* Project * - C20XE Rebuild

[wh03_mad]

Sweet I'll check it out, so what's ur plans for ur bottom end ?

[stealth106]

I have bored out my block, high compression omega pistons with larger valve pockets for when I fit a higher spec cam. I have had my rods shot peened, arp rod bolts, new mains bolts, new shells, new motorsport water pump from sbd, up rated oil pump from sbd, new gates cambelt kit and light weight flywheel from sbd. steel sump and New gaskets and seals throughout.

Just need to paint up a few bits and measure the last few bits and it'll be ready to assemble!

[smoothcorsa]

Hi wh03_mad, I do not have an other option I have to buy all new again and this time I will do the rebuilt.

[wh03_mad]

Lol cool 3 ppl all in same thread doing the same rebuild ... Neat we should all Santa pod it after lol

So stealth how much has that actually cost you to do if u don't mind me asking and being cheaky just trying to plan exactly what I want to do to mine iv only got a limited budget and iv got to get the car and all the stuff for the conversion the car itself will be simple bit of a suttle sleeper I just need one with good body work then I'll be stripping interiour out and carbon fibre interiour pannels going in there place. Wan to get the engine will all red silicone hoses, rocker cover has being sent for shadow chrome dipping and obviously I need to get block rebuilt ... By no means impossible but means doing it only once lol for now that is

[stealth106]

I paid £400 for my engine as it came with a coscast head and is completely standard low mileage example. My pistons came in at £360 but I know a friend who deals with omega so I got them cheaper, usually around £480. Block cost me £70 to get bored. Flywheel was free as it came with another engine I stripped as was the steel sump. I got the shot peened rods for a bargain of £70 not sure how much they usually cost and they also came with arps. Motorsport pump was 65 from SBD and the oil pump stuff comes in around 100 from SBD.

I dont want to add it up so i'll let you do the maths! Obviously you'll need gaskets and shells etc that i havent included!

[smoothcorsa]

They told me it have 80000 miles, I had the oil pump pipe partially blocked, I will check the oil pump clearance and see from there.

Yeah man there worn very badly ! Looks like there jot getting enough oil if there in that shape maybe new oil pump required what millage is on the engine ? I will be making the investment inthat lube stuff in that case because last thing I want is to have them dry out sorta speak

[Astraliam]

what is the best way to clean the blockafter its stripped ..

also early block oil pump is nla from vaux i have heard you can use the z20let or late pump for a c20xe/ let block is this right?anything have to be done to it?

[wh03_mad]

Hi yorkie not sure about the water pump tbh I'm still learning as I go but I'm getting my parts from trechii on eBay go on there send them a email asking them and I'm sure I'll get the answer you need.

As of for cleaning the block what I did is stripped all the components off it till I jus had the block, I then bought a wire brush attachment for a electric drill from boys but halfords sell them also for less than £5 I then used some methelted spirits as it's a degreeser and sprayed plenty of that onto the block and let it soak for about 30 mins and then used the drillto really scrub it. I did this about 4 times wiping off the extra dirt every time till it was clean. You can also do what stealth did Nd buy the engine cleaning gunk remover which I hear is very verygood and it makes the process a bit easier but both work well.

Stealth - fair enough mate I won't add it up as I already know buying the pisons is going to push my budget o for now it's just going to be a standard rebuild and tune at a later date. Ordered my piston rings and engine lube today and at dinner off to get the plastiguage kit and check my clearence, what clearence am I looking for ?

[Astraliam]

want to use gen vauxhall parts as have heard bad stories about non vaux oil pumps failing

[stealth106]

The mains clearance for an XE is 0.015 - 0.040mm. I don't know the Big end clearance off the top of my head.

Gunk is really good at cleaning the bulk of grease and grime from a block but you still need to put in a fair amount of effort with a wire wheel to get the bulk of the grime off.

If you using gunk you'll need to wipe it down with meths or similiar as it leaves a protective film which will stop your paint sticking.

You'll have your back together in no time then! Race is on to find a corsa now!

[smoothcorsa]

I think I know from where the problem started, from sand blasting the bottom end faces fo the block, some sand blast went in block. thinkng of replacing engine.

[wh03_mad]

Smooth - I'd honestly just spend the time doing the rebuild it will be worth it once it's done mate
trust me and big end bearings n stuff are nit expensive items as for the none vaux pumps I think it's the look of the draw with them if you put a oil sensor on it with a guage in ur car I'll soon know if it fails

stealth - haha yeah the race has begun lol check motors.co.uk some good cars on there rather cheep that's where I'm getting mine from, should have the car by end of April with any luck and I'll be able to afford everything at that point too. Only thing I really need is engine mounts but not sure where to get them from :/

[wh03_mad]

just a quick update today,

Pitson rings have arrived so now i can re-assemble the bottom end and get the pistons all refitted and see how the crank turns over

[Liam1805]

Good luck with that, hope it turns over as you want it too

[Astraliam]

nice one

[wh03_mad]

Mains are now back on just waiting for my angle socket to get the last little nipping up done, also waiting for my engine mastic to arrive to refit the outer mains bearing back in place.

Anyway just a very quick update today, got up this morning and this arrived just as i got to work :



So i got to work again, removed the oil that i put on the bearings before as obviously i dont wana contaminate between the oil and the lube.

Lubed up the mains bearings and refitted them and the crank, then tightened everything up to haynes manual specification - the angle nipping.



As you can see the mains are all back in, pistons next but finiding it hard to get any time, also like i say end shell needs fitting too but no silicon

Anyway now when i turn the crank its loverley and smooth and turns with ease.

[stealth106]

Good work, you did more than me this weekend, I made the most of the weather and got out on my bike.

Going to get my block CC'd this week then I can get my bottom end rebuild, can I ask what sealant you are using? I was going to get the stuff from vuaxhall but havent had chance to get to my vaux dealer yet.

Have you assembled your new rings yet?

I assume your mains clearance was in tolerance? Crank spin nice on the assembly lube?

[wh03_mad]

Hey man,

not got round to putting the new rings in just yet iv spent today trying to clean up the pistons as there covered in carbon so was going to try a bit of metal polish tomorrow to try make them a bit better before I go and put them
in.

Clearence was all ok so that's a releif and eye the crank is turning loverley now.

The sealent I was going to go to vauxhall for too as I'd rather use GM recomended stuff let me know if u get there before me as wana know the price

[wh03_mad]

16/03/2010 - Piston Cleaning

Ok so todays update, well part 1 of 2 anyways.

Today i got busy working on the pistons as i cant honestly afford new ones at the moment and i was not planning on tuning up this lump just yet, so i got myself a few bits and started working on the pisons as they are now to see what could be done with them.

Step 1 - Removing old piston rings & taking to peices.

Ok so the first thing i did was get the pisons and took them apart, nice and simple although i do not have the correct tools for a job like this there is always another way lmao so i got myself a socket extention bar and a wooden mallet, removed the circlip and tapped the center of the pistons out very genly so as not to damage anything in the process.

I also removed the old piston rings and used them to remove the carbon from where the piston rings are seated, this is a slow task bit a must !

Step 2 - Piston Cleaning

Now for this step i was trying to rattle my brains for a good way to restore the pistons to former glory, and then i noticed the answer was sat right in front of me the whole time .... BRASO !!!!!

Good old braso and a brillo pad that you use for washing your pots so i set to work, here is the before shots :




After shots -




Comparison shot of piston 4 & 3 :



My tunes that i had on while working :



Both pistons cleaned :





Thats it so far, got to get on with some work for a few hours then the other two pistons will be cleaned up and hopefully ill get them back together and the new rings fitted and installed into the block

I think you will all agree that Braso is the s**t ! lol

More soon & thanks for looking
chris

Edit : -

Got another piston cleaned up but thats all iv got time for today as have to go meet a friend from work so here is the pics up to me leaving work :-

[stealth106]

Wow brasso is the sh1t! might invest in some for my cylinder head!

Good work on pistons they look like new, wont be long before the bottom end it build up again.

Got my mate book in for thursday night to get mine sorted, did manage a small amount of work on the nova last night!

The RTV sealant from Vauxhall is £4.50 and mains are £2 a bolt.

[wh03_mad]

Yeah am going to have to use it more oftern it really did bring the pistons up nice, it did take a bit of effort but pics dont do the pistons justice.

Sweet man least you got yourself some help what did you get done on the nova ?

What car are you putting yours into the nova or a corsa ?

Ok thanks for that mate ill go into vauxhall tomorrow and grab myself some, then i should be able to get the majority of the bottom end rebuilt, not sure when ill be able to afford the oil and water pump for a few weeks so going to get to a point where i have nothing to do so i was going to use that chance to do some head work i think being looking into doing a port and polish on it but it looks too complicated and if i do it wrong i can make matters worse so looking for a company around here that does that.

Getting some other bits cleaned up and sprayed like the gearbox and all that.

[stealth106]

I own the Nova with a mate, we bought it for a bit of fun on the track, its fully stripped out with a redtop in. But it was stripped out a little to far for our liking so we have been putting a heater matrix and dash back in along with tidying all the dodgie wiring and sorting a few bits and bobs out.

My c20 will be going into a corsa, I plan to use the nova while I source a corsa.

I have a list of bits I need to get prep'd and painted but like you i'm leaving that until I run out of cash!

Might be running out of cash fairly soon though as I have just found a Limited slip diff at decent money!

[wh03_mad]

ah fair enough mate sounds good though would not mind stripping a mk2 astra out and tracking it but its all money and i have some work to do on my corsa C now as its started leaking coolent from under the lump somewhere and i wana refit my imry back box as its started to sag due to rubbers getting old so thats this weekends task

Well iv managed to get 1 piston re-fitted .... them piston rings really are a bugger !

Ill update my log laters with some pics and info about my dinner time play lol.

Ummmm limited slip diff ... would not mind one but looks like that will be a later date upgrade

[wh03_mad]

17/03/2010 - Piston fitting

Well todays update is not much as was very busy in work today however i did manage to get piston 4 refitted and the last piston cleaned up but i kinda forgot to take a photo of it :/

Well the first thing i did was to use some of the engine lube and i gave the bore a slight coat rather than putting oil in the bore and getting it everywhere i thought the lube would do just job just as good.

Anyway i dont have a piston ring compressor however i did have a big jubilee clip kicking about so i used this to aid refitting the piston. Now for some pics :





New rings going in :



and fitted :





Anyway i will post more up over the next few days hoping that by weekend i have all the pistons fitted and everything tightened down to specification, then hopefully ill be able to get the oil and water pumps fitted and then were really starting to make progress on this

[stealth106]

Good work as always mate, I've been instructed not to use the assembly lube on the bores as the new rings and bore wont bed in properly when your running in. Not sure how critcial it is if your just puting new rings in. I'll be using a generous smear of engine oil to slip my pistons in.

Decided I'm getting the diff! Its at a price I cant refuse, picking it up on saturday! Hopefully get to work on the engine thursday night and friday afternoon and finally post some progress up!