I own two Calibra's one an electric one and the other an 8V. Now the electric one is converted and I am waiting for batteries or more honestly the cash for the batteries (about 3 grand) which is not coming anytime soon (until I have sold a private plate), so over the last 6 months I have been lurking on that well known purveyor of second hand of everything auction place and pounced on a few items.

The magnetic blue C20NE engined Calibra is my daily car, except it is not my daily car anymore as the company I work for gave me some free transport - sort of golden handcuffs to keep me there, and to be honest their dastardly ploy has worked and they have promoted me too recently (just name not salary but you never know....). So the urgency of keeping it tip top ready has gone and it is used for the supermarket and weekend runs.

But as you know, you flick through YouTube and come across turbo 4x4 and redtops and then you watch European Calibra Day video and I was glad I did not turn up this year as I threatened to - the Calibra's there were awesome - I couldn't see one dud (or really good editing anyway).

At this point I was torn between saving dosh for the batteries or splurging a bit of dosh on parts for the 8V. So after the ECD video I decided the paint on the 8V was recent and good quality so all I needed to save face was a set of wheels, lowering kit and shocks plus something extra under the bonnet but keeping the 8v.

OK plan was hatched, keep her indoors from finding out, managed to squirrel away some cash into paypal by selling stuff. Then I had to re roof the house this year, which put everything on hold for three months while I was hanging off the scaffolding 7 metres up in the air, but I managed a few more deals and more bits were bought.

Now I managed to get hold of so far is:

1. Saab 93 garret T25 Turbochager £45.37
2. Mercedes van intercooler (wide but not very high will fit under the bumper) £15
3. 6 x refurbished Red injectors from a V6 250cc - good for 200Hp £40
4. 2mm decompression plate (ok I hear the gasps) reducing compression to 8.5:1 or around 9 for the new pistons £35
5. New clutch £24.99
6. Replacement gearbox £90
7.C20xe Mahle Pistons Including Rods £30
8.Vauxhall GTE inlet manifold including throttle body £40
9.Vauxhall 8v 2.0 20E Cylinder Head (hardened valve seat version) £39.95
10. remote oil cooler sandwich plate (new) £20.15
11. Head bolts £14

piece de la resistance
12. Pontiac Sunbird 2.0 Turbo exhaust manifold (new, from the american turbo cavalier 8v) £67.03

Now still looking for a c20ne block if anyone has one going cheap (below 100) or swap AR 2.0 twinspark block, with the plan is to assemble everything before then swap the engines over a weekend.

More to follow

Hi all

Just an update, managed to get some c20get +0.75mm pistons made by sealed power, cast not forged but not going to exceed 6500 rpm anyways. Delivered were £78 from the USA. ordered rings for them plus new hydraulic lifters. Going to send the 20E head to have the new valve guides pushed in, then grind the valves into their seats after a bit of porting and polishing next weekend. Last on the list is some ARP bolts from the USA again for £47 instead of the rip off £80 on egay and elsewhere. I am going to use the 8v rods (shot peened) which will be good to 300Hp with ARP-s and the rev limit, the conrods are only experiencing extra compression forces not G forces of extended revolutions - I don't get the obsession with RPM on a street car,  the calibra´s don´t have variable cam timing. I would rather pull a higher gear with more torque - discuss....

I have heard the diesel version of the followers are stronger than the petrol version, anyone done this?

Apart from a full gasket set and full bearing set and machining the bores and maybe the crank, I am good to go.

I managed to get a full engine plus gearbox plus spare inlet manifold and all ancilliaries from Milo in Sheffield - the go to guy for Calibra parts.

U need a proper camshaft, ain't u ask to Cat/Kent..... for a correct timed one?

Yes, I need a camshaft with low or zero overlap between the exhaust valve closing and the intake valve opening or the turbo high pressure mixture charge gets blown out the exhaust (backfire) Cat cams is a real possibility as they can grind cams to order and they have up rated valve springs too, to stop float at around 5000 rpm (spring seats might need machining though). The stock cam is for injection but normally aspirated, good to about 200hp.

None about for the 2.0 variant, just so few of these cars made over 2 to 3 years, however Federal Mogul do a 1.8L turbo cam (discontinued) CS-784 available at Rockauto.com and  another CS-785 for the 2.2 and 2.5 litre versions of the C20ne (for trucks, S10's, frontera thingy's) also from the same place. Rockauto I have used many times for different cars I have had, if a variant was sold in the USA then Rockauto have the parts dirt cheap and now it's all vat import tax and carriage included so no nasty bill on arrival, (full top end gasket set £9!).

The Cams are pretty cheap so could be worth a gamble, I am guessing the truck one won't want any power over 4000 RPM, more a torque thing going on there. The 1.8 version I would guess be like from the engine the first GTE's in the mid 80's so would be compatible with the C20ne cam carrier.