Bob Simon

GM family II North American SOHC motor gasket set only includes the single pan gasket. No gasket for the windage tray. There may be other differences as well. Daewoo Magnus (U20SED, sold in NA) gasket set may fit, but it's a crap shoot. Order the C20XE gasket set from SBD and you'll get the right parts.

Pulse Dampener. Makes the pump quieter in a tintop.

Martin, Sorry, I can't really be of much more help. I have a C20XE. I've never had an Astra engine apart.

Martin, The VX crank pulley fastener is a stretch bolt. A one-use, disposable item. Get a new one from a GM dealer when you go back together. They're only a couple of quid.

The Caterham VX clutch housing has a truncated cone shape covering the starter pinion. It looks as thought the SBD housing is cylindrical in this area. You might consider lopping the corner off the cylinder shape and making a simple sheet metal cover to keep gradoo from falling into any holes this might cause. FWIW, thre is only about 6-8mm of clearance between the starter pinion cone shape protrusion and the pedal box with the CC VX clutch housing. It's tight!

at the rear of the exhaust cam is a ally blanking cap where I presume a distributor would have sat Cam angle sensor for the OEM Bosch EFI. The sensor is still there, but the trigger wheel was probably removed by Caterham or Swindon.

Try routing the crank sensor cable outside of the plug wire cover. If an HT lead is perishing, the electrical interference with do strange things to the ECU functions.

Short foot well pan drawings here. Fits 95 and older DD chassis with the fully boxed passenger foot well extension. Some of the newer chassis have an interior panel that may have to be trimmed a bit as it formed part of the extension. edited to add: The foot well pan in these drawings actually extends about 1" forward of the scuttle shelf chassis tubes. Keep this in mind if you are real tight on space. Edited by - Bob Simon on 4 Dec 2012 12:55:20

Newer spades are made thinner in consumer products in an effort to save materials, however, Fastons should be able to connect to any thickness spade. I would venture a guess that your Fastons have fatigued to the point that they no longer have enough tension on the spade. Squishing them probably is not a good idea. Crimp on some new Fastons and you won't be left by the side of the motorway. I recommend the line of PIDG fastons from AMP as they are the preferred connector in the aviation industry. For reference: www.aeroelectric.com/articles/faston3.pdf www.aeroelectric.com/articles/terminal.pdf

I assume that this is a limittaion with the sensor and not the ECU's ability to process the higher data rate No. The issue is the internal trigger wheel hand grenading at high RPM. Lots of nasty chunks loose themselves within the crankcase. Just adding an external wheel won't cure the problem unless you do a complete tear down and remove the internal wheel. There's a thread with photos somewhere here on BC.

KB, For simplicity's sake, I'm leaving the port in the back of the head (port E) out of this description. I'm leaving the air venting bleed out as well (port C). The pump pushes coolant into the jacketed areas surrounding the cylinders in the block. The coolant then is forced up through the head gasket into the areas of the cylinder head surrounding the combustion chambers. It exits through the upper hole in the exhaust side of the head (port B). The thermostat prevents this flow from continuing on to the radiator when closed. The bypass is an isolated path through the head from the lower hole in the exhaust side (port A) to the lower hole in the intake side (port D). There is no connection to the water jackets in the head or the block. This path is simply the manufacturer's method of eliminating an external hose to get the bypass from one side of the engine to the other. The thermostat housing acts like a two way valve. It controls whether the coolant goes through the rad or through the bypass back to the pump inlet. When the stat is closed, the bottom section of the valve allows coolant from the upper hole in the exhaust side (port B) of the head to flow freely to the lower hole on exhaust side (port A). The coolant passes through the head to the lower hole in the intake side (port D) then on to the pump inlet (submarine tube). When the stat is open, the lower hole in the exhaust side (port A) is shut off and all flow goes to the radiator. There is no flow though the bypass port. In it's simplest form, the engine could be run with only a connection from the upper hole in the exhaust side (port B) to the radiator (no stat housing) and a connection from the radiator to the pump. The lower holes in the head (ports A and D) could be open to atmosphere and there would be no leaks. The upper vent hole in the intake side (port C) would have to be blocked as it does penetrate the head's water jacket. Next week: plumbing a PW reactor. 😬

There isn't a solid body of water, as there is still a smaller pipe that feeds the expansion tank, which then feeds the water pump, so the water is moving. Not really. The smaller pipe is only there to allow air trapped in the upper reaches of the head to bleed into the expansion tank. It's usually restricted by a jiggle valve or 1-2mm restrictor to stop or minimize the flow of coolant. The intent is that only bleed air flows though this hose, not coolant. ECR has the flow paths in the head correct. Most modern engines use this type of two stage stat system. Years ago manufacturers simply bypassed through a small hose without a two stage stat. As to the tap in the dizzy end of the head? I'm not sure whether this really promotes better cooling or not. It would make sense, however, the XE engines in BTCC and vintage F3 cars do not use this connection. It certainly wouldn't hurt to keep the rear of the head connected to the pump inlet, although some coolant won't ever see heat transfer since it loops straight back to the pump, bypassing the rad. One other thought; It seems GM wanted flow though the back of the head at all times as the heater matrix valve in a Calibra ( and other models) is a bypass style arrangement. Coolant still flows when the heater valve is set to off. Go figure. edited to say: GM may have been thinking that the passenger compartment would heat better/faster with less coolant flowing through the rad??? Edited by - Bob Simon on 11 May 2012 12:55:27

The pipe from the manifold to the sub tube is the thermostat bypass. It keeps the pump from pushing against a solid column of coolant that has no place to go when the stat is closed. connecting it to the water pump can cause aeration problems. I could only see this as a problem if one is using a single stage stat. The standard two stage stat closes off the bypass loop when the primary stage is open, sending flow through the rad. I'm not sure if the tap on the back of the head needs to be nippled up to the sub tube. I see a lot of XEs with this connection blanked off. Mine is.

This might work. Honda motorcycle part number 19410-MCT-000, Joint, Jiggle Valve. 18 squid.

Bingo! My mate says the same. It's a "jiggler valve", not a check valve. Air goes through but fluid doesn't. If you google "jiggler valve" under "images", the fourth picture shown is the jiggler in an cheese block intake manifold. Unfortunately, the K series valve is overmolded into the manifold and not replaceable. Slightly OT, but he mentioned jigglers are most often found in the thermostat. They allow air to bleed through after changing out the stat. Very much like the common practice of drilling a tiny hole through the stat in a VX. BTW...wedging an aspirin tablet in the stat during replacement will also insure a good air bleed when filling up the coolant system. I thought that was pretty damn clever. I also found the coolant system schematic for an LS Chevrolet (Corvette) while perusing the web. Chevrolet uses a bleed from the top of the rad as well as the one from the high point in the engine. there is no "jiggler valve", just a simple restriction at the expansion tank. Go figure. I believe the ultimate setup would be running both head and top of rad bleed lines to the expansion tank as Guy has done. Jiggler vs restrictor? I dunno... probably doesn't really matter.