keeping my 4x4 alive

[martin.p]

well the car didn't get started today.
I went to the lock up around 8.00 ish, finished off a few bits like the inner arches need to go on, the side skirt, wipers. then pushed the car out in to the yard, disconnected the turbo oil return, removed the spark plugs and fuel pump fuse. and tuned the key!!!


and nothing!

just went tick....once!

so removed the battery leads right quick! went all over the car checking,.... found nothing.
so put it down to flat battery. so I pinched the battery off the Astra, connected it up and turned the key again!..

and she spun and spun.......and spun......and spun a bit more.....and no oil from turbo return
so I removed the oil feed pipe at back of oil pump and spun again. nothing!
so I removed the oil cooler pipes, nothing come out!
so I removed the oil filter! (why is it when you do a filter up by hand you cant undo it by hand!! >:| ) anyway nothing come out!
so wondering if it was struggling to pick up the 20/50 oil (which is quite thick) so I drained the oil, and filled with 10/40 and spun again. still nothing! at this point I was quite pissed off and concerned about things!
so I made a phone call or two, (since this is the first time Ive ever done any of this!) I was asked/told that I should of filled the oil pump with oil when putting it together! (so it was primed) I didn't do that! )

so I tried to fill with oil via a syringe in every way I could and this didn't work either!.
So off with the exhaust and sump, removed the pick up pipe, and filled the best i could from there.
put it all back together (leaving oil filter off) and spun again...........

oil pissed out!! YAY! (Ive never been so happy to oil pissing out from under my car be for)
screwed filter back on and spun again and there it was! Oil from the turbo return TFFT!
BUT..
where I had to use a chain whip to get the filer off, Id punctured it so oil leaks out the side of filter now!
by this point it was 5.00 and I hadn't eaten anything all day. so I came home.

at least I have the oil primed now!, and tomorrow I need to get another filter, drain the 10/40 out, put some 20/50 back in and check that that still pumps through. then fingers crossed start her up!

Id like to say a massive thanks to C20letian! If you hadn't mentioned priming the turbo (which even though Id heard/read about long time ago) I wouldn't of done today and Id be sat here in tears with a ****ed engine! massive thanks to you Ian, you have saved my car!

[duneii]

Hey martin its rich from colchester, awesome work mate wish i had done this to my LE i wish you had painting the rear diff, school boy error on your part lol, she looks awesome you should be super proud mate

[martin.p]

Hello mate.
Thanks for checking it out. I know what ya mean about rear diff. There's a lot I wanted to do different, it's all had to hurry to a close as I'm now jobless and can't spend anymore on it. And a few other reasons but explain next time I see ya m8.

And yes you should of done it to your LE. Shame on you lol!
Ment to ask the other day did you sell the saab Turbo'd Astra? Tell me it's hiding at your dads!

[Daz H]

Great work! The engine looks lovely on the stand!

[martin.p]

Great work! The engine looks lovely on the stand!

Thanks , pity there is so much you can't see of it once it's in. I may as well not bothered painting a lot of it. Lol

[Daz H]

Thanks , pity there is so much you can't see of it once it's in. I may as well not bothered painting a lot of it. Lol

lol I felt like that doing mine. Atleast you have the pictures to prove it has been done though

[MSG]

Good work mate, hope you have a good memory and knows where every nut and bolt goes back! I am usually left with half a dozen extra nuts and bolts not knowing where i have missed them from!

[martin.p]

Lol^^^
I've got a few cable clamps and ties left over but I've zip tied everything I think that may move.
No nut or bolts thank god!

I've just been looking through Bigrons carbon clad corsa gsi c20let
Poor bloke to say the least.
I'm even more worried about mine now :/

[martin.p]

[martin.p]

as you can see from pic, the car is running! yay
after another day of problems!
was my silly fault though, Id got the fuel feed and return the wrong way around (awaits comments)

but after working that out, she fired up! 8)

she warmed up, threw water out of expantion bottle while getting air locks out >
then took her out.

oil presure stayed up (4.5 bar) and drops off at idle, but every now and then it hunts!!
quite bad at one point (could feel the hole car shake) like when HT leads are ****ed and cant handle car on boost!(even though I was off boost!) or like it was running out of fuel!
It has got the old plugs in at the mo, I have got new ones which I took out, coz I was having troubles earlyer in the day!
I also changed the dizzy for the old one. so tomorrow I plan to change the plugs back to the new ones and dizzy.

Is there any chance it could be the ECU just learning as its been off the car so long? or is that talking ****!?

the only time it plays up is when I come off load, ie pulling up to junction or home. but once its had a hissy fit, it will happily sit and idle! and pull away fine!

Done paperclip test. No faults stored!

[c20letian]

well done mate its good to see another calibra on the road...

[pie]

great build thread buddy

[Daz H]

Great work nice one for getting it out! I bet that was a good moment!

[martin.p]

Well today I changed the plugs, leads and it's got the old dizzy on which ran fine befor the car was taken to bits!
None of above made any difference.
Car starts fine, first time every time. Ticks over fine drives off but after a mile or so, it starts to splutter. Very much like fuel starvation. I can't think of anything else I could be tbh. It's worse when trying to maintain 30/40mph when I push up to 50/60 it ran ok. Then as I slow it starts to splutter again.
No matter how much it splutters it has never cut out completely (yet)
I was going to change ICV ( only as I had a spare ) but it was as this point I saw one of the injectors has been leaking!
So I stopped messing and left car for the night.
Next thing is to pull injector rail off again and inspect it.
Would a injector work intermittently and be my problem? Or are they work or don't work thing!?
I have a set of reds I could try in place of my yellows.

Could it be the coil? Would it act in this way?
Any ideas from anyone?
Feel free to ask if I've checked the simplest of things.
Thanks

[c20letian]

would you say it splutters after the engine has come up to temp?

[martin.p]

would you say it splutters after the engine has come up to temp?

Gets worse the warmer it gets! But starts befor it gets up to full temp!
Someone on another forum has suggested CTS!

[Cavalier-C20LET]

defo try the CTS mate

also check the wiring going to it as this can quite often cause issuses

[c20letian]

change the cts and clean the injectors and change the seals for new ones. worth a go if you ask me.

[martin.p]

ok, this is going to be a bit embarrassing :-\

I'll start at the beginning

Bought drive shafts of xxx! (With naff ABS rings)
swapped ABS rings for mine
broke one!
repaired with PU sealant and held with big jubilee clip!
worked a treat other than 2 of the teeth where a few mm further apart than the others!

on the first drive the ECU light come on! so I stopped, checked! and looked it up had 39
this is where it all went wrong!!
What I looked up on my phone was top buzz ABS faults FFS and 39 is LH speed sensor! ABS ring!
which is the ring I fixed!
Topbuzz Web Site - Technical Information - ECU Fault Codes @ www.topbuzz.co.uk

now realising my mistake and that I should of looked up
Topbuzz Web Site - Technical Information - ECU Fault Codes @ www.topbuzz.co.uk

number 39 is ...O2 sensor FFS
its saying high voltage!

one more embarrassing thing! I'm sure when I plugged it in it seemed it could be plugged in either way around! (turn 180 degree)
should it?? could I have it the wrong way around!??