Vauxhall Carlton Tuning

[stealthstylz]

I need some info on Carlton's. I've decided that they'd be the perfect family estate car, mainly because our pram will fit lengthways in the boot leaving loads of space. However all the estates i've seen are 2 litre's which makes them very slow and not very economical.

I know where there's a complete rotten Carlton GSI 24v. If I get it will all the suspension, engine, fuel system etc bolt straight into the estate?

Also how capable are the engines?

Matt

[Colonelk]

engine..... 200bhp out the bag. I believe with basic mods can be made 215-220ish (chip / decat / enlarged throttlebody)

Youll need to swap the front subframe over between the 3.0 and the 2.0 tooo. Fuel lines and stuff will probably run differently but thats ok if you've got a whole donor car.

Only thing I'm unsure of is the gearbox mounts......... cant remember though.

Engines, pretty tough.... weaknesses are the camchain (usually the tensioners giving up the ghost, some of which are NLS) and the headgasket peeing oil out (above the exhaust manifold at the front of the engine... ish)

Gearboxes differ between 2.0 and 3.0. I think youll need a 3.0 front half of the prop to mate to the rear half of the 2.0 to go to the 2.0 diff and subframe. Not sure how similar the estate and saloon subframes are.

I'm sure Sootyridesagain, BC or Pedro will be along shortly to firm up on what Ive said Great cars though, just look out for hidden rust! they hide it well.

[Colonelk]

oh yeah and there are 3.0 estates out there! admittedly not as common









Capable loadluggers even in saloon form....... my old works 'van'

[tonycocacola]

i disagree with your statement of them being slow and uneconomical.
i had a '92 2 litre gli auto which was neither of those things.
it was fast (not skyline fast obv) and would return 35 + mpg.
try and get a drive in one, you may find yourself surprised.

[Colonelk]

yeah my old 2.0 always put a smile on my face. Never a rocketship mind.


/\ @ Donington... held its own! Same vehicle as aforementioned 'van'

NEVER should of got rid of that car

[retrowagen1234]

the 2.0 isnt slow. but the 3.0 cdx estate my dad had few years ago was faster lol if you hear any wierd knocking on it check the propshaft centre bearing... proper thumps when it realy go;s happened twice in time we had it. but had some proper sideways fun too

[greg252]

Swap the 2.0 8v for a 16v redtop (150bhp) or c20let(204bhp).
Much easier conversion than 3.0 24v, they use the same gearbox etc as the blocks are the same family 2 design. Both are a more modern and easier to tune engine than the c30se.

[80mojo]

I'd think a LET in a Carlton estate wouldn't give as much benefit as you'd hope. It is a fair size car to expect a turbo to give it that lift in performance.

I had a 1.8 and 2.0 estate and now have the 24v Diamond bought through here. Would recommend them as one of the best estates ever.

I wouldn't say that the 2.0 was underpowered for day to day driving. Maybe for towing, but as a car it was quite handy and would happily get the back end out with a bit of enthusiastic driving... ;D

I would say get the 2.0 and use it. See how you get on with it and if you really like it then mod it. With little effort you can get 150 brake out of an 8v carlton lump and they're tougher then the 16v XE. Throw a cambelt on the 8v and you just put a new one on and off you go...

Mods are plenty and parts cheap. You won't be disappointed.

Look for rot, especially rear arches (make sure you open the rear doors and check there), sills, bottom of doors, inner wings, and chassis rails.

Don't be surprised if a few of the electrics don't work. Favourites will be wing mirrors, heated seats (if fitted), cruise control (again if fitted), and air con. Check the electric sunroof if it has one.

If some of these things don't work then they won't stop you using the car, but will be expensive to fix so use them as a bit of a bargaining chip.

[stealthstylz]

Will a Saab turbo engine bolt onto the gearbox? I had a go in a 2 litre saloon and it was really slow. May have been knackered though by the sounds of it.

Matt

[80mojo]

Some saab engines will, but I'm not sure which model/year you'd need.

A 2.0 Carlton will never be a "fast" car in comparison to something like a Calibra or more dedicated sports car, but for a heavy semi-luxo barge they aren't that shameful. And RWD

[2woody]

I've done this a few times......

there's two differences in the actual bodyshell. These are the radiator mountings and the gearbox mountings. The six-cylinder cars had a wider-spaced radiator mounting arrangement, and unfortunately the mountings are welded onto the bodyshell. Not a real drama - you can unstitch the mounts from your six-cylinder donor and attach them to your estate. The transmission mounting is a rail that is a welded part of the bodyshell and has captive nuts within it. The rail is the same for both four and six cylinder, but the captives are in a different place. This can be gotten over easily as well, but you really need to take the carpets up to weld in the new captives.

other than that, the conversion is just a matter of bolting parts across the two. I can guarantee, though, that if you do the job properly, you'll think that buying a six-cylinder estate car would be easier.

There are three six-cylinder estates :-

3.0 estate, mostly pre-facelift
2.6 CDX - easily changed to 3.0, but very gutless in standard form
Diamond ( 24V estate )- a bit of a cult car and getting difficult to find. expect to pay £3K for a half-reasonable one.

there are some more long-winded things to do if you're really wanting to do a good job - like changing the dash wiring loom when you change the engine and converting to hydraulic clutch. As usual, theres a "right" way to do these things and a "bodge" way to do them.

other different bits are as follows :-

speedo - six-cylinder cars have electronic speedos - easy to do, as you'll be having the dash out enyway.
later six-cylinder cars have a hydraulic clutch - again a bolt-on mod, but it's bit of a faff.
exhaust - saloons and estates have different exhausts
the rear axle is actually the same design (or thereabouts) all estates had the large wheel bearings, but you'd need to swap the diff from the six-cylinder donor into the estate in order to get the correct ratio.

[2woody]

oh and I forgot - you'll need to weld some rear exhaust hangers to the bodyshell as well !

[blastoffbletsoe]

Hi folks, bit late to the party here but I'm currently attempting a similar conversion using the engine(sadly only the 12v) and gearbox etc from a senator and the body of a Carlton diamond. Is switching the dashboard out to be electronic a big job as I've heard the speedo runs off the abs sensors for senators? (not sure for 3l Carlton) also will a 3l diff bolt straight up to the 2l subframes or does that need to be swapped too.
Many thanks

[rickygolf83]

Post the above in the technical section too!

[gtviva]

Carlton/Senators with the electronic speedo run off a gearbox sensor which just fits on where the speedo cable would have gone, the ABS is a standalone unit

I think the big diff and small diff have different mounting points, also the estate axle is different to saloon