Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: JamesV6CDX on 11 January 2007, 23:31:28
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Had a NIGHTMARE today getting this head off. The Inlet manifold was a complete pig. It took me 4 whole hours to strip it down to the pistons. 4 hours!!!!! It's because it's such a (physically) big transverse engine in such a compact space. Can't get to ANYTHING
Anyhow, head is off. Pistons are absolutely fine, BUT, the exhaust valves mainly are visibly as bent as a 9 bob note. Went to local breaker, all they had was a head off an Ecotec 1.6, for £90, valves and camshafts complete. They assured us this would work with a 1.6 head hasket set, and the dealer who supplied the gaskets said the same. Can someone confirm this will be ok? The heads are visibly identical apart from an extra engine lifter bracket on one of them. Apparently there is a 2mm diameter difference in the bores which is the only difference, and why it requires the 1.6 gasket.
I'm not worried, but not looking forward to refitting this head. Currently I have got the alternator (for clearance), cylinder head, inlet manifold, injector rail, and exhaust manifold all detatched.
Can comeone advise on the order of refitting? being a transverse engine, I think the inlet manifold NEEDS to go onto the head before it's fitted to the car, because there is NO clearance at the back to tighten the nuts on the manifold when the head is on.
Can someone also advise on the timing marks please, I know a kind member sent me a diagram which I will look at..
Where should the position of the engine (pistons) be, before fitting the head, to make sure I don't move any valves when I tighten it down.
Any advice is appreciated. This is actually not that easy a car to work on, a 16V ecotec in a Corsa.
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Can't offer any advice James, but its good to see the smallest car in the Vauxhall range is just as hard to work on as the largest :D
Good luck pal :y
P.S get your hands back in an Omega engine bay ;)
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P.S get your hands back in an Omega engine bay ;)
Can't wait...
Seriously, I'm more comfy doing a V6 Omega set of heads than this darn corsa!
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P.S get your hands back in an Omega engine bay ;)
Can't wait...
Seriously, I'm more comfy doing a V6 Omega set of heads than this darn corsa!
Thats cause its a ....... CORSA!!! ;D
Seriously though I had been driving my megga for months at work, regularly taking 4 of us to the pub. One day we decided to go in a mates Corsa!
I had not been on one for years, it was not until then i realized how big Omega's really are! Felt really narrow, no bonnet and squashed up.
Wonder what working on my new car will be like :-X
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Set crank 90 deg before TDC, pistons will all be half way down the bores and there is then no risk of valve damage.
Cant comment on the head, its off the same small block multivalve engine range so might be ok but, its the squish area in the head I would be concerned about.
Fit the head with the manifold on...........
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Good progress today considering.
Replacement head all cleaned up, block all cleaned up. Pistons are marked but not enough to concern me. Today, have:
* Fitted inlet manifold to head
* Fitted head gasket , and carefully placed head on top.
* Head bolts all Tightened down to exact specifications
* Exhaust manifold & exhaust fitted with new gasket, bolts all torqued down perfectly. Heatshield fitted.
* Cambelt area thoroughly cleaned
* Rear cam cover on
* Cam sprockets on and torqued
* Valve timing set
* New timing belt KIT fitted
* Outer timing belt covers fitted
* Throttle body cleaned and fitted.
* Injectors and injector rail fitted and secured with new seals.
* Fuel lines on
* Crank sensor and cam sensor fitted (crank connected)
* Rocker cover fitted and torqued perfectly with new gaskets.
* Coolant hoses fitted to inlet manifold
* Many other electricals, multiplugs,
Basically it's just bits and peices to go together now, but I'm afraid the darkness got the better of me, and I had to stop.
Bugger.
To do,
* Alternator + Aux belt
* Airbox and ducting
* A few stray electricals
* Coolant bottle
* Breathers and Vaccum hoses
* Air inlet/plenum (whatever it's called) that screws onto the inlet manifold.
* General service and tidy up/clean in the engine bay
So all in all, not bad, considering I started at 11ish and finished at 5...
Another 2 hours should see it running :D
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In a weird and strange kind of way, reading this thread has made me almost excited about us doing the Rover James.... ...is that sad?
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Did the PDF file I sent you help?
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Thats excellent progress James.... :y Blimey and all in 6 hours :)
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A combined reply to all the above posts:
Jaime - no it's not sad... it's a great sense of achievement to work on a car to this level, and even moreso when it runs! And I'll tell you what, Give me a Rover K series engine to work on rather than a Corsa 1.4 16v ANY DAY!!
TD - Yup, it's not bad progress in 6 hours!
AA - Helped a lot, thanks very much :)
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Jaime, I WILL do you a shopping list by tomorrow!! Sorry for the delay..
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You missed the first thing you need to do tomorrow,
Remove the sump plug and drain the oil....let it drain until all other jobs are complete before fitting enw filter and re-filling with noce fresh stuff.
If he didn't maintain the cambelt and tensioners then he certainly didn't do enough oil changes!
I suspect you ahev done this one the hard way.....I used to even get the heads skimmed with the manifolds still attached...
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The oil + filter change comes under "general service" ;D
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Wish me luck.... tomorrow I'm (hopefully) finishing off the corsa.
Just odds and sods to re-assemble really... although, the only thing I'm worried about it getting the air ducting in (really should have done this before fitting the manifold/head..
Hopefully I'll have it running though....
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Wish me luck.... tomorrow I'm (hopefully) finishing off the corsa.
Just odds and sods to re-assemble really... although, the only thing I'm worried about it getting the air ducting in (really should have done this before fitting the manifold/head..
Hopefully I'll have it running though....
Good luck :y
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Sounds like you had a day of it m8
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Wish me luck.... tomorrow I'm (hopefully) finishing off the corsa.
Just odds and sods to re-assemble really... although, the only thing I'm worried about it getting the air ducting in (really should have done this before fitting the manifold/head..
Hopefully I'll have it running though....
Good Luck James :y
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Good progress today considering.
Replacement head all cleaned up, block all cleaned up. Pistons are marked but not enough to concern me. Today, have:
* Fitted inlet manifold to head
* Fitted head gasket , and carefully placed head on top.
* Head bolts all Tightened down to exact specifications
* Exhaust manifold & exhaust fitted with new gasket, bolts all torqued down perfectly. Heatshield fitted.
* Cambelt area thoroughly cleaned
* Rear cam cover on
* Cam sprockets on and torqued
* Valve timing set
* New timing belt KIT fitted
* Outer timing belt covers fitted
* Throttle body cleaned and fitted.
* Injectors and injector rail fitted and secured with new seals.
* Fuel lines on
* Crank sensor and cam sensor fitted (crank connected)
* Rocker cover fitted and torqued perfectly with new gaskets.
* Coolant hoses fitted to inlet manifold
* Many other electricals, multiplugs,
Basically it's just bits and peices to go together now, but I'm afraid the darkness got the better of me, and I had to stop.
Bugger.
To do,
* Alternator + Aux belt
* Airbox and ducting
* A few stray electricals
* Coolant bottle
* Breathers and Vaccum hoses
* Air inlet/plenum (whatever it's called) that screws onto the inlet manifold.
* General service and tidy up/clean in the engine bay
So all in all, not bad, considering I started at 11ish and finished at 5...
Another 2 hours should see it running :D
I spent all day Wednesday (directly after a night shift!) working on this Corsa.
New head fitted, new timing belt fitted, everything back together.
Tried to start her, wouldn't go. Looked in engine bay - forgot Cam sensor. DOH! Fitted cam sensor, tried again, and vroom! She fired up, and died again. Thinking it just needed to pressurise the injector rail, I started it again, and she ran.
Only problem was, she was running at mega high revs (eg near the red line) without touching the throttle! All electrics etc were fine, so I decided it absolutely must be unmetered air entering the cylinders. Spend a good couple of hours looking for the cause, and just couldn't find it. Started to get frustrated, and removed the inlet/throttle body. I then noticed that I'd slightly damaged a gasket. Didn't think it was significant, but didn't know what else to try, so went to VX and got a new one. Put it on and torqued it all down with a new gasket, and it now runs as sweet as a nut!!
I must post some pictures of the valves on the old head, they were in a bad way...
Job done ;D
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:y
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Nice one. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
What a great feeling it must have been when it ran properly again.
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Glad to hear thats it a good'un. :y
Nothing better than getting a big box of engine bits back where they belong, in the correct order, and finding you a) managed to use them all and b) have none left over. ;D