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[xtremeastrag]

Right then where to start?

brought this in feb as a none runner for £600 no tax or test, non working roof, but only 98k on the clock.



(thts not me in the pic but my bro wishing it was his lol)

after a good clean up and a gallon of petrol and about 10hrs re-wiring in the electric hood and imobiliser/alarm. i managed to get it through an mot and sold for a grand.

with not having a car and kids due to go back to school, i had to get another run around.
spent a couple of days trawling the internet and found the astra on ebay.
another search of the internet found a private add for the same car so after a quick email i managed to secure the car for £600. 3mths tax and 8mths mot 128k but full service history.
after collecting it and getting pulled by the plod within just ten mins of owning it (be aware of over taking black 58plate 5 series bmw's) i got it home and had a good look round the car.
i was pleased to discover the adjustable coilovers and rear adjustable springs and irmsher back box.
But there is a problem with the car. It hates cruising and sometimes it doesnt like to start and drinks more fuel than me old almera gti and the bmw.
so with this in mind and always wanting a turbo, i saw a x20 turbo engine for sale.
so i did a little research and brought the engine.

so this is what i got.
x20xev with z20let pistons and rods injectors and z20let exhaust manifold and turbo.
the rest of the engine is x20xev.
so no z20leh, z20let or c20let lol.

now with alll the research ive done, i know tht only a few ppl have done this conversion although i aint been able to find any threads on the internet about the builds. but i did hear about a vectra tht had same conversion running 320ish bhp.

im hoping doing things this way will make the transplant easier to complete with not having to worry about the fly by wire throttle.

so all i need now to be ready for the transplant is complete exhaust a few guages and the all important boost controller as the standerd x20 ecu cant control this but will handle low boost for now till i sort out either standalone managment or piggy back ecu with 5th injector.

so hopefuly this clears things up a little lol

[BIG DAN]

ah so we were all wrong lol sounds like fun mate great little project keep us posted on the updates

[Dunny]

Sounds like an awesome project. Need some pictures of it though! I would get standalone management mate as piggy back ecu's will stop your car passing its MOT in the future.

[Netwalker]

Sounds like it is going to be an intresting conversion. Bet there is going to be plenty of swearing along the way.

As Dan said lets have some pics of this and plenty of updates. Looking forward to watching this thread grow

[xtremeastrag]

Sounds like an awesome project. Need some pictures of it though! I would get standalone management mate as piggy back ecu's will stop your car passing its MOT in the future.

Oh dear!! I wont tell the misses just yet. but tht will give me 6months to finance a standalone system.
What i have just read leaves me a little confused. if they are saying piggyback ecu's or signs of tampering to the ecu will fail they MOT. so would this mean tht standalone ecu's will also fail the mot?? because it dosent contain the original software or a big give away tht it has had a remap??

anyone got a complete exhaust from turbo back for an astra gsi/sri-t?

[Netwalker]

If you get the answer to these let us know. It will be a handy bit of info.

[xtremeastrag]

been looking through the vosa web site at the info they send to their testers and as of yet there is nothing set in stone. I called my local mot test station tht i have delt with for many years this morning and they informed me that as of yet they have not recieved any information either.
vosa should be releasing an update some time this month so i will keep checking and keep u all updated.

[xtremeastrag]

anybody had any experiance with these??
http://www.rspec.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=107&products_id=504
thinking it could be a well priced way of controlling the air/fuel mixture?

[Dunny]

Never had experience myself but that looks like a pretty decent bit of kit as long as it does what it says.

[xtremeastrag]

doing some research at the moment into saab 9-3 ecus. the turbos run the z20let's. im just rying to work out if the ETC is switchable on the saab ecu so i can run the stock T/B's on the xev and have boost control.
plus i think i read somewhere that some astra gsi's were released with the saab ecu's??

[Dunny]

I know the saab units are much more customisable than the vauxhall equivalent. I unsure as to weather any were released on the astra, if you are a member on Mig-web there is a guy called Nige on there who is pretty clued up with the saab engines, he even makes custom looms for them, maybe try dropping him a pm. - He has a white astra mk3 with saab power.

[xtremeastrag]

i think wat i was reading was for the 2.2 engine :(
but in my never ending search for ways to run this engine with turbo, i have just read tht they can be run on c20ne T/B. just need grinding down a bit in places.
i know i can get T/B off early omega 2.0i. but didnt these c20ne's run motronic ecu's?? whats the differances between the c20ne engine and managment and the z20let engine and managment??

[xtremeastrag]

evening ppl,
i just spent 12hrs swapping the engines after the x20 wouldnt start.
so hired a hoist for the week and got cracking.

taking the old engine out i found a cracked exhaust manifold tut tut...

all tht is left to do tomorrow is

fit cooling system
fill with fluids
fit exhaust
fit boost guage and plumb vacum pipe for controller
fit Tims oil pressure guage (any one plumbed these into a z20let before??? need advice)
got to try and find a bango bolt thingy for the pipe in top of the turbo at the back (thinking it maybe a oil feed?).

this leads me to a small problem im having and thts the plumbing in of the water cooling on the turbo?

i got the oil feed and the drain to sump sorted (if above is correct).
but i am unsure of where the water cooling comes from and drains to??
anybody out there got a diagram plzzz or can advice where the go???
then its a case of changing the ecu and transponer and crossing fingers!!!

heres some pics taken by the wife...


cracked manny



getting ready to remove the dead horses


one dead horse


X20 turbo going in


and in!!
One must remember to check tht the clutch plate matches the spline on the gearbox shaft of you can spend an hour scratching your head, swearing, and then insulting one self when you realise what a rookie mistake you've made 

 it then got to drunk....i mean dark for pictures and the congratulated myself with a few beers!!
cheers Ali for the help (get tht cally sorted!!!!!)

will post more pics and hopefuly a sucsessful write...

[Dunny]

Top job mate, excellent work!

[xtremeastrag]

Cheers Dunny.

been finishing off small jobs making sure everything is where it should be.
managed to figure out the cooling for the turbo.

hopefuly tomorow i will be able to get the oil feed bango from vauxhall.
then hopefuly i can turn the key and hear tht DV swoooosh