P1CK4D
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Around Essex Somewhere
User status: Offline
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Luke - Do you do the work on your car yourself?
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Luke
Member
Registered: 9th Dec 05
Location: Oxford Drives:Corsa B C20LET
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by P1CK4D
Luke - Do you do the work on your car yourself?
I've done an xe conversion. Beardy done my let conversion because of the bad luck i had & i lost faith & thought the easiest way out was to pay someone to do it.
EDIT: To answer your question propperly, i do some of the work, i couldn't re-build an engine by myself.
[Edited on 26-05-2009 by Luke]
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P1CK4D
Member
Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Around Essex Somewhere
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Luke
quote:
Originally posted by P1CK4D
Luke - Do you do the work on your car yourself?
I've done an xe conversion. Beardy done my let conversion because of the bad luck i had & i lost faith & thought the easiest way out was to pay someone to do it.
And what about when things go wrong?
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Luke
Member
Registered: 9th Dec 05
Location: Oxford Drives:Corsa B C20LET
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by P1CK4D
quote:
Originally posted by Luke
quote:
Originally posted by P1CK4D
Luke - Do you do the work on your car yourself?
I've done an xe conversion. Beardy done my let conversion because of the bad luck i had & i lost faith & thought the easiest way out was to pay someone to do it.
And what about when things go wrong?
My piston ring or burnt valve or whatever it is, i don't think i'm mechanically minded to fix that, i can take it apart no problem. I don't trust myself doing a job that big & putting it together, turning the key & it being fucked. That would ruin me.
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alan-g-w
Member
Registered: 9th Nov 07
Location: Glasgow
User status: Offline
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I'm thinking of sticking a LET in the corsa since the XE's started kicking out blue smoke in the last few weeks. XE's are bad enough - I'm quite handy with a spanner but by no means a fully fledged mechanic.
An example of a few things that have gone wrong with mine:
- ran it for 6 months taking the battery inside with me every night to charge it due to it flinging fan belts off whenever I fitted a new one. Realised it was the PAS pump that was out of alignment after all that time and had space it out then re-fit.
- Alternator rubs inner wing which gets on my tits.
- EML now comes on and off, keep meaning to flash the codes off it. Not too sure if I can tbh?
- Timing belt slipped and caused 16 bent valves and the need for 16 valve guides to be replaced. Was a fun 3 months.
There's more but I can't remember the now. And that's with an XE, I can imagine an LET would be even more of a pain in the dick to work on for the sheer fact it has more parts. The main difficulty I'd say is the fact that there isn't a lot of room to get in and it's that bit more difficult.
I'd say mine's been off the road more than it's been on it, it's never been 100% together (always little niggles) and if someone offered me what I paid (too much) I'd bite their hand off.
But I'd just go out and buy another better one with the cash. For me, for performance per £ you can't get much better than a 2 litre corsa.
[Edited on 26-05-2009 by alan-g-w]
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P1CK4D
Member
Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Around Essex Somewhere
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Luke
quote:
Originally posted by P1CK4D
quote:
Originally posted by Luke
quote:
Originally posted by P1CK4D
Luke - Do you do the work on your car yourself?
I've done an xe conversion. Beardy done my let conversion because of the bad luck i had & i lost faith & thought the easiest way out was to pay someone to do it.
And what about when things go wrong?
My piston ring or burnt valve or whatever it is, i don't think i'm mechanically minded to fix that, i can take it apart no problem. I don't trust myself doing a job that big & putting it together, turning the key & it being fucked. That would ruin me.
All I can do is turn the key, start and drive. hence why i got rid. 
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corb
Member
Registered: 24th Apr 02
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
User status: Offline
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I knew nothing about engines and that before my XE went in! Since deciding to rebuild my LET myself it seems much easier than I'd imagined - its just a big 3 dimensional puzzle.
I voted yes, surprised theres 54 people on here with LET conversions, didnt realise there were that many about!
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Nic Barnes
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: nowhere near ginger people
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by corb
I knew nothing about engines and that before my XE went in! Since deciding to rebuild my LET myself it seems much easier than I'd imagined - its just a big 3 dimensional puzzle.
I voted yes, surprised theres 54 people on here with LET conversions, didnt realise there were that many about!
there isnt. people are just voting no for the sake of it to be funny.
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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should make a list of cars.
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Mike GSi
Member
Registered: 3rd Jan 07
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Drives:Astra VXR
User status: Offline
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Mine is now back on the road, thanks to some hermatite 
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john_c20xe
Member
Registered: 10th Feb 08
Location: Eastbourne, EastSussex
User status: Offline
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feels great knowing you build the car yourself, driving with a big grin 
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gez bay
Member
Registered: 14th Feb 08
Location: South Wales drives: Vxr
User status: Offline
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the work will be done by me and my brother...my brother mainly, so the cost of labour is £0
i wouldnt do a conversion if it wasnt done by myself and my brother, because you havent had the enjoyment of building the car up to what it is/will be.
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john_c20xe
Member
Registered: 10th Feb 08
Location: Eastbourne, EastSussex
User status: Offline
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its all about learning i'd say,
like one of the people in our lock up works for sainsburys and is doing paint spraying in college,
hes stripped his mk5 fiesta down to the shell, made his own wiring loo for the lights , wipers ect on a dash pannel. fitted a 2.0 st engine and box, and is still going on to fit throttel bodies and managment, taking his time doing it tho as he hasnt got a clue what hes doing but hes learning
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Limecat
Banned
Registered: 25th Jun 05
Location: The Internet
User status: Offline
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It's very easy to explain why they get a bad name and it is not completely to do with the fact that they are a 'conversion'.
The primary reason is that people see a cheap dogshit Calibra and see pound signs. They break them for parts, always asking a grand plus for the LET. Now stop and question why the car was so cheap in the first place? Probably because it was a tired old shitter, so if someone cannot be arsed to wash mud from the arches so the car rots like a pear are people honestly stupid enough to think the engine will be maintained regardless of cost? Of course it wont. The supply line for LETs is mainly from people breaking shitters that are out for some quick money.
Now take that shitty engine, pulled out in a hurry to make a quick buck and put that into a Corsa, often by people who don't 100% know what they are doing. The wiring will be botched, sensors will no doubt be fucked (see maintenance) earths will be poor. All simple things that add up.
The unreliable crap examples will change hands a lot or again get broken so the process repeats itself.
I paid what would be classed as big money for my standard LET because I knew its history, I had worked on it and I knew exactly what had been replaced because I had replaced it.
People buy cheap examples, don't factor for service parts then cry when it spits a belt. 
Another thing is chip sets from unknown sources, people fit them and wonder why everything has gone tits up. I bet they didn't bother to have it checked on the rollers/wide band before spanking the tits off it, eh?
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Nic Barnes
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: nowhere near ginger people
User status: Offline
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every word you wrote is true i bet for the majority of conversions
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gez bay
Member
Registered: 14th Feb 08
Location: South Wales drives: Vxr
User status: Offline
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i wouldnt be suprised either, you always hear people saying, i cant afford to rebuild it, im just going to put it in your asking for trouble
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swill_omnibus
Member
Registered: 12th Dec 07
Location: : S. wales Drives: Dodge Caliber
User status: Offline
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I reckon if you can maintain it yourself or have a friend that you can rely on not to rip you of and/or take his time then go for it personally 
I vote yes.
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p16vlv
Member
Registered: 15th Jun 02
Location: rossendale
User status: Offline
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my xe and let never let me down apart from one xe blowing up, gearbox dying and 2 drive shafts breaking. this is over 6yrs of having them. it definately makes a difference fitting the engines properly . i have seen plenty of engines just thrown in and people expecting them to have no problems.
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gez bay
Member
Registered: 14th Feb 08
Location: South Wales drives: Vxr
User status: Offline
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if i'd just dumped an high milage engine in a car without toutching it, everytime i'd boot it i'd we waiting for something to go wrong
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john_c20xe
Member
Registered: 10th Feb 08
Location: Eastbourne, EastSussex
User status: Offline
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my let was high milage and the person i got it off said its had some money spent on it but cant prove anything, the cav it came out off was really nice tho, have got info from the old car and vids of the cav round castle combe and rolling road print outs.
i know its not alot to work on but seemed ok to me, the bloke did say to me about the things he knew was changed exept the cambelt. so atleast he didnt bullshit about that gettin done
did a bit of reasearch and waited till a nice one came up, wanted to get one from a forum so atleast other people can vouch that they are a good person ect.
got my let from vaux-sport
[Edited on 27-05-2009 by john_c20xe]
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