I'm Mark, & I'm an SB Barina owner from Brisbane / Boonah

Thanks for allowing me to join your group.

I've always liked the look, the compact size, & the relatively low weight of three-door SB Barinas, so when I recently decided to buy, & then start tinkering with, smallish road-driven cars again, the three-door SB was my logical choice, assuming I could purchase one in reasonable condition. As luck would have it, I recently found two reasonably unmolested examples for reasonable prices, so I naturally bought both of them. :smile5: Both are manuals (of course). The Cabrio (the parts car) is 'powered' by a CE14NZ, & the City is powered by a CE14SE. While I intend just using the City as a daily driven car for a while, I'm thinking, in the fullness of time, about possibly repowering it with a larger displacement Opel likely SOHC engine (I'm thinking a C16SE at the moment (to try to keep costs down), &/or then later possibly adding a medium-boost turbo to either engine (only to provide safer overtaking power on 100 km/hr single-lane highways .....). :wink5:

So that's my current plan. If any other SB Barina / Corsa B owners here have fitted larger displacement Opel engines to their vehicles, I would be very interested in hearing from them, as my entire knowledge of repowering options for these cars has so far come only from the internet, & I'm not really interested in replacing the existing 'small-block' engines with a heavier 'big-block' engine like a CE20 that would then likely increase unwanted understeer when I'm trying to have some fun in 'some twisty bits'.

Welcome to Oa

Hi Mark and welcome,

I'm currently the owner of a Z20LET powered Corsa C SRi, however in the past I have owned a Corsa B GSi, which I engine swapped to the 1.8 litre Z18XE. I did write a guide on how to do the swap a few years back, but the biggest issue with the swap now would be sourcing the C16XE GSi ECU and loom, along with the sensors from that engine, particularly the MAF. I was in the process of swapping a Z18XE into a SB Combo van, with the plans of using the TS Astra ECU and drive-by-wire throttle setup, but as it would happen, life got in the way of me doing too many projects at the same time. I did make my own loom up for it, but have never got around to getting it running and it now sits in a mate's yard about 100kms from home.

Z18XE is the largest and most powerful of the naturally aspirated GM Family 1 block, or "small block" and being twin cam, they're just marginally heavier than their single cam counterparts. They bolt in pretty much the same way as any other Family 1 engine does, including the C12, C14 and C16/X16 engines. They also seem to be reasonably cheap to source, as you could probably just buy a donor TS Astra cheap and strip it, sell of the parts you can and scrap the rest. The Z18's ECU isn't the most flexible (or reliable if it hasn't been repaired) either. The engine bolts in the same way as I wrote in the guide, just you'd need the Astra ECU, sensors, coil pack, key transponder ring and key chip instead of the GSi parts. For the DBW throttle, you need either the pedal from the Astra or a pedal position sensor from a Vectra B/JS 2.6 (Y26SE engine, mounted just behind/above the accelerator pedal). In terms of wiring it, get on Facebook and look up Gremlin Motorsports in the UK, Hamish Gilfillan is the guy who runs it and can make looms to fit most of these engines into these cars.

Here's the guide as a reference: http://www.opelaus.com/forums/showth...or-Corsa-B-GSi

G'day Chris.
Thanks very much for all that info. I'm new to forums, all things Opel, & also EFI, but I'm keen to learn & make up for lost time. Your advice above is very much appreciated.
Should I have concerns trying to economically source the parts required to do a Z18XE conversion, I do have a couple of questions that you may be able to shed some light on for me that I've not yet been able to find any information on in the many many hours that I've been scouring the internet. Were I to simply add some low to mid boost forced induction (say maximum 12 P.S.I.) to either the SPFI or MPFI CE14 SOHC engines that I currently possess, would the current ECU be able to deal with that change in circumstances, or would I need to go for an aftermarket ecu? Question Two is do you know if the exhaust manifolds between the 1.4, 1.6, & 2.0 SOHC engines are interchangeable?
Many Thanks.
Mark.

Thanks Guy. Glad to be here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Corsa B Good

G'day Chris.
Thanks very much for all that info. I'm new to forums, all things Opel, & also EFI, but I'm keen to learn & make up for lost time. Your advice above is very much appreciated.
Should I have concerns trying to economically source the parts required to do a Z18XE conversion, I do have a couple of questions that you may be able to shed some light on for me that I've not yet been able to find any information on in the many many hours that I've been scouring the internet. Were I to simply add some low to mid boost forced induction (say maximum 12 P.S.I.) to either the SPFI or MPFI CE14 SOHC engines that I currently possess, would the current ECU be able to deal with that change in circumstances, or would I need to go for an aftermarket ecu? Question Two is do you know if the exhaust manifolds between the 1.4, 1.6, & 2.0 SOHC engines are interchangeable?
Many Thanks.
Mark.

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The C12/C14 ECUs are very basic in their function and barely just cope with a running engine, let alone if it had boost applied to it also. I would say you'd save a lot of hassle with boosting an engine if you splash on an aftermarket ECU, something cheaper like a Megasquirt, Speeduino or even basic big name ECUs like the Haltech Elite 550 will do the job. With regards to the exhaust manifolds, 1.4 and 1.6 SOHC manifolds will likely interchange, but the 2.0 SOHC (I'm assuming this is either Camira or Calibra related) manifold won't. 2.0 SOHC such as the C20NE are all Family 2 engines, different in their design to the Family 1.

Thanks for your advice again Chris. It is greatly appreciated.
Whilst I likely won't immediately begin tinkering with my City (summertime chores at two properties, & lack of dollars being the main reasons), at least I can now keep an eye on the classifieds & the motor vehicle auctions for things or damaged vehicles that I'll likely need without feeling totally clueless about what I'm doing.