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[mick-1975]

Hi I had a oil leak on mine which was coming from sensor just above the sump behind the power steering pump
Pain to get to but once stripped down 2 min job just a ring washer needed .
   Car is 2.2 estate .prob different but might be of use to you .

[Murph]

Update.
The car is still sitting on the drive feeling neglected as I simply havent had the time to start stripping it yet.
However...

I saw a swindon racing engine on ebay going silly cheap and as it was local I went to have a look.  The seller had no documentation to prove it's heritage but as the engine turned easily with a socket I thought I'd have a punt. It was cheap enough that it would be worth it for a decent pair of heads and a set of cams. I didnt believe it to be a racing engine at that price.

After handing over some cash I got busy emailing Swindon engines to see if I could find out wether it was one of theirs.

Long story short - I now have a build spec sheet and dyno report for the genuine article that is sitting in my trailer.
So in a couple of weeks the Omega should be back on the road with a few extra horses.

[Kevin Wood]

Come on, then.. What spec and how many horses?

[biggriffin]

Now this could be good as the last v6 swindon i saw was £5000.
And that wasnt special just lightened and balanced,and gentle polish,matched ports and enlarged throttle bodys.

[mrgreen]

what a touch!! love to know the specs, if you're really short on cash.............!

[biggriffin]

what you have probabally bought is an old super vectra touring engine,that was fitted/used in the one make championship that was a support race for the touring cars in the late 90's.(thinks back to them days)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP0UEbNan2c

[Murph]

I have a spreadsheet that Swindon sent me relating to the engine VV019.

It was built by Swindon in '99 and has since been rebuilt by them due to being over-revved at Snetterton.

Here's the dyno sheet from after the rebuild:



You'll notice that they were using a standard Vectra inlet and nothing exotic on the exhaust side either.

Am I right in thinking that the Omega's inlet should produce better results in comparison?

Obviously I won't be expecting that level of power after all these years..... but you never know!

[Andy H]

Have you got the ECU (Weber Alpha+) named on the build sheet?

[Murph]

Unfortunately not.   

[doz]

Did you happen to notice the the idle speed? I'd love an engine like that BUT I fear that is going to be pretty horrible to drive on the road I'm afraid. If the idle speed is correct then mounting it to a standard auto box will be pretty horrible. Your going to need at least a custom remap or a stand alone ECU. The standard one won't be able to adapt to the mechanical changes.

[Murph]

That's a fair point Doz.

I may just sell it on once I get it running, if its too harsh that is.

[Andy H]

Does anyone know how radical the engine work was?

As the engine was destined for use in a fairly restrictive formula racing series the work probably focused on blueprinting, balancing, porting and polishing. As long as the camshafts weren't changed and the compression ratio remained (almost) unchanged the engine should just behave as a particalarly 'sweet' example of a standard engine if  coupled to the standard ECU and a standard mass flywheel (or torque converter).

The race ECU would probably give a more aggressive throttle response (with fuel consumption to match) and might use a richer fuel mixture at WOT to keep the piston crowns and exhaust valves overheating.

If you have a buyer offering good money then sell it on but otherwise you may as well use it and enjoy it

[Murph]

I was going for a bit of both.

I can't resist rebuilding and fitting it simply because it's there, I can and I want to see what happens.  However I suspect it's going to be a bit on the thirsty side of practical for long term use.
So once it's been running and I've satisfied my curiosity I will either remove and sell the engine then fit another standard one, or just sell the whole car with the engine fitted.

First things first though - I need to get it running.

Anyone got a sump going cheap?   

[henryd]

2woody has already posted that he has a sump

[Vamps]

Replacement oil sump should be pennies, plenty available through breakers here I should imagine.

Oil will cost 7,000 pennies in that case tunnie. Can't see many people wanting to sell oil sump off a perfectly good engine. Easy to change though if that is the problem.

I have one, but for a 2.2 seems they can and do become porous and begin to leak, ridiculous to me on a modern car.......