JX to AAZ Conversion

[H-G]

While I have been a Club 80-90 member for a while now, this is my first time writing and was inspired by events over the past weekend on my way to the Bus Stopover and the people I met there, especially the chaps on the Club 80-90 satnd that were more than willing to take the time to chat about my plight and offer advise - I am sorry but your names fail me, however many thanks to you all.

The story so far:

Pootling over to the Bus Stopover on Friday and Bang the little JX lets go in a cloud of smoke. Mr AA man sucks through his teeth, shakes his head and gives me (and the family) a lift home. A quick change of vehicle and we get there bright and breezy on Sat morning albeit in a Jetta and sleeping in a Tent.

Lucky thing is I have an AAZ in the garage for when I got around to the upgrade, spending the time to do all the research, read all the threads both here and on the other forums however the 'Round-Tuit' has caught me up and I now have the get the job done. The big kicker here is that I have already booked a touring holiday in France for 10 days in the bus with the family. Due to having to test the installation etc I have set myself until the 1 August to have the change done, however the twist here is that all weekends are booked up and I have evenings (good job it's summer and light until late).

I have spent a some time on the Brickwerks Website coming up with my shopping list, adding to this after the weekend and chatting to people that have done the conversion(Club 80-90 pitch at the Stopover - many thanks chaps).

I would like to change the gearbox (currently an ABH) while I have everything out of the bus and for simplicity and to keep cost down think that remaining with a 4 speed would be the way forward. My search has turned up a DK and and ABD and after putting the ratios into a calculator it would seem that there is only a nominal improvement with the ABD (approx 4 MPH at 3000 rpm); the DK gives a much healthier 9 MPH at 3000rpm however it is from an Aircooled vehicle and I am aware that i would need to change the linkage rods as part of the conversion.Box gearboxes are about the £230 mark.

My query to the masses is, is it worth changing the gearbox and if so which of the 2 above would be the recommended box Should I look at an alternative and if so which one

I hope to start a new thread to catalogue my progress as I am yet to find a thread on any of the forums (admittedly I haven't spent weeks looking but time is against me now) that gives a step-by-step guide including the pitfalls, bits needed where I got them etc. Work starts in earnest on Wednesday with stripping out the broken JX and preparing the AAZ on a stand before install. If anyone cares to offer useful hints and tips for this, or any other areas/jobs I should consider doing while the engine is out, I will include them in the thread along with the results.

I look forward to your advice and tips and hopefully with your help I can get the bus back on the road in time to take the family to France in style rather than in a rep-mobile (albeit a VW one).

[charlie brown syndrome]

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/VehicleSpec ... ds/aaz.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

hopefully a link to a good step by step guide to whats involved.

if it doesnt work, got to brick yard main page and hit the information link then right at the bottom of the page is a fitting guide.

hope this helps

oh and i would stick with whichever gearbox youve got (or the cheapest of the others)
(neither of the ones suggested stand out as a big enough difference to warrant the outlay)
in the meantime keep a lookout for one of the 'ideal' boxes,
then when youve got one, do it in a weekend to suit,

[H-G]

Many thanks for the link Charlie Brown Syndrome and your thoughts regarding the gearbox

After a bit more head scratching and weighing up the 'need; over the 'want' aspect, I had kind of come to that conclusion. At the moment I have a bus that doesn't work and I need to get it back on the road; the gearbox, is just fine so why mess with it right now. I am going to take it out as part of the install and change the oil etc while at it and then as you suggest, put it back pending the discovery of the ideal box.

As part of the build, I need to put a new exhaust on it at the silencer is blowing and the mounting brackets on the exhaust have cracked badly. Has anyone had any experience of using the nice shiny stainless system that Brickwerks sell and if so is it worth the extra £200 over the complete new 'regular' exhaust?

I will be putting one of Mr Baxters oil coolers on as part of the install, again has anyone had any experience of this install and give any pointers or things to be wary-of regarding the install process?

[camper]

I run a 1.9 1y with a DK gearbox i did the gear rod conversion my self.Its not a straight forward swop with the rods you will need to add extra length also the gearbox mounting needs modifing.But i managed and it works well.Another way is to fit 16 inch wheels this gets the revs down .

[H-G]

I had heard that putting a DK into a non-Aircooled bus required a fair bit of extra tinkering; while the ratios are appealing I don't think that I have the time between now and the end of July to get everything done and the bus back on the road.

I am already running 225/55/16s at the rear. The bus came witht he wheels fitted so I haven't been able to make a direct comparison. however I am getting about 55mph at 3000rpm and I can still heard the radio and chat to the passengers, much more than this and it all gets a bit noisey inside. This may have something to do with the slight blowing from the exhaust or even tired engine mounts so will look to replace these as part of the overall job. I have also stuck sound-deadening to the rear bulk-head under the seat to help minimise any noise/vibrations from there. This made a noticable difference but not nearly as quiet as I would like it to be. Fingers crossed some nice new rubbers etc will do the trick.

If I do go down the DK route at a later date, I may come back to you for some fitting tips.

Cheers.

[charlie brown syndrome]

QUOTE
As part of the build, I need to put a new exhaust on it at the silencer is blowing and the mounting brackets on the exhaust have cracked badly. Has anyone had any experience of using the nice shiny stainless system that Brickwerks sell and if so is it worth the extra £200 over the complete new 'regular' exhaust? QUOTE

to be honest i think the exhaust is guaranteed for life isnt it, the guarantee is with the owner though not the van, so if the van is sold then its no longer guaranteed,
i think its worth the extra cash if you dont have to worry about it for the life of the van,
ive not seen/used/bought the stainless exhaust myself, but it'll be a good un i reckon, ive bought a few bits of brickwerks and they dont sell rubbbish, theyve been into these vans for a fair old while and theyve seen all the crap parts and the problems that go with them, granted they may be a tad more price wise, but you get the best or oem quality parts and a good customer service

[H-G]

3rd time lucky!

Started to prepare the old JX for removal on Thursday, but cut my hand open while undoing the sump-plug to the point where you could see the inner workings of what makes fingers move . A trip to A&E and everything has been stuck back together.

Finished the job on Sunday and the engine and Gearbox is now ready to drop as soon as I have the hoist and engine stand. Spot of luck in the week as a friend has located a bus for sake that recently had an AAZ conversion with all of the shiny Brickwerks bits needed to make the job simple as well as all the necessary mods to manifolds and turbo support brackets. A few calls later and we have bought a van which he needs the body bits and I need the oily bits from. Just waitn for that to arrive and then the insatll can make headway. It has a 5 speed gearbox so fingers crossed it has had this changed in the past to make the most from the better performance form the AAZ and reduce the revs at motorway speeds.

Jobs for the week are to revise the shopping list and start cleaning the donor AAZ ready to strip and have the new bits bolted back on.

[Plasticman]

Ahh thats fortuitous, best of both jammy worlds.
mike

[Fin]

Good work..
Please do a thread when you have time, I'm sure I can do the digging all the bits out myself too..

It's just the putting of things back in that I think I might struggle with, what is involved wiring loom wise with an engine transplant?
Can you run the new engine electrics easily with the old?
and do you need a better fuel pump for the new lump?

I was thinking of an Audi V6 in mine

[H-G]

Got the hoist but a few days before the engine stand arrives. So I have lifted the engine and got me evil with the gunk and a jetwasher. Makes the New lump look much better and will also make it much easier to work on. It will probably benefit from another go once I have stripped the ancillaries off of it and got into all of the nooks and crannies.

Still to work out how to get the 'spare' bus home; thinking it may be easier to head down and tow it back using the B roads. It will be a couple of hours but at least it will be here and I can get on with stripping the good bits out of it.

Another weekend away so little is going to get done now until next week.

[H-G]

Got back after getting back from the latest weekend adventure and getting everything unpacked, I found myself with a hour to spare so into the garage and............

I have managed to remove:

Power-steering pump
Power-steering pump and alternator brackets
Cam-belt covers,
Bottom pulley
Engine mount
Flywheel
Downpipe

Not much, but every little helps when time is tight. Hope to be able to start putting bits back on soon.

[vandad]

Got back after getting back from the latest weekend adventure and getting everything unpacked, I found myself with a hour to spare so into the garage and............

I have managed to remove:

Power-steering pump
Power-steering pump and alternator brackets
Cam-belt covers,
Bottom pulley
Engine mount
Flywheel
Downpipe

Not much, but every little helps when time is tight. Hope to be able to start putting bits back on soon.

H-G, thanks for this post. I need to do the same thing myself. MY JX has gone bang amd I want to replace it with an AAZ. I need to get the JX turbo off so I can see if I can re-use that. If it then I'll source an AAZ. I'll follow your progress. hope your hand is OK. Vandad.

[H-G]

Progress since Sunday:

Monday

After stripping more off of the AAZ on Sunday, I once again attacked it with the Gunk and hosepipe, this time giving the stubborn areas a goo scrub with a brush; now it's never going to look brand new, but it does look lot lot better and will allow me to see if there are any oil leaks once it is installed. I will be replacing most fo the gaskets, Rocker cover/sump etc so I hope that this will solve any of the previous leaks.

Tuesday

Picked up the engine stand on Tuesday however got back a bit too late to be able to do anything to the car. Clear space in the garage so that I can get everything in and still get to benches shelves etc.

Wednesday.

A big step forward today:

The AAZ is now firmly attached to the engine stand ready for the remaining bits and bobs to be stripped of

The defunct JX is out of the van along with the gearbox. I had removed the gearbox a few months ago to change the clutch however this was on a 4-pillar ramp with all the good workshop tools to make it a lot easier. Dropped both the engine and gearbox as one unit on my driveway using an engine hoist. Initially tried using the two lifting lugs at the top of the engine, however this caused excessive twisting which would damage the gearbox mount; additionally it didn't allow me to get the offside mount removed. New plan - I lifted at the mounts, however I used the support bars as well, undoing the 13mm bolts holding the bars on at each end. This works ok for removal, but my top tip here is to ensure that you remove all the bolts before dropping the engine as the bars move around the mount. I will not be able to use this method to get the engine back in as I will never be able to align the bars to get the engine mount bar bolts back in. Oh, forgot to mention, I removed the exhaust heat shield which improves access greatly, not to mention preventing any further trips to A&E to get my hand stuck back together!

Anyway, they are out and I have also split the engine and gearbox, removed the starter motor and the mounting bars from the engine. Engine and gearbox are now sitting on trolleys to ease movement and also let me get them into the back garden to jet-wash before I start working on them.

Another milestone will be achieved this evening as the donor bus arrives which has all the necessary goodies on it to make the conversion much more straight forward

Was going to add some pics, but I think that they are to big to upload. Will re-take and try and post later.

Jobs for tonight:

Find space for another bus!
Jetwash the JX and Gearbox
Remove the remaining 'surplus' parts from the AAZ.
Create a shopping list of gaskets so that everything can be orders by the end of the week.

Vandad,

I have yet to remove the turbo from the JX, however I am told that patience is the key here along with lots of plus-gas. I am told that you can get an adaptor to allow the AAZ turbo can be used with the JX manifold, however the Turbo would need to be re-indexed to allow the correct oil flow. Additionally, I am not sure if you can then use the Brickwerks extended oil return line to overcome the height difference in the engine block. It may be that as a result of the work I am doing, I will have some surplus bits and pieces that you may find useful so PM me if interested/need anything. I would start the search for the AAZ now and work on the turbo as you are going. I was luck in that a friend had the one I have in his garage as he was considering converting his Petrol T25 to Diesel. He was incredibly lucky in that he got it from a good salvage yard who didn't realise it was diesel when they sold it and got it for a very very good price meaning I also got it for a very very good price. These can go for silly money as a stand alone unit, you are better looking for a who car which you can usually pick up for less than the engine by itself!

Take a good look at the Club 80-90 Wiki pages - heaps of top tips there

Good luck with you conversion

[H-G]

SO the donor van arrived last night; too dark to have a good look over it but something to look forward to when I get back home on Sunday.

I have tried to post a few pics up but keep using the "Upload Attachment" tab at the bottom of the page, but keep getting told that the files are invalid; as a bit of a techno-biff am I missing something?

Last night I got me evil with the spanners again, ably assisted my my very patient partner who was there with bags and masking tape to bag and tag as I took bits off.

So, removed the sump from the AAZ, nothing but oil in there so a good sign! Oil pump is also off of the AAZ along with the dip-stick (1/4 inch extension and gentle persuasion from the sump end), oil breather pipes and a the water pipes from the injection pump side. I need to look on the Wiki pages to see if the sensor in the water outlet on the side of the block can be used to feed the Temp Gauge, Aux Pump etc instead of fitting all of the JX outlets and sensor units. Fingers crossed, this is the route used on the donor so I can physically see how this has been done - Pics to follow but note para 2 of this update.

Turning to the JX, removed the engine mounts, water pump, crank-pulleys, dip-stick (fell out!)sump, Down-pipe (Sheard a stud ),Turbo, Oil filler and sump (which is full of bits of piston) All the remains on the long engine are the manifolds and the injector pump which will be removed the next time I get into the garage (Sunday time permitting).

So next job(s) are to finish stripping the JX and then start cleaning the bits to be re-used along with list the bits to be replaced. Loads and Loads of pics and notes about the installation on the donor van so that I can learn form that and make improvements to the my install as necessary (I did notice that they have not used an expansion bottle for the cooling system).

Apart from the Brickwerks shopping list, pretty much everything is in place now so full steam ahead next and subsequent weeks - I hope I can get it done as I really don't want to be taking a tent to France next month.

A good weekend to all whatever it may bring you - for me - Lifestyles at Hunstanton and another link in the Chain of Events (Another Story!)

[H-G]

Another week and a couple more late nights taking things to bits - can't wait until I can begin putting things back on the AAZ to get it ready for the Bus.

JX is now stripped to a long engine - I will take the head off later to see what the damage is however looking at the pile of bits in the sump it is beyond reconditioning.

Turned my attention to the Donor Van last night. It is a later engine (pump at least) as it has soleniod operated cold start on it Remove the loom which included the main engine plug which had been re-hashed to accommodate the JX Loom. It would be good to use the AAZ sensor rather than refitting the JX fittings and sensors - could anyone point me in the direction of a a diagram showing which wires from the Green/Black(?) sensor replace the old JX sensors?

Rather than remove the engine from the van at this time I am stripping the 'good' bits of while it is in situ. Exhaust and downpipe is off with the nuts to the Turbo posing no problems this time.

Inlet manifold is off, however most disapointed to note that the ports had not been re-profiled. I have a few options as I see it:

1. Fit the un-modded JX Inlet maniflod pending the getting the 'spare' ali-welded and reprofiled.
2. Hold back on the refit until I have had one fo the JX manifolds modded.
3. Try and use the AAZ Inlet with the JX Exhaust/turbo set up.

Each of these have their pros and cons:

1. Pros - Get the engine in and bus on the road
Cons - Incorrect alignment of the ports causing possible turbulence to the inlet gasses (Not sure if this will pose any problems in it's own right?)
2. Pros - Easy setup using JX parts and turbo-to-inlet pipe
Eliminate any possibility of turbulent inlet gasses
Cons - Finding somewhere to Build up the necessary areas, re-profile the ports (I can do that) and skim the face.
TIME!!!!
3. Pros - guarantee the correct fit between the manifold and head.
Cons - Need to source somewhere to make up a pipe to feed the air from the Turbo to Inlet Manifold.

I know that there a few people who have found themselves in this position doing the same conversion. I have seen a couple of threads relating to the use of the AAZ inlet and getting a pip made up but no mention of where - Does anyone know of a place (near Huntingdon if possible) where I could get this done? Additionally, does anyone know if there would be any problems (other then possibly a slight loss in performance) using the standard JX inlet manifold pending the eithe options 2 or 3?

Back to the donor van and I noticed that the conversion didn't make use of the expansion bottle, instead linking the small outlet water outlet on the top of the block directly to the pressure cap on the header tank. Does anyone see any problem with blocking the small outlet on the engine off and retaining the expansion tank? I have the option of fitting the old JX outlet but that would mean the loss of the AAZ Green/Black sensor unit and reverting back to the 'old' set-up.

Finally, the new AAZ has a large oil breather from midway up the block to the cap on the Cam Cover. does anyone know if it is ok to retain this, or do I risk oil feeding directly up the pipe to the cam as the engine is laid over when installed in the Van?

It is getting there, however, depending on the comments/assistance from the the collective, the inlet manifold may have put me back quite a few days.

At least I have a spot of welding to concentrate on pending the arrival of shiny new bits as well as an Oil Cooler to remove and fit the bus.

Still trying to fathom out how to get pics up on the forum (keep getting 'this file is invalid' messages); again some pointers for a techno-biff would be welcome.

More fun tonight - just hope the weather remains kind!