Opel Astra GSi X30XE

[pascal1109]

Hey guys,
first of all, let me introduce myself. I'm Pascal and from Holland
Got myself an Opel Astra GSi and bought the baby 2 years ago as a blue C18XE, 125.000 km and no rust at all

Here's how it looked like:










Well, this was a very good and fun car for the 1,5 years i got it and did basically no modding, only the normal repairs and maintenance.
After that the engine just gave up being "on fire", when driving 120 km/h and hitting the pedal, practically nothing happened, took me like a minute to go to 130. You get it, not good! Normal people would go to a garage and let it get checked. I decided to do something more drastic, like a new engine. First of all i was looking for a C20XE M2.8 with coscast, but after some research i came to the conclusion that a full restauration of this engine would cost a lot of €€ and time. So i was thinking, when spending money, why don't spent it good! So before you knew it...the order for a X30XE was placed and i was bringing away the car. Here comes the story:

We take an engine from an Omega B


And strip it completely


And start building again








In the mean time, the old C18XE had to make place offcourse


And 1 hour later




Continue to built the engine





















New clutch and flywheel














With all this power, I also need a new gearbox, obviously i went for the F28












And in the car






Old GSi brakes are no good with this power


So we go for something bigger


With 16" rims:






Also new suspension:







And the result




In my country you'd better make all this stuff legal, otherwise with accidents you have a BIG problem and pay for victims for life even tho you did not cause the accident.
So in the special garage:


And the testtrack:


Car passed all the test the first time, so i've got myself an Astra GSi X30XE on paper

[pascal1109]

btw sorry, wanted to place it in english, but somehow it ended up here
little help from a mod / admin is appreciated!

[Jube-setä]

Maybe some admin move it in here, cos this is just a right place for your project! That's awesome swap you got there! I think that, in finland law says no to astra with 3 litre engine!
Very nice looking sleeper!

[Boah]

Very Interesting project and informative photos. Tail lights look great.

[-RK-]

What kind test your car had to pass? Oh, ur car is awesome
Well, I think its legal to put 2,5l engine in astra(?), and then converse it to 3l, but yeah it wouldn’t be legal after that

[Altti450]

Greetings! Nice looking car!

[pascal1109]

What kind test your car had to pass?

In Holland, when you built in a new engine with more cilinders (in this case 2 extra) OR when you have 40%+ power increase (also in this case ), you must go to a special government testlab for cars.
Note: also when you import a car, you must go here, but because regular cars already have mass-approval, they don't need to do the sound- and handling test (if the cars are original).

First they check how the conversion is, descent quality? Did you think of bigger brakes / better suspension etc. When you pass that test, few weeks later you must go there again and they do a handling test and sound test (max 80 db). And it's not just 5 minutes of testing It costs about 800 euro! But after that you'll have a street legal 3.0 liter Astra GSi

When you built a RWD astra, and you pass these tests, its also legal. Friend of mine is working on that one. Astra X30XE with 2 turbo's




Juicy detail: I'm still using the 16v exhaustpipes + open air filter, so i'm not using all the power in the engine yet.
Must save some cash again and go for a closed air system + group A exhaust sytem!

[__Joppe__]

Holy cow it's shame, that in finland we can't never build car like this.. Don't spoil this car of putting all kind of wings etc It is perfect now and sorry about my english skills.

[unique]

Wow

[-RK-]

What kind test your car had to pass?

In Holland, when you built in a new engine with more cilinders (in this case 2 extra) OR when you have 40%+ power increase (also in this case ), you must go to a special government testlab for cars.
Note: also when you import a car, you must go here, but because regular cars already have mass-approval, they don't need to do the sound- and handling test (if the cars are original).

First they check how the conversion is, descent quality? Did you think of bigger brakes / better suspension etc. When you pass that test, few weeks later you must go there again and they do a handling test and sound test (max 80 db). And it's not just 5 minutes of testing It costs about 800 euro! But after that you'll have a street legal 3.0 liter Astra GSi

When you built a RWD astra, and you pass these tests, its also legal. Friend of mine is working on that one. Astra X30XE with 2 turbo's

Sorry for continuing off topic, but is there any limitations? Like restrictions for maximum power or capacity? I’m interested because in Finland we have very strict laws concerning car modifications. In astra case most powerful engine is 2l and 150hp (c20xe) so you can add 20% to horsepower and 25% to capacity.
Turbo is not allowed in cars which are built after 1991 or are marked on low emission class. Off course there are some ways to put bigger engine or change N/A engine to turbo- or supercharged but it cost lots of money and it’s fairly uncertain if it’s going to be allowed.

[Heze]

Nice work!

[pascal1109]

What kind test your car had to pass?

In Holland, when you built in a new engine with more cilinders (in this case 2 extra) OR when you have 40%+ power increase (also in this case ), you must go to a special government testlab for cars.
Note: also when you import a car, you must go here, but because regular cars already have mass-approval, they don't need to do the sound- and handling test (if the cars are original).

First they check how the conversion is, descent quality? Did you think of bigger brakes / better suspension etc. When you pass that test, few weeks later you must go there again and they do a handling test and sound test (max 80 db). And it's not just 5 minutes of testing It costs about 800 euro! But after that you'll have a street legal 3.0 liter Astra GSi

When you built a RWD astra, and you pass these tests, its also legal. Friend of mine is working on that one. Astra X30XE with 2 turbo's

Sorry for continuing off topic, but is there any limitations? Like restrictions for maximum power or capacity? I’m interested because in Finland we have very strict laws concerning car modifications. In astra case most powerful engine is 2l and 150hp (c20xe) so you can add 20% to horsepower and 25% to capacity.
Turbo is not allowed in cars which are built after 1991 or are marked on low emission class. Off course there are some ways to put bigger engine or change N/A engine to turbo- or supercharged but it cost lots of money and it’s fairly uncertain if it’s going to be allowed.

But why can't you do such fun stuff overthere in your country??

You must let your car check when your engine code changes! I went from C18XE to X30XE, so that means checkup-time. But also when you go from C20NE to C20XE, you must let it get checked.
When the power of your new engine is 40%+ more then the old engine, you must also take the soundcheck and handling check. Otherwise they only check the build-quality.

Overhere you can, as far as i know, do what the hell you want. No restrictions. Just make sure you do a proper building job. Not something you do quickly in a weekend in your own garage!
Also you must make sure, with big accelerating power, comes big braking power. If you don't have that, you'll fail the test.
And how the car handles is also important. It can go as fast as a bullet, but when you can't go around (sharp) corners, you'll fail. So good suspension + good tyres is important.
Ow and before i forget, there's a max of dB your car is allowed to produce. In my case, max 80 dB. In newer cars (1996+ is 78 dB i believe)

But when i want to build a 4wd v12 Astra GSi and i do a proper building job, make sure the sound isn't to loud and it handles superb it'll pass the test and get my official papers



For the interested people, a short clip of me driving in 3rd gear and accalerating at about 75% (not full throttle)
http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb21 ... =Inzn3.flv

[apusähis]

Wow! Nice looking car! Keep it going

[Lazi]

Now when i heard about those laws, i think i must move to holland

[-RK-]

So unfair laws you have there
That sounds neat Remember to put some more pics and vids when you get your exhaust and air system installed