My brother-in law has just bought himself a cheap car to go to and from work - its a 1991 L reg 2.0 Calibra.

The bodywork is fantastic - apparently been polished since day 1 it really does look like new.

However at 98k miles the engine does sound very tappety.

What are the known issues with these? It has had a cambelt change.

Also the exhaust manifold looks very white :confused:

No idea on the question, but wasn't 'L' '93? My Dad had an H-reg 16v Calibra that was an excellent car and timed to 60 at a shade over 7 seconds As far as I remember, that was fault free over the 70k miles/3 years he owned it....

Chris

The camshafts tend to wear on those engines, so you get a tappety noise, even when the clearances are correct.

The manifold is probably a combination of hard driving, so it's got hot, and salt from winter driving. Most of my Cavs used to get it.

There's a million of those engines out there, so you can always get bits, or even a spare engine for not many pennies.

Phil

My Dad actually had 2 Cavaliers with the same engine, one was an L reg (written off by a hay bale) the other an M - I think the latter covered about 70k hassle free miles.

For a red car the paint is fantastic - its been garaged which helps and the previous owner worked a lot of nights so its seen very little sun.

Chris - not sure on the year, it was an guess really.

Apparently I have heard the words "chocolate camshafts" or something like that from a simlar thread.

ooops clicky clicky...double post

ditch the engine and stick a LET in there. much more fun. or the 2.5v6 from the chavalier

my mate has a 2.5v6 in his with the shorter legged box from the 2.0 and the lighter flywheel from the 2.0 too. along with a drilled airbox it sounds quite fruity and goes quite well

It could be any one of three engines, 2.0 8v, 2.0 16v 'Red top'' or 2.0 16v Ecotec. All have different problems

It is the 2.0 16v red Top

what does it go like now? A uni mate had one, and it was quick, but that was almost 10 years ago now.

Vauxhall's 2litre "Red-Top" Valver is one of the best 16V units ever!!! Go like Fook especially when shoe-horned into Nova's

I know they are fast when new. I meant what does it go like 'now', ie. It's a fairly old car.

It is the 2.0 16v red Top

From what I remember from frequenting the cavalier boards the heads can go porous, unless they are coscast then not such a problem.

Look for creamy stuff in the coolant from memory, of course I could be spouting tripe as i'm not a mechanic and again this is all from memory.

I used to have a Cav 2.0 16v CDX with the 136BHP Ecotec engine, was quite a swift car when it wasn't suffering from various faulty crank sensors and engine management lights illuminating every five minutes.