Cosworth 2.9litre in my Crewwy

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Well the end is nigh for this particular project and it is going to make way for a new one. It is going to be the first project I have not finished so it feels really strange to sell it incomplete.

I am going to stick the 1.9DG petrol motor in it, assemble it to the point I see is sensible (due to the spray job needing finishing) and sell it on and let someone else finish it. Shame really but it is making way for a new crewcab in its place.

This really is a solid base for someone to start with and a decent sprayer will soon have it looking ship shape.

The cossy motor will go in my new project and hopefully that will be finished a lot quicker. I will post a couple of piccies of the new project crewcab when it turns up and continue with the install thread.

Sorry t those who wanted to see it finished but I am sure someone else will do an equally good job as me to finish it. The project is going on ebay during next week with a reserve, so if you want to come look at it and make me a bid, please PM me.

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The new project was collected on Saturday morning, a G reg crewcab.

This one is nearly finished and the work begins this week to get the cosworth motor swapped over.

Hoping to have this up and running and on the road in three to four weeks so I can get out and play in it.

Thing is, what do I do with my E reg crewcab, you have seen how much work has been undertaken and the heartache and joy I have had with it over the past year.

Do I break it and sell it for bits to try and recover my money, as when I was looking for bits I was being quoted just plain rude money or should I just wack it on ebay in its current state. I would be a shame to break it, but it is now in the way and a decision has to be made in the next week.

It comes off the four post ramp mid week and will be photographed for ebay if I have not made a different decision by then?

I will post some pictures of the replacement crewwy next week and the build will continue.

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Well its up for grabs if anybody is interested

ebay ref 310064331214

She is making way for her replacement.

Sad to see her go, but needs must.

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Well the new fit out has begun.

The engine is now fitted to the new crewcab and sat nice and bonny.

I am just starting on the exhausts tonight so will post some pictures on the thread tonight with how far I get on the exhausts.

Just lost job, so going to spend all week on the new conversion so hopefully the pictures will come thick and fast and you should see the progress this week. Hoping to get it MOTed as soon as possible, going to try for this weekend.

Pictures to follow:

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Pretty un-evenfull night to be honest as welder ran out of gas, put a nice 5 inch gash in forarm though from a piece of exhaust falling off ramp on to arm, bugger would not stop bleeding, jeans look like I killed someone though

Getting gas tomorrow from gas shop, so should be able to crack on with exhaust and finish it by close of play tomorrow night.

Already stuck big wide alloys on rear and big fat tyres, lowering kit and uprated shocks, so the back end looks fat.

Still hoping to have crewwy ready for the road by weekend if misses lets me play out all week.

Sorry no pics but will post some tomorrow.

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Well I just come back from my lock up and I have started the exhaust system, I am nearly 60% complete and intend for it to be complete by close of play tomorrow night.

Here are a couple of piccies to show the progress to date of the new crewcab.

Sadly the crewcab did not reach its reserve on fleablay, so I am sitting on it at the moment and trying to decide whay to do with it, whether to break it or try fleabay again. No rush on that one, just concentrating on the current crewcab to try and get it readu for MOT by weekend.

Who knows I may do a crazy conversion on number 1 like stick a mid engine V8 in it under the load bed.















As you can see once the support cradle is fabricated the engine fits neatly within the engine bay. I have a few fundimental problems to solve like a swirlpot twin fuel pump system, cooling and of course the monster wiring issues. But apart from that I think it has a good chance of being finished by weekend.

I have to choose what seats to install as it came with a set of leather MR2 seats which are nice or do I go with the original plan of the big comfy leather cosworth seats.

A piccie of the big 18inch alloys in in the post as I do not think I will be fitting these, I will stick with what I have at present.

More progress photos to follow later in the week.

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Well the exhaust is now finished and it is coming off the four post ramp tomorrow and I start on the water system, fuel system, a trip to my local breakers for a couple of gte or sri fuel pumps will sort the fuel out, may even take a full on piccie of her tomorrow if she comes out into the daylight to show her off.

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Well I got the new crewcab off the 4 post ramp after fitting the cosworth engine, its now time to wire it in, plumb in the water and do the interior.

But as I promised, here are a few piccies of the new crewcab and old crewcab together as I am swapping the suspension over.









Hoping to have the crewcab MOTed as soon as possible, just recieved all the additional dials I need to monitor the cosworth engine and oil catchment tank for the breather system.

Just need to get hold of a fuel injection tank now so I can start plumbing in the fuel.

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Well I have been working on the crewwy while redundant, but starting work again tomorrow so work will not progress as much. The work that has been carried out does not really show, as a lot of it has been planning and implimenting the logistics of getting the thing up and running.

As an example, it has taken me ages to plumb the thing in water wise, and at the end of it all I ripped out all the rubber work and I am now doing the coolant pipes in the bay in 38mm copper tubing.

I spent ages working out the fuel tank issues with sloosh pot and twin fuel pumps, but then decided to butcher a big hold in the existing tank and mount and internal swirl pot in the tank and get the tank fully welded up with the cosworth pump housing in the top.

All these thing take time and have little to show for the work put in.

I will post a few more piccies tomorrow night after I have done a bit more work on it.

Still have not got the wiring harness in yet, which is a pain, but it will be in soon and hopefully we will bring the thing to life.

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Hello,

Admittably I have not posted for a while, but an update of what has been done is as follows and I should hopefull fire up a couple of piccies to show.

I installed all the water system in the 38mm copper as discussed last time I posted and again I have ripped it all out as I was not happy with it, and it has now been replaced with stainless tubing. It was a big challenge as the bends were a pain in the arris. I ended up packing the tubing solid with wet sand, bunging both ends up with plugs and bending my pipe with the hydrolic pipe bender. This worked as it prevented the pipe from kinking but as you would expect it has ripples in it, but I am faily happy with the result. So all I have to do now is install the expansion tank and final connections.

I have started running the cosworth harness in and hopefully when the van is off the four post ramp I will continue with it.

The petrol tank now has an electric cosworth pump and swirl pot installed ready for fitting back into the van.

I have to connect the VW accelerator cable to the cossy cable.

I have installed 8mm copper fuel lines (which was a pain) and as they brackets were being fitted the drill snapped and the broken bit punched one of the fuel lines so I have to sort that out as well. Phah. I am just going to cut out the section and fit a compression straight which should be ok.

Will post some piccies later

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[Pepperami]

A few questions for you.
The exhaust, Why did you put in a flexi pipe?
How far did you lower it?
On the outside silencers did you put two rubber mounts?
It's looking really good and your exhaust is inspiring, I saw quite a few like this in Germany. I think this might be the way to go for the scooby exhaust. Well done and good luck.

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How do Pepperami,

I have lowered it by 60mm, and have big tyres on it, but I have yet to drive it so who knows what the end result is going to be. I like the alloys, they are very retro and I have not seen them on any other T25. But if it handles like a bag of spuds, I will have to sort it out, I may go for the biggest, fattest alloys possible on the back and put some real rude rubbers on them to get the power down. Who knows, life is like a box of Aldi chocolates.

I fabricated the exhausts as I went along so answers to questions as follows:-

The expansion joints are there as the system is a fixed system untill it gets past the 4 cats that I have fitted. The system, has a final mount at the rear of the gearbox, although rubber, this allows no movement. As I moved to the tank and turned 90 degress, I realised that any movement in the system, would be amplified as it turned two corners and would shake the system to bits, so the logical place to put the expansion/flexible joint was in the middle section to take out any movement.

The reason I have decided to double mount the back boxes was so that all the weight of the backbox was supported and no weight was transferred into the system, therfore avoiding putting strain on any of the joints or welds.

I am still not sure about this system yet, I will only be able to tell if I like it when the motor gets fired up and I listen to the noise and it gets dyno tested, I know what bhp it should produce, and if when tested the current system has a negative affect on the bhp then modifications will be needed.

Overall I am now faffing about with the small time consuming stuff like controls, electrics etc.

I am hoping to get the thing off the four post ramp and back onto the floor in the next couple of weeks so I can start doing the interior and fit out etc.

The thing that is frustrating with it all is that I will not be able to hit the loud pedal hard as it has a standard box in it and I do not want to barber pole the layshaft. Phah.

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[Pepperami]

Cheers good luck with it and keep us posted.

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Crewcab update.

After a lot of Research, fabbing things, throwing them in the bin, starting again etc, it is now at the point after having trial fits of parts, plumbing, wiring etc to start the final build.

So a series of strip piccies and parts piccies you require to stick a cossy 2.9litre motor in the back of the crewcab.

Tonight I started the strip out of the engine bay ready for the final paint before the engine is installed. This is a difficult decision as I will eventually paint the crewcab a different colour, so should I paint the engine bay in the colour I will eventually paint the crewwy or should I go generic and simple like black or silver. Not made my mind up on that one.

Anyhow, here are a couple of update piccies of the work carried out so far.





Engine and box lowered out of engine bay. The belt was a nightmare on this as I have taken all rubbish off like aircon and power steering, so fabbed a little bracket and my local very nice motor accesory shop kept lending me different belts untill I got the one I needed.



Fabricated engine carrier, bit hard to get symatry correct but got there in the end using existing cosworth engine mount system.



All new CV joints and boots (still dry at present) hoping to remove an area of weakness.



Existing VW fuel tank modified and cosworth fuel pump and housing installed, cosworth swirl pot fitted in tank (had to turn fuel sender round to retain existing vw sender, small amount of filing required.



Modified MAF unit from cosworth, with parts made by very nice man with CNC machine.



One of the new stainless steel water pipes forming the plumbing to power unit. Tried other stuff, settled with this formed on my hydrolic pipe bender after packing it solid with sand to prevent kinking while bending. Worked a treat.



Engine bay with MAF still in place, expansion tank and water pipe still present, all parts removed during engine bay clean.



At this point I called it a night as I knocked my light source over and bulb smashed.

This is a serious conversion with lots and lots of pitfalls and hard work. The wiring harness removed on the car had 9 ECUs which ran the engine, we have spent 5 days solid on the harness on its own (and it is still not finished), and we have a wheelbarrow and big cardboard box of wires which we removed.

The strip, clean and paint of the engine bay will continue before final install.

Will post more piccies soon.

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Did a classic tonight, finished prepping the engine bay ready for its first coat of high build primer.

Mixed the primer, and it went lumpy in gun..... only used panel wipe instead of thinners. Doh.

Going to have to wait till weekend now till I can get some thinners for Primer.

Gutted as wanted it painted by weekend. Bugger.

Still not chosen a colour yet though.

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