Limey the Syncro 16 2.5TDi Westy. 330mm Brakes!!

Ok a small update but still thinking of ways to build this thing

I've bought a load of stainless pipe for the intake pipes and the exhaust aswell as Racetech sending me a 50mm 90o silicone hose as a sample. I think I'll be buying more from them although probably in 60mm sizes.

The exhaust will be 3 inch bore all the way through and I'll be making a silencer out of an old Stainless twin DTM styleeee from my Golf GTi days . This'll mean I can keep the exhaust system inside the engine bay (although heat wrapped to keep engine bay temps down) so it doesn't get bashed offroad.

It's going to be very close on the left hand side of the engine bay as everything (inlet and exhaust) is on that side. Shame really but there isn't enough room to get any of the pipework over to the other side of the engine bay.

These are hopefully going to give me enough flex in the pipework to allow the engine/gearbox unit to move around when offroading without putting too much stress on the charge cooler or intake pipe.

Oh and this is my old silencer which will be shortened and opened up to allow a 3 inch bore pipe through the middle

MG

Edited by Ghia - 15 Nov 09 at 14:48

I,I whats gong on here then.

Have you cut into the side of the chassis and slotted a plate into there and welded it up. ?

Must admit i like the look of the engine cradle as well, should stop a lot of the vibration.

The inter cooler looks smart, is it home made ?

Nice to see something different, vision my friend.

Mike, good to see that work in progress. Will the AFM work OK perpendicular to its normal position ?

Andy

Well the work continues.

Today I managed to weld in the chassis strengthening plates with captive nuts (M12x1.25) and bolt the whole lot up into position, please excuse the sockets I'm using as spacers until I have some makde up in aluminium!

Now I'm looking at the Charge Cooler placement and the main air inlet to the engine.

When I had the charge cooler in the Doka, I had it fairly tightly squeezed into the N/S/R corner. The pipes were sent through very tight angles and to be honest it was thrown in in a hurry. This time I'm going to take my time and have everything comfortable!

You can see where I plan to sit the charge cooler, it'll eventually be rubber mounted to the body. Mocking up with cardboard tube I have worked out the lengths, angles etc which I need so I can go out and buy everything without guessing.

I've decided to mount the air flow meter inside the van rather than in the engine bay and run the main inlet pipe up the inside of the rear wall and then out through to the rear vent. I'll also mount the air filter box inside. This way I know no water is going to get to the airflow meter or air filter without getting to the top of the air vent first! As the van will have a cupboard at the back, all of this will be hidden away.

Now to buy lots of ally tubing and rubber/silicone tube angles

























MG

Edited by Ghia - 18 Oct 09 at 10:47

Update:

The TDi is bolted up to the gearbox with South African bellhousing etc and in position.

Depsite everyone saying you have to lift the lid for this conversion on an Audi 5 cylinder engine, it fits under the stock lid!! This is gonna save me a huge amount of bodywork raising the bed and then trying to seal it properly again.

The TDi has a much lower inlet manifold that the petrol engines so I can only presume that that is the main thing which gets in the way of the engine lid on 5 cyl petrol engine conversions. Add to that that the syncro engine and gearbox already sit 20mm lower that the 2WD and the clearance is just enough!

I have cut out some of the rear top cross member to clear the timing belt cover but will be able to put back the section at the very top which seals up against the lid. I'll also weld some metal in further into the cross member to put the strenth back in where I've cut metal out.

I now have to weld in strengthening plates to the chassis rails and then add captive M12 nuts.

Hopefully it'll be nice again next weekend so I can get on with the welding.

Here are some pics of the South African specific parts needed for the 5 cylinder conversion.

MG

Edited by Ghia - 18 Oct 09 at 10:37

Mike, it was good to see you and the van at Vanfest. Looking forward to following the vehicle's progress.  

to be fair, that has scrubbed up a treat. Nice 1 mike.

Update:

Now MOT'd and had it at Van Fest!

Just to register it now and get the TDi in

MG

Looking good!

Thanks mate,

There's still a way to go as you say but I can't wait to take it off roading and see how it compares with a stock Syncro 14

MG