i plan, in the close future to put my 20 16v XE into a luego velocity.
After talking to stephen hills from luego at stafford kit car show, he tells me i could use a carlton 1.8 gearbox instead of the type 9 and the expensive bellhousing adaptor but i never thought to ask him if a 2.0 litre box or any other carlton box would do. Does anybody know if i could use one of theses boxes to narrow down my scrapyard searching, or has it got to be the 1.8 version?

steve

1.8 manta, 1.8 carlton had the getrag boxes fitted. the one from a manta 2ltr gte has the starter on the wrong side, as i found out! An ecotec carlton (do they exist?) should be ok, avoid any CIH engined carltons as they're wrong.

Only problem with vx getrag rwd box is they don't seem to last long behind an even standard xe, or so i've heard. there are no quaife kits available for them either which is why most people opt for the bellhousing and sierra box due to tranx/quaife available parts etc...

Ned.

[Edited on 14/3/05 by ned]

ive gone the carlton box route
didnt know what size engine mine came from it was from a "h" plate and it was out at the scrappy. it has the
rubber doughnut rather than spline,s
as for it not lasting ..... well im not
going racing so i hope it doe,s , ive seen many carlton,s dragging caravans so my lardy arse should be a doddle

[Edited on 14/3/05 by nige]

thanks for the help ned/nige
im almost certain vauxhall stopped production of the carlton before they bought out the ecotec- but i might look into the omega box - they use the ecotec and are rear wheel drive

steve

having thought about it some more, think it must be the 2ltr se/seh in the later carltons (2ltr 8v sohc, look same as the 1.8's..)

hope it helps. i've seen one at my local scrappy recently so they're definately about..

Ned.

I have done a couple of Opel Manta 16v conversions and used the getrag (1800 manta) 'box behind the XE 16v.

Yes they fit, you want to use the astra clutch pressure plate with the carlton friction plate or an aftermarket heavy duty one from Helix (much preferable!)

The mk2 Carlton 1.8 and 2.0 sohc gearboxes fit but have the rubber donut which is a pain, the manta 1800 'box just has a spline fixing like the type 9 gearboxes, much handier but rare cos everybody is putting 16v's in mantas now!

As for strength, may be ok in a 7, they are about the same in terms of strength as a std type 9, i.e. pretty weak. I blew 3 boxes up in my manta 16v (200hp, std xe on throttle bodies)

Didn't some Mantas have the ZF box ?

Not production ones, no.

The early four speeders are all the crappy GM 4 speed with the external gearshift linkages.

The 5 speeds are all the Getrag 240 gearbox, but with two different front casings (bellhousing is integral on these) one for the CIH engine (1.6, 1.9, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.3diesel) and one for the SOHC (1.8 in the std manta, but then can fit 2.0 sohc or 2.0 16v or V6 24v)

Most of my previous "enthusiast" dealings have been with mantas, think my list now extends to 7!!!!

I don't know but it is possible that you may find a ZF gearboxed manta 400, but not as per production, some were retro fitted for competition use. (as were the rear ends, in production they used a two-link opel commodore axle, but in rallies they were all four linked!)

i have gone down the xe route and am using the omega gearbox(r25-r28 type). the only problem i have found is that the omega engine is canted over at 7 degrees as per the fwd vauxhalls. I have stood my engine up vertical and am running the gearbox canted over at 7 degrees to the offside. It does make the gearbox a bit tight in the tunnel though, but on the plus side i should have nice light hydraulic clutch. Also forgot to mention this is in a tiger avon. hope this helps MJA

Circa 1980 a large number of Vauxhall ZF boxes were dumped on the market most got scrapped because it cost to much to convert them to fit a Ford engine.