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

Wel I've had this in the country since November 2005 but not really had much of a chance to get it road worthy as I've been working on the Crewcab (now sold). Fingers crossed I can get somewheer with it now and start driving it around... espeically offroad!

When I first saw pictures of it, it didn't look too good. The windscreen was smashed, the 2.1 DJ was long gone, the drivers door has been folded back onto the bodywork , the propshaft was dead and the the front diff felt horrible. When I removed the front cover plate, you can see that the main pinion bearing has failed and from there on it's just been a giant mincing machine!

The history on the van is a bit sketchy but it seems to have lived most of its life in a Lime Quarry in Germany. It was ordered from VW with Vinyl undercoating which I had never heard of until I looked at the options list for the van. As a result the underneath is totally solid

More details to come as I progress.

MG

Edited by Ghia - 06 Feb 10 at 18:38

Hahaha... no

 

A few more bits of info.

The rear window was perspex (!),

The engine was/is a DG from a 2WD and had been fitted with the 2WD engine bar putting the rear UJ of the propshaft at a horrible angle... probably why it had failed!

The wheels you can see it on are Mercedes 15inch steels at the back and Audi 16 inch steels up front on 185/50/16's!!

When I removed the front bash plate, I dropped it on the floor to remove all the lime which was sitting insdie it and then weighed it.. 30KG of Lime!

The Lime had embedded itself into the paint and nothing seemed to shift it. We tried washing, scrubbing with brillo pads and scrubbing brushes, even T-cut wouldn't move it. Eventually we grabbed some Mr.Muscle and Cillit Bang  and that shifted it! Paintwork now looks rather nice.

All the rear brake lines were history along with the front discs and all 4 flexi's. Thankfully the rear driveshafts and CV joints are ok as are the rear arms. These are very expensive to replace as they're 16 only parts!

I phoned up VW UK before heading over to Germany to pick up the van with the Chassis number trying to get confirmation that it was really a 16 and got back some wonderful results. VW sent me a series of emails with the whole options list

It comes with heated drivers seat (plastic, not cloth), Electric mirrors, Front and Rear diff locks, Engine access panel lock, Vinyl Undercoating, dip rear view mirror, Rear wiper, Rear heated screen, 16 inch wheels option (basically this is a very small amount of writing to say what differences are made on the van to make it a 16) and lots more...

MG

Edited by Michael Ghia

Kev... er no.

Just too much to do and work takes up my time. Have to get it registered once its MOT'd too and I think I'll have to go down to the DVLA office to do that.

I'll have it on the road hopefully in the next month....

MG

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

Looking good!

Update:

Now MOT'd and had it at Van Fest!

Just to register it now and get the TDi in

MG

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

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

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

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