* Project * - C20XE Rebuild

[wh03_mad]

Hello everyone,

Some time ago i started a rebuild diary on here but i have changed plans and directions with this. At the moment i do not have the car thats its going into but it will be a corsa b ... i know i know same thing all the time by hundreds of other people never mind let me continue.

Ok then so where to start ill start with a quick recap of the start of the project, the day i collected the engine.

The engine was a bargain, its got 74,000 est on the clock and i managed to pic it up from £130 ... thank you ebay lmao

I am lead to beleive that this engine is of the late type XE, so instant thouhts was over porus head, however the head has being sent for testing, which it passed and it was then skimmed ready for the rebuild

Here is the engine when i first collected it :






As you can see a fair bit of stuff and i even got some free bits like breaks etc because he did not want them anymore as the car was scrapped.

Part 2 - The strip down

This part has taken me quight a while as i have had no time lately to work on the engine, up till last week and i made a start again. I had managed to get all the engine stripped apart from getting the pulley nut off, this really caused me some problems to i even took the bottom end to a garage and asked them to use there impact wrench to free it but nothing would !! so in the end i had to attack it with the angle grinder anyway here is some pics :


Rocker cover removed, this is being sent off to be stripped and shadow chromed.
















Piston bores all ok, no damage here.

Part 3 - Head cleanup

BEFORE




HALF & HALF


AFTER




The head was then sent off at this point for testing and skimming.

Part 4 - Bottom end time

Ok so by now i had had 4 months away from the project due to being to busy moving home and breaking up with my partner so last week i fired up the project again and started working on it once more.

So here it is after a bolted it to the engine stand and set to work on it, the bottom block was a mess when i got the engine due to the bottom end seals failing and pouring oil all over the show.




Ready to remove sump and begine stripping crank out



First coat of paint on bottom end





Second coat & Fully stripped aside from crank






Sump cleaned up & then sprayed




Crank removed and 100% stripped




Now i began the rebuild process, this is going to be a little slow over the next few weeks as i have alot of bills so cant spare the money for parts, however i have the new big end and shell bearings and i have just ordered all my piston rings, this will allow me to get the bottom end put back together

I started by first cleaning up all the surfaces where gaskets will go, this will ensure a good seal when i finally get to rebuilding it.

Head gasket seating very clean



Bottom end seating all clean



Old shell bearings out !



All clean ready for new bearings to be fitted :



New shell bearings and nice new bit of oil to make sure these are well lubricated before i put them back in otherwise were asking for trouble !



New bearings fitted and well oiled ( you cant see the oil however there is alot on them )



Crank ready to be cleaned and re-fitted to the block



Crank refitted on new bearings, i cant beleive how easy the crank turns now compaired to before i removed it, its a major improvement !



Ok up till dinner time today this is as far as i have got with it. More soon !

[Bian]

good work man!

[Kev_G]

fantastic work there

[stealth106]

Good work, while the engine is still in bits its worth measuring your B/E and mains clearance, easy enough to do and it'll save you time later if its wrong.

IMO I would use assembly lube instead of normal oil if the egine is going to be sitting around a while before you run it. Normal oil tends to disappear and for the sake of a tenner assembly lube is well worth it!

[wh03_mad]

Stealth106 - thank you very much fir the hints there can I ask for a little guide on measuring my big end clearance and what the purpose of this would be ? I have never rebuilt a engine this extrnsivly before and would hate to do anything wrong :s

[stealth106]

No worries, check out my thread as I have just checked the clearance on my crank. By the looks of it you have new glyco bearings? I had the same and with my cank I am on the limit of the tolerance band so it's wrth checking yours.

Basically if your crank is worn then you will have to big a gap between the crank and new shells when it is running. As the gap is bigger your oil pump will not be able to supply enough oil and your bottom end will knock and you will wreck your new bearings.

All you need to measure the shells is some plastiguage and some patience, worth doing it now while it's apart an out of the car. Send me a PM lf you get stuck I don't know much but I have a mate who designs motorbike engines who will be able to help!

[wh03_mad]

Ok mate will check it in morning when at work only gave iPhone Internet now n connection is not good but thatnk you again for the tip does it detail it in the haynes manual by any chance as I have a PDF of this for my lump

[stealth106]

I'd be interested in that pdf if its small enough to email?! I dont think haynes cover it, it didn't in mine but i only have the haynes were the XE is an addition in the back of it.

The plastigauge is just a strip of plastic you lay across the crank, you then torque up the mains, then undo it. The new shells will squash the plastic. You then check how wide the strip of plastic is against the scale you get with the plastiguage and read off the clearance.

[wh03_mad]

Ah right I see is it like a kit I can buy from somewhere also I don't suppose you know the torque settings for all the bottom end bolts do you ?

I'll try email it tomorrow it's the calibra haynes manual but it foes have a rebuild section in it which is very good just a little detail missing to use it as a ultimate guide. Pm me ur email and I'll send it through tomorrow when I get a chance

[wh03_mad]

Ah right I see is it like a kit I can buy from somewhere also I don't suppose you know the torque settings for all the bottom end bolts do you ?

I'll try email it tomorrow it's the calibra haynes manual but it foes have a rebuild section in it which is very good just a little detail missing to use it as a ultimate guide. Pm me ur email and I'll send it through tomorrow when I get a chance

[wh03_mad]

Ah right I see is it like a kit I can buy from somewhere also I don't suppose you know the torque settings for all the bottom end bolts do you ?

I'll try email it tomorrow it's the calibra haynes manual but it foes have a rebuild section in it which is very good just a little detail missing to use it as a ultimate guide. Pm me ur email and I'll send it through tomorrow when I get a chance

[stealth106]

The mains are 50Nm + 40-50Degrees and the big ends are 35Nm + 45-60Degress.

The plastiguage is under a tenner and comes all in a kit, dont know if halfords do it but most motorfactors do.

Thanks for the PDF.

[Astraliam]

some good work ..

i would like to rebuild my spare let block so would be good if i could learn how to do this .

[wh03_mad]

Stealth - thanks for the Info I need new Piston rings before I can continue any further anyway so I'll make sure I invest in this kit and check clearance out, what should it be ?

Also do you know any good places to get spares from as chris astley is no longer traiding

Astrayorkie - well over the coming months I will be making this log as detailed as I can and making a rebuild guide only thing is the LET block is a fair bit different than the XE but the main priniples are the same so it should give you a rough guide to follow also I am learning as I go myself so I may not get it right

[smoothcorsa]

Great job mate, today I dismantled my big ends and in my opinion they are horrible. Today I bought engine assembly lube becasue its idle for such work. I am thinking of changing big ends.

[wh03_mad]

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

[smoothcorsa]

I checked oil pump last week but it was too lateit had the oil pick pipe dirty with steel wool and some more things. I already bought engine assembly lube and cam lube.

When removing the head bolts and rod bolts these have to be replaced (they are arp bolts)?

[wh03_mad]

When u remove head bolts yeah they do need replacing with new ones otherwise this can lead to problems

[stealth106]

How big is the lip? can you feel it with your finger nail? While you have it apart I would get it checked over by an engineering firm, they will be able to advise you better.

If it was me I would for for a re-bore and bigger piston rings if you want to keep the same pistons. If you have a little more money to play with you could go oversize pistons and high compression.

Without seeing it its hard to call. Mine started out as a quick rebuild but has turned out to a full very expensive rebuild!

[wh03_mad]

yeah this is the problem i seem to keep thinking well while i have it like this i may aswel replace this lol ... its getting more and more expensive every day.

Well the lip is litrally maybe 2mm from the top of the bore, its not a sharpe lip its more like a taper ? ill see if i can get some hige quality pics tomorrow but wont have time today.

Do you know any good online shops for the spares ? as chris astley is gone now :/ iv being using trechii from ebay they are very fast with the delivery and seem to be well priced. QED motorsport seem very expensive.

I have never really understood why you would want to raise compression, and i get confused when im looking through threads and people talking about it however i never heared this engine run as it is now ... so my plan was full rebuild as standard for now, then once i get the car, get it in and running and i know its a good engine and i rebuilt it correctly i will then start saving up to tune the engine up then. however my wallet feels a bit violated atm so best not push it ... and the missus wont be happy if all my money goes on the car haha

[smoothcorsa]

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

This engine came from rebuilt but its not done correct. it have about 82000miles but the dameged was caused in the garage for about half an hour engine running idle. It began ticking and replaced lifters, still problem then removed oil pump and found pick up pipe was blocked, but damage was alreay done.

[wh03_mad]

Ah I'm sorry yo hear that man, I think I saw ur thread earlier so what you going to do then ? New big end n shell bearings n then rebuild ?

[stealth106]

Hey Chris,

A higher compression ratio gives you more power as your get more engery out of the same amount of fuel and air. I only know the basics but as you increase the CR you get a higher pressure at TDC which means the mixture in the chamber burns better and gives you more power. However if you raise if to high the mixture will auto ignite causing knocking which isnt good!

You can go further to work out your effective compression ratio which takes into account valve lift, if you run a long overlap on your cam then you can get away with a high CR as the effective CR is reduce. I will be working out my effective CR in a couple of week and will post up my calcs so you can work out yours if you like?

As for spares I have been using a mixture of ebay, SDB, Omega, QED (only for some items!) and vauxhall main dealer, cheaper than you may think!

[wh03_mad]

Ah right fair enough so say I change out my pistons will that mean new valves and cams ?

Yeah calculations will help alot ! I need to learn more is all lol I like to know how things work so I fiddle to they do haha.

Same places as I have being then lol great minds eh ! Tell you what mate look for trechii on eBay really good company I ordered some bits they were with me next day by 9.30 so extreamly quick ... That was for the glycol bearings. I dint wana order much as did not know if it was good quality bits but they seem great to me.

Just need to get oil pump, water pump & piston rings ordered now

[stealth106]

You can run standard valves and cams with high compression pistons. I will be running mine ot start with a standard head. I'm spending alot f time and effort on the bottom end to get it right then upgrading the head at a later date.

I think my glyco buildings came from trechii! There is also a company on eBay doing the assembly lube cheap as well.