1988 Vauxhall astra GTE 16v, project track day, Jan '16

[darrenh]

following on from from my 2nd GTE, now renamed "project get it back to standard and mothball it" (working title)

retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=120189

I introduce gte no.3, a.k.a project track day

purchased in 2009 and then immediately ignored for 2 years due to moving house 3 times. its an E plate 1988 model, which was the first year of production for the 16v model. they had funky grey and red laser interior, manual windows, no abs, sunroof option, acres of grey plastic.

all that is fine as its less stuff to delete in the name of weight saving, but the E and F plates had one benefit, they had the cosworth KBA engine (a colaboration between cosworth and opel advanced engine design) the cylinder head was cast at the wellingbourough plant and then assembled on site. this was before the bean counters and european recession squeezed production back to opel themselves, and casting duties to kolbenschmidt in germany

so history lesson out the way some pictures.









first job is to delete 100 kilos of 80s design disaster and yucky task for getting bitumen anti drum pads from the floor





unfortunately this particular car has a sunroof, which wouldve been an expensive dealer fit option in 1988, but it weighs 18 kilos and its at the top of the car





I do like tidy paintwork and flawless panels, but as this is a shonky track car I thoought a bit of allu plate and rivetts would add a bit of track day chic and save a mutliated face in the event of a roll over





it leaks despite using seam sealer, so most likely gonna swap it for carbon



next to exit stage left is the front recoro style seats, which are 17 kilos each, and my mate found these for sale on GT40C. they are years out of date but luckily there arent any FIA scrutineers at track days . the pair will save about 10 kilos

[darrenh]

i found this 6 point bolt in cage on ebay, a new "old stock" OMP item. i intend to weld it in, then add additional 6 points to the shell with new CDS tube/gussets.





a couple pictures of the spreader plates, i'm leaving everything in etch primer for now as i want to go a BTCC inspired anthracite grey inside.





i found these harnesses for sale on the owners club which saved a chunk too, 3 inch sholder and laps, plus 1 inch crotch straps. the deep dish wheel was for christmas



lastly for the minute, another second hand item in the shape of a carbon fibre bonnet. i'm toying with the idea of EK civic type-r look, white paint, black carbon bonnet (also pictured are some lighter manual wing mirrors, equal length drive shaft setup from a calibra)

[brettsri]

now thats a name I recognise! Welcome to RR Darren and nice to see you are still bastardising GTE's for trackdays! 3 years since I broke mine up now:(

All the best with it mate... any plans for the engine longterm?

[darrenh]

ello

not sure tbh, last time it was all about the engine, then chassis, brakes, suspension after. so if the aim is to go quick round a track, cracking the nut with a sledgehammer so to speak.

i just fancy getting a nice package, a quick GTE on its own merits rather than thousands thrown at the engine

[darrenh]

forgive me RR, it has been 4 months since my last confession.

i've finally put the land rover rolling restoration to bed (nearly 6 months worth!) so the window of opperunity now falls back to the astra. not much of an update but I picked up some bargain R888. they are used, but off the back of a FWD vehicle so barely warn. they are GG compound (medium hard) so should last ok driving to events while still being an upgrade on summer road tyres.



next job is to assemble the roll over spit, which was an ebay job and this is the generic picture thereof...

[darrenh]

i sorted out a replacement fuel tank. few reasons for this, the first is i nicked the top of mine with the spot weld drill and made a hole, second is that the level sender has busted, third is that its from a mk3 gsi.

the thinking behind swapping to mk3 item is that its dimensionally identicle and uses the same mountings. it has an in-tank pump which will mean i can remove the external pump, in terms of anatomy allot of the late 80s and 90s vauxhalls had the fuel pump slung underneath the shell, to the rear of the rear wheels. i think its a bit vulnerable there, lets say you tapped a crash barrier or another car at a track day.

The mk3 item also makes it miles easier to route fuel lines through the cabin as the internal pump is half an inch under what wouldve been the back seats. despite in-tank pumps only being fitted to very late mk2 cabriolets, all mk2 astras have the inspection panel in the floor pan and a removable black cover which can be seen in previous replies. result !

[darrenh]

heres the basic engine bay. a few tell tale signs its the early cosworth designation engine, the waffle style SFI pre volume chamber, and the metal bracket holding the air flow meter which were only on the very early engines, and of course the coscast head which only weapons grade nerd'dom will spot from this distance.

all pretty much standard at the minute, it will be coming out soon for a few safety tweaks and a clean up. mainly oil pump upgrade, metal gasket, ARP rod bolts, ecotec windage tray, that sort of business. also got a lexmual exhaust manifold from germany, plus tweaks to the intake setup

[darrenh]

couple of pictures of the direction i'd like to go with the bodywork.

without getting into boring history lessons again, this is john clelands GM dealer sport astra GTE from the 1989 esso BTCC season. he trounced class C in the cars first season (1601-2000cc) ending some 80 points ahead of john morris and alan minshaw in the golf gti's. additionally, each class had equal points standing so he also took outright championship honors for 1989

[darrenh]

heres the engine bay of the FIA group A power plant. you can see the obvious changes to induction and engine breathing. they were running a sequential lucas ecu (same as the metro 6R4) built by swindon, produced 225bhp@8000rpm, and powered a 6 speed x-trac gearbox.

[ExJarkle]

^Great pic that, i didn't know about the shared 6r4 ECU. Cool project too Darren.

[hamps]

I like it

[rebel2cv]

so far so good, keep it up!

[darrenh]

doing bits and bobs before work. started stripping down the business end of the car. the exhaust manifold nuts (copper) did the usual thing where some undo, some pull the stud out the head, but theres one that is barely accessible and this is the one that rounded off, yay ! i ended up stripping the thermostat housing off to get access, then driving as 12mm socket onto it (should be 13)

[darrenh]

bit more stripping down today. my first major concern was the hydraulic hoses (power steering) which have a tendancy to destroy themselves when you crack them off. "luckily" the engine bay has always looked like a ten tonne castrol bomb has gone off, so everything has been coming undone ok.





now onto the injection side, fuel and loom



main engine loom



starter/charging/oil sender loom out



this is where we stand today. essentially just need to pop the driveshafts out of the box and crane the engine to the floor

[Mr Squidian]

this is cool!

[darrenh]

thanks

today i popped the bottom balljoints and retracted the cv's out of the hubs



since i needed to drop the gearbox oil anyway, this is the easy method of getting the inner cv's out of the gearbox/diff.

drop the gearbox sump (hmmm, it had ATF in it, FAIL)



then if you look up into the diff you can see the inboard ends of the inner cv joints (the spilned bits at 9 and 3 o clock)



take a chisel, stout screwdriver or something with a shallow taper on it.



then tap it between the diff cross pin and the end of the cv joint spline



bingo!



with the driveshafts retracted i set up the engine crane with trusty 2 tonne tow rope.



and this is as far as i got before running out of time (off to work soon)

[meatballs]

update ffs daz

[darrenh]

don't try this at home kids.



i was gonna crane the engine into the workshop but it actually walked ok on a relay chipboard lengths. the rear gearbox bracket is still on so tripods pretty well as it is in this picture. saved a bit of faffing lowering the car down temporarily.



then wheelbarrowed the front end back round and down onto axle stands.

[darrenh]

as aerosmith sang, chip away at the stone...







had a bit of fun with the alarm wiring, for some reason the installer decided to intercept the starter solenoid wire in the engine bay, at the X5 plug, instead of the cabin side of the exact same stretch of wire which is right next to the alarm ecu! so theres 4 foot extra loop into the engine bay. bizarre !

[darrenh]

stripped out everything under the scuttle, heater motor, wiper motor and mechanism, brake servo



when i popped the servo off the bulkhead bracket i could see fluid swimming around, and the plunger on the master cylinder was wet. about 500ml of brake fluid came out of the servo innards, nice ! knackered seals, another item for the shopping list