düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
|
Bit of a diversion via the portals of 'Sintra' My six year old son and I took Mr Brown way out east.. to Dresden. 600kms through the winter in the cruiser. No probs apart from the screen wash.. was never designed for the spray of half wet/salty autobahns at 120kms.. vision was compromised. I overhauled it before the off but the power of the weather was blowing the water everywhere - comes out of two tiny spouts in the scuttle! Went through 3 litres of screenwash!But great winter burn with the roar of the four/six to keep us warm. Mild traffic, open stretches of autobahn. We dropped it with a Landcruiser friend, who runs a restoration workshop, who is going to arrange the H category - historic status - for it. Hubertus with his own Australian HJ60 that he's restoring. He runs an excellent workshop and showroom in a very atmospheric former supermarket. Great levels of finish and some fine cars : mobilforum-classik But then when you're so far out.. you need to get back. Bought this Opel Sintra unseen and out near the Polish border. Thanks to Hubertus for running us out there in his ute and providing good back up. A strong experience - took a real chance that this chariot would get us 800kms home through heavy winter weather. Del boy seller had bought and was living in an empty and unrestored hotel with a huge ballroom from the East German DDR 50s/60s - bar and stage. Strange but atmospheric place, freezing, vast and covered in snow. Frank Sintra : 1997, Eighteen months ticket, sills have been replaced with what looks like scaffolding tube.. but under that unassuming family man van lies the 200hp X30XE 3.0 V6. And it did us proud. Powerful and smooth. What a plant , can't complain about the Sintra. Was budget and has high mileage and issues. But it's got seven seats and it got us home.. will be daily now until giving its plant to the Tigra in its decreptitude! 1600kms in two day in 55yrs worth of old bangers through the deep and often extreme winter. One of my mates said the greek god of bangers 'Haynes' was watching over us. Haha
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 11, 2017 20:43:37 GMT by düdo
|
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
|
The Tigra lies under its blanket of snow in Engelbert's yard, awaiting a verdict. He's gone skiing. Had a marvellous ride in Frank Sintra down to the in-laws. Starting to work out the variety of controls. Got the fuel consumption display working.. when you drive this thing easy it says 7.5 litres per 100kms. Put your foot down, goes up to 15 litres . Switch to 'sport' mode and the thing really comes alive, the auto box gets lively. Eats up autobahn. This is the only vehicle remaining on a corner where a small time dealer has often three or four electric mobility carts, a few mopeds and small motorbikes for sale in the summer. Photographed by the missus from F. Sintra
|
|
|
|
melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 1,983
|
|
|
In general I'm not a fan of Opel design, but I think the Sintra is a rather good looking motor. Looks much better than the Pontiac Transsport and way much better than the Zafira at least.
|
|
www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
|
I don't think it looks too bad either melle especially for the first 'American' car that I've owned. I bought it for the motor (the seven seats are quite handy having a few kids) but I'm getting into it now. I also like the interior cloth which is like a grey camouflage. Here it is on the optional rear three seat bench which makes it an eight seater. In Germany, Opels of this era are 'everyman' - cheap to buy and run with used parts available everywhere. There's a bloke breaking a Sintra V6 down the road who I'm getting some bits off. My Tigra/Sintra combo has also put me in touch with some enthusiastic younger tuners who are doing similar things, trying to build something themselves ( not that common in Germany owing to the TÜV restrictions) rather than the older punters who just want the new and prestige German marques and never get their hands dirty. It's got a bit of an oil leak. As I was driving from out near the Polish border last week back to Dresden the severe oil level warning came on. It was late and dark, driving through a horrible blizzard which had created what looked like sand dunes out of snow. I couldn't see anything that defined the road : almost complete whiteout with Polish HGVs steaming oblivious through it. I was thinking : what have I bought? what am I doing? With my six year old son asleep in the passenger seat besides me I really thought we were going to come unstuck out there. But we filled it up with oil at Hubertus' workshop in Dresden and it got us the further 600km home. It leaves a nice black stain after a run. I was going to pull the engine in Spring as it's too cold for spanners : -18° last Friday. But I'm going to try to locate the leak when it's a bit milder and repair in situ. Though I've downloaded the Opel workshop manual for the Sintra, I like Haynes manuals. There isn't a specific one for the Sintra so I've got the Opel Omega manual for the engine and for the rest of the stuff, the General Motors one that features all of F.Sintra's cousins - basically the same apart from the motors - which were all built in the same factory in Doraville, Georgia USA.
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 9, 2017 11:30:22 GMT by düdo
|
|
|
|
|
In Germany, Opels of this era are 'everyman' - cheap to buy and run with used parts available everywhere. There's a bloke breaking a Sintra V6 down the road who I'm getting some bits off. Interesting. In the UK some of our range were 'restricted' - or in other words, some Options were ignored by UK buyers. I'm trying to fit some heated seat pads in to my Meriva, I have some compatible pads - but the plugs are different. The ones I need were supplied on: Meriva (very rare in the UK with heated seats) , Corsa C (quite rare in the UK with heated seats) Tigra B (with leather - not often found in scrapyards) Astra H (mk5 - usually with a leather interior - most common in scrapyards) So basically I am looking for an Astra H with leather with someone willing to let me have just the plugs (thus rendering their otherwise working and sale-able heated seats useless) and not everyone is eager for that. If you happen to come across someone with one of these vehicles that you can liberate both front plugs from, I'd be eternally grateful and would of course pay postage, topped up with enough tokens to purchase a few pints of whatever ale tickles you.
|
|
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
|
mikeyp247 I would think that some of these options - such as heated seats - were region specific. The winters are generally colder here in central Europe. I think it's 10° degrees today in London for example and we've got -5° and snow. Both local scrapyards closed down so I've just been looking in the local ads for blokes who were breaking Tigras or now Sintras then go round. If I see anything relating I will let you know. Perhaps send me a pic of the plugs you require? Maybe the Sintra plugs would work? I just looked for Astra H's being broken around here but there's nothing - it's perhaps still too new? - just out of interest I looked to see if there were any Sintras for sale in UK... not one!
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 9, 2017 14:44:05 GMT by düdo
|
|
|
|
|
mikeyp247 I would think that some of these options - such as heated seats - were region specific. The winters are generally colder here in central Europe. I think it's 10° degrees today in London for example and we've got -5° and snow. Indeed, fairly sure this is why my options are slim. Both local scrapyards closed down so I've just been looking in the local ads for blokes who were breaking Tigras or now Sintras then go round. If I see anything relating I will let you know. Perhaps send me a pic of the plugs you require? Maybe the Sintra plugs would work? I just looked for Astra H's being broken around here but there's nothing - it's perhaps still too new? I think the Sintra plugs will be the same as the Vectra B plugs that are on the seatpads I have - sadly not compatible. I'll see if I can find a pic of what I need. Thank you for offering to keep your eyes out. - just out of interest I looked to see if there were any Sintras for sale in UK... not one! I have only ever seen 1 in the UK during my 36 years on the planet - until very recently... These seats I have acquired for the pads came from a Vectra B. The guy is doing up his GSI with new seats so has fitted his GSI interior in to an SRI to use as a daily while his GSI is off the road (he was giving away the seats - nice!). So anyway I pull up to pick these seats up, and guess what's on his drive.
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 9, 2017 15:22:32 GMT by mikeyp247
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
|
mikeyp247 wrote The Sintra had a terrible reputation in the UK. As I mentioned, thought by some to be the worst Opel ever made. Considering that label, there's still quite a few available here.. approaching two decades since its brief availability. Anyway, I just drove F. Sintra onto ramps to have a look underneath.. the first foray to find the oil leak. Was rotten and cold lying on an old carpet in the snow peering upwards. Oil's coating everywhere around the cambelt end. My fingers got so cold I couldn't even clean it up. Had a quick look under the cambelt cover and it doesn't appear to be coming from high up, cam seals for example. I'll have to wait til it's warmer to get into it. Just keep it topped up and chuck some cardboard down when I park outside the house. I know there's a few blokes on here who know their way around the X30XE 3.0 V6 - zippygte and Phil H for example - so I'll be no doubt posting appeals for advice! Access isn't too spectacular - it sits transverse in there half under the scuttle.
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 9, 2017 17:50:00 GMT by düdo
|
|
Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
|
|
|
Cam cover gaskets are the usual suspects - normally caused by blocked breathers apparently but I suspect the just leak for fun..
|
|
|
|
village
Part of things
Always carries a toolbox. Because Volkswagen.......
Posts: 567
|
|
|
I had V6 Cavalier (Vectra A) and it leaked oil from the cam cover gaskets into the plug wells. not ideal, but the plugs never rusted......
|
|
"The White Van is strong with this one...."
Chris "Chesney" Allen 1976-2005 RIP
|
|
|
Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
|
|
|
Doesn't do the leads much good though and can lead to an early demise of the coil pack I believe?
|
|
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 10:25:52 GMT
|
Thanks Phil H and village ... suppose I'll be checking the cam covers then. As for 'leaking for fun' the snow is quite good at absorbing the oil spillage at the moment. We live in a conservation area where they are particularly sensitive about such things.. having said that I don't think I've ever had a car that didn't drip some sort of fluid! Ah yes. I just saw that issue in this thread from zippygte As I mentioned, access seems to be particularly bad. I've got to sort through megabytes of Opel workshop manuals to see how I actually get in there. My six year son had a project first day back at school yesterday called 'My holiday' and he wrote a few words and did a couple of drawings about our trip to Dresden last week - out in The Cruiser and back in F. Sintra. My wife drew my attention to it last night.. I think he's captured the likeness of the vehicles quite well. He's already got the RR tendancy towards lows!
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 10, 2017 15:24:51 GMT by düdo
|
|
Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 10:38:54 GMT
|
|
|
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 10:58:30 GMT
|
Thanks Phil H - a lot of knowledge there. Very useful. I wonder if they'd let me in as a black sheep seeing as there's no Sintra club?
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 10, 2017 11:01:39 GMT by düdo
|
|
93fxdl
Posted a lot
Enter your message here...
Posts: 2,000
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 11:00:23 GMT
|
Almost made the mistake of buying a diesel sintra many many years ago. The worst car in the uk for 3 years running, but you couldn't point at the faults, as the seats had a habit of chopping off fingers, Best of luck with it, Glenn
|
|
|
|
Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 11:05:23 GMT
|
Thanks Phil H - a lot of knowledge there. Very useful. I wonder if they'd let me in as a black sheep seeing as there's no Sintra club? They let me in and I've just got an Omega engine in a Scimitar (although I've had a couple of Omegas in the past).
|
|
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 11:15:54 GMT
|
Haha yes 93fxdl - thanks. The seats were the only thing that I saw being commended in some old reviews.. because they were particularly light weight. As I keep saying, I bought it for the engine for my Tigra, but now I'm liking it. I'm not going to take on Bimmers, Porsches, Mercs and suchlike ( probably not even small hatchbacks!) on the autobahn, by modern standards it's not that fast. But some joker in a ten year old Toyota was trying to nudge me out of the way as I was overtaking a line of trucks ( probably thinking - there's some uncle in an old MPV), so I told my son to hold on, engaged 'sport' and floored it. The Toyota was then a speck in the mirror as we boosted from 120kmph up to almost 200 kmph pretty quickly. Surprisingly stable and supple at such speeds though I've mostly kept it at reasonable speeds as the wife doesn't like such behaviour when she's a passenger. I reckon the Tigra's going to go quite nicely with that plant!
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 10, 2017 21:28:55 GMT by düdo
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 11:17:10 GMT
|
Thanks Phil H - a lot of knowledge there. Very useful. I wonder if they'd let me in as a black sheep seeing as there's no Sintra club? They let me in and I've just got an Omega engine in a Scimitar (although I've had a couple of Omegas in the past). Good to know. Have you posted your Scimitar here? I think I've seen it on another site.
|
|
|
|
Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
|
|
Jan 10, 2017 11:26:47 GMT
|
To save keeping having to update multiple threads, I just have mine detailed on Scimitarweb (http://www.scimitarweb.co.uk/sgwrs/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=9498). Darryl Webb has his on here and Scimitarweb though.
|
|
|
|
düdo
Part of things
wide as house
Posts: 770
|
|
Jan 11, 2017 18:15:19 GMT
|
Been looking after the kids this arvo and what else is there to do on a freezing snowy day but make fake Opel logos? It seems that most of the 'Opel Sintra 3.0 V6' badges - inc mine - got taken off... stealth innit? I spoke to a couple of blokes who are breaking V6 Sintras and no bages to be had nor on the 'bay. Not the biggest issue in the world but I thought I'd make something while stuck indoors. Should look something like this: I downloaded an Opel font - not quite the Sintra one, but close enough - and printed it out. Then I made the chrome strip that joins it all together with a marker pen. Next I'm going to try to make a template out of it so I can spray it on the back of F. Sintra. I've got a new scalpel and I'm going to cut onto cardboard.. might work? For further down the line, I was trying out combos of Tigra and Sintra : Sigra, Tintra, Singra etc. If I was using the V6 from an Omega, I'd already decided on : Tomegra. The kids and I also made monster masks out of cereal packets but I'll spare y'all those pics haha!
|
|
|
|
|