Nexia lump,advice, pleez

[nigel bickle]

Ok, so I bought a cheap, early Nexia.

 

Ok, so the lacquers peeling. I can sort that.

 

The bumpers are falling apart. Do- able.

 

It’s tired, I can sort that.

 

But the lump feels wrong. Very breathy, a slight rattle on start up ( even warm) bit down on power - compared to my other Nexia.

 

Engine bay was clearly steam cleaned before sale, and I wanted it - so I’m not complaining. It’s done knack all mileage in several years, and I’ve deliberately pushed it into immed hard service. It’s not coping, so I want to sort it before it rattles out.

 

I’m not minded to rebuild, so wanted the cognoscenti here to tell me/ point me at a straight swop out. Same size or bigger, don’t care. With/ without box- don’t care. Just want it sorted quickly with minimum fuss. It’s a 1500 petrol.

 

I’m guessing it’s an Opel lump, but know nothing about them- hence the request?

 

Clue me up chaps - pleez?

[fordperv]

Make it faster with an xe or let or maybe convert it to Isuzu 1.7td for a laugh

[sierraman]

Or create a Nexia GTE Champion edition. Because Daewoo.

[nigel bickle]

No. I want a straight swop, ta.

 

If I want something”fast”, I’ve plenty in the garage.

[cobblers]

I seem to recall they were based on the equivalent Vauxhall engines, just 1.5 instead of 1.6 because of tax reasons in their home market. So presumably you'd broadly get away with a 1600 8v Vauxhall lump, but there's bound to be grief fitting the manifolds and sensors and stuff.

[Split_Pin]

Bigger Daewoos used the X20SED which is simply an X20XEV from a Vectra so I am fairly sure that or a smaller Daewoo lump would plumb in.

[sierraman]

I knew of a 1.5 auto that had sat for at least 10 years but unfortunately it’s gone to scrap.

[danthecapriman]

Make it faster with an xe or let or maybe convert it to Isuzu 1.7td for a laugh

Surely the Autoshite thing would be to graft in a 3 pot from a Matiz?

[Shonky]

I hope you do get to save this Nexia, that red compliments* it beautifully*. The A15MF I believe, being the GLXi it'll be the 16 valve...good luck finding one. Nexias can come up in breakers every now and then, and I've heard of some coming up on the auctions - so if you get one with a shagged body/shell, then it's fair game.

[New POD]

Remind me 

 

8V or 16 V ? 

 

Carb, Single point or Double point injection ? 

 

I have seen them fitted with the XE out of the Astra GTE. 

 

I would get hold of the closest Opel engine and just swap over the ancillaries. 

 

I know a bloke I worked with bought a broken Nexia for £60, went to a scrap yard and got an astra engine, swapped it over, didn't declare the engine number change or 100 cc extra and never registered it in his name, sold it on for £800.  Twat he was. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

same as 1.6 16v ashtray engine just 76.5mm bore instead of 79mm- same stroke at 81.5mm

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Boom!!! theres the answer!!

[chompy_snake]

Couple of things to note on the Nexia....

Water pumps are common failures as are head gaskets .... Possibly because of water pumps.

Oil pressure switches like to fail for fun and throw your oil all over the road.

 

However the 1.5 goes like stink with a maximum head skim and a new gasket. This would allow for replacement of the pesky water pump too lol

[nigel bickle]

Thanks guys.

 

The more I drive this, the more it feels ‘wrong’

 

It rattles briefly on startup, it’s smells oily, although gauges/ levels normal. I ‘think’ it smokes hard, suddenly at ongoing high rpm, although I can’t be sure, and whilst it revs well - it feels unhappy, kinda unwilling,

 

2 5litre cans & an unused oil filter in the boot tend to confirm it won’t have long, despite only showing 62000. I’ve experience of this engine, ( in my Nexia saloon), this feels comparatively unresponsive, unwilling.

 

There’s no sensible reason to save this, the paint works borked with sheets of lacquer peeling off the driver side ( near side clearly repainted) but I’m minded to sort it. Cos.

 

I’ve had the usual BreakerLink lunatic prices , starting at £1000. ( plus vat & delivery) dropping to £225, but I think I can prob find a cheaper straight swop in the Vauxhall range. I can’t chuck money at it - it’s uneconomic.

 

So I think I’ll Keep a weather eye out for a Vauxhall 16 v lump in known good order, and get it zipped in asap.

[danthecapriman]

I remember working on these era Daewoo’s a lot when I was in the garage. At the time Daewoo had some sort of sales and service partnership going on with the original Halfords garages which then transferred over when the AA service centres took over Halfords garages.

 

The majority of these cars issues seemed to come from their drivers! Daewoo’s seemed to be a big hit with the budget conscious elderly drivers and they barely used them and definitely didn’t give them any stick, just dawdling along once a week to bingo or maybe the shops.

Is it possible this ones just suffered badly from that? Maybe it’s reluctant to be worked hard because it never has. Could all it’s breathers etc etc be clogged because it never got hot enough to blow everything through like it should?

At that mileage this Vauxhall engine shouldn’t even be run in yet!

I had a P reg Astra ‘Arctic’ 1.6 that had only done stupidly low mileage, that was about 60K odd. I did a head gasket and waterpump and sold it to a mate who used it hard for travelling from Petersfield to Chandlers Ford every day and after a while it did eventually loosen up and turned out to be a bloody brilliant car. I think it was upto abut 150k by the time it got written off by a blind twat in a Range Rover.

 

That Astra had its breathers clogged solid with congealed oil and black sludge. Some of had baked hard and took ages to get it all out. I’m fairly sure I did the worst of the cleaning when I did the HG but it still took a few more strip downs and clean outs after that to get rid of the rest. It was amazing how much shit was in it! But that used to breathe hard because the proper breathers weren’t free anymore.

[Des]

^Good advice there, and has it had an oil change? What's in it could be old, wrong, fuel diluted or had a can of flush dropped in by someone who then couldn't get the sump plug out after rounding it with a pre-war open ended Whitworth before gnawing it with a rusty stilson whilst mistakenly turning clockwise.

[nigel bickle]

Oil is clean, ( smells/ feels right) filters look ok ( but I will change the oil/ oil filter again) no blocked breathers that a cursory inspection could find.

 

But it feels toshed over, to hide a fault. It is breathing too hard.

[danthecapriman]

You done a compression test yet Nige?

 

I suppose if someone has steam cleaned the engine etc it might be fucked rings or something serious, and it’s blown oil out of every gasket and hole.

 

When I first got the Mercury that was breathing hard. It was very very obvious too. Like a constant whooshing from the breathers and lots of oil residue. That was blow by from the rings being all worn.

[Lankytim]

I might be picking up a Mk4 Astra for scrap soon, I think it's a 1600 16v petrol, runs great but was parked up for a couple of years because the owner bought a new car. I think it's in pretty good shape, would the engine be of any use?

[nigel bickle]

Dan, I’m minded to stp it ( or Wynns, whatever) to see if it changes. Frankly I think it’s rings& shells- and I’m not doing that. Happy to be proved wrong - but I’m not / can’t spend long bent over the engine bay

 

LT, thanks. That certainly sounds a plan. I will pm you now