My Holden Astra

Check out my sweet ride. Its a 1987 N13 "Holden" Astra. For those who dont know, this car IS actually a Nissan Pulsar with prettier lights. Heh, this cost me $1K. It was sitting in some dudes yard for about 2 years before I bought it, so its paint suffered a bit. So far I've just done general maintenance for the engine and used high quality replacements, as well as replacing the brakes master cylinder. When I bought it it had just got new engine mounts and rear shocks. It has sweeeeeet new tires now and a novelty AROOOOGAHHHH horn. Also I replaced the parker lights with some LEDS. Next on the list is some new front bearings, front springs, maby the ball joins, new hoses and clamps, matching color grille, new carpet in the boot/hatch and a steering wheel from one of the newer Astra's. There is actually a lot more on the list but thats what I'm looking at doing in the short term. Later on I'd like a new stock or close to stock exhaust system and a sexeh paint job. Heres some shots that I'm sure nobody will be interested in:

N13 Astra


I happen to be lucky enough to know of a wreckers near me that has 5 of these Astras in fairly complete condition for me to pick at. I wont be telling any fellow N13 owners where this is. Yes I am an asshole but I want the good parts damn it! This car handles very well, especially with the nice wide tires. The stock wheels for this car are 13" steel rims with 175/60 tires, I have 15" mags with 195/50 silica tires. I did have 205's on it but they were far too big and scraped the wheel arcs. At full lock the 205's were about 1CM away from a pulley in the engine! At lest with the 195's that should be around 1.05CM instead heheh.

It has a relatively modest, but good sounding sound system. A decent Pioneer head unit about 2 years old, stock 5" speakers in the front and two very nice Alpine 6x9's in the back powered by a big old Kenwood amp at 100Watts per speaker. This sounds surprisingly good, plenty of bass and no need for a sub (I dont like subs, Commodores or Commodore drivers). I'll soon replace the stock 5" speakers with some 5" Cadence ones, which unfortunately have hideous speaker grilles.. I'm seeking out some un damaged stock grilles (the wreckers) to fix that though.

The 16LF

The 16LF engine is found in Australian built N13 Pulsars and Astra's Between 1987 and 1991. It is the lowest power engine in the series with a lowly 56kW. In comparison, its big brother (the 18LE) is 79kW. The 16LF's biggest drawback is its fuel injection system. It is technically a fuel injected car, but its got a single injector mounted above the throttle body which isnt exactly good for power. If you are stuck with this engine, and you dont have the funds or means to upgrade to a 18LE this page will show you how to get the best out of the engine.

* Use 98 octane fuel - The car really dosent need to work as hard to do the same amount of work, when driving around in my car I notice that the revs dont need to get as high to do the same amount of acceleration.

* NEVER use any fuel below 95 octane fuel rating - It says it in the handbook, the engine designed to run on 95 octane. Using anything below this will cause detonation (Pinging rattle from the engine) This can completely destroy your engine and really should be avoided completely. If you accidentally put in 91 fuel dont just drive around like it, go buy some octane booster and add it to the fuel.

* Keep the engine serviced - Your car will run much better and more efficient if you keep it well maintained. Fresh oil will also help avoid pinging.

OK, thats the everyday basics which you probably have already guessed. This is what I've done to get the most out of my 16LF - Iridium Spark plugs, Bosch Super sports inductive core ignition leads, new distributor cap and rotor, cleaned throttle body and used injector cleaner in a tank of fuel. I have also had a few sensors replaced, a thermal sensor was giving me issues on startup and the Oxygen sensor was done. If your sensors are in top shape your ECU can operate the engine more accurately.

I'm not really a fan of the trumpet on the 16LF especially because it has the potential to heavily restrict the air intake because of its small inlet and the flap inside which can route hot air from around the manifold into the throttle body. This flap/valve is there for warming up the engine when its initially started by using hot air from around the exhaust, but when its not in use and the engine has warmed up it could create a major block to the flow of air. I havent fully investigated wheather this is a real problem yet, but I'd like to remove the valve so only cool air (denser and results in better acceleration) can enter the throttle body. I will probably add a small 2" duct to the end of the trumpet and put it where there will be a healthy breeze. I'm also considering a catch can for the oil vapor out of the top of the engine, apparently this catches the oil vapor instead of putting it into the engine to burn, supposedly removing the vapor from the intake CAN increase power. However I highly doubt this would give you more than a micron extra of a kW unless your car is pouring out oil vapor and choking up the throttle body with gunk. I think this will end up being more bling than anything usefull, so I will probably give it a pass.

 

4/8/08
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OK, an update!! Woo

Yep Its definately worth removing the trumpet from the air intake. I did it and noticed a good increace in power for sure. It dosent transform it into a race car by any means but is worth the 20mins of work. All I did was remove the trumpet from the airbox thingo (The technical term) There is a small tube that is connected to the valve thingamajig that you can safely remove without causing any problems. The trumpet is a seperate peice of plastic slotted into the air filter holder and can be removed by pushing in the round tabs and pulling out the trumpet. This is a complete pain in the ass because if you manage to get one clip undone it will clip back in while your uncliping another, I get the feeling it wasnt intended to be removed. I took this to a mechanic and he said it is fine to drive it without the trumpet and shouldn't affect it in a bad way. I have noticed a small improvement in power and a louder induction noise, the noise is slightly annoying at first but it is easy to live with and grows on you. It gives the engine a deeper throater sound at mid revs when the throttle is open, not too loud just about right.

The Valve in the trumpet isnt actually to warm up the engine but to stop the throttle body icing up, so if you live in a cold place see a mechanic before removing it.
I have had the exhaust repaired, the cat converter was replaced with a high flow model and the muffeler is basically stock. MUCH quieter and seems to run smoother.

So, Exhaust system DONE, Trumpet GONE. Next is the front wheel barings and getting the HHO system up and running. I've been slowly accumulating parts for the HHO generator and is pretty much ready to be built. I'm also going to remove a few parts relating to the now gone trumpet to reduce the amount of crap under the hood.

12/10/08
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I thought I'd add a picture of the engine with the trumpet removed, the rocker cover seal has also been replaced to stop oil from getting on my clean engine. The metal thing covering part of the manifold will be removed soon as there is no need for it now that the trumpet is gone.

 

16/10/08
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Bodyworks:

Uggh, why do old cars have to rust?!?!
There is rust in the gutter around the hatch, 2 spots of rust in the roof and a massive rust spot inside the hatch near the.. umm latch. Damn that sounds stupid
and rhymes, I'll try not to do that. SO, I'm going to see if a professional will do it for a reasonable price or if I will do it myself. Today I got out the steel brush and
my $20 drill and got at the bubbly bits of paint near the arieal. Dang, the rust is worse than I thought and there is now a sizeable hole in my roof where I was just
doing a little test to see how bad it was. HMM, well electrical tape has blocked it up for now and hopefully it should stop water getting in a least.

So I have a budget of $250 to get it fixed, but I doubt that I'll get it done by a professional for that but that it should be about 10 times more money than I'll need to
do it myself. I'll chuck up some pics of my progress as I go along.

Cars are bitches:

Lately I have been smelling petrol in the car so on some advice I decided to check the seals near the petrol pump. Of course its a BITCH to get to. You need to
remove the back seats completely and remove a bracket that holds the back of the seats. After you remove that crap you can take off the panel that covers up
the top of the fuel pump. I was under the impression that I had to check the seal ON the fuel pump, so stupidly I removed the fuel pump only to find that the bloody
rubber O'ring excuse for a seal swells up over time if it gets petrol on it and because the O'ring had swollen I couldent get the pump back on properly!

This proved quite a headache, both because of the petrol fumes I was inhaling and I needed to get the thing back on so I could drive my car without petrol pouring
out the back. Quite the fire hazard I hear. So I drive the car down to the closest mechanic with the petrol pump half on and he pretty much tells me I'm screwed.
I borrow my dads car and start hunting down a new O'ring. 3rd time lucky and I managed to get one from 'Auto Spares Galore'. Get it home and the damn thing is
too small!! FRICK. I try stretching it but it keeps going back to the original size. Wrap it around a vice and fully open it and it still goes back to the original size...

FINE, I wrap it around a hydrolic jack and fully jack it up..... *SNAP* "F#@K'N PEICE OF S#!T!!"
My frustration then got the better of me, I put the broken O'ring in and fill the 1" gap with gutter silicone and screw the fuel pump on again.
Yeah, high quality craftsmanship that is. So the silicone will probably be eaten away in about a week or so by the petrol, but I'm going to be going
to th wreckers again and get an O'ring that hopefully hasnt swollen yet. I might pick up a few other spares while I'm there. For now though,
the car is working fine and I havent smelt a sign of petrol since I lost my temper. Will update once I've gone to the wreckers!

23/12/08
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