Morph's Satin Red Cavalier Turbo 4x4

[TheMorphiuz]

Bit of copy/paste action from 'another' forum...

29/4/09









Took a little spin up to Liverpool today to see Travis (CavHopper) and we had a good look underneath today, apart from a couple of bits, it's fine, just needs a bit of wire-brushing and re-coating in parts.

Rides a bit low so it wouldn't go on the ramps without lifting the corners!






Today we also changed the crank sensor and gapped the plugs, it's not holding back any more!


Current Issues to Sort

4x4 - The light's on and the accumulator bulb appears to be leaking
Jumpy rev counter - Tried crank sensor and different clocks, jumps about on boost
Wobbly speedo - Loose cable at gearbox end
ABS - Light's on, some cheeky :censored: had removed it! Still need to flash out the codes
Alarm - Found an interesting wiring job on it, the immobiliser refused to disengage today until I moved the wiring.
Few bits of paintwork to correct
Chunk missing from an alloy

Apart from all that... It's a nice motor.

[TheMorphiuz]

19/5/09

......................
Yep... Only took a month....





















Yep, had to call out the Pikey RAC... Just conked out on the A50, lost all drive and refused to do anything.

After being potentially diagnosed as the battery, stuck a new one on... And...........



Towed it off the D/C and it suddenly decided to work, however there were all sorts of funky things going on. Indicators going randomly, interior lights, central locking etc... So we got it back to Matt's and he did the strut top.



In the excitement of using the electric impact toy, he lost a nut......




The other side will be done tomorrow and then it's coming off the road until the electrics are sorted.

[TheMorphiuz]

23/5/09

By Matt (LSI from VxON)

Well today, in the absence of the man himself, his Turbo went on a trailer down to Jim & Si's place of mendingness for a whole list of issues to be resolved!



Wasn't an awful lot of clearance mind!!!





Bloody thing spread it's curse to my van in the process, and I ended up in Luton with the starter motor on fire lol.

[TheMorphiuz]

26/5/09

By WBC from VxON:

Right,,,

As some of you know Morph's Satin Red turbo has had a few issues....
Well TBH, mostly wiring,, so Saturday It was dropped off by the Love Bus 2, ready for some work.....

First was to try and take the engine out without getting dirty...
FAIL..

T'was very dirty,, and the bay was just as gisgusting.

So with that out and all the wiring caked in sh!te,
We then carried on taking ALL the car loom out, along with the dash
Got hold of a COMPLETE Car loom, from another broken Cav turbo, that hadnt been messed around, complete with dash.

Next will be to strip all the wiring off the engine, and give it a good clean, change the sump gasket, get it ready to put back in.

Change the ARB mount rubbers, as one is near on desintegrated, same as wishbones,,,
New Accumulator set up, and generally whatever we find

Jimbo will add pics

[specks]

ah,mats van is the savior again eh!

[TheMorphiuz]

By Jimbo Jet Set from VxON:

Well what can i say bloody dirty thing every thing you touch turns your hands black lol.

See.





Engine now out got a nice GTE to put this in lol..







Time to sort the wiring out as we was told to.











We also changed the Heater Matrix box as the one that was in the car the fixing points were broken that hold the cables in for the Heater Controls.





And found a couple off holes in the floor while the interior was out..





Well the new dash and wiring is in but we never got pics as the battery went flate on the camera.
More updates to follow tommorrow.

[TheMorphiuz]

27/5/09

By Jimbo Jet Set from VxON:

Heres a pic off the turret mate...



Interior is all back in now......









Looks like it would make a nice Taxi




More updates tommorrow.

[TheMorphiuz]

ah,mats van is the savior again eh!

Yes mate... Was a sad day when he sold The Tangerine!
Word on the street is it got RTAed and written off...

[TheMorphiuz]

28/5/09

By WBC from VxON:

Well its back in with new engine and starter looms,,,
New wishbones and ARB links,,
Sorted the CV gator,,
Changed the scuttle panel as it had holes all over.....
Swapped Temp sensor in TXB, refilled with new fluid,
Didnt get many pics today ,, and also left the camera at the garage

29/5/09

By Jimbo Jet Set on VxON:

The new bulb just take out off its box



Out with the old and on with the new one.



The temp sensor had been cut and shut so we replaced that with a spare we had.



We also changed the transfer box oil looked as though it had never been done lol..





This is how it looked yesterday.



New Sump Gasket was put on today and oil filter looks a tad cleaner underneath now.






The down pipe o'ring looks like its seen better days so we have replaced that too..



And as for your Header Tank could not be asked to clean it so ints now in the bin....






Thats all the pics for now but you can take your own tommorrow.

[TheMorphiuz]

1/6/09

His majesty is home!



When I collected it last night... Running a lot better now, that dump valve is fecking EVIL! woooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh ba-DOOSH!

Went for a little drive after work, too nice a day not too! The fuel pressure regulator is going in the bin though, it's underfuelling like a b4stard!









There's a couple more I'm working on, but for now, that's your lot.
Hopefully, it'll be running perfectly for PVS.


2/6/09

Little update on the jobs front I suppose...

Thanks to the boys:

4x4 - Fixed, but F19 pulled until I'm happy with the suspension and tyres
Jumpy rev counter - ****ty, fcuked up clocks...
Wobbly speedo - Still wobbly, seems it's got some weird aftermarket speedo cable, it's reading accurately now the fcuked clocks are gone though

Also had new wishbones, new fluids, new wiring including dashboard, new sump gasket, new temp sensor in the TXB, new top mounts, new header tank, inner CV boots...(?)... many new things basically.

Known faults not sorted yet
ABS - Light's still on, it's missing a sensor or 2... Got more important things to worry about
Alarm - No comment
Driver door electric window - Was looked at quickly but not got the the bottom of it yet. Seems there's some bits in the door in interesting places... Will have to get the card off and have a look.

New stuff:
FPR - ordering one this week, should be on for PVS. That will hopefully cure the holding back issue
Suspension - needs some less aggressive springs... -35mm my left bollock...
Trank Rod Ends - Knocking away....
Tyres - On their way... Want to get to a stage where I buy a set of tyres the same so I can get some 4x4 action

Work out how to wire the boost gauge lighting in so it comes on with sidelights... Pretty secondary but I like to be able to see what's going on.

10/6/09

OK, little update, mainly so I can remember.

Known faults not sorted yet
ABS - There's something major going on here, taken the fuse out as it's putting a drain on the battery... Earth fault...?
Driver door electric window - Now traced to a motor.

New stuff:
FPR - Done
Suspension - needs some less aggressive springs... -35mm my left bollock...
Track Rod Ends - Knocking away....
Tyres - On their way... Want to get to a stage where I buy a set of tyres the same so I can get some 4x4 action
Fuel pump protector plate
Clutch....... slips big time on boost now!
Handbrake - Cable's rather slack

16/6/09

We've actually traced the window problem to the motor... Gonna whip the actuator off on Friday to test, I'm getting code 113 again, and it's doing some funny things again, trying to overboost ironically...
If that's fine, it's on to the amal valve... As C-LET parts are getting scarce now, I'm going to try a Z-LET amal. My thinking is the engines are so similar, that should work!

Not much of an update, went through some photos I hadn't worked through including a couple of HDRs... I used Photoshop CS4 for those as I've lost my licence for Photomatrix.









26/6/09

Updated list, in no particular order:

Track rod ends
Springs - Soon to be sorted
Overboosting - Seems to be sorted
Porous head - Fix and XE Inlet Cam
Battery/Short Circuit - Fixed
Engine Mounts
Quite a lot of oil in induction pipework - Turbo oil seals?
Fuel pump cover plate - Ready to refit
Tyres - After springs
PAS Pump - Same time as head work hopefully

Minor tweaks

Driver's window motor
Check exhaust mounts
4x4 Switch
Finish FPR mount


Happy days!

[TheMorphiuz]

15/8/09

Time for a small update.

Finally got round to finishing the suspension jobs that need doing.

After forgetting my axle stands and not realising Matt had left his down at Alex's, a trip to Halfords was required for a pair of stands. Decided to go for a pair of these trick 'ratchet' jobbies. They've got a better scope of adjustment than the 3 holes and a pin ones. I like them... Also have a full set of shiny red springs, courtesy of Mark, thanks again mate, new TREs and 2 engine mounts (the 3rd is like rocking horse poop!)



This is how the car sat before (I was going to take an after shot but totally forgot):



After doing the backs, we started on the front:







Comparison of the front springs (the backs were very similar, one was black, the other red)



First corner, easy peasy, strut and TRE came off no problem!
The 2nd corner however... didn't!

After a lot of shouting and swearing at the ball-joint splitter and its eventual demise, the Halfords card came out again and a new one sourced, eventually...



However... The TRE was a tad stubborn!









After a bit of fire, some language a soldier would be proud of and the use of a Geordie screwdriver...



After that I got bored of taking pictures so I proceeded to mount the spring wrong, which was fun as the whole damned thing had to come apart again the next morning...

So, we didn't get time to do the mounts, nor the window motor I'd thought we might do too...

It does however drive a lot tighter, doesn't bang through the bumps and dips in the road and it's nice having only a small knock from the engine mounts.
Which incidentially are fooking horrific... I slightly forgot on the way home, got angry with a slow-assed lorry and shifted 4th to 2nd with full throttle at 4k RPM to get past... They don't like 18PSI of overboost as much as I do!


Slowly but surely!
I need to look at the loom in the back though as it started being a bit funny on a test drive, again!
It's quite irritating as my 'new', complete, unmolested loom is basically fcuked. Due to the age of it, it's obviously cracked as it was removed from the donor car.
I can't blame JS of Luton as it's not their fault, the donor car was an L-plate, which puts it around 16 years old...

I've had a chat with Matt and long think about the car. I know a lot of people would have stripped it by now and that did come up in conversation quite early on... However, I don't have anywhere to store the car AND keep another on the road.

I know what problems there are, I can see, feel and hear the progress we're making but as one thing's sorted, another seems to rear its head.

One thing that keeps me going with it is the attention it gets. If you've never had one, you can't understand.
It's so understated, without knowing what it was, people see and hear it and don't realise it's anything more than a noisy Cavalier, those that do know always stop and ask me about it.
My FAQs are:
"Not seen one of these for years. How many are left?"
"Does the 4x4 work?"
"Is that a GSi?"

Nearly forgot again......

Big thanks to Matt LSI for his sterling efforts once again... Even taking time out on his birthday to sit in the wheel arch of a Cavalier Turbo...

[TheMorphiuz]

Today

It's off the road at the moment, currently in the capable hands of Bigdrifter and Geoff H of GMH Auto's in Cheadle (nr Stoke)!

Just been to Chester in the slow-assed 1.8 Vectra to collect this:


And yes, it did come with a full set of lifters...

I'm going to dig my spare GSi radiator out tomorrow too as the current one broke...

Other jobs include a full set of silicon coolant hoses and the 3-way oil breather hose, new engine mounts and a good clean out of the induction system and heater matrix.

[coupe22]

i no the phrase "labour of love" springs to mind, lmao thumbs up for keepin her on the road & not becoming another donor car.

Id love to be able to restore one. top work!

[TheMorphiuz]

i no the phrase "labour of love" springs to mind, lmao thumbs up for keepin her on the road & not becoming another donor car.

Id love to be able to restore one. top work!

Everyone I know thinks I'm a total mentalist! lmao
I've given up trying to explain the meaning of the phrase 'Modern Classic'.

I'm trying my best, I'll declare bankruptcy before I let it get ripped up for a Corsa!

[jav786]

Nice work mate

[InternetzSrsBiz]

Just a tip for the TRE's - just unbolt them from the rack. 15mm bolt - job done

As for the bottom balljoints, just unbolt the wishbone instead!!

[b and l customs]

nice project mate i like the cav turbo,s

[TheMorphiuz]

Just a tip for the TRE's - just unbolt them from the rack. 15mm bolt - job done

As for the bottom balljoints, just unbolt the wishbone instead!!

Aye, been told them tricks by a couple of people... Bit late now! lmao

nice project mate i like the cav turbo,s

Cheers matey. I'd wanted one for years... Shame I got a bloody annoying one!

[jimbo jet set]

Cheers matey. I'd wanted one for years... Shame I got a bloody annoying one!

lmao

[TheMorphiuz]

lmao

Yeah... Thanks Jim......
Oh aye... You got any holiday coming up before February? Fancy getting the old welder out...? I've got a Colander Turbo here that needs patching up!

[jimbo jet set]

Yeah... Thanks Jim......
Oh aye... You got any holiday coming up before February? Fancy getting the old welder out...? I've got a Colander Turbo here that needs patching up!

Not sure mate will let you know at the moment to behonest.

You still got me clocks ?

[TheMorphiuz]

Not sure mate will let you know at the moment to behonest.

You still got me clocks ?

No worries!

Sure do mate, sat waiting for me to get a chance to get them back to you... Will the party be OK?

[jimbo jet set]

No worries!

Sure do mate, sat waiting for me to get a chance to get them back to you... Will the party be OK?

Yeah the party will get Mark to sort them out for me.....