My vx220 project

vocky

Dave Gilbert said:
What for now?

shiny new stuff of course 😃

evocarlos

how about the 80l pump any need for the 115l ?

vocky

evocarlos said:
how about the 80l pump any need for the 115l ?

the vx220 has a huge coolant system with the rad at the very front and the engine at the back, so I used the 115 litre craigdavies pump, the astra coolant system would probably only need the 85Litre version (y)

evocarlos

vocky said:
the vx220 has a huge coolant system with the rad at the very front and the engine at the back, so I used the 115 litre craigdavies pump, the astra coolant system would probably only need the 85Litre version (y)

whats the water content in a vx ? i know the astra is about 7-8l
i looked at the guide and it said installing then the lower rad hose and remove the thermostat i may do it that way as i have room down there 🙂

vocky

about 12 or 13 litres in the vx220 coolant system

evocarlos

im pinning the elec water pump on you @[deleted] as you planted that seed in my head and now i want one lol hehe
was up in oswestry last friday i could of gone to demon tweaks and bought one but was not sure about the 85l at the time 🙂

Dave_Gilbert

So your doing away with the balance chain now @[deleted]?

Hurry up and get it in.

evocarlos

Dave Gilbert said:
So your doing away with the balance chain now @[deleted]?

Hurry up and get it in.

yes off with the chain!
cant need stuff from murika built a head for catlin and gave him my hydraulic lifters :S

vocky

vocky said:
well this winters project is going to be quite a milestone in my vx220's life, some major work is planned and it will be happening shortly :censored:

maybe not quite yet, a slight change of plans means the milestone will have to wait a little longer :rolleyes:

Still there will be some updates soon :censored:

vocky

I have finally found one of these ultra rare beasts 🙂

Lotus Europa 6 speed gear lever assembly 😃

evocarlos

looks heavy 🙂

vocky

probably weighs about the same as a standard vx220 item, which would be a couple of kilos 🙂

vocky

vocky said:
some nice Lotus Europa subframe shims and bolts arrived today :cool:

These are a notorious vx220 corrosion point, so even though I have cleaned mine when it was rebuilt in 2006/7 I will be replacing them and adding some anti-corrosion protection.

A year later and I have finally got around to fitting the new shims (with Duralac anti-corrosion paste) - the red arrow points to their location

the old shims were not too bad, luckily my vx220 has zero rust or corrosion between the subframe and chassis

vocky

I have also fitted the Europa 6 speed gear lever assembly

I had to use the vx220 handbrake lever because the Europa 'button' is a different size and thus the vx220 alloy handbrake handle would not fit with the Europa handbrake.
I also had to adjust the handbrake cable by 15mm, as the Europa gear lever assembly is slightly different in size.
Also worth noting that the Europa assembly mounts under the seat runners, so spaces the seats slightly higher. I had to fit washers when I installed the seats, so I simply removed the washers to allow the Europa assembly to fit.

vocky

Another job was to fit some heat protection to the rear clam, this is to protect the paintwork, I noted that the rear clam would get rather hot sometimes, so as I don't want the paint to blister I added some fibreglass cloth

vocky

Next job was to fit the new exhaust heatshield, felt a little guilty chopping up a £1100 part to fit my exhaust :eek:

vocky

the Lotus gear cable bracket arrived, along with a few clips 🙂

I have no idea what vauxhall charge for the same bracket, but it was only £17

The Lotus Europa gear change mechanism does not require the pivot assembly, they changed the 'throw' of the lever by simply moving the pivot from the right hand side of the lever to the left, this changes the direction of the movement. Simple but effective (y)

HarleyPete

Makes you wonder sometimes who actually looked at those parts and said "Ooooh I wonder if they'll fit my xyz". I find it fascinating how people find these things out without a lot of trial and error.

vocky

HarleyPete said:
Makes you wonder sometimes who actually looked at those parts and said "Ooooh I wonder if they'll fit my xyz". I find it fascinating how people find these things out without a lot of trial and error.

the Lotus parts are usually half the price of vauxhall, even though vauxhall supply Lotus with them o_O

vocky

So finally finished the Europa gear assembly conversion, it's damn cold in the garage :LOL:

What you cannot see is I had to machine off the lower lip from the 'lift' section of the gear lever in my lathe so that the gearstick gaitor would fit :rolleyes:

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