‘97 Mk3 Astravan, just me and old faithful

The white van has been welded… well hopefully all of the MOT welding has been done









And the footwells/floors got some white hammerite afterwards, I ran over them with knotwheel in the grinder and hoovered them before paint, but they aren’t great and the wind managed to blow other lodged dust but they are good enough for now, passenger footwell will need a bit more work anyway as there are a couple of bits I ended up patching because they were under the seat frame and partition of cubbies behind the seats. But I’m thinking about using the VRS seats, so the seat frame will probably come out, and the partition may come out too





I tried the clutch, and unsurprisingly it didn’t work. But it did at least have enough clutchiness to allow me to park up in a better spot







So a rock and roll Friday night was spent dropping the subframe and gearbox again

Saturday I grabbed the spares from the shed and fitted the flywheel from the red van
That flywheel is the potted one though, not a flat type that I was lead to believe low blows had





Also whilst up the shed I grabbed the other spare tailgate and fitted that



I gave the inside of the box a cursory wipe and started refitting



Then Steve turned up and it got a lot easier but no further photos got taken until we tested it up the drive.

Steve went, I carried on tinkering, I’d damaged a brake line under the floor so fixed that and started to bleed the brakes… then Lucy came home so we went and got curry

This morning, I tried to open tailgate.. and realised i haven’t got the keys here… doh

So swapped the rear springs and checked the dampers, they damp so can wait until I strip stuff down. Swapped wheels about, bled the brakes again, fitted the seats, the horn and steering wheel cowl. Had a quick go at the tracking, and then gave it a decent wash







Went up the shed, so dug out the estate locks, took them off the doors, found the column and then had to search for the ‘safe place’ I put the keys so I can have it on a single key at some point



Went to turn it around and park back in the drive in it’s normal place, and it ran fine, then lost power, then after a minute ran fine again (except for being smoky)… so I’ve ordered a pela pump to suck the 8 year old diesel out.
Few more things to do, pushed some more air about so brakes need bleeding again then try for an MOT

It would be nice if it passes, but if I get a fail only on the engine then I’d be happy, and at least I’ll know what needs doing whatever happens

But it looks fairly respectable now (even with just some white hammerite daubed on the rear arches) well from 10yds it does

Good work !!

Looking forward to the engine swop & the racing .

👍

*The engine is in the bay, that’s not a lie… it’s not installed though

Drove the white van around for the week, but only a few short journeys really.

Swapped it over with the Fug in the shed, it fits, we parked the white estate in there 18months ago, but it’s tight.
So removed the mirrors and pushed it in backwards as I want access to the engine bay.

Then waited, the yard the sheds on isn’t huge and therefore didn’t want to start anything until they’d finished harvest. So now harvest is finished I could make a start.

So pulled the engine from the white van





And then the gearbox, which I managed to do leaving the shafts attached, so didn’t need to drain the oil. I swapped that with another mk3 owner Andy, I got an F18 as a spare, he’ll get this F13.

Then we stripped the front off of the octy



And whilst in there found out another reason it smelled so bad



Then pulled the engine and box as one





And dropped them into the van



That sounds really easy, but on a loose gravel/planings yard it’s a fair bit of lifting and dragging. But looks really good in there so it was worth it

It’s sat on the subframe, so it’s high, which means the bonnet won’t shut





I believe there is a low profile steel sump for these, which will give me about 40mm and then look at where the engine and subframe interfere.
Luckily the subframe is bolted in, so not part of the monocoque.. so can be modified.

So not really achieved much, except cleared some space and checked that it fits in the hole.

Next up is lots of measuring and start stripping the octy

The shallow sump is standard on a 20v turbo Beetle.

Just over a month since last post, I started writing something and then managed to delete it So wrote this elsewhere… apologies if it’s a bit too wordy

Originally was going to use the octavia loom with the ecu, this would mean i would have to use quite a lot of the octy, including the pedals and clocks.
I started by unwrapping the loom and paring out the unwanted cables for lights etc. it all got a bit overwhelming though, there was a lot of extra wiring/complexity I didn’t need

And since I had the speeduino, that seemed the way to go
Having made that decision the whelm-ratio was restored.
I took the bits of the loom I now needed;
Coil wiring
Injector wiring
Inlet air temp sensor
Coolant sensor
Crank position
Throttle body (though this needed a different plug)

The AUQ is drive by wire which won’t work with speeduino, but an AGU cable throttle body bolts straight on, currently I’ve only wired the position pins

I made a bit of a loom at home, because I’m doing it all wrong (like normal ) I couldn’t make a proper loom as I don’t know where I’m going to route stuff, so I just connected stuff up leaving the wires as long as possible.

I pulled the engine and box out of the van and dropped on a pallet just in front of the octavia, connected my loom, connected the fuel lines and wired the fuel pump and tried to get it to run…. Which it wouldn’t, I had no spark



So having spent most of my available time moving the engine and box with no space around it in the shed I packed up for the day.
When I bought the speeduino kit I also bought the speedy sim test board, I checked my ecu again and I was definately firing the coils on the test board, so I got the impression it was something silly but couldn’t find what.



Tried again on the Sunday, a bit of testing showed the 5v to the coils was floating, I could see 5v when coils were disconnected but it went as soon as I plugged a load back in. Then it rained, biblically!



So that was that.

In the week I had a look at the speeduino, I was thinking I’d probably got a dry joint or something, but whilst checking noticed jumper j1 was missing. Which is the jumper to tie the coil outputs to 5v or 12v

I then used the speedysim and pinned the coil part of the loom to double check, which could still be done inside, in the warm, with tea



And then at last I actually got a time/weather window and had another go
With the engine/box now home I used the fuel pump on the Fug, with return back into the filler



I’ve not put a map in for this, just set the engine characteristics in tuner studio, obviously the map needs work.

I’m going to add cam sensor and then I can get it to run sequentially instead of batch fire and wasted spark as it is currently, have modified the cam wheel, but need to work out when it will see the edge



also need to sort map sensor and boost control. But it’s a good start

Works for me, but maybe this will?

It’s been a while, with working outside and life distractions (and when it’s windy or raining or sun zero even imaginary distractions sometimes work ) progress has been slow.

I removed the front lawn and replaced with stone so I can park the white van in the only place that allows me to be get it level-ish





Which means I can park work van where it doesn’t dig holes in the garden.

Struggled with the work van starting when it was really cold, went through the glowplug system and have currently ended up with a small momentary switch operating the glowplug relay (and the entire Isuzu glowplug ecu has been bypassed. I also bought a Ford mondeo/escort td glowplug relay to reinstate in its place.
This is simpler, with 6 connections; battery, glowplugs, ignition, starter, glowplug light and gnd. It holds the glowplugs and light on for 15secs, and then holds the glowplugs on for another 15secs after starting (or hopefully it will when I got it)



Have been working on racevan, got the engine in, and dropped the subframe and clearanced it to get the engine in the right place.
Got hold of some 5mm steel plate and some engine mount bobbins but not got around to making them yet.
Also when positioning the engine, the turbo would foul on the steering rack, so I bought the cheapest tubular manifold I could find (because it will need modifying anyway) and at £76 for brand new, I knew it would need work. It appears this is for a Passat so the positioning is different. I need to sort the engine mounts and then I can sort position. But looks like if I move the turbo down a bit, it will work. Even with the internal wastegate













Workvan has been trundling along, the tyres on the 16s really didn’t inspire any confidence when it got icy, so fitted some winter tyres to the alloys, and really happy with how it looked for the winter







The stereo kept playing up and not connecting Bluetooth, so I’ve replaced that with another Blaupunkt ;the same as the one in the lupo)
and I bought a replacement dab aerial too as the one fitted snapped in the extreme cold we had in December.

Then last Thursday, I pulled away from a roundabout and the car alongside in lane 2 decided to merge into me
He didn’t admit liability, so had to start going through the motions with my insurers, the underwriters assigned a garage in Acocks Green (about 2 hours away) who wanted to come and collect the van. I ignored them
But I’ve now been contacted by the 3rd party insurer accepting liability and wanting to sort with me directly. I’m now waiting to speak to the engineer/assessor to sort things. But I’m going to need a new door and to try and find the door and side panel moulding trims… which may prove tricky!

Bum hats on the bump, progress everywhere else.
Be careful dealing directly with their insurance company- once yours are involved probably best to go with them. Finding somewhere local who you trust and getting a price might work.
How far away is he who cannot be named ? If it’s just the door then sourcing one and having sit painted up ready to fit might be a day trip?
James

My insurance assigned a repairer in Acocks Green (about 2 hours away) who wanted to collect the van and agree repairs with my insurance company and do the work.

My thoughts on that are, it’d get taken away, shunted round the yard for a month while people worked out that the bits needed would require some effort to source (by now the inflated hire van costs would exceed the repair costs) panic, realise it’s also picked up some damage in their yard and write it off!

The 3rd party insurance have agreed to work with me (so far). So my thought is, the cost to strip and rebuild a door will be the same similar, the cost to prepare and paint may be a little higher (as there will probably be storage dings to sort, but they should also have a cost for reworking a panel etc) and the cost to fit will be about the same.
So if I can find the approximate cost of the bits before Monday then it should be relatively easy to agree.
Secondhand/old stock bits is X
Standard repair costs Y

Well that’s my thought anyway?

gtviva has a door skin, or I’ve seen a whole door on eBay. Hoping I can find a good secondhand door molding strip…. if not a new one, as they were used on the hatches, estates and vans

But the rear 1/4 one is going to be elusive as they are van specific

The cars had a relief at the front for when the door opens



The vans don’t