New Timing & Balance Chain kits fitted

KevinH

Senior Member
So while visiting relatives in Shrewsbury, I had arranged with evocarlos (Carl) on Friday 21st Nov to have new GM Timing Chain and Balance Chain kits fitted to my Vectra B SRi 150.

The weather was awful, it rained virtually all day long, but Carl got to work and was soon removing the oil pump cover and the old chains.

Carl explained everything as he went along and although you learn a lot from reading it on here, there is nothing like seeing it done and his knowledge about these engines is second to none.

Here are a few photos I managed to take:-

Camshaft cover removed showing original timing chain (103,000 miles), however Carl mentioned that the balance chain was a little slack with the tensioner on its last adjustment.
Image0071.jpg


New Balance Chain kit fitted (tensioner not released yet).
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...and new Timing Chain kit fitted.
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Original front rail (still intact), timing chain tensioner and oil nozzle.
Image0075.jpg



A big thank you to Carl.
Top man !
 
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evocarlos

Stupid Bollocks
Staff
it was nice to meet you kevin shame the weather was s**te i got soaked lol
i have to say i think your vec is the cleanest one i have ever seen
and to note for other people look at the inside of kevins engine you could eat cheese on toast off it :) ( i think i did at one point :))
a well maintained z22se even with the old style oil jet works just fine the main chain was still tight only the balancer chain was longer than it should be

it did have a revised tensioner fitted at some point :)

thanks again kevin :)
 

KevinH

Senior Member
Thanks for the comments guys.

As I mentioned to Carl, I bought it when it was 6 months old (2001 Y reg) and it had done about 6500.miles (ex Vauxhall Management car) it also has a Vauxhall dealer FSH to date, so it has been well maintained. This is the only work that Vauxhall haven't carried out.
It has had GM 5w30 on every oil change, and doesn't tend to burn very much which must say something for it - I know many prefer the semi synth 10w40.

I'll have to give it a good clean and polish, then get some pics.
 
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Hi are all the z22se engine timing chain kits all the same? I have a Astra g 2.2sri z22se the engine recently went so I bought an engine from a Vectra B 2001 z22se engine are the timing chains all the same for the z22se engines? TIA
 

KevinH

Senior Member
The camshaft timing and balance chain kits are the same for all Z22SE engines. It's worth spending a little extra and fitting genuine GM kits otherwise you may find yourself doing the job again by fitting aftermarket kits, which is false economy

The difference with the Vectra B engine is that the power steering pump is run by the inlet camshaft, which has a hex drive on the end of it, but you can transfer the blanking plate from the Astra's engine to the Vectra's. You will have to keep the ECU from the Astra because it has a separate cooling module which the Vectra B didn't require.
 
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