2001 Shitren Berlingo 1.9 dTurbo Project

6. Now I had a berlingo with a blown engine. I could break it for parts and make some money.. I could put a replacement 1.9 straight diesel engine into it, sell it and make some money or I could put a 1.9 dturbo engine into it and keep it and make no money at all. Its quite obvious as to which option I went for... Shown here is a 1995 Shitren ZX 1.9 Dturbo found just 2 miles away from the house. Tractor fired up, trailer thrown on, a small amount of money changing hands and we're in business.


7. Struggle getting her loaded on with 2 locked back wheels and the front steering locked (key lost)


8. Just showing how tight it was.

Got the car loaded onto the trailer just as the sun was setting. With no lights on the tractor nor trailer I set off home. 3 or so miles of back roads later and I made it back to base... in complete darkness. Chancy enough


9. So the car is 1995. It was last tested in 2003 and last insured in 2005. Sometime mid 2005 it was crashed, dragged back to the farm, thrown in a corner and it stayed there untill I bought it. So this engine has not been turned over nor ran in over 10 years. I was told it was still running when it was dragged back to the farm but... well.. look at it.


10. And this is what I wound up with.. a Dturbo with a Bosch pump and a Garret turbo complete with a birds nest and most of the previous owners garden.


11. A short time later I had this. 1 Dturbo engine...


12. Which left with with 1 dead ZX shell (Now breaking for whatever parts are left on it)


13. Then you roll the berlingo into the shed..


14. Then you turn this...


15. Into this.


16. Now the Dturbo engine is out I figured it would be the best time to service it. So far I've done the timing belt, idlers and water pump. Once the engine is in the van and I know it runs I'll do the oil and filter.

And that brings me to where I am at the minute. Currently swapping over fuel pipes, engine mount, flywheel and other brackets off the old DW8 engine onto the XUD engine. It sounds easy but nothing fits handily. Everything so far can be made fit but it wasn't just a bolt on job. Hopefully before long I'll shoehorn the engine into the van, connect wiring, pipework etc and try for the first start.

Good work. Like the rustic ZX. There was a Volcane sat in a field near here that I was offered but I couldn't take it on. That Berlingo is retro now in my eyes.

Nice tractor as well.

17. Got some presents in the post Priced my local autoparts shop and it would be 125 euros for a Belt and water pump for this dTurbo. I'm on a tight budget at the moment, some ebaying later and I had a SKP brand timing belt and a water pump posted for under 50 euros. Now I'm all for shopping local but when there is that much of a difference...... The SKP branded belt kit contained a Gates belt with SKP bearings, Good quality stuff at a very good price imo.


18. New belt, idlers and waterpump now fitted.


19. Timing belt covers fitted.


20. Engine/box split so I could modify the dTurbo flywheel and check the condition of the clutch. Clutch has a few miles left in it so it was left in.


21. Black flywheel is the straight diesel one. Rusty flywheel is the dTurbo one. I've marked on the dTurbo flywheel in pencil where the 2 holes need to be drilled as they were on the straight diesel flywheel. I think these holes were 14mm?


22. Tie the engine onto the Matbro..


23. Now this was tricky.. Some brilliant engineers at Citroen/Peugeot figured they would make the engine and box combination about 1/2 an inch wider than the chassis rails. This means if you are to install the engine from above it has to go in at a ridiculous angle.. As I figured out after I took this photo.


24. One XUD dTurbo located in its new home for the foreseeable future..


25. New oil filter, changed oil. Old filter was a prick to remove after being on there 11+ years at least.

Then the usual stuff, wire up starter, alternator. Plug in all the plugs to wherever they will fit. All pipes to wherever it looks like they should go. Fit driveshafts, hoses, radiator, throttle cable, etc,etc. After all of that is completed....


26. Its alive!! and it is badly in need of a wash.


27. Doors still lying slanted and back windows still shabby.


28. Interior now contains a radio, and its a CD player at that

Well that brings the Shitren up to date. I've done over 100 miles so far and everything seems good. A lot of things to sort yet but overall I'm happy with my result.
To do...
Replace the passenger side park light as its past its best.
Replace front passenger side hockey stick (below headlight) as its cracked.
Replace 2 back tires with load rated ones
Replace 1 front tire as it has camber wear.
Get front tracking done.
New glowplugs.
Get injectors serviced.
Modify back axle so it won't fail like most Berlingo axles do. To do this you fit 2 grease nipples to the axle and pump the entire axle housing full of grease. Once the housing is full it will push the grease into the bearing lubricating it preventing it failing.
Replace the fuel cap with a proper Berlingo one.
Fix back doors lying slanted.
Repaint back windows.
Fix some of the dents? Full respray at some stage maybe? That will be far into the future should it ever happen.
Tidy up the wiring in the engine bay. Old wires from the DW8 engine lying everywhere.
Test it, Tax it and finally Insure it.

Right.. Thats quite a to do list. Good thing its in no rush.


For anyone looking to do this conversion here is what (I can remember) that I did to get this engine to fit.
1) Modify the Dturbo flywheel as shown in the photo . I drilled 2 holes in the same place on the dturbo as they were on the Berlingos flywheel. No major accuracy needed in this job. One thing I also did was drill a hole 180* around the flywheel to account for the weight lost by drilling the 2 holes. Hopefully this should mean the flywheel isint out of balance by a major amount.
2) Swap over input fuel line for Berlingo one. Had to lengthen the return line so it would reach the berlingos return line comfortably.
3) Swap over top engine mount (one on the drivers side). This was a complete prick of a job. I'd estimate I spent close to 10 hours modifying the bracket. It fouled on everything it could.
4) Swap clutch cable over from ZX to Berlingo. Rubber bung on ZX cable does not fit into hole on firewall hence there isint much holding the clutch cable in place. I spent quite awhile sorting this out.
5) Change clutch from push to pull type clutch. Another job that
6) Find an ignition live to power the stop solenoid on the fuel pump. The stop solenoid is located on the end of the fuel pump below the injector pipes. I found a ignition live going to a box that was mounted between the passenger side strut top and the bulkhead.
8) Swap over vacuum pump on the side of the cylinder head for the one from the straight diesel engine.
9) Swapped over all sensors from the old engine to the new engine.
10) Modified the timing belt covers using a mismatch of ones from both engines. This was necessary because of the changed engine mount.
11) Had to modify the downpipe by taking the dturbo downpipe and welding it onto the berlingo exhaust system.

Now I'm definitely forgetting a good few things but that is the majority of the jobs I had to do. In total it took me around 3 weeks of evenings and weekends. This isint a start the job on Saturday morning and hope to drive it to work on Monday kind of a job.

39. Both half leather 306 front seats now fitted into the Berlingo


40. I then bought a parts van for €30. From this I got a new tin of filler sitting in the back, a cd player, a good passenger mirror, a good passenger wing, passenger side park light and hockey stick. I also got some small trim pieces such as the drivers door bump strip and glovebox lid latch. On top of this I sold the passenger door for €20 so the van and all the parts are only costing me €10.


41. The replaced passenger side mirror from the parts van.


42. The replacment passenger side wing, park light and hockey stick from the parts van. The passenger was a cheap reproduction that was being to rust heavily around the edges. The hockey stick was broken in half and the park light was slightly broken and full of dirt which had damaged the reflector inside.


43. Replacement alternator bracket, idler, alternator and belt. Total cost €65. These had to be replaced as the original dturbo alternator was knackered and the original berlingo one wouldn't fit.


43. Found 3 tires on my own cars for breaking so I got those swapped over to the berlingo rims. I then decided to respray the wheels. This was only a very quick job to make her look a bit better. Total cost around €15. 2 tins of wheel spray silver at 5 euros a piece from my local motor factors and a roll of tape at 3 euros. I had a some sandpaper, a tin of oxide primer and also had some lacquer lying about. In the end there was 2 coats of oxide primer, 3 coats of silver and 1 coat of lacquer.


44. The finished wheel. Nothing impressive looking yet because of the rusty wheel nuts and the missing center caps. Despite it being far from perfect it still brighten up the van a lot.


45. Got a set of these in my local breakers yard. Thrown in with a few other parts they would have been around 8 euro. Giving them a quick coat of paint before fitting but the wheel nuts need to be cleaned and sprayed before the center caps will be fitted to the van.


46. Whilst I was at the breakers yard I got a working fuel filler cap. Not cheap at €15 but the van was is desperate need of it.


47. And another find in the same breakers yard was these 2 wind deflectors. The pair came to €10. A quick clean and they were fitted to the van in a matter of minutes.


48. And that leaves the van looking like this. Still needs a lot of work but she is getting there. As you can probably see in some photos there is a few rusty patches to deal with around the rear arches/ rear quarters but I'll sort this out when I get myself a mig welder.

Well that brings the Shitren up to date as of the 24/10/16. She has done around 600 miles so far and she is constantly getting better and more free after her 10 year long sit up. A lot of things to sort yet but overall I'm happy with my result.

To do list...

Fit centercaps + clean wheel nuts.
Replace front drivers side balljoint.
Get front tracking done.
New glowplugs.
Get injectors serviced.
Modify back axle so it won't fail like most Berlingo axles do. To do this you fit 2 grease nipples to the axle and pump the entire axle housing full of grease. Once the housing is full it will push the grease into the bearing lubricating it preventing it failing.
Replace drivers side back door with another. Replace passenger side back door with door from parts van.
Fix some of the dents? Full respray at some stage maybe? That will be far into the future should it ever happen.
Tidy up the wiring in the engine bay. Old wires from the DW8 engine lying everywhere.
Drivers door sometimes wont open from inside van. Sort this out.
Fans wont come on to cool van down. Inspect this.
Test it, Tax it and finally Insure it.

These are great little dogs bodies, ours was a great little gocart until the boss man flipped it! Still ran just a funny shape. Crackin build