T3 panel van the story so far.

nomates wrote:

........I'm too old for that .....fair play to him

you said it we just agree

Top marks to that man. I gave up cleaning/polishing at 10pm tonight.
It can wait until tomorrow to be finished now.

mine is still out in the rain

good for him looking well good

Tiffers wrote:

good for him looking well good

hey tiffers welcome to dbs, i am carl aka dubberatlast, i am the dbs pic police and you havnt been in the welcome bit at the top and introduced your self

fair shout

The van is not going to be at cttp. The van fleu through the mot but now the gear box is playing up so I have had to pull it out. DOH!!! I worked my ass off to get it finished just to get kicked in the teeth, oh well. If anyone has a 4 speed ABD gear box lying around please let me know.

I just got back from cttp. It was a great day. Big thanks to all the people that put it together! Shame I was not in the van.

A few pics that were taken before the mot.

The drums and calipers were a bit rusty so I gave them a clean up and I lick of red paint. They are a bit brighter than I would have liked but when they get some dirt on them they'll look ok.



The corrado mirrors on and painted. I am really happy with these they look great.

The gear box is back in just need the new cv joints to turn up (should be latter today). I now have some 205 tyres for the front wheels so they should clear the suspension. With a bit of luck the van should be on the road tomorrow.

lucky wrote:

The gear box is back in just need the new cv joints to turn up (should be latter today). I now have some 205 tyres for the front wheels so they should clear the suspension. With a bit of luck the van should be on the road tomorrow.

cool, you coming to the end of month meet buddy ??

I hope so but I haven't had the best of luck so far.

you managed to find a gearbox fast enough i see lol

lets hope it was the only snag for you and its cool cruising from now on

What motor are you running in it then ??

I have just changed the oil and put in a new thrust bearing and will see how long it lasts. I have a 1.9 dg at the mo but I have bought a diesel sump, mounts and bell housing. I don't know yet what engine to put in, thinking about a 2.0l 16v.

cool ive got the aaz conversion in mine 1.9 turbo diesel and swaer by it, loads of torque for the hills lol

I don't know whether to go for petrol or diesel. I want at least 150bhp.

Diesel all the way!!! I fitted a 1.6 GTD engine into my mk1 Caddy, fitted a bigger Garrett T3 Turbo, turned up fuel pressure and boost to 16 psi (could of gone higher) but needed a bigger intercooler, and used a 2.5" downpipe and straight through exhaust. This gave 116bhp and went well enough. An AAZ TD engine will give you 150 bhp with similar tweaks. Very good engines and highly recommended.

Or if you have to go petrol..... VR6

SimonABT wrote:

Diesel all the way!!! I fitted a 1.6 GTD engine into my mk1 Caddy, fitted a bigger Garrett T3 Turbo, turned up fuel pressure and boost to 16 psi (could of gone higher) but needed a bigger intercooler, and used a 2.5" downpipe and straight through exhaust. This gave 116bhp and went well enough. An AAZ TD engine will give you 150 bhp with similar tweaks. Very good engines and highly recommended.

Or if you have to go petrol..... VR6

how interesting thanks simon that is some good info lol

Ive seen a few AAZ engines at around the 180 bhp mark. Quite easy and cheap to do, but you have to watch with running mega boost with diesels, the internals will cope but the Heads have a nasty habit of lifting under boost.

Just don't know if a tuned aaz is going to give any better mpg or reliability than a abf.

ABF's are also very good engines, but start getting expensive to tune. If your going ABF then you may aswell stick a VR lump in instead? hahaha! Or a 1.8 20vt?

20vt would be my pick but it doesn't fit and a vr6 doesn't fit my bellhousing or engine mounts.

lucky wrote:

20vt would be my pick but it doesn't fit and a vr6 doesn't fit my bellhousing or engine mounts.

An ABF engine is from a Mk3 Golf though so arnt the mounts in the same place on an ABF as a VR6?

They are but when a diesel is in a van it bolt up tilted over at an angle with a different sump. The sump will fit an abf but not a vr6. This means the vr6 has to be sat upright as it would be in a golf, so then will not bolt to the mounts or bellhousing.

Oh right, fair dinkum! look foward to seeing your engine choice!

I have an m62 eaton supercharger that might find its way on to an abf.