Astra performance

[Jakeymd]

Hi everyone, I have a Mk 4 Astra and want to generally improve the performance of my car. Power, handling, brakes ect.

I'm not the richest person at the moment until i get a full time job. So do you have any ideas that can improve the car without breaking the bank. It already has an Induction kit and 17 inch alloys.

Thanks

 

[pgarner]

make sure there is lots of fresh air to the induction kit

due to budget look towards a decat but you will need to refit it for MOT
nasp cars are hard to get decent gains without spending money.
try looking for a 2.0 turbo engine as the most cost effictive way of doing it

 

[prevtec]

dont bother mate, head gasket will go on you, so wait and get a proper car to improve things

 

[BAD63R]

Thats where custom steel gaskets come in handy. Had one fotted to my Vectra when i did the turbo conversion on that. Best bet is actually a 2.5 V6 conversion. Can all be done for less than £600 and looking at a nice quick car.

 

[Jakeymd]

I'm thinking of getting an aluminium pipe and just and taking my cone filter down to the space in front of my radiator to get colder air. Will the extra cold air out weigh the extra induction drag if i can keep the pipe straight enough?

 

[obi_waynne]

If you really must have an induction kit, Ideally I'd put the cone filter in a sort of box and cut a vent in the bonnet just in front and behind.

Alternatively a run of ducting to the proximity of the cone filter will generally deliver cold air. Get a metal biscuit tin to cut up and shape and this should help.

For brakes, look at the GSi and possibly the SXi and later VXR for suitable upgrades.

 

[BAD63R]

Full hub and brake upgrade needed if considering the SXi or the VXR as they are all 5 stud. Only the GSi of the same year as his has the same stud pattern. So again if you bought yourself a donar car for all the parts, you can use the brake set-up from that. As far as the filter goes, dont bother with a cone filter on your size engine. It will do more harm than good to be fair. So instead consider a uprated panel filter from Courtenay, Pipercross or K&N and then run a cold air feed to the front bumper. Will run alot better and might actually notice a little difference in throttle response etc.

 

[Jakeymd]

Thanks guys I'm going to consider buying a panel filter. Would you recommend K&N or Pipercross?

 

[Jakeymd]

Been reading into changing the intake pipe to the Vectra C intake pipe. Does this make much difference. For about £13 i might aswell try it right??

 

[BAD63R]

You can, but a tenner more and you'll find a decent panel filter for that money on ebay. To be honest matey, unless you go for a C20LET, Z20LEH or C20NET (all turbo engines) you may aswell go for a larger engine for cost effectiveness. Tuning a engine as small as a 1.6 can turn out to be a waste of money compared to buying somethign with the power already.

To give you an idea... I sold a X20XEV (2.0 16V eco-tec) with loom, ecu all piping and exhaust for £90 with only 80K on it. Theres a 2.5V6 engine with gearbox, loom, ecu and all ancilleries for £300 so for another £100 (for brakes and suspension from a Astra GSi of your shape) you are looking at a major bargain quick car. There seriously isn't many places you can get a 60bhp gain from that sort of money. And if you spent a further £50 on a set of 3ltr cams for the 2.5, you will see 192bhp instead of 170 .

So try and find bhp value for btter than that lol

 

[Jakeymd]

Well this car is just keeping my going until I have the money to buy a new car. (Thinking of an Audi A3 quattro when a full time job). So i don't really care about getting the most from this car. Just to improve it a little until I can upgrade. And being 19 i'm limited on how much i can do to it for insurance purposes. So my idea at the moment is to put the airbox back on, with a K&N filter with the Vectra C intake pipe. Should only cost me about £50. Good or bad idea?

 

[BAD63R]

Yes and no. See how much it will cost with a panel filter for the air box, drill about 15 holes on the wing side of the air box then buy a bit of piping to run a cold air feed from the air box inlet hole, down to the bumper so it's facing frontwrads (this is exactly what Courtenay Sport do for the airbox modifications they refer to in their CS stage 1, 2, 3, 3.5 and 4's offer. This will see you more gain than the set up you are considering. Should cost you about the same.

 

[Jakeymd]

Thinking about getting some black diamond predator brake pads to add that little extra bite on the brakes. Will it make much difference without performance discs like black diamond?

 

[pgarner]

the discs are more or less just discs mate. cheap ones are more prone to warping.
OEM ones will be fine unless your wanting looks. i so stay aware from cheap drilled discs

 

[Jakeymd]

Are Green Stuff pads better than Predator ones?

 

[pgarner]

ids debatable, some say the green stuff are great others say they are very bad.

more expensive but look to Ferodo DS2500 pads. very highly recommended

 

[Jakeymd]

They are too expensive for my liking. Think i'll just buy a pair of Predators and see how i get on. I'll let you know how they perform.

 

[pgarner]

They are too expensive for my liking.

IMHO one of the worst things you can say when it comes to tyres or brakes mate. but yeah i know what you mean. ds2500 where around £110 a pair for me
Mintex M1144 pads are very good, and about half the price of the 2500as well ( more suited to the road, whereas the 2500 are more track ) however do squeal alot. so much so that i removed them and refitted the porsche standards which are made buy texter (sp?) not bad but nowhere near the bite of the mintex

 

[Jakeymd]

Well they're likely to perform better than standard pads. Anything is an upgrade.

 

[Jakeymd]

I've just bought an Irmscher back box (second hand) but i doesn't fit onto my existing centre pipe. The bracket is a little corroded and bent but the gasket on the back box pipe is too big to fit in the centre pipe. Am i being an idiot here? Or do i need to fit a smaller gasket, as i presume this one fitted into a larger bore center pipe before i bought it.

 

[pgarner]

was it for a 1.6 ?
it might have been from a bigger engine hense the bigger bore
measure both and see if you can find a metal reducer and some clamps

 

[Jakeymd]

Could i just get a larger bore center pipe, would this fit on easily enough or would i need a reduced somewhere down the line anyway??

 

[pgarner]

you would need to reduce it at some point