Tell me about...... X25XE and manual box..

[manbearpig]

Holla at cha

I'm considering a X25XE to stick in Viva. It's a V, it's modern, injected, should hoof it and be relatively economical, but best of all it's Vauxhall so will match the car (kind of..!) - but....

How are they, what's the economy like, reliability, parts availablilty, difficult to work on? Cheers!

[conrad]

Well i've had the 2.5v6s in omegas, and while hauling around 2 tons of omega the fuel economy was pretty horrible. best i ever got was 26mpg when really trying, but then again they're big heavy cars.
Pretty good power though and the omegas could do great burnouts and get really rather sideways.

Not the most trouble free of engines though, going by what i've come across with them, quite a few of them i've experienced have had cooling issues and head gasket trouble. They sound nice though and are pretty smooth and (not that i should have done it...) i had a very rusty one with a bad head gasket which was just a cheap tramp drift car for messing about/abusing and it lasted months of abuse so it seems even when they're kanckered they sort of keep going.
While the omegas arent particularly "fast" they can get up to some serious speed for something you pay less than 500 quid for and a viva with that engine should be pretty damn quick and a good bit more economical than an omega, if you can restrain yourself.

[akku]

I was always disappointed by the performance of my 2.5 V6 Omega estate. OK, for motorway cruising and so forth it was fine, for carrying passengers and luggage it was fine. I never got mine to do a burnout, it wouldn't spin its tyres on the road even when trying so I never tried it against the foot brake or anything. Uphill junctions where a 2 litre Cortina gives a good shriek and - nothing. Even with the TC off.

To be honest the fuel consumption was so bad I hardly ever drove it hard anyway. See what I drive in my sig and I say the Omega has bad MPG.

And no, nothing wrong with mine, it spec'd up against book figures for everything and it was a minter.

Mine was an automatic but thats no excuse.

I got 18 - 22 MPG from mine in general use and 26 on a run to Wales and back. (figures from the onboard computer)

[alecw35]

theres a man on the PPC mag website thats put a X30xe out of a cop car into a Scimitar. quite a good build thread
www.ppcmag.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6158

[manbearpig]

Thanks Chaps - dissapointing - oh well - so the pinto is still the favorite for back end activity and economy then? It's either that or a garrett on the 1256. Thanks for all the input

[`state]

Ive only had them in cavs so fwd and its a brilliant engine.Would do 10 or 140mph in 5th gear and gave pretty okish mpg.
One weakness is the oil cooler is in a waterway between the vee.This rusts and you get h/g type problems.Easy mod is to take that out and run a external cooler.
Also if you get the x25xe you`ll have the immobiliser to deal with.You can get cheap `performance` chips from ebay that will remove it or use the inlet manifold and loom/ecu from the c25xe (cav/calibra).
Its a pain to work on and when it does go wrong its expensive to put right.
Id rather have the xe,or the seh 8v fitted to the manta box.The seh is bullit proof.
Ive got 16v pistons,seh cam and ecu with xev injectors and it goes like you know what.
You`ll get better performance,more mpg and more smiles per miles than with boat anchor you was talking about up there.

[conrad]

May 30, 2011 12:39:26 GMT akku said:

I was always disappointed by the performance of my 2.5 V6 Omega estate. OK, for motorway cruising and so forth it was fine, for carrying passengers and luggage it was fine. I never got mine to do a burnout, it wouldn't spin its tyres on the road even when trying so I never tried it against the foot brake or anything. Uphill junctions where a 2 litre Cortina gives a good shriek and - nothing. Even with the TC off.

(figures from the onboard computer)

A manual will shred plenty of tyres no problem, and a auto will do a burnout against the foot brake, they won't do big rolling burnouts with no brakes like a V8 yank will do. You have to disable the TC though because it's a pain in the ass.

Still though while it may be vauxhall, and certainly has enough power for a viva it isn't ideal.

Cosworth V6 is still more popular than these for good reason.

[Colonelk]

In a viva one will be mentile, and the bay it open enough so that you should avoid the many maintenence headaches caused by the omega bay (they packed in a lot around them)

It will definitely out perform a pinto in performance stakes. You're forgetting the omega weighs pretty much twice as much as the viva.

It has its foibles, but so does every engine. Let me know if you buy a 2.5 as I have a set of cams to take it to 3.0 power and a stainless heat exchanger.

[Harold Ramp Bumface Fandango]

Have you considered a 3.0 litre instead? I had an Omega Elite recently with that engine and it was crazy fast. It had rather a penchance for unleaded mind you, especially when wellied but the Omega is something of a block of flats in the weight stakes so in a Viva it shouldn't be as bad.