Astra GSi

[sbd16vastra]

What can I say other than ooops I've bought another project car lol

Recently I decided I was in the market for a run around but I did not want anything expensive or boring and most definatly did not want a project car lol, on the whole that limits your choice quite alot.

when I saw this on eBay I pretty much made my mind up on the spot I was buying it.

An Astra gsi with a Saab b204 engine conversion running mot'd and taxed perfect.







I only have the pictures from the add at the moment but I'll get more up as I go along

The car sounded perfect and like it was 99% finished with the only real problem being it smoked its tits off well after a good look around it is deff more project car than i first expected but then I guess deep down I knew that would be the case, it was to cheap to be finished in reality and the key thing is the engine is fitted starts drives and the car is mot'd so is a moving project.

The main object with this car is to make it into a nice daily driver on as cheap a budget as possible THIS IS NOT A GTE REPLACEMENT !!!

The first job was to find out why it was smoking so much all the symptoms said turbo so this was the first place to be checked the car came with a spare turbo that also smoked pretty bad so I took this and the car around to Dewis and had him weld up one of the hot side snails to enable us to check it was 100% turbo or engine





Even when he is doing a quick job he cannot help but do awesome welding

The good news is with this fitted the car is completely clear of smoking so it just needs a new turbo (pm me if you have a cheap t2 /t3 footprint turbo)

With that sorted and the car now running NA until I can find the turbo it was time to have a look around the car see what else I could spot with a quick look the following were found

Passengers side rear light not working
Number plate lights not working
Indicator relay constantly energised
Both indicators constantly on, on dash
Oil pressure gause not working
Speed intermitently working
Fog lights not working
Front suspension has no movement
Been fitted with Saab lower arms bushes nackered / track far to wide
Exhaust only has one motorbike can far to noisy ( I must be getting old lol)and blowing quite bad
Steering wheel loose
Seat loose maybe missing bolts

I don't think this list is going to be exhuastive by any stretch of the imagination, the good news is so far its all time based not money which fits in prefect with the objectives of the project.

My nans down for the next week so I won't be getting much done over that period but I'll obviously update as I do.

[rc]

looking good mate, glad your back in the fold i can see this seriously spiraling out of control lmao

[sbd16vastra]

nope not got the spare cash to inject into it anymore

since giving up the gte ive found alot of other things in life that i can spend my money on so there is not a massive free chunk of money anymore.

althou it did come with a ''modified'' saab ecu so i guess i could try a slightly larger turbo and some live mapping

[Astra Dan]

Nice one Rob!

[dopey]

nice looking motor you

[daddy cav]

Good old Mk3 GSi .
They all sit wonkey with the Saab engine .

[GTE 16v]

Gonna be watching this thread, keep the updates coming Rob.

As said on MSN, See you at Combe in April!

What times was the old Astra running at Combe?!

[sbd16vastra]

Wellllll it no longer smokes :-) :-) :-)

Spoke to a local Saab garage who held some spares for the repair side of the business and he said if I popped in we could have a look at some turbos he has

Well he had a good one and after a bit of bartering it was mine for £125 a little more then they can be found for but this came with a garranty of if it was nackered when I fitted it he would replace it make it alot less of a gamble for my money so felt this was the cheapest option for repair.

Turbo is now fitted been up the road and its all clear so that's one to tick off the list.

[sbd16vastra]

The gte run 1.21 but I think 1.18 would have been quite easy with some setting up and seat time.

[patrikbrunt]

ahh Jamie's old astra! he was ready to let this go for such little money, i'd bet you got a bargain??

[sbd16vastra]

Time for a small update really busy working at the moment so only been able to do a few small jobs.

One thing that bugged me about the car was the center console the Saab linkage had been used and the locking reveres kept, however the vauxhall center is no where near accepting it and would have needed a Saab vaux cut and shut, which is more work that I wanted to get Into so decided to remove the locking off the Saab linkage.



This was quite easy removed the insides then cut the back off it now fits perfect with the standard console





The car had a miss fire on tick over as well that I thought was spark related from day one, well it turns out it was after removing the spark plugs to check the correct ones were fitted I instantly knew by eye that they were gapped wrong out came the feeler gauge and my suspisions were correct the gaps ranged from. 45mm to. 20mm

Regapped the plugs and it now purr's like a kitten not surprising really lol

it also now has all the lights and indicators working correctly, this was down to how the digi dash had been wired in best way to discribe that is poorly ive still got some work to do on that but for now the essentials work lol.

Fitted my old boost gauge and innovate wide band to make sure everything is working as it should the maps perfect as I would expect from a standard car map but that's all ready now for when the bigger turbo goes on and some live mapping.



should have some time next week for working on the car aslong as my boat goes to sea (fingers crossed) and in preperation i have had a few deliverys lol



And finally when the turbo etc was out I decided to give the intercooler a quick squirt of paint looks 100 times better now IMO.

[Frisco]

Intercooler looks much better in black