yet another corsa b track car build, 1.6 8v, nearly finished now

[tom_spanner]

been on mig for a while now and thought id best post my WIP track car.

how it all began- i had a nova sri which id tickled to the tune of £5000 on parts, we had an arguement with a tree at 95mph, we lost and 120meters of end over side rolling left me with slight concussion, 2 very small cuts, 2 days off work, and 2 quality harness brusies and this;-

[tom_spanner]

so after id stripped what was left i stored most of it for a rainy day, when i got offered 2 white 1.2 corsa flairs for £80 the rainy day came, i stripped the rear shunted one and filled that with the interior from the one with the blown head gasket then scrapped it.

so i was left with a 99% solid shell with loads of spares and i was up on the deal, well a year passed while i gathered parts mainly from ebay until i realised i had way too much stuff and i was moveing house in 4 weeks so i had to build it and fast.

being a truck mechanic by trade made life easy with the massive workshop and crane, my plan was to get the shell stich welded,caged and engine/box built and fitted and get the shell rolling in 4 weeks. which i managed, ive done all the work myself except some of the welding where i paid a mate to do it.

some stages of pics are missing as i was too busy building to take pics.

[amos]

any pics of the nova before the crash?

[tom_spanner]

above is where im working out the layout, the inside was then painted silver the same as the engine bay, its all brushed but hey, its not built for show and shine.

next came the engine, a 16nz from an mk3 astra (cost me £40) that had been shunted, i got the head a c16se jobbie from the nova heavily skimmed and flowed, the bottom end was balanced with the flywheel and clutch then refitted with new shell bearings and ARP bolts. the shiney fly is the lightened/balanced one, i didnt weigh it but it was definatly quite alot lighter

while doing this the wife came down to the workshop saying "we need to spend some quality time together, im board" my reply came " that engine needs painting, the brush and paint are over there" suprisingly she did it and didnt hit me!!!

[tom_spanner]

Originally Posted by amos

any pics of the nova before the crash?

sorry mate, i only had it on the road for 3 mth, i thought plenty of time to get pics, it was very tidy engine bay id painted EVERYTHING, 2 buckets, harnesses, stripped out rear with strut brace/harness bar, out side was std. it was fitted with honda civic 15s which id had the centers machined out for £30. fully poly bushed,cav spec ebc disks and pads all round. i had it on courtneys rollers @ 100bhp and 100lbft so it was good for annoying saxos at 130 mph, on a private road....

[tom_spanner]

i forgot to say there is a kent cam and a vernier pulley thrown in there too, along with a heavy duty clutch feeding the torque into the std (for now) astra gearbox, i was in too much of a rush to paint the box and its mostly hidden now.

along with the cav front brakes off the nova and a set of -40mm bilstiens thats how it got moved, i used the total vauxhall show at the pod as a rest stop, it was on a trailer behind a green bmw coupe incase you saw it. i was gutted it wasnt finished but hey always next year well if i dont crash it again, hence the cage

any way once id got settled the build continued, the front suspension is now poly bushed, 4 branch saved from the nova (with the dents removed), and a set of guages are now fitted, along with rev counter and white dial 3 guage dash, i had to drill the bulkhead for the cable as the corsa was electric speedo drive.

the old rear drums were thrown on but the pedal felt too spongy for the braided hoses id fitted and after a check i found the drums were going visably oval as i pressed the pedal

the twin 40s ive got are solex which threw up a few problems, 1 hard to get parts and i needed a throttle lever, time to cut and shut a webber part. 2 how to link the pedal and carbs, i simply used the std corsa cable with the webber lever by opening it up then squeezing it around the round end, works a treat. 3 im now very short of space against the bulkhead so looking for carb socks.

[tom_spanner]

so with the interior almost there i decided the scabby bonnet needed a tidy, but as its not done for looks just functionality i thought id try this....the vents cost about £10 from diy shop, simply cut holes convieniently over carbs/exhaust then rivet vents over on the painted bonnet, let me know what you think..

ive spoke to my MOT man and he says sharpe edges due to modification isnt a reason to fail an mot test.

the front 2 vents are meant to direct air between the rad and wrapped exhaust to take the heat down under the block allowing the rear ones to feed the carbs cold air.

i now just need to sort the engine breather and assemble the exhaust ive got then off for test, i think. ive had it running on just the manifold and it starts well and runs nicely so ive got high hopes, im hoping for around 140ish bhp, ill let you know how it goes.

[Melv]

**** that nova is mangled. Your one lucky git getting away with only the injuries listed above.

looks to be a good build there. Loving the simplicity of the vents........Having items from B+Q bolted onto a corsa makes a nice change to "parts" from halfords

at the quality time with the mrs part too

[Pikey Motorsports]

lovin it tom! should be sweet as mate, as above im lovin the vents mate...lol certainly original!
il defo be keepin my eye on this thread, cant wait to see it on the road

[tom_spanner]

once the vents reach the main stream i best be getting the credit...... the vents are ally so lighter than the steel i cut out bonus!

all i can say is £550 for the 2 sparco monaco seats and 4 point harnesses was well worth it, id pulled em well tight 3 mins earlier, i must of known it was coming. undoing a harness when your on the roof is wierd as the straps go soft then the roof "absorbs" the drop on the head, i climbed out of the rear window!!!!

im racing crossers this weekend so wont be an update for a few days at least.

[tom_spanner]

if anyone is having problems mateing a twin carb manifold to the brake servo i found the ideal pipe on another corsa as it has a 90degree bend in it, i think it was a 1.4 8v.

also the block to head breather from a 1.4 16v is really long and should fit around the inlet manifold.

anyone got an alternator dropper bracket for sensible money???? please????

[Pete_58]

That is one wrecked Nova. Lucky to get away with the minor injuries you had. Can i ask, what did you spend £5000 on??!! Corsa looks good though.

[tom_spanner]

the 5 k went something like this from what i remember.

seats, bases, harnesses £550
4x recon cav calipers with 4xturbo
groove disks and green stuff pads,
braided hoses £700
spax gas shocks and springs £258
polly bushes £160
kent cam £180
4 branch manifold £140
h/duty clutch £140
consumables, eg paint/screws/filler etc£370
Wheels £80
j plate sri with blown engine £50
new engine complete with g/box £50
time on courtneys rollers £85
fse boost valve £90
unipart, inc 3x engine mounts £146
VX main dealer, various parts £87
demon tweeks £65
lower front x member inc welding £100

that takes me to £3251 off the top of my head, thats all i can remember but i got a new door and have lost a few reciepts...maybe it was nearer 4k, the corsa cost me much less, if i dont count the parts ive reused its about 2k max

[tom_spanner]

well ive had a busy week but got the exhaust mated up, nova manifold, nova intermediate pipe massively cut and shut onto corsa race tube onto nova backbox, 3/5 nova, 2/5 corsa!! it all fits and with just the back box and no cat sounds good, throaty but not too loud.

fitted the oil catch tank in behind r/h headlight, connected with a volvo pipe, only coz it was the right shape, just need to link block and head pipes, got a 1.4xe and that breather pipe should fit. will post a pic later.

i took it for a quick drive on sat, revs very fast, but coughs abit under load, time for the rollers i think. well after pay day anyway.

i even washed it to see how bad the oily finger prints were, needs a polish now but i think it still looks good enough for the track as it is

all bar one of the guages work, i dont have a fuel sender, but around 25L should get me a fair way. the white dash came as is from ebay, £20 inc p&p even had blue LED's i only got it as i wanted a mechanical speedo to match the box.

[Benn]

Looks good dude, should be fun to drive.
Nice to meet you to day.

[tom_spanner]

nice to meet other people bitten with the vauxhall bug.

seeing your nova today brought back some fond memories of whats left of my one above.

[Benn]

Yeah.. Sadly not much left tho...

[Pete_58]

Car looks like its coming together nicely. When you said 5k in your first post, i thought that you had spent that on the engine and i was thinking that would be one hell of an engine..

[damo1]

while doing this the wife came down to the workshop saying "we need to spend some quality time together, im board" my reply came " that engine needs painting, the brush and paint are over there" suprisingly she did it and didnt hit me!!!

nice project mate good going liked the quote above if i said the same to my bird i would av got a rite crack round the head

[tom_spanner]

benn, if i hadnt of crashed the nova i wouldnt have this corsa, ok now im crying, a cage an 1.6 in the nova would have been ace. but as this was a 1.2 flair corsa im not tooo fussed if i prang it.

pete, i wish 5k on the engine, the engine bay took £100 in paint, thats engine and body, looked good i thought. if i include the price for the bits i salvaged from the nova the engines cost £1100 inc gas flowed head/lightening/balanceing/cam/4 branch/carbs/catch tank etc etc. ive only paid for parts and built it myself, only myself to blame if/when it blows........

damo, her painting the engine is a double edged sword, now when i get to a track ive got to let her drive coz she helped build it, well thats her take on things.

[tom_spanner]

spent a few more hours on it tonight, with a decent battery i took it for a quick spin, it feels firm an tight as planned but there is a cough when i plant the throttle so the accelerator pumps are gonna get checked. also when ive tried to start it hot the startermotor wasnt man enough to spin it but that was just my crappy jump leads so 1 less job to sort.

i also did a hot and cold compression check and found some odd readings, not sure why they have dropped when hot its only an 80k astra engine and the rings are the standard ones still so not like they need to bed in, new head an gasket, bloody cars.

cylinder cold hot
1 13 bar 7 bar
2 13 bar 8 bar
3 11.5 bar 8 bar
4 11.5 bar 9 bar

and found a smallish coolant leak from the inlet manifold gasket, gonna let it cool and recheck all the bolt another nite.

[DaveB]

It's likely after seeing this thread I'm going to copy your bonnet vent idea Sorry

[Pikey Motorsports]

Originally Posted by DaveB

It's likely after seeing this thread I'm going to copy your bonnet vent idea Sorry

we did say it wouldnt take long eh Tom....
Max Power's next top mod....?

[DaveB]

hehe. Saw a similiar idea on CS the other day where a chap fitted those vents to his front plastic arches to get cool air to the brakes. Never thought of using it on a bonnet.

It's a cheap enough mod that's damned functional IMO - and it's not like track cars are meant to look pretty? LOL

[tom_spanner]

cool, its not often a totaly new craze is started, and its all my fault, check me out. only last night the wife said my bonnet looked silly- how wrong was she. looking through the bonnet from behind the gaps are huge so should force loads of air at speed.

dave the next part of the front vents is an ally plate fitted up from the exh manifold to help scoop air down, ill try and get that done soon ish to show ya. but no pics for a few days as i use my fone and thats off getting fixed, bloody nokia's.