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bigbluebus wrote:yey something I can comment on cos I have successfully done *most* of this job.
Changed my 82 2.0 air cooled to water cooled that is. The way I did mine I was still running van round with air cooled fitted until I had an engine lined up.
Far and away the best way to do this is buy a scrap van (paid £50 for a 1.9 single cab in my case) that way you should have pretty much all the bits you need, and if it has a good engine *bonus*
starting at the front,
remove lower grill from donor, measure the hole and carefully cut a same size hole in your van. I used a grinder. Be careful of the 2 bars just behind this panel (can't think what they are for). Clean up & rust proof the edges, drill some holes and self tapper the grille on.
get under donor, take complete spare wheel carrier off (easy), drain radiator by disconnecting the rad & heater pipes as they come out near fuel tank. Disconnect rad wiring (careful with the wires, you need them), undo 4 bolts at bottom of rad (support rad!) and remove from van.
back to front of donor van, remove upper grill if you haven't already and you'll see a horizontal piece of metal spot welded to fron bulk head under screen. Chisel this off n keep it, its the upper rad mount. Up to you at this point, I rust proofed & painted the rad fan cowling & rad brackets.
get inside donor and remove metal dash, yeh, the whole dash, but keep the heater control panel in a safe place. Remove the entire heater box incl wiring and lift it, and the pipes up and out the van. Keep the control panel with it. Now, preference again, the hole you pulled the heater pipes up through is a different shape on a water cooled to an air cooled so what I did was cut a rectangle of the metal from the w/c around the hole and screwed it over the hole in a/c so the rubber grommit round the pipes fit properly. Again, clean edges & rust proof.
still inside donor, trace the wires from fuse box down to the radiator wiring and remove. It should all just unplug.
Right, at this point fit all these bits to your air cooled, in reverse order to how you took them out the donor. All the bolt holes are there in an a/c anyway. *With the top rad mount, I found there were holes in the upper bulk head anyway so with the a/c dash out, just bolt it up instead of welding it*.
Bugger, got to go, err more later if you want it
