by 021 Chad » 03 Oct 2011, 13:00
Yes Fugly indeed!
I do have some experience with these though, funnily enough.
Most of these are Brazillian or Michigan made from what I've seen. The motors are actually strong, affectionatly known as the 4-4 or just ECOTEC, one of our members is using one of these as the basis for his Manta 400 project. The 4-4 however is not an Opel motor, it is very loosely based on the 'Family 2' 2.0 ECOTEC (X20XEV) head and block, the similarity however stops there as the mill was developed in the US as a separate project.
There have been some very successful projects for this motor as a base for some intensive big HP tuning. The motor by itself is tough, the electrics however are what lets it down.
The Chev cavalier as a whole is a comedy of electrical errors, if its electrical then chances are it's broken or breaking.
HOWEVER, I work with an ex mechanic who is now our machinery engineer. He has owned an early 90's cavalier for over 10 years and he reports that in this time it has given him not trouble what so ever. He even bought a spare motor to keep just in case, but the time when it would be needed has just not come. Even in standard guise these motors have a very strong torque curve and are actually a joy to pilot, attached to an under developed (truly american) sloppy handling, electronic mess of a chassis is mainly what lets it down.
To put things in perspective. The Chev Cavalier has a woeful resale value thanks to it's tempermental nature.
The GM 2.4L ECOTEC motor that powers it however is still in production and made it onto 'Wards top 10' engines for 2010. Not too shabby.
Yamaha XJR1300
Opel Vectra GT 16v AKA: "Evil Opel", AKA:"The Chavalier"