Opel Manta Turbo Ecotec Build

[wfo guy]

I'll be watching.

[Peanut1959]

Love it! Can't wait to see the progress on this project.

[Later-A-body]

After looking for the right engine for the last few months, I was able to locate a nice one locally. It is an Ecotec LTG 2.0 Turbo. This is the latest version of the 2.0 turbo. The engine I bought is from a 2016 Camaro. It has 14,000 miles. The transmission I bought last month is an Aisin AR-5 5-speed manual. It is a brand new unit. This is the same trans installed in many cars including the 2007-2009 Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky which bolts up to the Ecotec.

[andrewb70]

Good stuff. I would love to do a build with one of these engines!

Andrew

[Later-A-body]

Good stuff. I would love to do a build with one of these engines!

Andrew

Yeah Andrew, I've been really wanting a small 4 cylinder car that I could build for a long, long time. Because I live in California, it had to be pre-1976 so I wouldn't have to smog it. After finishing the GA, I realized that the car is everything I wanted it to be with the exception of two things, 1: It's big 2: It's too nice to mess up. I really wanted to autocross and track the GA.....which I will, but not as often as I thought. So that is where the Manta comes in. I'm leaving the patina, and perfecting the drivetrain. Rock chip, no big deal. I like the JDM stuff, but everyone thinks that stuff is worth a fortune. The Opel is super rare. I already have a rare car in the GA which I like. The Opel is probably more obscure. I really like stuff that nobody has.

[Later-A-body]

Going forward, I will be trying to make more room for the Ecotec. Ecotec's have been installed in them before, but the problem is the cross member is directly in the way of the oil pan. The two swaps I have seen both had to modify the oil pans. I am not going that way. There are two things that I will do. The first is to cut back the firewall in the center. There is approximately 8" of room to cut back the firewall. This will also allow me to get the engine further back to redistribute the weight behind the front wheels. You can see on the picture that I will need to remove the hood latch and some of the firewall components. I will keep the areas located on each side of the firewall for the structural integrity. The DS is where the battery was located, but I plan to relocate the battery to the PS to better distribute the weight. Plus the starter on the LTG is located on the PS. The ECU will be located on the DS of the firewall. I will weld in tabs on each fender to accept a pair of AeroCatch Flush Mount hood pins. These are real nice and sit flush.

[Paraman1]

Very nice! A bunch of my friends and I ran Opel Mantas in AutoX in the early 90's. A popular swap back the was the GT motor and European heads but this should make a crapload more power than those old boat anchors.

[Later-A-body]

Very nice! A bunch of my friends and I ran Opel Mantas in AutoX in the early 90's. A popular swap back the was the GT motor and European heads but this should make a crapload more power than those old boat anchors.

Any information that you could give me on your experience with the Manta would be very appreciated.

[JayinMI]

Was picturing it with modded 1st gen camaro (or maybe Firebird?) bumpers. Wonder if that would work.
Can't wait to see this get underway!

Jay

[cornfedbill]

The 1971 Opel Manta has small bumpers. A swap is likely not difficult.

[JayinMI]

The 1971 Opel Manta has small bumpers. A swap is likely not difficult.

Not sure if this was directed at me or not, but my thought was that if Camaro-ish bumpers would fit they'd be easier to find here in the US than Opel Manta bumpers since they are more likely reproduced.

Jay

[OLDFLM]

There was a wide bodied Manta featured in a German movie when I was stationed there in the early 90s... Manta Manta

[Later-A-body]

Yes the 71-73 Manta's had the smaller bumpers pictured above. I have a source for them and will be swapping out the smaller ones. I'm excited to have as much enthusiasm for this project as I have received. I know most projects on ProTouring revolve around domestics. This is my first non-domestic car project. So thanks for the support. This will be a very fun build.

[Paraman1]

I wish I could remember a lot more about the Opel AutoX days than I do. A lot of beer has flowed since then but here is what I remember the most about it... We were a bunch of broke 19-20 year old kids when our buddy showed up with an Opel Manta (my mom drove a GT when I was a kid so I was vaguely familiar with the brand) that was painted flat black , had 14 inch mag wheels and a straight exhaust with no mufflers. He was known for driving the odd ball stuff and still has an Opel he races today in stock form. Later he built a ground effects kit out of rain gutters for it which as hokey as it sounds looked pretty darn cool and before long a few others of us had bought Opels as daily beaters and then we started searching for ways to modify them. The easiest thing to do was put the GT motor in them and I vaguely remember something about a European cylinder head. We would go to the local AutoX events which at the time were comprised largely of old men driving meticulously maintained sports cars. We were young, brash and bold with nothing to lose and we started beating a few of these guys driving much more expensive cars and when they came and asked us "whatcha got in that thing?" the standard answer was , "About 400 bucks". I am pretty sure we coined the phrase,"Drive it like you ain't got a dime in it!" about the same time.

I know this probably doesn't help much in technical terms but I think your build really embodies what we loved about the little Mantas back in the day. Cheap, fun and completely different.

[Later-A-body]

I wish I could remember a lot more about the Opel AutoX days than I do. A lot of beer has flowed since then but here is what I remember the most about it... We were a bunch of broke 19-20 year old kids when our buddy showed up with an Opel Manta (my mom drove a GT when I was a kid so I was vaguely familiar with the brand) that was painted flat black , had 14 inch mag wheels and a straight exhaust with no mufflers. He was known for driving the odd ball stuff and still has an Opel he races today in stock form. Later he built a ground effects kit out of rain gutters for it which as hokey as it sounds looked pretty darn cool and before long a few others of us had bought Opels as daily beaters and then we started searching for ways to modify them. The easiest thing to do was put the GT motor in them and I vaguely remember something about a European cylinder head. We would go to the local AutoX events which at the time were comprised largely of old men driving meticulously maintained sports cars. We were young, brash and bold with nothing to lose and we started beating a few of these guys driving much more expensive cars and when they came and asked us "whatcha got in that thing?" the standard answer was , "About 400 bucks". I am pretty sure we coined the phrase,"Drive it like you ain't got a dime in it!" about the same time.

I know this probably doesn't help much in technical terms but I think your build really embodies what we loved about the little Mantas back in the day. Cheap, fun and completely different.

It's a great story. I love the "about $400 bucks". With exception of a set of wheels, this car on the outside will look to be worth about $400 bucks as well. LOL.

[SRD art]

Paraman- great story! Somebody should write a book with all of our old build and race stories, it'd be a best seller.

Later-A- Subscribed, this is a cool build!! Although I grew up building Novas and now G-bodies I'm a huge fan of little cars. I've always liked the Opel Kadett for it's cute almost Nova like look and super compact size. When I went to college I picked up an 84 Chevette for super cheap to save on gas and I ended up lowering it and putting on 17" wheels. It had sloth like acceleration but handled like a go kart and was a blast to drive. Plans escalated to do a full pro-touring car with 315s out back but the G-body project took precedence and I ended up selling it. There was another guy I was following that was building a Chevette with a 2.0 T motor but unfortunately it suddenly came to a stop and disappeared. I recently picked up a '78 Monza wagon to touch base with my little car addiction, it's on the back burner so it's still up in the air what to do with that one. A couple pics and renderings I did for them below, I did the Opel as a dual purpose car, daily Pro Touring and autoX fun while a change of wheels and tires made a fun 1/4 mile machine. The Chevette has some subtle body mods and would've had an aluminum LS1 for power.

Back to your ride, I'm anxious to see this unfold. That Manta has some great body lines, it has a mean look with the low eyebrow hood and overall smooth form. I like the fact that you're using a unique drive train too. David Carroll has had some great Success with that set up in his Vega, it makes some decent power. That plus a light weight car should make for a bunch of fun. When you get to that point, if you need help working out the visuals and consider a rendering hit me up for a bid, I enjoy drawing Camaros and Chevelles but I particularily enjoy doing the dare to be different projects! Looking forward to watching for more progress on this one, good luck with it!

[Later-A-body]

Paraman- great story! Somebody should write a book with all of our old build and race stories, it'd be a best seller.

Later-A- Subscribed, this is a cool build!! Although I grew up building Novas and now G-bodies I'm a huge fan of little cars. I've always liked the Opel Kadett for it's cute almost Nova like look and super compact size. When I went to college I picked up an 84 Chevette for super cheap to save on gas and I ended up lowering it and putting on 17" wheels. It had sloth like acceleration but handled like a go kart and was a blast to drive. Plans escalated to do a full pro-touring car with 315s out back but the G-body project took precedence and I ended up selling it. There was another guy I was following that was building a Chevette with a 2.0 T motor but unfortunately it suddenly came to a stop and disappeared. I recently picked up a '78 Monza wagon to touch base with my little car addiction, it's on the back burner so it's still up in the air what to do with that one. A couple pics and renderings I did for them below, I did the Opel as a dual purpose car, daily Pro Touring and autoX fun while a change of wheels and tires made a fun 1/4 mile machine. The Chevette has some subtle body mods and would've had an aluminum LS1 for power.

Back to your ride, I'm anxious to see this unfold. That Manta has some great body lines, it has a mean look with the low eyebrow hood and overall smooth form. I like the fact that you're using a unique drive train too. David Carroll has had some great Success with that set up in his Vega, it makes some decent power. That plus a light weight car should make for a bunch of fun. When you get to that point, if you need help working out the visuals and consider a rendering hit me up for a bid, I enjoy drawing Camaros and Chevelles but I particularily enjoy doing the dare to be different projects! Looking forward to watching for more progress on this one, good luck with it!

Ben,
That is cool that you posted the Chevette rendering. I saw that rendering a while back and loved the concept. I actually had the intention of buying a Chevette based on your work. I have the rendering of the orange Chevette on my phone, and was able to change the color to a blue version, and a yellow version of the car. I really like your work. I would like to have a rendering done in the future if I can swing that financially. I have decided to stay very close to the blue Manta GTE I posted, but am open to different ideas. I thought I would change the color down the road, but have decided the green is going to stay.

[cornfedbill]

I thought I would change the color down the road, but have decided the green is going to stay.

I like the green too. It stands out.

[Later-A-body]

Interesting idea regarding the S-10 front clip. There is an alternative I was going to bring up later in the build but it seems like a good point to post it. I have been discussing the idea of a C4 Corvette front cradle and suspension set up for the Manta. These are available as new units in various widths, and retain the factory GM suspension pieces. The '84-'87 Corvette's incorporated an 11" front brake rotor as opposed to the '88-'96 cars 12" set up. I think the 11' is plenty for a 2100-2300 pound car, and allows the use of a 15" wheel if that is what I decide on. People have been hanging these C4 set ups on street rods for years so I know they are a good alternative if the original cross-member becomes an issue.I have been in contact with a few different companies that produce these kits. It appears initially that the concept will work, but I need to have more time to do all the measuring.

[andrewb70]

Looks like CBM makes an aluminum fabricated pan, but I am not sure that it will help. ARE also makes a dry sump pan...

Andrew