78 Kadett C Saloon - V8 turbo.

[countvauxalot]

Hi All,

After having to sell my last Kadett I have wanted for nothing else other than another one so after some searching I treated myself and brought this one.

Currently it has long tax and mot and was in use daily although it still has reasonably low mileage (in the 40's).
It has some issues (as they all do) however they are mainly cosmetic. Most of them are the result of the previous owner’s efforts to 'repair' read as hide the beginnings of rust.

Here are some crappy mobile pics from the day I collected it to get you started - can you believe its a mid october day!?














It appears to be solid in all the right places, I havnt had a propper dig yet though

[will930]

that looks proper solid for its age! any plans?

[countvauxalot]

I don't plan to do any body work (or prodding) at this time although it needs bits and bobs. I do however have some other plans for it including some lowness, a new engine and axle swap, wheels, brakes etc

(more details to follow on these bits later)

I also meant to add that it drives faultlessly i couldnt believe how comftable it was and how taught it felt - i was convinced the springs, shocks and bushes had been upgraded/or renewed but they look standard and they appear to have been there for some time. If it had a 5 gear there would have been no complaints from the 80mile journey home.

[countvauxalot]

I will probably give these a go to start with, as i just have them lying around



They are FWD offset though so not much dish, they could work with a tuck approah though we will see.

[barrett]

Cool! I 'spotted' this recently at its previous home in Worthing. Looks like I got lucky if its now moved on. I had assumed this was the elderly owner involved in some sort of 'grooming' tactic with a teenager (come and sit in my Kadett, I've got a box of puppies!), but it might actually be you in the passenger seat?

1978 Opel Kadett C by barrogance, on Flickr

[el Presidente]

Nice condition, don't see many of these any more!

[countvauxalot]

Nov 14, 2011 18:45:52 GMT barrett said:

Cool! I 'spotted' this recently at its previous home in Worthing. Looks like I got lucky if its now moved on. I had assumed this was the elderly owner involved in some sort of 'grooming' tactic with a teenager (come and sit in my Kadett, I've got a box of puppies!), but it might actually be you in the passenger seat?

1978 Opel Kadett C by barrogance, on Flickr

OMG yep that's me the day I went to look at it and that pics a bit freaky! I had originally gone to buy puppies but he convinced me to buy the car as well lol

[luckygti]

Looks like a very good base for some mods And, yep, that's ^^^ just freaky!!

[countvauxalot]

Some of you will have seen this before but for those who havent here's a bit of back ground and some plans

Engine wise I'm going to go with the same engine I was going to fit in my last kadett (1.6 16v xe turbo) Its basically the 1.6 16v head, block and crank (from the likes of the mid ninties corsa and astra) with corsa vxr rods, pistons and under piston oil squirters and some stand alone management.
The block needs a slight over bore which ive already had done, and i'm most likely to be going with a Garrett GT2560 ball bearing turbo although the corsa vxr turbo does fit the head.

The inlet manifold will need to be a custom job as the 1600xe inlet is useful for nothing and the corsa vxr inlet doesnt fit the 1600xe head (yes I have tried).

The 1600 16v engines are lighter, cheaper and more readily available than the commonly used C20LET 2lt 16v turbo engine so they seem like a good alternative
I will be keeping the from the 1600xe

1600xe block







The block fitted in the old kadett with a manta 1800 gearbox (I'm not sure whether to use a manta box or a stronger omega box at this point)





I'm was really happy with the space around the engine and box





And a comparison of the vxr piston and a standard 1600xe piston







Here is the intercooler I plan to use (pictured in my old kadett)





Core size is 500mm x 320mm x 90mm and its bang on







This is how it looks in the car after some choppy choppy

[countvauxalot]

Back to the actual build in hand - i don't want to go ripping the engine out of the car straight away until i have all the bits i need to get most of the way through the engine conversion so i decided to get on with what i could.

Here's the engine on the stand with the old turbo (the corsa vxr unit) and my first unfinished attempt at the engine mounts. I wasn't happy with the engine mounts so i decided to take a different approach.



O/S mount



N/S mount and vxr turbo





This is what i had to begine with - ugly as sin!



And a selection of mounting holes to chose from



Now bare with me here but i started with nothing less than a land rover halfshaft as it happened to be exactly the right size (and it was lying around asking to be cut up)

So here it is with the end cut off



Then in the lathe





Centre drilled, 6mm the 10mm



Then to 16mm





Cleaned it up



And put a taper on the front edge then parted it off





Then put a taper on the back



The first 3





Bolted the first 3 to the block (the bolts are just for set up I will use M10 allen head fixings)



Can you see were i'm going with this?

Started profiling up some tube







The first 3 tubes in place





Then tacked



And welded



Penetration



I then refitted the original mount to get the correct position of the mounting point on the cars cross member





Cut this ring out with a hole saw



And another piece of tube



Tacked that in place



I will now be able to triangulate off of the engine to the mounting point on the cross member



More to follow

Thanks for looking

James

[barrett]

Nov 14, 2011 19:40:47 GMT countvauxalot said:

OMG yep that's me the day I went to look at it and that pics a bit freaky! I had originally gone to buy puppies but he convinced me to buy the car as well lol

Ha! I got quite excited when I saw it and rushed down the street to grab a photo when I noticed there was someone inside, but it was too rare a car to ignore so I just took a very subtle photo. If you ever get famous at least you have some experience of being HOUNDED by paparazzi
Actually, saying all that, I'd already seen another Kadett C earlier the same day...

Opel Kadett C by barrogance, on Flickr

Your car is a bit of a celeb already actually, as serial old car spotter 'Brammy' had already papped it a while back

1978 Opel Kadett 1.2 DL Saloon. by bramm77, on Flickr

[countvauxalot]

Were did you find that other kadett?? two in a day is good going!I wonder if its for sale

[countvauxalot]

Evening!

The last couple of evenings I've managed to find some spare time so i cracked on with what i could.

I made the beginnings of the other engine mount, which turned out well

X 3 block spacers





That go on this side



Like so



I also took delivery of one 225hp Audi tt inlet manifold for modification (i only want the plenum part)





Its the right shape and has the curvature at the end i was after



I'm combining it with a third of the original manifold



To make things fit were i want them to there needs to be some savagery

Chop chop



So this can go here (ish)



After some more chopping i realised the spacing of the runners was right but the shape of the runners wasn't going to work together

Almost spot on spacing



Round hole to oval wasn't good



So i moved to the linisher and flattened off the face of the original manifold





Only to realise the port closest to you in the pic below sits higher that the rest



I went from this



to this





To this







So i could start with a flat piece of 10mm aluminium plate







This will alloy me to weld the original inlet to the plenum and not have to worry about filling gaps and spaces between runners etc.

Next job is to mill out the ports in the ali plate then profile the edges and get it all welded together

[Anglia68]

Great looking car and some superb fab skills going on,will look forward to more of the same.

[countvauxalot]

Thanks! I'm looking forward to getting really stuck in too.

[grizz]

You guys are so bloody clever.

Some awesome fabbing there.

Oh, and I do like the car a lot.

[qwerty]

Fantastic fabrication work. This should be a little blinder of a car once its done!

[lolface]

wow, awesome work so far ;D
cant wait to see more ;D

[Ginge]

Come on faster!!!!

Can't wait to see this finished, great work so far!

Ginge

[garyhurn]

Awesome project