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Originally posted by flame
As Richard says watch out for the rear manifold cracking and the EGR pipe but you will have to cut and reweld the rear manifold so you can check for cracks then and weld them back up. When I was doing mine I found a crack in the top of the rear manifold but was easy enough to fix. The EGR pipe is best just removed- I removed the threaded boss from the manifold and welded a circle of metal over the hole, remember to keep the EGR valve plugged in though. Mine passed the emissions at MOT last month so the EGR is not needed, neither is the cat needed or the SAI system which was also removed. If you are using the Vectra inlets then you will need to cut some of the inner skin strengthening out of the bonnet but apart from that I think they fit better than the cav inlet because you dont need to cut away the bulkhead. If you use a Vectra engine then it will have the alloy cam covers which dont leak like the plastic ones off the cav/calibra. Overall I didnt think it was too hard- the hardest bit is probably making the rear manifold and modifying the rear downpipe. The front section of the exhaust fits as normal.
The radiator top hose was a bit of a headache to do so I ended up making one out of 32mm 90degree copper bends and silicon hose. I just use a corsa sport rad with single cooling fan and the temp is ok.
The aux belt run is another thing to consider because the standard belt goes round alternator, power steering, air con, water pump, crankshaft pulley and a tensioner- you will probably want to lose the air con compressor so you would need to rethink the belt run. I did away with the power steering, air con, tensioner and mechanical water pump so I just used a small belt for the alternator. There are loads on here who have done the conversion so you will be able to get all your questions answered

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