more chopping and angling so it points in the right direction. Ive also sourced a GTE tank which I plan to pick up at the end of the month. I also need some brake pipe union nuts.
I picked up the fueltank (cheers chimp) and my bits from vauxhall and plodded on. Its been 1 step forward, two steps back for a while now so I was determinded to get something done.
Whilst a friend changed his gearbox on his nova, I got on with some wiring.
Armed with the girl friends laptop and a pair of wire strippers I began. I was using the diagram from the novaloads articals section. I kinda started at the bottom, wiring the nova loom to the XE, ie the alternator and oil sensor.
I noticed that one of the sensor at the front for the sump had been damaged. The wires had pulled out of the terminals.
The next step was the fueltank. It already had a pump, bonus!
Unfortunatly I bought the wrong size fuel line so I need to get that sorted. Appart from that everything else was in place.
When we pulled that sensor out we thought the sump had been drained.
Whilst wiring up the ICV (idle control valve) I noticed on the same loom, there is a blue wire with a spade style conector, where does this go?
So the inlet came off *again* getting pretty speedy at taking it off and putting it back on. Was a good job too because I hadnt wired the alternator up properly. So we resolved that.
Whilst the manifold was off I chopped a dirty great hole in the bulkhead for the airbox.
I took a quick photo of the alternator for clearence. Althought the photo is a bit dark.
We cut the hole in the bulkhead and began wiring it all up. I rigged in a push button start and a key switch because I got rid of the ignition barrel after I lost my keys - only to find them a couple of months later dangling on the underside of a chair in the living room. Im gonna have a secret kill switch too.
So close, just missing that fuelline, I ordered 10mm as 8mm does fit over the pump.
Got her to turn over for the first time in a year n a bit
XE Nova 
) for a couple of days.
Not long now!
now I just have to mod the exhaust to fit the manifold
