Sorting out reconditioned gearbox. The F16C as fitted to range of Vauxhall cars can have different final drive ratios. So finding the one I want (from a 1.8 because it has a lower ratio) will prove difficult unless I know where it came from. Maybe I could buy salvaged one and have it rebuilt.

My enthusiasm is rising again after a few days of wondering if this tuning effort is worth it. Still having problem with odd steering in straight line and wheel wobble and warped discs. However, this car still feels satisfying fast. It's surprising how many new cars it can outperform, like a Megane coupe. There's been some discussion on the MIG bulletin board about 8v versus 16v. A few people said that up to 100mph the 8v will match the 16v, but past there the 16v gets the lead.

One of companies I e-mailed about gear box said I should check the wheel bearings. That makes sense. Rumbly noise comes from front left hand side when I do right turns. It's still there with the clutch pressed down. Order bearings from my local factors. Impulse buy a new ball joint seperator as well, since my current one never fits properly.

Just got a late Christmas present - "Four stroke performance tuning" by A. Graham Bell. Very interesting book, complements his other one "Modern engine tuning". Plus I picked up some books at a 2nd hand shop "tuning the Ford pinto engine" and "car suspension design".

I wish I had more money! Feeling reckless, why not order the head? I could fit it in a Saturday afternoon. Still waiting for info on inlet manifold. CC Motorsport are looking into what's available since the Irmscher item is no longer available.

I'm spending too much time surfing the web and not enough time modifying.

Talking to Vauxspeed about their cylinder heads. They reckon that one of their 3 angle cut, larger valve, ported heads could add 20% to torque and power. Maybe that's with other mods, since Blydenstein head offers +15% at the wheels.

Trying to sort out warped discs. Have found a local engineering shop who will grind them true for me. Asked around about this and it is a common problem on Astras. Also EBC pads and Black Diamond discs are recommended by a variety of people.

I was driving along thinking how sweetly the engine was running when the ECU warning light came on. Slowly the engine ran more and more lumpily. The power came in unpredictable spurts. Then the engine started to backfire with pops and bangs coming out of the exhaust. In the end I pulled into a service station to have a look under the bonnet. I wiggled all of the sensor wires around a bit and unplugged and replugged all of the connectors. After that everything was fine.

Yesterday the warning lights were like a mobile disco: oil, water, washer water. All came on at one time or another. So boring old maintenance: oil (Duckhams QXR at £20 if you want to know), filter, new discs (so that old ones can be ground), throttle and idle valve clean out. Found rubber inlet pipe has perish hole in it. Tried to work out why steering felt a bit slack. Found nothing obvious.

I'm amazed. This site's had 148 hits in 12 days.

Emergency MOT. I was looking at last year's certificate and spotted that it was due this week. Manage to book car into local place for 11.30am. Results good: failed on headlamp alignment and a bit of welding needed in the front wheel arch. Estimated cost to fix: £45.

Get front wheels rebalanced. They were a bit out. Hopefully wobble will dissapear now.

Welding arranged for tomorrow. In order to make the job easier I agreed to lift the carpet in the driver's footwell. Have to take seat out and centre console. Under the carpet the foam layer is totally sodden with water. Not a pleasant smell. The hole in the wheel arch has allowed water into the chassis member and it has started to rust through into the inside. So in wet weather water must be flying off the wheel into there. Plan to Waxoyl the internals of the chassis in that place.

Have been building a computer based car acceleration and 1/4 mile time predictor. After fiddling around with the constants I produced 0-60 estimate of 8.2s, top speed of 128mph, 1/4mile time of 16.1s at 90mph. If I can add 10% to torque everywhere then I'll get 7.4s, 133mph, 15.5, 95mph. That'd be good.

Car passes MOT. Total cost £70. I've never had such an easy one before.

Loads of little jobs: Fit new pipe between air flow meter and throttle body. Whilst I'm in the mood decide to fix rear demister. The plastic around the fuse slot had melted at some stage. No voltage at the fuse contacts. After a load of fiddling around I pull the fusebox out and discover that a previous owner had cut the wires from the demister fuse. Spend long time trying to spot homeless red and brown wires. Eventually look in Haynes manual and work out what has happened. Someone fixed the problem by moving the wires to a spare fuse slot. Put fuse in there and it works. Then I get all keen and decide to remove the cruddy stickers that are one the rear and side windows. Find careful heating with blow torch effective. Then scrub with white spirits. Very satisfying except that I scratch the rear window.

Drying out the front undercarpet foam by having the heating on full all the time. Local Vaux dealer can get an Irmscher large tract inlet manifold for me.

Order new steering control arms since I know that one of them is bent. Order reconditioned power steering rack from Power SteeringServices.co.uk. Reading up on BBR Starchips, similar to Superchips. Dastek UniChip looks like best option. Thinking about Seat Ibiza splitter for front bumper.

Fit new throttle potentiometer (brand new which cost £67). Seems to have improved the deceleration jerkiness. Hopefully it will banish the ocassional problem I've been having on hard acceleration.

Getting a lot of encouragement on the MIG forum. Lot of people saying how their 8v GTE's can almost match 16v Calibras and Cav Gsi. Someone got 155lb-ft and 163BHP out of the same engine (cam, head, superchip, exhaust system) so my plans look feasible.

Fit new power steering rack. On the road things were much improved, but the steering felt very heavy when not cornering. Must get tracking rechecked. I spoke to the suppliers about the rack and they told me that the new seals in the unit take a while to bed in.

At last I feel like I'm getting somewhere with this car. It feels up together and almost quick enough now. Ordered Irmscher inlet manifold because I'm fed up with talking about it. Still have carpet up so that I can sort the leak out.

Irmscher inlet manifold finally arrived today. There's only two of these left for sale in the UK. Spent a few hours fitting it.

It's taken a while to appreciate the performance improvement. Definitely keener from 3000rpm upwards. Also steering feels almost right now. Feel that, at last, I'm starting to get somewhere with this car. Money is holding me back though. I've been looking at a lot of car specs and I reckon that 150lb-ft/150BHP in a car that weighs about 1000KG will match a lot of performance cars.

In a good mood. After a few weeks of feeling that the car isn't fast enough I've woken up and started to appreciate it properly. I took it out on Sunday afternoon after cleaning it and it felt fast, together, torquey and firm. It really is a rapid mover. Trouble with power is that you become accustomed and addicted to it, and want more. I still like this car a lot.

Leak not sorted. suspect is now the heater matrix. Repeat: "I will sort the leak. I will sort the leak. I will sort the leak.I will sort the leak. I will sort the leak. I will sort the leak. I will sort the leak."

In excellent mood. God this car is rapid. It must be a combination of the cold air adding a few percent and the Irmscher manifold. I reckon it's lifted torque from 3000rpm upwards. It feels like 7-8% extra. And it's smoothed things out.

Some recent, er testing, has proved this car to be as fast or better than a lot of brand new hot hatches. I was easily matching a 2L 16v Astra MK4, gaining by 3-4% as well. The owner was not happy. MK2 beats MK4 ha ha. And some of the repland BMW's have been dealt with. A brand new 206 Gti seemed a bit slower as well, not much in that. I'm not bragging, I'm suprised if anything. Keep things in proportion though. This proves that this GTE is at the upper end of the normally aspirated hot hatch league. It couldn't see off say a Cav or Calibra turbo, or the big engined BMW's. If I can make 160 BHP and 150 lb-ft with an uprated ECU as well the head etc then I reckon I could get quite closer to the top of the hot hatch league. I'll be poking into the proper coupe/sports car range by then. Which will be nice. The pyramid gets narrower as you go up.

The sad thing is that I can't see any more desireable hatches around at the moment. Only the 106GTi is keeping the idea alive, or maybe the Saxo. I've been looking at Porsche as well. The 2.8 4 cylinder 8v cars would be a logical progression. The early 80's models are cheap. And they look purposeful and classy. Sort of next step after a hatch.

Picked up tie rod and steering flexible coupling.

Looking at bump steer modification. Just sketching out concept and doing some trigonometry.

Talking to SBD about an MBE aftermarket ECU. This will be last last tuning job for now after I've got the uprated head on. It will allow removal of the restrictive air flow meter and for the fuelling and ignition advance to be optimised for the engine. More

A bit of nervous tension building up about theMIG rolling road day at Regal this Saturday. What if my engine suddenly develops a freak misfire on Saturday morning? All part of the fun I suppose. Hope to be making 135-137BHP and 133-135 lb-ft. Will be very interesting to see how I'm doing in a back to back test with other cars. Mind you're there's a 210BHP throttle bodied 2L 16v and a 210BHP turbo going on. I'm representing the tamer end of things, but 135BHP is fine thanks.

Have been ill and off work for two days running. Need day off to sort car. So I force myself to have a go. Just planned on fitting new steering tie rods and flex coupling to steering column. Moved car so that I could get garage ready. Came back and discovered puddle of fuel under driver's door. Oh no. Fuel pipe corroded through. So I had to remove old pipes and take them down to local special place and have Copper alloy ones cut to length and the ends flared so that the rubber pipes wouldn't pull off. Since the alloy pipes bend easily I thought that fitting would be an easy job. It was not. Absolute pig of a job. It took me 4 hours. The trouble was that I couldn't just bend the pipe in situ. I had to keep offering it up, then removing it and then making corrections. Combine that with a miserable selection of plastic clips (new ones on order) and you get the idea.

Then I replaced the tie rods and the rubber flex coupling that joins the steering column to the rack. That was hard work as well. Had to loosen rack which meant removing the tie rods from the rack. Then lying on my back with head next to pedals. Grunting and straining. Miserable.

Whilst I was doing this I spotted the source of the cabin water leak. It was a rather serious looking crack in the weld where various panels meet. In the corner behind the brake pedal. Got to have that welded up or I reckon it will get worse quickly. Miserable.

Then oil and filter change.

Then finally at 10pm I started cleaning the car ready for the MIG session in the morning. Firstly degreased engine. Then did outside. Double high wax wash with wheel clean. That took about an hour. Then inside. By this time I had decided to skimp. So I just put the carpet back down and used cockpit shine to brighten up the dash and to remove a few oily marks.

MIG rolling road day at Regal. Vexing results. Peak power increased encouragingly to 145BHP which is just about plausible. However, no increase in torque. That's odd because the Irmscher is supposed to add more torque than it does power. Results.

Had fun going down in a 7 car MIG convoy. Very touched to be told that my car sounds sorted when revved and that it looks quite mean in the rear view mirror.

MIG turn out to be a very friendly group of Vauxhall enthusiasts. It's how it should be, with complete strangers openly sharing ideas. General level of knowledge and experience seems to be high. All the Astras are red. All the Astras need a bit of help on the rollers - two people sitting on the front of the engine bay. That must explain those traction problems in the wet.

Go round to a local garage/paint shop that was recommended to me. Get them to quote for welding up the rusty leaky bit in the drivers footwell near the pedals. Agree to have job done on Friday, pick up Saturday afternoon. Whilst I'm there we talk resprays. I'm thinking about putting new bumpers and plastics on and having all metalwork resprayed in same colour (tart Red). I want the car to look almost standard since I like the shape. Just want it to look really clean. Also going to have the liquorice bump strips replaced with smaller items. Wondering about the side skirts. They should stay as standard I suppose. Also going to keep the black vinyl covered areas since Red and Black is a good contrast. For the same reason I'm going to keep the Grey bits Grey. I've seen cars where everything has been colour coded and it looks like the paint sprayer was a bit careless and covered everything by mistake. Wondering about having wheels painted White? Need to play with picture of car in Adobe Photoshop.

Have car rolling roaded at new place (for me) Mech Repairs in Cheltenham. Vexing results. They say it's making only 129BHP, 120 lb-ft. The spec is 129BHP, 133 lb-ft. But it's making 105-110BHP at the wheels which is 5-10BHP better than before I fitted the Irmscher inlet manifold. Not sure what to make of this. Plan to go back round to my normal place, the Power Station, also in Cheltenham.

Have rusty bit welded up. Whilst car is at garage I borrow my brothers Corrado G60. It's got a 1.8 supercharged engine that should make 160lb-ft and 160BHP. Whilst being a well regarded car I miss my Astra. The Corrado doesn't feel that much faster and has a disappointing throttle response. Nothing much happens up to about 70% throttle and then it takes off. Might not be running quite right.

Take set of brake discs round to Maynards to have them ground true. It's a great place - an entire engineering workshop geared to engine rebuilding. For about £130 they'd skim a head, do a three angle valve grind, fit new guideways and supply back cut valves. Quite tempted to do a DIY head job. Uncertain because say I do a good job and get an extra 8BHP, for twice the money I could get a near guaranteed 14-15BHP from Blydenstein.

Decide to rust seal the inside of the sills, especially the bit in the footwell that has just been welded up. A simple Sunday afternoon job. Wrong. If you've ever had any experience of Waxoyl then you'll know what I mean. Waxoyl is a waxy oily rust proofing agent that can be sprayed in using a pressurised system. There is a pressure container with a bike pump style pump attached. This is used to pressurise the air in the container. This pushes the Waxoyl down a pipe to a spray gun. To make it work it is essential to keep the wax warm and to thin it out with white spirits. Despite all of this, I still had a disaster when the sprayer stopped working. As I attempted to screw the spray nozzle back on I accidently unscrewed the connecting pipe. Being under considerable pressure the wax blew out of the pipe. By this stage both the ground and me were covered in slippery wax. Still, I got a fair amount of the wax in the sill using the access holes in the rear wheel arches and by drilling a 6mm hole under where the carpet goes by the front door sill.

Have been considering engine swaps. After talking to a few people I drew up the following options:

Vauxhall 2L16v engine 20XE

Easy swap that will not affect handling. Will give 156BHP from well regarded unit.

Calibra turbo engine 20LET

Essentially a 2L16v 20XE engine with a blower. So relatively simple to fit, converting 6 speed gearbox is an unknown, or can use 2L16 F20 box (5 speed). Will be a bit heavier, and could I really used 210BHP?

Vectra/Omega 2.5V6

A difficult swap apparently. Bit heavy. Not looking too good, but it had been done.

Supercharge the 2L8v 20SER engine

A tempting proposition. Should give around 180BHP without too much hassle. Most expensive option and difficult to get set up properly.

Tune the 2L 8v

The most interesting route, still quite expensive and will not give crazy power. But a healthy 160BHP would be appreciated and still fast by most standards.

Interesting day. Take MIG mate Mavvmad round to look at his new car. A 1990 G reg 2L 16v GTE. He's keen to drive my car. It's a very interesting experience. The car feels much faster as a passenger. Luckily, he seems quite impressed. Faster than his Cavalier CDi. And he commented on the mid range pull and the firm handling.

The GTE 16v turns out to be fine. For £550 it's a steal. Underneath it looks in similar condition to my 8v. Bonnet and one wing are a bit rusty, but they're easy to replace. Test drive reveals it to be pretty quick, very good for 160K miles. As a passenger it felt a bit quicker than my 8v.

Journey back proves to be very entertaining. I get the opportunity to demonstrate the advantage that the Koni suspension kit gives on cornering. And most encouraginly, this 16v is not that much quicker than my 8v. I was worried that it might leave me struggling, but at full throttle the gap between the two hardly varies. At some stages I almost felt that I was gaining a bit. It's hard to draw conclusions especially since the starting positions and speeds can make a large difference. I'd say that the 16v is faster, but not by a massive amount.

Conclusion: there is a bright future for the tuned 8v.

Finally get round to sorting the exhaust tail pipe. It was bugging me because as the system settled it had started to touch the bottom of the rear bumper. It just looked wrong. Took me ages to get it looking right. The problem was that I couldn't get the height right and keep the oval level. This was because they didn't weld the tail pipe onto the back box at the right angle. Eventually I used a hammer to knock the hanger out further. The pipe also wasn't quite level, but looked OK when it was back at ground level.

Major cleaning session. Even removed most of the oily marks from the boot. Had a mionor disaster when I tried to remove the annoying and pointless additional GTE sticker that the previous owner had put on the right hand side. I investigated using the Jetwash to lift this off. Unfortunately a large strip of the black Vinyl came off instead. I now had a red lightening mark on the back.

The intermittent acceleration problem has returned. Pants. If I'm flooring it up through the gears then it sometimes refuses to budge when I'm in 3rd. Maybe it's a sensor or connection. Or maybe the fuel pump is slowly losing it. Hmm. I could fit a temporary fuel pressure gauge and monitor it to see what's happening.

Firmed up the Koni suspension back to 1/2 turn at front and 1/4 turn at rear. I'd started to find the limitations of having it set at minimum hardness. Mainly the old Astra problem - an insecure feeling if doing undulations and corners simultaneously.

Poured entire bottle of injector cleaner into a 1/4 tank of petrol. Might help things out a bit.

Excellent weekend. On Saturday up to Carlisle from Gloucester. Best bit was A6 over Shap. Was cold and dry morning. Road was wide and curvey with good visibility. Managed to see off a Ford Cougar, which was nice.

Met up with internet buddies Slick and Barnes (from MIG). Took them out for quick demo in the Astra and they seemed pretty impressed. On their test roundabout it was "wahhheyyyyyy". Then Barnes showed us what his 140BHP Nova 1.6 could do. Felt very fast. Then we had a major wash and polish sessions on the cars ready for our trip to Crail drag strip on Sunday. Also fitted some NGK V Grooved plugs. Then out for a few beers.

Sunday it was convoy time up to Crail. Snowed very heavily, prospects looked pretty bleak. Cleared up by the time we got there. Report.

On the return journey to Gloucester the car seemed to run better than ever. Must have cleared out any remaining cobwebs.

Got lots of supportive comments on the MIG bulletin board. In such a good mood that I spent the night washing and polishing car. Finally remove the cruddy key protectors under the door locks. Also bought steering lock.

Go to Santa Pod 1/4 mile strip. Results

Rolling road session. Firstly they discover weak spark on cylinder 2. Aha, that's where I knackered the lead when chaning the plugs 3 weeks ago. So new set of leads. Feels better instantly. Managed 105BHP at wheels, 137BHP at flywheel, 129lb-ft. That's OK, but the Irmscher inlet manifold hasn't produced the torque gain that I was expecting. But it's not port matched yet.