Diesel Corsa Guide

This entry is more for my benefit than anyone elses as it's aimed at the older diesel Vauxhall Corsa's and will be a single place where I can keep all the info without having to keep 100's of bookmarks with snippets of information.

Engines
The Corsa B diesel engines came in the following variants

1.5 D
1.5 TD
1.7 D

The isuzu engine codes are on the front of the engine:
1
5D = 4EC1
15TD= T4EC1
17D = 4EE1

On some engines only the last two digits are cast (C1 or E1), the T is displayed under cylinder 2, the rest of the code under cylinder 3+4.

Corsa B's didn't come with the 1.7TD isuzu lump they were found in astras, cavaliers and vectras.

Now the the 1.5's are thought to be the best engines as they are renound for reliability and giving maximum mileage. All corsa B diesels had Isuzu lumps in.

BioFuel
For the running on SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) again the Isuzu TD blocks are best as they have the all inportant Bosch (Nippon Denso) heated fuel filters. Apparently you can use %100 in the warmer months and just add abit of unleaded in the winter and its quite happy and no heat exchanger is required

Any Corsa fitted with the Lucas or CAV fuel pump shouldn't be run on SVO as they die very quickly as their self lubricating. The heat exchanger (FPHE) to heat the oil is thought to be much more efficient than glow plug method.

Tuning

After much reading for perfomance gains the 1.5 TD engine is the best to go with and can be done at minimal cost. PooTube is littered with videos on Corsa's with this engine giving some impressive ouput.

X15TD
Corsa 1.5 TD Isuzu EngineX15TD Corsa 1.5 TD Engine
4

EC1 Corsa 1.5D Engine

X17D Corsa 1.7 D Engine

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8 Comments

  1. Hi,
    I’m not sure who I’m directing this message to, but I came across your website today when I was looking for information about a Vauxhall Corsa that I just bought. It is a 1.5 TD with a T4EC1 engine, so the information on your site was very relevant. On top of that, one of the things that has interested me about my newly purchased car is that it is most likely capably of running on straight vegetable oil (SVO). I’m delighted I found your website, thank you very much for the information. By the way, did you own a Corsa Diesel? And if so, did you ever run it on SVO? How did it go?
    Thanks,
    Max.

    1. Hi Max thanks for your message, i’m glad the post was helpful. I’ve owned 2 corsa diesels the 1.7 variant which eventually died at 190K with head gasket failure although I believe if i’d fixed it it would have gone on to do many many more miles. I’ve also has the 1.5 TD which was actually pretty nippy, you can also do some cheap/free modifications to it to improve performance but I never did. They have both been the most reliable cars i’ve ever owned and would do journeys covering 100’s of miles without skipping a beat. Unfortunately I needed to sell the 1.5 due to needing a bigger car but i’m on the lookout for another corsa as a runaround. Serviced regularly they can go on and on. I never got round to running SVO but will be something i’d be interested in doing if i got another one. If you go down this route please let me know how you get on.

  2. Hi i have an opel corsa 1.7 Diesel utility 2001 model and it started having problems to start and i replaced the battery but it still wouldn’t start, there’s seems to be a burning smell after trying to start it. I’ve been told it could be the starter motor failing to start, could that be the problem?
    Kind regards,
    Jake

  3. Hi i came across this website just researching running my corsa 1.5td on vegetable oil. Great info by the way. Just to let you know i have put straight vegetable oil mixed with diesel and so far no problems. Although alot of people have said keep a spare fuel filter as the oil cleans out the tank and fuel lines.

    1. Thanks for you post Hash glad you found the info useful. That’s great your 1.5td is running ok on straight veg/diesel mix. Worth noting that in the colder months should run straight diesel or higher diesel mix as svo congeales which will make starting harder as it doesn’t have adatives like diesel does.

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