1.9 to 2.4 Conversion Project Started

[opelwasp]

Well I should be welding it tomorrow. My boss is willing to help/teach me to weld Aluminum tomorrow. Hopefully I will have it on the car by monday. Then Vroom-Vroom.

[soybean]

Chris, if the welding doesn't work out to your satisfaction, let me know. I have a few in the shed. One that had the porting started, but blew through too. Make sure you weld it as Bob had suggested/posted in an earlier thread by bolting it up to a spare head, or a jig to keep it from warping out. Jarrell

[RallyBob]

.....and make sure the intake is clean, clean before you weld it! I mean spotless.

Wash it as best as you can with solvents, and then hot water with soapy detergent. Then bake it in an old oven at 500 degrees for 45 minutes or so. Then wire brush the area to be welded with a new (or non-contaminated) wire brush. Within minutes of actually welding it, clean one last time with a wire brush again, and then wash the area with denatured alchohol.

Even with all this, the weld area may still be contaminated, since the aluminum casting is porous and has absorbed 30+ years of grease and oil. So you may encounter difficult welding. Not the best project to 'learn' to weld aluminum on, but if you can weld an Opel intake, then you can weld anything!

[GTJIM]

Originally Posted by opelwasp . My boss is willing to help/teach me to weld Aluminum tomorrow.

...Sooo - crouching in the corner by the welder just howling gently actually WORKED!


Good skills!

[T-6 driver]

Chris,

I took my gt out today for the first time, thankyou Super bob, AKA rally Bob! I did the 2.0L street combo he talks about, and WOW, fast GT, I laid a scatch atleast 50' long, and had to let up becasue the rear end would stay in the rear! Whata blast! Sure beats the anemic opels you hear about, i'm looking for prey!

[opelwasp]

Fantastic Neil! I just bolted in my finished intake. Carb and manifolds are on. Now I need to plumb the cooling system back in. Project for tomorrow. Have to remember how the wiring goes too. Been 2 years since I fiddled with it. I have a black wire in the engine compartment that I have no idea where it goes. If all works out I'll have mine going tomorrow too. Then we can "scratch" together.

[opelwasp]

I got the car together and started it up the first time today. First try and VROOM. only problem is I only have 2 feet of exhaust pipe on it and my neighbors will kill me if I try to break it in without a muffler on it. So tomorrow i'll be putting the temporary exhaust on, then breaking it in. How should I do this? How long at how many RPM? I have the cam to break in and the rest of the engine to break in.

Then after I'm done with my car, I'll be starting another project GT with a budget of $20,000. I'll be having some real fun with that one.

[soybean]

Congratulations Chris, I'm going to be interested in the other responses you'll get with the above question. When I built my 454, I stuck a fan in front of the radiator to make sure I had plenty of air flowing, fired it up, and ran it for 20 min at 2500 RPM, and kept a close eye on the temp gauge. After that changed oil and filter, and put the hood on and drove.
I know you're happy that it's alive again. Jarrell

[GTJIM]

Always take the rocker cover off and fill the rockers with oil. Also make sure the oil pump is primed (the usual advice is to fill the gaps between the gears with .... Vaseline! ... It is a very good idea to take the distributor out and spin the oil pump with a drill till oil comes out the rockers up on the head - that way you know the oil pump works and everything is oiled BEFORE you turn the motor over.

Don't idle the motor for the first 20 minutes of running or the cam can 'die' of lack of lubrication and it is also critical that plenty of oil is splashed about up on the cylinder walls to make sure rings and pistons are oiled.

Modern rings should bed in within the first few minutes of running - it is the cam and lifters that you are "running in" to establish wear patterns and male sure proper lubrication starts ASAP

Run at 2,500 rpm for 20 mins - checking ignition timing as soon as the motor starts (with a timing light) as if it is too far retarded or advanced early damage can result. Towards the end of the first run cycle the motor from 2,500 rpm to 4,000 rpm to vary the conditions a little and help 'bedding-in"

Some mechanics swear by getting the motor running correctly within the first few minutes and then actually driving the car for 30 minutes or so above 2,500 rpm (use the lower gears to keep the revs up - and watch the water temperature ... like a Hawk!). Keep maximum revs to 4,000 rpm max for the first 500 miles - then change the oil and oil filter. Drive carefully for another1,000 miles and change the oil & oil filter again. Don't use synthetic or semi-synthetic oil till this next oil change - you WANT the high spots to wear away!

After that drive normally with synthetic or semi-synthetic oil and change it every 10,000 kms (8,000 miles) with a filter change at 5,000 kms (4,000 miles). Fill the new oil filter with fresh oil before installing it.

"Ordinary" oil needs to be changed every 3,000 miles - with a new oil filter EVERY change!

[Manta Rallier]

Our procedures :

Idle at 1500 rpm or thereabouts while checking timing, idle mixture settings, and looking for those initial 'disaster' leaks; like Jim said, the higher RPM's at idle insure good cam lube. We use Isky cam lube on the cam lobes at every new O/H, even when re-using cams and their mathced lifters.

Avoid long idle periods and as soon as timing and mixture are set and the leak situation is OK, get in the car and start driving around. We actually hold max RPM's to < 2500, and keep the loading on the engine (throttle openings) very mild for the first 20 minutes of road operation. Then we shut off and do a lot of re-checks. At about 20-40 miles we'll start doing some short, hard throttle accelerations, to put the rings under hard pressure loads, but limit the time and max RPM's of these. Afterwards, the car gets driven for 50-100 miles while gradually increasing both max RPM's allowed and the amount of throttle opening. At 100 miles it's ready for some hard, and more sustained accelerations. We also avoid long periods of operation at constant RPM's; keep RPM's and loading varied; no interstates; mountain driving or suburban driving on mixed streets is good for the load and RPM variations. Head bolts always get re-torqued after 1-2 hours of operation and a few heat-up cycles.

This may be a bit too easy compared to some, but we look for longevity in O/H's. Results have always been good (well if I didn't mees up somethinglse!)

Hope this helps! The engine start-up at 1st shot is an exciting moment!
Mark B.

[opelwasp]

ARGH!!! dead battery Luckly Kragen warantied it, so break in will be tomorrow. I also had a "problem"? with it heating up in 3 min to about 220 deg F. i shut it down befor it went any higher. I did some research and found that seems to be an ok temp. Bob is the stock cooling system for a GT going to suficiant for the 2.4L? If not how should I upgrade for a street car?

[GTJIM]

The stock "cooling" system is barely adequate for a lo-compression 1.9L ..

You do have a NEW water pump on that motor don't you? Plus a NEW 170 degree F thermostat .....

Basically, a heavy duty radiator with and extra row of cooling tubes is needed ... and an electric fan would be good insurance. Put a manual over-ride on the electric fan so you can turn it on "FULL" and get maximin cooling at any time plus run it when you shut the motor down if things get a bit hot.

[opelwasp]

i have a new 195 thermostat in it now. Looks like I'll go back to my 165, and get a pusher fan.

[Manta Rallier]

Originally Posted by opelwasp I also had a "problem"? with it heating up in 3 min to about 220 deg F. i shut it down befor it went any higher. I did some research and found that seems to be an ok temp.

Really? Was this idling or driving? I would be looking for a distinct problem with that kind of temp rise, if that is occuring at idle only. The amount of gas combusted (and thus the heat produced) to keep the motor turning over at idle for that size of displacement is very minor compared to any level of cruise power. Any sort of stock cooling system, if operating right, should able to handle the relatively small heat load produced by idling, no sweat. The coolant should settle in just above the thermostat temp, IMO. At cruise and higher power, that's when you should need the higher capacity cooling system.

Mark B.

[namba209]

Chris, you've got a new engine with all kinds of new stuff i it that needs to be run in. So it's an automatic, during the run in process the temp will be higher than what will be considered normal later. A 195 thermostat, IMHO is just a tad too hot, I prefer a 180, that's hot enuff to keep you warm in the winter and gives you 40-50 degrees before thermal problems become catastrophic. Best suggestion though, is to get a 3 or 4 row radiator core between your upper and lower tanks. HTH.

[GTJIM]

The temperature stamped on a thermostat is the temp at which it starts to open and it is not fully open till the temperature rises another 20 to 25 degrees.
It is instructive to dangle a 'stat in a hot water jug and watch what happens as the temperature rises - a Dairy (milk!) thermometer in there too helps see what happens.
So a 195 'stat starts to open at 195 degrees F but is not fully open till near 220 degrees.
An earlier opening 'stat does not, in itself, lower the running temperature of the motor but just starts the cooling flow though the radiator sooner and keeps the water circulating till a lower temp if the motor does 'run cool'
The "anal retentives" amoung us would run a 195 'stat in winter and a 170/180 'stat in Summer!

[opelwasp]

Well I just added a 160 deg stat and a 14" 1600 CFM pusher fan and it still overheated in 8.5 minutes. Could being a little advanced exasterbate the problem?

[opelwasp]

Well the "new" radiator seemed to be the culprit, so I put the old one back in. It still runs a little too hot, but with the electric fan I can keep it under control. Anyways you all are probly wondering, "OK, how was it's first drive?" Holy crap!!! It pulls like nobodys business! At 2400 RPM it really wakes up and leaps out from under you. The S-10 clutch is a real improvement too. I can major scratch in 1st 2nd and 3rd with no problem, havent tried 4th yet. Next all it needs is an LSD and it would really hook up. Later I guess.

Yesterday I put a 2.25" exhaust on it to a 2.25" in out Magnaflow muffler, 2.25" over tha axle then two 3.5" Hooker resonator tips. Nice european performance sound without the riceburner sound.

Boy have I learned alot in this project, but all well worth it. Next time I'll not use the aluminum pan and go to steel. The Great Stuff gasket maker is wonderful but in this case causesrod bolt clearance problems. The steel pan is deeper. I will also be kicking the sides of the steel pan to add 2 more quarts of oil capacity.

If any one else wants to attempt this build, I recommend it. i am available for tips too. Next on the to do list is getting the EFI done, but alas $$$ has that on hold.

[RallyBob]

Congrats on your success. Amazing what an extra ~500 cc's will do for the torque curve, huh?

Okay, the next article is going to be how to build a 600 hp turbo 2.6 litre...

[opelwasp]

Originally Posted by RallyBob Congrats on your success. Amazing what an extra ~500 cc's will do for the torque curve, huh? Okay, the next article is going to be how to build a 600 hp turbo 2.6 litre...

Hey now, don't do that to me. I just got this one finished. Now you are going to make me have to do another bigger one?

[jordan]

After seeing this very nice build up I was wondering.....does it performs as good or better than you expected? Were there any unexpected problems that you came across? Do you know the total build tally, broken down into specifics? Would you do it again knowing what you do now?

[opelwasp]

WOW a tally, that will take me awhile. It is sure a blast to drive. I can't really open it up yet cause it is still being broken in. I don't want to mess it up being too eager.

Unexpected problems? Well, I found out you cant use the aluminum oil pan very well. It is not deep enough for the new stroke. I even ground the piss out of the pan and a rod bolt just barely taps the pan. I guess I'll just have to let it "work" it's self in.

About getting the crank stroked make sure the shop cuts the thrust for the new bearing size. CC didn't and I had to have it done locally. Most American iron cars don't need it, but Euro cars do. Also have them shave 1/4" off the crank lobes for bottom of piston clearance. If you can start with a crank as least turned as posable, and have the rod journels turned back to standard.

One thing I do recomend doing is get a 12 bolt head style timing cover. They are taller than the 10 bolt ones. The reason is, the head gasket needed is for a 2.0L and it doesn't have a cork portion on the front. If you use the older covers you have to cut the cork portion off an early model head gasket to fill the gap. I was not too keen on that idea, seemed too much of an invitation for new leaks to spring up.

Throttle response is killer. The Legere type ported manifold is a must and really compliments the engine. You must have this if you plan to use a 38 DGV carb. I don't recomend anything less.

Porting heads and manifolds is much easier than it seems. Just scary at first, but as you practice it gets easier.

I used hydralic lifters, use the newer ones with more than 3 crimps to keep the plunger in. I have broken too many of the old style, and little pieces of metal flying through the engine is not what I want.

Would I do it again? Well when I do it again it will be easier and a smoother process. I will deffinatly doing it again. Maybe soon, I have to give a guy here in town a test drive in it soon to see if it is what he wants in his GT.

[opelwasp]

Here's what it sounds like:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QIDAIEZ7
and
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZPPEZ9YU

[opelwasp]

Update.

Well if you've listened to the movies in the previous post, you'll here the knocking in the engine. Well luckily it wasn't a bearing. It was the crank lobe of all things taping the Aluminum pan. So I pulled the pan and traded with a steal one. Unfortunately I have an earlier block so I didn't have a dipstick tube in it. I had to fabricate one into the steel pan. It worked, but food for thought: use a later model block with the dipstick in it so the steel pan matches it. Will get some video of it driving as soon as I get time.

Would the Phantom Grip LSD gizmos be worth it in a street car? Some have said they don't work that great for racing, but I just use it on the street and want to get more traction.

[opelwasp]

Oh ya, I also poked a hole in my radiator apparently when I installed the pusher fan. So that had to be replaced with a rebuilt one. Not fun when it is so dang cold outside. I let my dad drive the car this week and he loved it. He was very skeptical during the whole project, but now he wants to know when we can start on his.