Kadettenclub!

dutch32 said:

In reply to Duder :

From what I've found it's for Subaru Kei cars there's also a 300 cfm version.  When you are boost pressure how if at all do you plan on reinforcing gaskets etc that weren't designed for higher pressures? 

Do you have a link or specs , pictures , 

Just wondering how it mounts , might be interesting for my Fiat 600

In reply to californiamilleghia :

I dont have a link on hand but just google AMR 300.  Good for .6- 1.3 liter.  Haven't seen anyone use that though so can't say how people react to it 

In reply to Duder :

Here's what I found for the stock 1.1 measurements 

So I had to cut new keeper grooves in the Honda B16 valves and I used all Honda valve parts in the head.  Keepers, retainers, springs, seats, and guides are all Honda.  Just have your local machine shop bore the head out for the Honda guides and seats.  The stock Opel head is so old school that it HAS NO GUIDES OR SEATS!!  This means that it's a blank canvas for anything you want to put in there.

I probably should have used the Honda K engine valves just to max out the flow for my engine but I didn't know what would fit when I did the head.  Might need to make very small valve notches in the Mini pistons with the big K valves but that's easy.

Final detail is that one needs to use valve lash caps so the rockers have a bit more to ride on.  Their thickness is important to add into your stackup height calculation.  I bought them from Summit for cheap.  

As for porting I cut a lot out of the stock ports.  The intakes are a good design with very favorable port angles and are easy to work on.  The exhaust ports are not as good.  The center two are siamese but I made a little separator "fin" on my header that splits them.  The ports themselves just can use a lot of cleaning up and widening.  I stayed away from cutting the short turn radius because it's already a tight turn and removing material there would just make matters worse.  The smaller Honda valve stems give a bit more room for flow so that's another win.

Here's a pic of a header with that "fin".  Not mine but where I stole the idea.

In reply to dutch32 :

Rad, thanks for posting that. I've added the stock Opel valve lengths to my table on the previous page.

Some budgetary concerns have slowed me down on starting my engine build, but I'm finishing up the disc brake conversion for the red car now and will move on to the engine next.

In reply to Duder :

I understand that completely I've been moving much slower on my 70 than I would like.  Just pulled the front subframe yesterday to replace spring bushings shocks and sand blast and paint the control arms and member itself.  Should've been done a few weeks ago.  

In reply to dutch32 :

Well, keep plugging away bit by bit, and you'll get it done. Thanks for joining in the insanity via this thread. Maybe one of these days we will host a mad Kadett meet-up, with like 4 people in attendance. 

Some progress tonight: I got a nice Carter rotary electric fuel pump installed in the red street car. It fits quite nicely just behind and above the rear axle, wiht the bracket bolted through the trunk floor. I've used the clackity clack Facet style pumps in the past but wanted to try something quieter and these Carters seem to get good reviews. They don't publish much information about them, and there are about a dozen similar part numbers, so I hope the output pressure is low enough to not cause issues. It's designed to feed a small carb so should be OK I think. I will need to add a pre-filter most likely - the tank isn't terrible, but there is some junk floating around near the bottom.

I need to do the wiring, which will be dead simple. Our other friend Alex B. suggested that I get a universal 8-circuit hot rod style wiring harness kit w/ fuse block for this car, as a fresh start. I like that idea. We used a new Speedway kit on our Viccup pickup and it works a treat. The fuel pump will be on a simple toggle switch on the dash with a relay probably just for safety.

I've been plugging away at the front brake calipers that the Rallye parts car donated to my red car. They were super crusty and the pistons were stuck, but I freed up all 4 of them, got them out of the bores, and cleaned up. The caliper bodies I cleaned in an ultrasonic tank with Purple Power, and then blasted with glass beads. There is some light pitting in the bores but no big deal. These are now reassembled using Centric service kits from Rock Auto, plus new cheapy pads. I painted them with Eastwood caliper paint which is a very flowy urethane, applied with a foam brush. It's thick and hopefully durable.

After cleaning...

Before & after bead blasting.

Painted, then assembled.

I have some brackets to blast and zinc plate, then the master cylinder is next.

And my daily driver now is the '94 Roadmaster, which I got 2 years ago and have rotated through the fleet since then. It wouldn't pass smog back in November due to overly high NOx and I parked it for a while, over it. But then recently I replaced the EGR valve & solenoid, then welded in 2 new CARB-compliant cats and installed 2 new Denso O2 sensors. After all of that it passed the smog test on Monday and now I'm cruising in comfort from my blue leather sofa, one finger on the steering wheel. I bet I could fit half of a Kadett B in the back of this thing.

And big thanks to californiamilleghia for the Opel books!

In reply to Duder :

I would love to see you guys' cars and meet you all at some point. It's always nice to meet other people into these weird little things.  And yes there aren't a ton of us kadett folk. 

In reply to dutch32 :

Cool, yeah if you're in the South Bay LA area and want to hang out and kick some Kadett tires, let us know!

Duder said:

And big thanks to californiamilleghia for the Opel books!

I will look for more Opel stuff at the Big 3 swap meet Friday/Saturday in San diego

It's been a while since we've posted anything - but not for lack of activity. Alex has been kicking ass on the Opile (Lemons race car) with all kinds of neat developments that we will outline as soon as I can gather the required pics and thoughts into something coherent. Suffice it to say, that car has been totally transformed and is a really decent little performer. It's got response in the pedals and the steering wheel, power, and balls now. Stark contrast to the way it felt before it joined us for this little adventure - and I can't wait to race it again, whenever that can happen. Class C winners, you have a target on your back - watch out, Cadillac Allante!

My red street car is know known as Little Red Kadett (baby you're much too slow). Prince comes to mind whenever I'm thinking about that car now or working on it, and we could all use a little Prince in these dark times. I've futzed with it on and off for what seems like ages now but realized I haven't put all that many hours in on it. So a few weeks ago Alex helped me diagnose its propensity to not idle, which is being caused by loads of raw fuel being dumped into the venturi via the power valve. I cleaned the carb that was on there to no avail, and then rebuilt an older carb and got it running well and idling smoothly at sub-1k rpm. And then that carb went and did the same thing - way too much fuel which kills it at idle unless you constantly dance on the throttle to give it air and keep it alive.

In other news the brake project is nearly done after a few good sessions in my garage at home. I'm converting from dead 4-wheel drums to a dual circuit master and front discs from the Rallye parts car. The MC came apart for a rebuild only after much persuasion from a grease gun injection to pop the pistons past a lip of corrosion out at the end, but luckily only had minor pitting on the bore. I think this MC is originally from a 1968 Kadett so it's got an offset reservior but should work fine. We had rebuild kits in stock, and this gave me an excuse to buy a master cylinder hone, the kind with the three little thin stones on the spring loaded arms. It cleaned up great and went together without issue. I repainted the MC, booster, and associated bracketry with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black because it's easy to work with and has been super durable when I've used it on other cars.

The refreshed calipers and MC needed shiny hardware, and I have nothing but time at home these days, so I broke out the little basic home electroplating kit and plated all the bolts, clips, and brackets with zinc.

At our workshop I recently installed one of those cheap new security camera systems, with a smartphone app interface, which lets us do all kinds of shenanigans and is super helpful because it's a shared space and now I can remotely check to see if the lift is in use, or who's there at the shop before driving over. It records lots of video for review & monitoring purposes (actual security camera stuff). But more importantly we can also project a disembodied voice at whoever is using the milling machine through an intercom feature on the main camera. Creepy good times. My kid helped me set all of this up a few weeks ago and got a kick out of being a shop helper for the day. I can gaze longingly at Little Red Kadett from the comfort of my couch now.

This is me, doing my best unintentional dork face for the camera...

Yesterday Alex and I had to put suspension back underneath the Rallye because it had all been harvested, the car was up on jackstands in our parking lot, and management thought it looked unsafe. So we took the drum brake front end bits from my car and the old spare rear axle from the race car and installed them with no springs, nor bushings. It's hella stanced out now.

Mega wheelie

Low 'n (infinitely) slow...a non-runner next to our sharp lookin' strong runner, the 64 Ford Viccup...

We spread out all of our remaining front spindles, hubs, and brake parts all over the shop floor and selected a set that would bolt right onto my car with minimal fuss. I do need to source new upper & lower balljoints and new A-arm bushings all around, but the stuff we cobbled together is surprisingly serviceable and will do for now. It now has rebuilt calipers, new hoses, and new tie rod ends. Ultimately I will refresh a set of later 1.9L Kadett hubs which have larger angled roller bearings and work with larger balljoints, but I need a set of 68+ lower arms to make it all work so have to find some on ebay or wherever.

At any rate the car almost has brakes now - just need to install the MC, new rear hose and rear wheel cylinders, then bleed. I threw on the set of 13" BBS BMW wheels that came to us on the Rallye and took some inspiration pics yesterday too. It needs moar low for sure.

This is Alex, in a self described "deranged shop pic"...

Result of efforts...

Good to see you back , 

I saw a nice Opel wagen over on Hawthorne Blvd the other day , 

californiamilleghia said:

Good to see you back , 

I saw a nice Opel wagen over on Hawthorne Blvd the other day , 

 

I haven't seen one in decades, all the more reason to follow this thread.

Thanks for the update.

Thanks guys. More to come soon. 

Surprising that there's a wagon running around on the streets of the South Bay. If we ever see a cheap local 1.1L wagon or a Kadett A coupe pop up locally it would be hard to resist.

glad to see you guys are still at it and healthy.  looks like good progress.  depending upon if the shipping makes it unreasonable or not i may be able to send you a set of lower control arms from a 68+ kadett when i get the spare front end i have torn apart.   Did you rebuild the booster or is yours still functioning?  asking because i will eventually be staring that task (finding a new one or rebuild kit) down for my 67.

In reply to Duder : the kadett a coupe (or wagon) will be my next search subject.  

In reply to dutch32 :

Hey, sorry I haven't checked back in a while and didn't see your posts until now. I'm definitely interested in the 68+ lower control arms, if you have a spare set. The booster I have should be functional, it seems to be fine, was just ugly and needed a repaint.

In reply to Duder :

No worries, and yea i do have a spair set.  So we can figure out that no problem just message me details and such.  And okay was just curious cus the options are very limited.  For my 70 I'm looking at potentially swapping in booster and maybe master cylinder from something else (maybe chrysler k car ? )  due to not being able to find cost effective replacement.  

Hello Gang!

OK.  It's been a while since I posted any progress here but there has been progress.  The question of "If a car get's built and it's not documented on a forum did it even really happen?" is about to be answered.

So let's see...  Since the Opile entered the Covid Pandemic lockdown some things have happened.  Let's start with an ignition upgrade.  I was generously gifted a Megajolt EDIS based ignition system and had to try that out.  Some assembly required of course.

Had a tough time getting the trigger wheel to behave on the very thin sheetmetal Opel front pulley.  Here's what I ended up with and it's been surviving 7k+ RPM so far.  Needed an additional sheet welded to the front to cut flex and keep the timing solid.

Here's the crank sensor mount.  Again, any flex is a disaster and will make for wild knocking and inconsistent running.  This setup was not my first attempt.  The 1.0 version was much crappier and caused a lot of mysterious issues.  One really needs to be thoughtful when making this stuff or you can blow up a motor in short order.  Here I made some standoffs and used the factory front cover mount holes to attach a "bridge" that had the sensor mounted to it.  Very sold and also on the inside of the belt so I don't need to mess with it when removing the belt and that's goot for trackside repairs.  Other note, that front seal is a McMaster Carr part I adapted.  The stock seal was a comical felt deal with a worm cut on the pulley shaft to keep oil back.  Narrator:  "It did not keep the oil back."

After a bunch of testing I've settled on a good ignition map.  Big advantage of programmable is being able to advance to 55deg on lift throttle so it burns everything on rundown.  Less gassy smell.  The other big deal is having a non linear timing curve.  The knock threshold of my engine  under max load is approx 34deg from 3k to 5k, then 30deg from 5k to 6k, and then 36 deg after that.  Since the Mogajolt can read manifold vacuum I have it advance a lot under part load for much better running at cruise.  I haven't dynoed with this setup yet but I bet there will be significant gains at lower rpm.  I'm not expecting much more peak HP but maybe I picked up a bit there too.  The EDIS spark is clearly stronger and the car feels more solid from idle all the way to the limiter at 7250.

OK.  Now that the car is basically making twice the stock power let's think about suspension and brakes.  Stock setup is not terrible with an adorable little twin wishbones in front and a torque tube arrangement for the tiny solid axle in the rear.  Long ago I added a panhard bar back there and it helped a lot.  Recently I changed from the 390 "L" rear gear to the 410 "Rallye" rear axle and it made 4th gear much more usable.  It's still geared too tall, with a calculated top speed of over 110mph but it's better.  While there's a 430 rear that came in the automatic cars but I haven't found one yet.  It would be perfect for most of the tracks this car would run.

Brakes were tiny little sold discs in the front and drums in back that probably are just for looks to be honest.  It was not really possible to lock the 205/15 Azenis with these brakes no matter how hard one hammered the pedal.  So...

I scavenged a set of 1.6 Miata calipers and rotors for a full conversion.  The rear was easy with a crude plate steel mount welded to the axle doing the job.  Crazy thing is that the bake lines are the same thread size and pitch as the Opel stuff so I just bolted it all together once the mounts were made.  Even the parking brake is hooked up using the stock Opel cable.  It's amazing how easy this was.

What about the front?  OK, so here's the thing:  It would be easy to adapt any number of 4x100  pattern car's rotors and calipers to the front hubs of the Opel but the issue is that the Opel wheel bearings are tiny and pathetic.  The good news is they are also rare and expensive.  I chose another direction.

What we have here is a stock Opel lower control arm with a NA Miata lower ball joint grafted on.  Hillariously the Opel upper ball joints are the same diameter and taper as the Miata parts so that required no changes.  Here are a couple closeups.