Vauxhall Xe Engine

[Guest tom2b]

Im seriously considering fitting a more powerful engine to my 2b, today nigel (longboarder) and i removed my pinto and gearbox as i have been losing 3rd gear.

I have never been happy with the power of the pinto and think that an xe engine is the way forward after an astra gsi slaughtered me!

Can anyone shed any light on exactly how easy it is to fit and what bits i will need to buy/modify before i commit myself to buying one.

Regards

Tom

[Guest Ian & Carole]

Two word spring to mind

 

 

 

 

 

BIG JIM

 

Wrote a large artice about this ages ago.

 

NW Web site might be worth a gander.

 

Ironic though that most engine conversions, mine included use the type 9 box!!!!!!!!! doh

 

 

Ian J

[steve in stockport]

Hi Tom

 

i'm planning on fitting one over winter, once i get the house move over with.

quick run down seems to be bellhousing, clutch, spigot bearing in crank, sump - chop or new item, exhaust - you can cut, turn and reweld vx manifold if you get one plus it will come out of passenger side, engine mounts, ignition - either 8v astra dizzy or megajolt, fuelling - carbs either webers or bike, throttle bods but then you need management so you might as well get something that does fuel and ignition.

 

then you've got firewall mods to fit the dizzy, lose the brake servo to fit your choice of fuelling, plumbing for the cooling system and some alternator space issues.

 

pretty much the same sort of work that Nigel went through for his zetec, ask him if thinks it was worth it.

 

dont think you'll get much change from £1000, i'm hoping to get away with £700 to do a vx swap with fully managed fuel and sparks and fancy exhaust to bring it out of the original hole on the drivers side

 

but if you get a decent redtop you will have about 150 plus horses

 

Steve

[Guest tom2b]

Just checked jims site, most helpful but id still like more info from anyone

[Guest salty_monk]

Bob Tuckers in the final stages of fitting to a wishbone converted sliding pillar 2B, I think he'll disagree with your figures, 700 seems quite low although he has cams etc on his.

 

I'd say incl the price of an engine a grand is probably still too low even running a Dizzy.

 

Bob's had to fit floor mount pedals.

 

Dan

[Bob Tucker]

Hi Tom,

As Dan says, I'm on the home straight now.....but it aint cheap...

BTW Dan, I only have standard cams...I priced up Kents cams, new followers,

& vernier pulleys at over £1000. They then needed the pistons to be re-worked on top....

 

I had a detailed spreadsheet, but my PC went down & ive lost it....

But I do remember the total was £2000 ++.

 

I couldnt find many parts second hand & SBD are close & also helpful,

so I just closed my eyes, & opened my wallet!!!

 

Major parts I can recall are as follows...

XE engine £300

SBD sump £245

SBD gaskets £30

Vauxhall gaskets, head bolts, ARP rod bolts £120

Bellhousing Rally Design £170

Inlet manifold £85

Cambelt Rally Design £40

45 DHLAs £300

FACET fuel pump £40

Fuel filter/regulator £40

Clutch parts £100 (Astra GTE cover plate, diesel Transit driven plate)

Twin throttle cable Rally Design £40

Astra dizzy, coil, wiring £50

Floor mount pedal & tandem M/cylinder £120. (No way of fitting any M/Cyl with the DHLAs & my manifold.

 

I had a Manta big wing sump, but the low side gave me just 1" floor clearance.. The good news was that SBD took it in P/X for theirs at £110!!!.

I'm trying desperately to modify the GTE exhaust to fit, but the big engine mount chassis plates are in the way, so I may have to add the cost of a custom manifold to all that...

 

If you want to call, just PM me & I'll pass on my phone no.

Cheers, Bob

[steve in stockport]

thats quite a scary bill for a few horse power, but i can cut my costs down a lot with the aid my tame welder who works for a company that build industrial shower systems in alloy and stainless.

 

am hoping he will be able to modify the sump with a cut and shut, rework the exhaust manifold to either go under the engine or round the front so it can exit the existing hole and also i'm hoping make a tapering plenum based on a cosworth item witha cosworth throttle body so that i keep it as injection.

 

hopefully this will cut the bill dramatically as i will only pay for materials he uses plus beer money for his time and i'm also hoping not to have to mod/change the pedal set up.

 

did you notice the use of the word HOPE a lot just keep your fingers crossed

 

Steve

[Mitch]

the easiest way (cheapsest) is to make a list of what you require,

and when ringing suppliers ask for a discount, it does work even with raldes, and buy them over a longer period of time,

engines can be had for £200, bellhousings for £120 ish (unless you get the bidders bug and pay £200+ on ebay, nearly listed mine on there after seeing that!!!)

sumps = modify a steel cav one,

 

so far mines cost this (some of these were for Andy windows car)

110 for bellhousing (bought 3 together)

bearing for g.box £5, new shell beasring £25

arp bolts 35 quid again bought 3 sets as the price was too good to pass up,

twin 45s were 350 nearly new (ebay)andys

inlet 70, bought with bellhousing,andys

mc throttle bodies £100 + 150 for inlet to suit

mega squirt fully built basic map £200 thats 350 inc compared to carbs at nearer 500 when you think of linkages.

pump xr3i £20 (lee)

pedals £70 ebay ex luego ones

 

sump mates altered a cav one £50,

filter £15 rizla

clutch plate 25 local old ford specilist

probably £100-£200 for welding work and materials

 

not started mine yet,(not broke dont fix) but wont cost much more than 1k, and the diferance is excellent (in 3a's not driven a 2b with one in)

spread the load and collect over next summer, convert next winter.

 

hth mitch

[Richard Grove]

I retro fitted an XE lump in my 2B, but sold the car earlier this year. It ended up costing me close to £2k but I used mostly new parts (£600+ for the carbs, ram pipes & throttle linkage). If I was doing it again (and I probably will) I would definitely go for throttle bodies, fuel injection and Megasquirt.

[Guest tom2b]

My mate who breaks cavalier gsis as hes a vauxhall nut has 4 redtop enginers, hes offered me one complete with a dizzy for £250, hes also offered me a vauxhall gearbox, is it worth doing this or using a type 9 box with the adaptor parts?

[Mitch]

dizzy needs to be a 8v cav one, box would be either early cav/manta or the later omega, not sure if either would fit, but then its a new propshaft??

 

thats geting near top price for an engine now, seen lots go for 150-200.

 

mitch

[Andy Spencer]

Interestingly, was talking to Richard Hall at our Leics monthly meet last week and GBSC are looking to market engine conversion kits soon. Sounds like a good idea to me, they can include everything you need. Think the first one will be a zetec though......but may be worth ringing to see if an XE is in the pipeline. Or consider a zetec?

The figures Rich was talking last week seem pretty competitive looking at some of the costings on here for conversions so far.

 

Andy

[Guest tom2b]

this like anything kitcar related is looking expensive but im still keen to do it.

I had thought about a zetec but that looks even more expensive for similar power returns and trickier with the exhaust, atleast you can relatively easily cut and shut a calibra manifold.

[Jon Bradbury]

I copied this from a post long ago on the old forum.

 

Get an astra GTE 16v for £200 with rotten arches. take the engine and injection system out, then ebay the digital dash and interior and you'll make half the money back. Spend £50 of that on a Manta 1800 or carlton gearbox (which both bolt straight onto the 16v) and the other £50 on a propshaft. (chop the front off a manta/carlton one and the back off a sierra/escort one and get a new tube welded in and balanced, £50 at your local propshaft place)

 

Use a Carlton 2.0 friction plate and the astra's pressure plate and the clutch is sorted. Keep the std injection on the engine. Dunno if it'll fit but if it won't then neither is the DOHC system likely to. The std Bosch Motronic system on the astra only needs 4 external connections, permanent live, ign switched live (to turn the ECU on), connection to the fuel pump (via fuse) and rev-counter.

 

You might get away with spending very little cash, if you found a cheap enough donor.

[Guest salty_monk]

You'll get 150bhp that way if you're lucky.

 

You should get an extra 10-20 with 45's & a dizzy & an extra 20-30 with 45 & megjolt or Throttlebodies...

 

That's what I found in my research anyhow