Club 80-90 Forums

Seeing as Im new here, heres a few pics of my van where it feels at home. It looks a bit different since these were taken. I have a set of penta alloys on it now and some square spotlights and smoked rear lenses. I also got my roof repaired. Still, it gives you an idea though! By the way the green van is Andrew Scott's.









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I trust those Pentas are 15" and have some 'proper' tyres on them, right?

hey
nice pics cool van

They seem to look at home in this terrain.

What's that locker door then? Ex ambulance did you say? Funny way to slide them in!

Looks good and nice to see them out in the rough!

I for one am interested in any "different" background to a syncro so please can you give me (us) a run down of what it was, what it was kitted out with, where it was used etc..?

Thanks
MG

Yeah I have the 16" Pentas with 215/65 tyres on. They work fine offroad. I mean i drive my van more on road than offroad so I wanted something that would be good on the road too.

Anyway, my vans history....

It started life being imported into Ireland after manufacture in April 1992 with 3 others of the exact same spec. Mine was bought by the eastern health board and 1 other was bought by the western health board, who intended to use them as field ambulances. The other 2 were bought privately. Mine stayed in service as an ambulance until 2002, clocking up over 35000 miles. The other one is still in use as an ambulance today apparently. I bought my van off another guy who bought it off the eastern health board with the intention of converting it to a camper. He hacked off the hightop roof whick was used for storage of stretchers etc and he took off all the stickers and lights, making a right mess of the bodywork in the process. He then decided that it wasnt big enough and bought an LT to convert instead and put my van in the buy and sell. I bought it for €4000 with 39000 miles on the clock, a full VW service history, unused spare wheel and mechanically in excellent condition. The hatch in the side was used to store oxygen tanks actually. Theres a large wooden cabinet inside the van, which I will be building on top of to convert the van to a camper. The cabinet will be staying and will house my water tank, second battery, inverter and gas bottle. What Ive done so far with the van is... fitted a wraparound rad grille, front fog lights, I painted the bumpers black, painted the front panel, covered the dash in grey cloth (speaker cabinet cloth actually), fitted the penta alloys and new tyres, repaired and painted the roof and rear quarter panel which was dented, fitted a rear spare wheel carrier (which is still there, Andrew!), smoked rear lights and carat light surrounds and black wheel arches, one of which was damaged on my last offroading expedition. I also serviced it, gave it a good polish and touched up any iffy bits of paint that may have been damaged when the ambulance stickers were removed. I had to fix the turbo popoff valve too which kept releasing all the manifold pressure too early. That just needed to be adjusted. Ive done a good bit but theres still loads left to do. I havent even started on the camping interior but Ive bought most of the stuff for it. I also want to get some projektzwo heavy duty bumpers and sidesteps and tint the back windows. I might end up spraying it a different colour at some stage too, ie: wolfram grey metalllic. So thats the plan!

Cool, any pics of it when it was in Ambulance trim?

Nice to have a van with so few miles...

MG

God I wish I had pics of when it was an ambulance! I must see if I can get a pic of the one in Limerick!

Would you be interested in a blanking plug for the pop off valve?
I've just had one made for a project, was going to get some more done.

Simon,

Explain the need please
Does the valve stick/malfunction/blow-off early
Or is just a pain in the butt and never really saves the day anyway...

Cheers

The valve is fitted as a secondary safty .If ure bypass valve within the turbo fails and the manifold preshure exeeds safe operating limits the secondary valve(on the manifold) will open thus not allowing over boosting
and engine damage.This was fitted for a reason so if u dont know how to set it up rather leave it alone.
It is a simple spring vale with a tension ajustment in the centre.

If you want to modify the engine, fuelling, boost pressure then you can't go higher than the pressure set by the pop off valve.
Not much use if you want a bit more poke, blank it off, bleed valve, intercooler, oil cooler modify the governer, whoosh bang..off we pop (not)

Nah I think Ill leave it there. Thanks anyway though. It works fine now that I have it adjusted. The intercooler idea definitely appeals to me. If anyone has a kit going cheap Ill take it!