วีดีโอ

I just got the car mapped for the third time. And just spent £2000 on head work and other fixes. I explained this in the video, but I don't care enough to spend another £800 on a genuine Klasen manifold and then more dyno time right now, when I could just spend £7 on an inlet manifold gasket and change the inlet next year. The inlet manifold only takes 2 hours max to change, so it's not really "all that work" - it turned out to be super easy.

Thanks for the suggestion!

@deanhughes2692 I'm thinking of doing the same. Are there any negative side effects? My throttle body does seem quite oily and I think the only place it can come from is that breather.

⁠ you need to have a catch can fitted to the larger pipe that has a filter to atmosphere, not the intake of the turbo. Only real down side is if you have bad rings and the engine is breathing heavy you can end up with some oil coming out the catch can if it isn’t that great.

@jamesbalazs I'll be a gentleman and let you go first (with blanking the breather) :)

Yes their parts are top notch + a great company to deal with!

@@JamesBalazsshould I do this upgrade before the anti roll Bar and rear bushes ? ( I already have a cold air intake but it wouldn’t hurt to get a new one). If I replace the intake I’m planning on getting the full kit

Stage 1 is usually just a remap, so no other modifications are required. Stages are just a way that tuning companies name their packages though. Do whatever you want or can afford, then get a custom remap to suit that 🙂

One of the two horns was pointed sideways at the back of the bumper. Fixed now

@@JamesBalazscan you post the current horn?

GizMotorsport supplied the banjo bolts with 4 outputs. You could message / call / email them to check where to get them from. I couldn't find any with the AN10 thread on top, that sounds useful though! I would recommend removing the rear oil cooler completely though, after mine leaked. The car has no problems with oil temps and sits at around 100°C in traffic, with just the front oil cooler.

I use Valvoline Synpower 5w40 fully synthetic That's what Courtenay Sport recommends 🙂

And keep your head up. On the bright side, if you didn't have the Astra you would not know as much as you do today! 😂

QuickJack by Bendpak - Costco sells them in the UK, they go on sale for £200 off at black Friday etc so don't buy full price!

@JamesBalazs awesome thanks man

Hoping this is the last of the problems now 🤞 Air filter is an AEM 21-2038DK Universal DryFlow 80mm ordered from Amazon It's huge, barely fits even without a MAF 😅

Thanks for the offer mate, but I think I'll be fitting a bypass bar and trying to run just the front aftermarket oil cooler instead. Hope you manage to get yours fixed or sold ok!

Definitely fit the bypass mate, make sure you get the one made with a bracket to secure it, or the right hand coolant hose that goes to it will rub and chafe 🙄.

I'm not sure about it, some of their stuff (the oil cooler I got from them, and their cams) have caused a lot of problems. But never heard anything bad about their forge kit. It should be ok.

Standard oil cooler is what's exploded 😂

I would recommend it, there was a month last year where 3 people I know had their VXR stock oil cooler fail and drop all their oil on the floor!

Tbh I wish I had done a B234 when the engine first went. The Z20 has been a nightmare so far.

@@JamesBalazs I tune T5 cars for a living. Transplants is a big part of that. Paul @ The SAAB Clinic UK.

When I uploaded the video it was already with them in bits mate, I do wish I'd known sooner but if you check their pages it's all 5* reviews so I didn't know any better

@@JamesBalazs you getting your money back?

The intake is from Sprogley Motorsport, and the heat shield is from Courtenay Sport. You can Google their websites 🙂 TH-cam won't let me share links

@@JamesBalazs thx bro

Rusty Autos forged it. The bottom end they built is "fine", but it's not the level of quality you expect when shelling out 3 grand (eg there was a lot of rust in the coolant galleries when Ash took the head off, so it hadn't been cleaned properly after the machining work). If you take an engine that's completely failed and ask someone to rebuild it you expect them to check everything and give it you back good as new, not send it out the door with oil and air leaking past the valves and without even doing a leakdown test. I'd recommend Giz, RnD, Courtenay Sport, or just go to a reputable race engine builder and tell them what you want rather than a Z20 specialist as there's a lot of cowboys about when it comes to the Astra it seems.

I agree the eibachs are a bit soft, I was hoping putting the RARB on full stiff would help with that. Courtenay Sport were out of stock of DAPR when I was ordering unfortunately, they'd have been my first choice. These are a stopgap til I fork out for two way adjustable coilovers next year, so handling wise I'd say they're better than stock + "good enough" for now 🙂

@@JamesBalazs yea I can agree with that. I have been speaking to a few people up this area (chesterfield) and they have put me off using rusty autos. I have a guy that will do it if I can drop the car off for a few weeks to him but he is in Milton Keynes. Then you have brearly in Nottingham again mixed reviews. Car runs fine etc but these z20leh can give no end of headaches. I was chasing a coolant leak for a few weeks there and turns out it was a faulty coolant cap 🤦🏻‍♂️

@@JamesBalazs yea set off bilsteins are the way to go. Pricey as they are, they are fantastic. Pair them with the box rebuilt and a quaiffe or wavetrac diff you will be in heaven.

Take it to junior john hes in nottingham he done mine 3 years ago still going strong at 430 hp

😂 tbf I restored them about 2 years ago They've got a lot worse the last year but the car has been off the road getting engine work done for 6 months in total, so I've not had chance to sort them again 😔

@@JamesBalazs haha that's good to hear, I just fixed mine up on my Mk4 GSI Z20let

I think they're great honestly, the ride quality is as good as stock. Not as harsh as other brands of lowering springs, and way better than coilovers.

@@JamesBalazs i paired them with koni strt and here in Greece roads are really bad. I am going back to stock

Yeah I've been on the brink of scrapping it to be honest (still am). To top it all off, first drive after picking it up the water pump has failed and it's mixing oil and coolant as well. Wanting to do another video on that when it's all figured out, hoping it's just the oil cooler, but I know I'm not that lucky with this car and bet it will turn out to be the head gasket.

@@JamesBalazs surely it had a brand new gasket when the head was off at giz? Oil coolers are common as far as I’m aware though feel for you mate

@@Yodaracing1 yep I trust this isn't Ash's fault - it had a brand new oil cooler at the same time, the Nevlock one with braided lines, so I'm betting that was faulty honestly. Think I'm going to bypass it this week, just run the front cooler instead, change coolant again and see if it stays clear this time

@@JamesBalazs deffo a way of narrowing it down if u bypass it and it’s still doing it then least u know it’s not that

@@JamesBalazs the nevlock cooler have a high failure rate mate, either best of bypassing it or try get hold of an oem

Always thought they were decent,clearly not

@@thebomber5028 my mate went back to them three times mate with constant engine failures and they always had a reason as to why it was not under warranty