Ronnie's new runaround - Project VAN!

[corsakid]

good work the combo we did not long ago is good fun im shore it'll quite brisk

[2.2DTIdarryl]

well ronnie it good to see u havent got board of ur cars yet. lol

it should be an intresting drive with the redtop in it.

[Jonny Martin]

Looks well in there! Great work!

[rc]

got to the unit today to find the TD lump not happy about the rejecting and throwing evils over :lol:



today was time to make a backbox, u would of thought with a van there would be tons of toom underneith, but in actuall fact there faff all! tight for space everywhere under there!

remembers i had a backbox of a mk2 golf sitting in my garden, had been there bout three years lol its really flat and will do the job nicely



today i took me ol chaps grinder down there, as yesterday making the exhaust was all done with a hhacksay and wire brush, **** doin that again lmao





started building



powerflow eat ya heart out :P



and on, functional and race spec



but not pretty, so welded the subaru legacy end cap i had on before



sounds just right, nice and quiet(ish) on tickover but when revved sounds like a race car

last was to bleed the brakes, then started fittind it up



on the ground ready for test drive my mate just turned up so he came too.

all went good for a while......

went to tescos to fill up with petrol, drove in fine, filled up fine, went to start, rahh rahh rahh, just turning over not firing so pushed it to the side, all lights were working, enigne management light comes on with ignition so was powered fine, earths are fine as turning over, checked for spark, nice bright big boy, checked for fuel, little dribble squirted out not alot tho, but all over the rocker cover, aresol paint + petrol = bad news! but anyway, bigger problems here, no fuel so checked if the pump was cuttin in... nope, thought faulty feed, so just pulled my amp wire out and ran direct live to pump, just get spark and but if a thud, like when you get a direct short, pumps died so we decided, to have a little jog back to the unit to go get his rallye to tow the van back, little optimistic, doesnt seem that far in a car, little jog, is actually about 4 miles, cross country lol

40 mins later got back to the unit taking short cuts across fields ( seemed a good idea at the time, not now we're caked in mud and trainers weigh a ton lmao

drove back to tescos and towed the van back, whipped off the pump, bench tested it straight on a battery, hust a dull thud sound, hit it with a hammer (stuck starter motor style) stll nothing, hit it harder and started wiring a bit, then faster and faster till up to full normal speed, cool i thought, re fittled but still nothing at the fuel rail, took pump off againg and tried just sucking petrol trough it on its own, but nothing going through, wiring like its working but not pumping, so guessing the impellers come away from the motor or something

****ing thing



no big problem, my other mates bringing me one round tomorrow so should be all up and operational again

didnt drive it for long, but runs apsolutly spot on, sweet as a nut, espically concidering its 20 years old ran spot on

[RickGTE16V]

you used it to pump the last of the diesel out the tank didnt you , i have no idea why but i had a petrol pump seize in the same way cos of pumping diesel with it , i think its just not set up inside to handle the different fuel , the fuel flows over all the workings of the motor to cool it so everything is exposed, at least u know the thing runs alright , these things are never without hiccups are they

[rc]

you used it to pump the last of the diesel out the tank didnt you , i have no idea why but i had a petrol pump seize in the same way cos of pumping diesel with it , i think its just not set up inside to handle the different fuel , the fuel flows over all the workings of the motor to cool it so everything is exposed, at least u know the thing runs alright , these things are never without hiccups are they

could well be, diesel is rather oily!

[rc]

got a new pump off my mate, his EDS phase 4 inline pump, good for 400bhp, that should do the trick lmao :lol:

put it in started up fine

needed to paint the rocker cover again as the petrol had disroyed the aresol finish, lol

so whipped it off and degreased the paint off, much easier this time



aresol king out again



and on





thought it would be rude not to go down to southend in the super van for a test drive, 200 miles and didnt miss a beat, a whole night of driving very hard everywhere too

so geat sucess, runs quiet as a mouse, no taps or nocks, really pleased

on the look out for a k&n pannel filter for a g-reg mk2 astra gte 16v please

[jay26]

thats mutch better mate its such a cool van mate hope this engine plays nice for you too mate

[Spinbitch]

Yet another quality car there Ron. Nice work mate.
Hopefully i am returning to the Astra group again, on the look out for a mk3 estate to replace the bm, such great cars.

[rudd86]

looks well now, whats it go like out of interest?

[buzball]

Hi mate was you in lakeside macdonalds im sure i see the van.

I thought to myself reminds me of ronnies van cant be surely.

[Drizz]

LOL quite a few went southend this week. Too cold for me, ill wait till summer comes along lol

[rc]

looks well now, whats it go like out of interest?

bloody well really surised me need to get the trackin sorted asap, but pulls like a ****in tropper

[rc]

Hi mate was you in lakeside macdonalds im sure i see the van.

I thought to myself reminds me of ronnies van cant be surely.

yep most certainly was me

[buzball]

Thought so rolling really low on the back

[rc]

went to get the tracking done yesterday as it was miles out, and was a no go..... sieezed solid id just left the gte steering arms on the struts and changed the whole lot over, we tried for ages to unsieeze, heat, hammers, the lot but no go, do one out but the treads were ****ed, they hadnt been adjusted for deffo 9 years, and prob not since new, so 20 years :lol:

so today to save scrabbing around in the wheelarches i got my old mk3 arms i took off



stripped them down and cleared all the threads



and all coper greased up with new trackrod ends



and couldnt resist painting them



gonna stick them on tomorrow and get the tracking done, i think the measuresment for how far out it is can be taken in cms not mm lol

also i fitted the compleate big block mk2 gte front legs when changeing the engine, and they already had lowering springs fitted, so just fitted them as it was to see how it sat, and for a 'normal' lowered car it sits nicely, very comfy



but as you can see to get the vans front back to true ground scraping style it needs dropping to match the rear again, so will adjust the springs while im in the arch tomorrow too

[adzie_2005]

Saw ya drive past earlier jus wanted to say the van looks awesome!

[rc]

Saw ya drive past earlier jus wanted to say the van looks awesome!

cheers mate rather dirty at the mo!

[Steve!]

All cars are dirty at the moment Ronnie

[jay26]

thort it would have sat lower anyway ronnie with the xe in

[rc]

thort it would have sat lower anyway ronnie with the xe in

i took the front legs and springs off the gte

problems with the suspension at the end of its TD life were, 2 split top mounts, 2 lealking dampers, nackered bottom ball joints and track rod ends, and a snapped ani roll bar linkage. turns out cars dont like being lowered 90mm with no suspension travel lmao

[Spinbitch]

lmao how the hell was the front end still attached to the car?????

[rc]

lmao how the hell was the front end still attached to the car?????

well can honestly say it wasnt very nice to drive lmaolmao

[rc]

what a ****ing nightmare of a day i had yesterday!

went down about 10am to fit the new steering arms, then was gonna pop get the tracking done and have the rest of the day pottering down the unit!

WRONG, i know why im so enthusiastic working on the turbo now, everythings nice and free and secure, nice and clean and spotless, and everything does what it is supposed to and easy to work with! nothing sieezed nothing dirty!

a couple of hours trying to get the track rod end out, tried 2 types of ball boint splitter hamers chisles crow bars, alot of sweating but still no joy, so then got the grinder involved and cut the track rod off



then another hour with a punch tring to get the remainder out of the strut. still no joy, ****ing thing,


so then got bored and started playin with my new brakes, and guess wat they fit under the 17s





if one of the calipers didnt need repairing they'd of gone on the van today, bit overkill, but ****ing cool

then had to get back to the van, was no use was gonna have to take the strut out ffs



in doin so forgot about the gearbox oil, so got that all over the floor!

more hammering and theres no chance of getting that out of the strut

still had the struts off the red gsi so used one of them, more hassle, had to swap the springs over, not fun when ive got no compressor out yet

all done



this fell off, couldnt find anywhere for it to go so left it out



new and old steering arms



then getting the drive shaft out of the old hub BOTH the cv boots split (turned out to be pretty perished)



but had no way of getting to a shop to get new boots, so had to put it all back together ****ed so i could get tot he motor factors



got there just before they were closing, luckerly, then all the way back to the unit, strip down the corner AGIAN,

and pulling the driveshaft out, the inner cv broke ffs



all the balls fell out everywhere!

still had the driveshaft from the red gsi, but that had spit cv boot, so still had to replace the boots, what a ****ing parlarva!!!

so all done and back to gether by about 7.30 pm :lol:

what a **** of a day!

anyway got the tracking done today, u can actually let go of the wheel now, where as before it was a both hand job just to go in a straight line lmao

all done

[Adam]

i want ur brakes!