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Brisbane budget corsa b
Hi everyone, I hail from the Brisbane western suburbs.
Until recently I've been messing about with mostly Holden Gemini's (Opel Kadett C if you will) but had to give up playing with cars while I was unwell and being treated for cancer.
However I've been in remission for a number of months now and decided to get back behind the wheel, so I set out with the tiniest of budgets to buy the most sorry piece of crap I could afford.
A few days of hunting netted a few choices, first car I went to look at was a combo van but it turned out to be rusted beyond repair.
On a whim I spotted a 1998 SB Swing 3 door advertised for $450 so I went to have a look. the clear coat was absolutely ruined, had various shopping trolley dents, the interior has so many stains that I suspect the car was used as a regular orgy venue, some of the interior plastics were missing, steering wheel was heavily weathered and the indicator stalk couldn't support it's own weight. The rear muffler was also only held on by the hangers stopping the body from sliding off of the muffler inlet.
Now even at this stage I wasn't really deterred, as these are all little things in reality, the motor (C14SE) was in good running order and felt strong with only an occasional misfire that I'm yet to rectify, gearbox felt solid and the clutch, brakes and handbrake all worked as they should. There was zero rust present, tires and suspension all felt and looked great.
I got to talking with the guy about what I needed the car for and mentioned that I needed a cheap reliable daily to get back on my feet after finishing treatment, so he basically came out with "Mate, $300 and she's yours"
SOLD.
I repaired the indicator stalk by replacing the internal spring with one from a ballpoint pen, and fitting a near new rear muffler from a wrecker, pulled out the seats and shampooed the hell out of them, removed 18 years worth of mud and vegetation from the roof gutters and panel jambs and sent it off for a roadworthy.
Came back first time all good, rego'd the next day.
So my running tally so far not including roadworthy and rego is $345.
I've nicknamed it "Scum" and plan to do a fair bit more work to it, starting with chassis strengthening and suspension, then working my way up to brakes and maybe a z18xe swap in the not too distant future. :)
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Welcome, same area same car.
Steffi
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Was just reading your build thread, nice job :)
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Welcome. Nice to see another Corsa on here. Beauty of these cars are that they're fairly easy to work on and easy to upgrade with factory parts.
Z18 swap is easy as (provided you can find a GSi for parts) and a worthwhile upgrade. Calibra/TR Astra front rotors and calipers are a straight bolt on and the rears can be upgraded with complete Corsa C/XC Barina rear discs and hubs. Hubs bolt on, but a little welding work (which @sskustomz could probably help you with) is required for the handbrake cable brackets.
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Welcome to Opelaus
Sent from my Boost View 5.0 using Tapatalk
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I was wondering about the rear disk upgrade, have seen from a couple of places searching online that the rear disks slightly increase the rear track, has me a little worried as I was planning on buying a set of 15x8 +20 wheels near the end of the week and even those are going to poke a bit more than I'd like :/
And I'm getting mixed info regarding the z18xe, I was under the impression that they were the later style engine with the wider timing belt and the non timing driven water pump, but they were apparently fitted to the ts astra which I thought was the engine I've had trouble with in the past (ex girlfriends car, munched it's head twice) but I have a feeling this was due to the mechanic cutting corners and not replacing the tensioner/idle pulleys.
Can anyone clarify? or what's the most worthwhile swap?
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If the rear discs increase track, it's not by much. I think the track is only increased when you use the entire Corsa C rear axle instead of bolting the hubs to the Corsa B axle.
Of the small block Family 1 engines, there's three versions of the 1.8 (all DOHC by the way). First, is the X18XE1 (85kW) engine, this came out in the pre-2000 TS Astra, main features include the presence of a EGR valve and a cable driven throttle body. The X18XE1 also appeared in the Holden JF Viva/Daewoo Lacetti as the F18D3. The later Z18XE (92kW) engine, does away with the EGR in TS Astra models (early XC Barina SRi versions retained the EGR) and has a drive by wire throttle, it also featured in early AH Astra models. The last and current iteration is the Z18XER/A18XER, this is in the later AH Astra and the Holden JG/JH series Cruze as the F18D4. This engine was the one had variable valve timing and the auxiliary belt driven water pump and 103kW.
Either engine is fairly reliable with regular and proper maintenance. Note that the entire timing belt kit and water pumps on the X18XE1/Z18XE are to be changed every 60,000kms for optimum reliabilty. Use of a good quality belt like Gates or genuine GM kit also helps (Gates also supply the genuine GM belts).
Personally, I think bang for buck, the Z18XE swap is hard to surpass. You could also use the C16SE from a TR Astra easy enough, but they're a bit long in the tooth now and around 74kW. It's a bolt in job, but if you're going to go to that effort, you may as well get a Z18 in there. The Calibra C20XE/X20XEV engines are popular swaps, more power than a Z18XE, but heavier and the conversion is more costly with the need for custom mounts and a few other bits and bobs.
With a Z18, the engine can be had for about $500, you can use the F13 box you already have. You'll need to find a GSi ECU, loom and sensors, as well as the exhaust cam sprocket, timing cover and bottom crank pulley. Most of this is all listed in my how to guide over in the how to section (which probably needs updating at some point). Also, don't use the Z18XE from an AH Astra, it doesn't have the crank sensor mount you will need. I did the conversion on my old GSi, I have a mate who also did this on a pre-facelift C12NZ engined model and I'm also about to do this to a SB Combo van with a C14SE (when I get my SRi sorted, damn clutch).
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Awesome, thanks for the info.
I had been wondering about the ecu, the one fitted as per standard appears to be a delco 808 style ecu but from what I've found they are a little different in design and function, I've been thinking about swapping it with one from a camira with the nvram modification to turn it into a realtime tuneable ecu as I planned on modding the engine a little before it goes in.
Would the Astra gearbox be a worthwhile upgrade also? as I could probably pick up a whole car privately for the same cost as buying the engine from a wrecker, also can the C16XE mounts be bought new by any chance as I've already browsed my local wreckers and there are none around.