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Steve its your car and you can do with it what you like...
It just seemed a change of philosophy somehow.... and odd given the time you spent getting the original lump running and that it sounded good.
I dont personally think the Sprint engine is in any way deficient per se...it was if anything ahead of its time and is quite competitive with many a later or even modern engine on specific bhp terms. Its even quite simple to work on....and unlike anything Vauxhall have made recently you can get the sump plug out come oil change time.
If I were going to upgrade it I'd be looking at modern efi....this is where all the big improvements in modern engines have come from.
I also think the mgf leccy power steering is a very good idea. Most drivers used to moderns with pas find the dolly on 185's a bit of a mare to park, especially if they have the wrong set of chromosomes.
I'd also question the financial sanity of separating a matching numbers sprint auto when they are now so rare when you could do much the same to a 1500HL auto which nobody in their right mind would think worth keeping with its ohv tragedy.
Jonners
1)It was always my plan to fit the Omega lump so no change of philosophy is involved, i only spent about 3 hours total getting it running and that was so I could sell it as a runner with confidence that I was not selling a pig in a poke (as a useful side effect it also made it worth more!)
2a)Are you MAD? The Sprint engine has more issues than I can reasonably count! True many of them can be overcome with modern tech and materials but the simple facts are that a)it is now getting rather long in the tooth, b) decent quality spares are expensive and hard to find, c)at the standard 127bhp it is already close to its sensible tuning limit, serious mods make it too fragile for regular use without spending totally disproportionate amounts of dosh, d) easy to work on? Words fail me!
2b) The Omega donor I have just bought has a tin sump so no problem with the plug coming out! I know what you mean though, I had to chisel one out of a Corsa last week and fit a new one!
3)The Vauxhall EFI is plenty modern enough for me and seems to be bulletproof in its reliability! (thats probably not what you meant is it?)
4) We agree about the PAS so no further comment from me is necessary.
5a)As I noted earlier there is no engine number allocated to this car on the V5 so matching numbers is impossible to confirm or deny (unless its on the heritage certificate that I haven't got) What is certain is that both engine and box have been out recently (at least in mileage terms) the engine "feels" new, all the oils are spotless and all the unit is clean and shiny even in the places that are impossible to clean in situ. Whether it is the original unit rebuilt or another, I can only guess! Financial sanity is a bit subjective as I'm not doing this for profit but figure this, a really nice Auto Sprint is worth £1000-£1500 LESS than a man O/D car so about 6k, Martin B's Excellent modded Tolly made 6.5k (about 5k more than it would if standard) Since Sprint values are much higher I cannot compete on those terms but I think if it is completed to a similar high standard it should be worth at least as much as a good standard car, just in its own right!
5b)Its true I could have bought a (probably much better) 1500HL Auto for what I gave for this Sprint but buying a Sprint gives me a legit Sprint ID and a Sprint axle, tunnel housing and probably other bits that I really need in one package. I'm definitely not going to get drawn into the argument over whether the 1500 is a crap engine or not, all I will say is that, like the Sprint and the Stag, it was not properly developed and with some relatively minor mods can produce decent horsepower reliably.
As an aside I would also like to mention the transmission which is going in as part of the package, this is a Jap made Aisin/Warner ECU controlled, 4speed, 3 range box with lockup on the overdriven 4th gear which will improve the performance, flexibility and fuel economy (and probably reliability too) compared with the old BW65.
Steve