Moparboy440 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:01 pm
A local Manta with 3.6liter 12v CIH 307HP/420nm:
I like what they did. My buddy's late brother had a manta with 6cyl cih power. One nice play toy.
Im a big chevy fanatic and love my chevy inline 6s , most of my opel bodies runs chevy power.
But the opel cih is a different animal. the sound it creates is unique.
Really impressive is what lotus did to it in the lotus carlton. 3.6 24valve turbo.
Will look for a link.
Ratu wrote: ↑Tue Aug 14, 2018 2:04 pm
Many years ago my mother purchased an Australian built sedan. It was unusual in that it was powered by a German built engine. The engine was a four cylinder Opel CIH (cam-in-head). The Opel CIH was a family of four and six-cylinder engines. In this Ozzie application the engine was a four cylinder of 1.9 litres IIRC. The largest four-cylinder version came in at ~2.4 litres but that version did not make it to the Great Southern Land as far as I know- well not in a Holden anyway.
“CIH” referred to a feature of the design. The camshaft was located in the cylinder head, which indeed it was- inside the head. This engine had the cam located by bearings which were found within a cam tunnel within the head structure proper. The cam drove lifters up and down analogously to the cam and lifter system in a conventional cam in block engine. There were no caps.
In the Opel CIH the lifters acted directly on the rockers. There were no pushrods intermediating (none were needed). In effect the system was exactly like a OHV system, only without the pushrods. The CIH system was good enough for a reliable 11,000rpm in sports and rally versions of the engine. Not too bad for an old cast iron non-crossflow two-valve design!
It does appear that the design was motivated (certainly influenced) in part by a desire to re-use as many existing components as possible and to minimise new tooling as far as possible. Thus costs could be kept in check. For example, the same rockers, followers, valves and springs etc. could be kept, possibly even the cam could be the same blank as in the previous engine family. I do not know this for certain though, it is supposition on my part.
Does anyone know about this four and six-cylinder engine family? Were these engines available in the USA, Canada, Central or South America? Has any manufacturer done something similar with crossflow?
Comments?
I just finished doing a 1971 1.9 Toyota 8RC. It's the same design as this except no lifter between cam and rocker arm... cam acts directly on the rocker
Cast iron non cross flow head. Very well built for its day..one piece rear seal, floating pins, spray bar for cam lobes, forged crank, 5 mains, oil pressure controlled chain tensioners for each chain.
It has two smaller/shorter chains and an intermediate shaft instead of one long one.
I bought a 72 Opel 1900 around 1975. This was coil spring suspension car, rode and handled better than Japanese cars other than the Datsun 510.The engine power was just ok, but it was fairly smooth when reved up...They had a reputation for camshaft wear...
Motorcycle land speed racing... wearing animal hides and clinging to vibrating oily machines propelled by fire
Truckedup wrote: ↑Sun Jul 19, 2020 1:56 pm
I bought a 72 Opel 1900 around 1975. This was coil spring suspension car, rode and handled better than Japanese cars other than the Datsun 510.The engine power was just ok, but it was fairly smooth when reved up...They had a reputation for camshaft wear...
Had a 2.0l opel rekord once, lifter didnt rotate and ate the cam. Replaced cam and lifters, another 4 years it happened again.
Never had that issue with the 6 cyl units. Would love to do a 24v engine but sadly the 24v heads were never released in south africa.
I like the cih and the sound they make when pressed hard,
but i like my chevy inline 153 and 230/250 units more. the low down torque is quite pleasing.
A lot of this is from potted history of memory so E&OE ......
Th C-I-H Opel engine was a dog by most standards, eventually ending up as a 2.4 four cylinder in a small but lumbering license built Japanese 4 x 4 in the nineties ......
Old fashioned non-crossflow head, but with all those fat followers taking up the whole of one side they had no choice
The sixes were 'heavy sounding' when revved, only the alloy headed 24v versions having any real merit, but they weren't C-I-H engines anymore being modern DOHC designs
Coppers here used the latter a lot in the 24v 3.0 Vauxhall Senator, mostly as motorway cruisers and, to be fair, it spawned the 'fastest four door saloon' of it's time in the 377 bhp Lotus Carlton which they didn't usually get
Robbers used the latter a lot as they could outrun the copper's Senators ....... and helicopters
The C-I-H four, if in itself wasn't bad enough, spawned a 2.3 diesel version (more later) which IIRC formed the basis of the 2.4 alloy headed 16v Ascona rally engines and not the original petrol C-I-H...... the diesel engine being pure SOHC, not unlike an 'L' series Datsun head in design
So the much lauded competition engine was an SOHC diesel with a modern DOHC 16v petrol head, which initially had so many problems Cosworth had to rescue the design
The SOHC diesel itself went one better than the C-I-H in that it often regularly snapped camshafts into several pieces in quite a spectacular fashion, where it's forebear just relentlessly wore them out ....... rumour had it at the time the latter were made of chocolate .......
A few enthusiasts here have transplanted the later more powerful CIH engines into Opel GTs. Interested people can contact Gil Wesson: https://www.opelgtsource.com/
Truckedup wrote: ↑Sun Jul 19, 2020 1:56 pm
I bought a 72 Opel 1900 around 1975. This was coil spring suspension car, rode and handled better than Japanese cars other than the Datsun 510.The engine power was just ok, but it was fairly smooth when reved up...They had a reputation for camshaft wear...
Samantha had a Kadett that she liked but a careless driver took it out. She then moved on to THE VEGA.
When she traded in the Vega, the salesman spent two hours trying to get it started to move it across the lot. You had to have the magic touch.
~~~~~~~~~
Another memory of being driven around in Germany as a student in an early 70s Opel sedan. FULL GAS (Vollgas) followed by heavy braking. A different driving style than I was used to.
By coincidence, I have a 2.0 Opel in the CNC right now for a long time GT road racer friend of mine. I did not realize that the bores are offset in these blocks by 1.5mm, towards the drivers side.
MotionMachine wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 8:00 am
By coincidence, I have a 2.0 Opel in the CNC right now for a long time GT road racer friend of mine. I did not realize that the bores are offset in these blocks by 1.5mm, towards the drivers side.