CIH Engine

Finally, the Omex loom is all setup and everything tested and now we are all balanced and setup and ready to go. I think there will be a few little tweaks needed to the balance once we have had a run but i think its good enough for a test run! I need to sort out why it looks like the alternator is not charging the battery? could be a loose wire so that is the next thing to sort out and then we are all set for the first run out for a very long time!!!!     http://www.theopelproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Opel-Project.mp4

This is going to be a bit of an ongoing post as i have started to prepare to fit the Omex 600 System to the Opel Manta and thought it would be good to update this post as i go along with diagrams, setup etc.. in case anyone else is looking to do the same thing as its quite hard to get much info. So i bought the Omex 600 to replace the Webcon Alpha system as they no longer make or support it 🙁 so long term it would have to go at some point as it would just…

After a very long day on Wednesday taking the car up to Northampton Motorsport, we are so very close, but still not there just yet!     Some good news, the car fired up first turn and ran which was great to see 🙂 It was running quite rich with the Alpha system, but that was just a base map. Troy then connected up the Omex ECU. It fired straight up and after a little adjustment to fine-tune it we were then able to run the cam in 🙂 A couple of small little things that need sorting (A little…

Im writing this little post on some of this issues i have encountered when building my Opel Manta CIH engine due to the differences between the Original GM/OPEL timing chain guides and the aftermarket ones. It started off with me finding it very hard to fit the top chain sprocket onto the cam end and thinking was it the aftermarket chain? or the banana guide?, so sourced an original chain and the long guide. The banana one does not seem to be available as an original one only aftermarket ones, but i did find an original one for the chain…

If you happen to pass by my blog every now and then you will see that i have not posted for a while, mainly because if have not been up to much on the Manta. After hassling the engine builder to get the cam bearings in and the head back to me, i got the head back and was ready to build up the head and then i got side tracked into trying to sort out my Seat Altea as just a week before the MOT was up the passengers door lock would not release the deadlock. So weeks of…

Not wanting to have to drill the block to locate the dipstick hole where it should be for the manta in the block, i did a bit of searching and found the the US Ford 73L V8 Diesel has an oil pan dipstick!! So after a bit of measuring and checking i reckoned that this would be just what i needed. So i ordered one on ebay and when it arrived measured it and bought a metal hole punch to cut a nice clean hole and as i has a spare oil pan i thought i would give it a…

So the crank is back after a regrind and is 0.25mm under size. The new bearings and piston have arrived and the bottom end is all back together. Now its time to fit the timing chain cover and other bits.  

Last time i built the engine up i used one of those pesky band type piston ring clamps and it wasn’t the greatest thing for fitting them. So this time i did a bit of reading and came across these ring compressor sleeves from Wiseco. They start off wider and taper to the same size as the piston bore. So i bought one to try it out and they are Amazing. No hitting the piston top with a hammer end or something like this. These you can just push in with your fingers as unlike the band type that you…

So the crank is back after being ground by .25mm. New bearings and piston have arrived + plus a few other bits 🙂 Now time to test out the new piston ring compressor sleeve! Im going to try the old damaged piston first to see how it works, it looked nice and easy on youTube!