Well here goes, I started with a 2.3i Volksiebus which, according to the owner had been rolled then had a tree fallen on it!!! It was really rotten and running rough but as it had all the bits to make fitting a 5 pot easier I was happy. The best bit was that it had an MOT and it was pretty clear it shouldn't have, it was clear the reason it did was that the receipt signature was the same as the MOT examiners on the MOT!!! Anyway this was the donor vehicle.
The first thing to do was get it running smoother so the first to go was the ill fitted LPG kit. The engine was missing it's breather pipe which is a SA item only so I decided to make my own for now complete with flame trap from copper pipe and fittings.
Flametrap
Breather pipe made up
and fitted
The next step was to strip the bus of the body and start to strip out everything I needed for the conversion and make it possible to fit bot the bus and Doka in the lock up.
Engine out
start of the clean up
There was a lot of parts that needed replacing as they were F**ked basically, like the engine mounts.
Having recently sold a Ur quattro I had parts I'd bought to overhaul the drivetrain and not got round to using. The engine mounts were used for the overhaul of the engine cradle.
Also had CV boots from the quattro that thankfully fit the larger SA driveshafts (thank god for Etka) so I could strip and clean them up at little cost.
The exhaust downpipe was very badly corroded and blowing. So after buying an Audi 90 downpipe off Ebay for £10 I cut the ends off and welded them to the SA part.
Manifold cleaned up with new fixings
Oops, almost forgot. Bye bye DG
After the WBX and loom were finally out I started adding all the brackets and drilling holes where needed for the 5 pot. This was so much easier as I could use the bits off the bus and measure where they needed to be. I also stone chipped the engine bay and painted it "Wheelie bin Green" (Vauxhall Reed Green) before fitting.
Bracket to mount ECU
Brackets for heatshield/exhaust
Fuel pump mount
Gave the pump a good clean and mounted it
Next was the job I was most worried about getting right, mounting points for the engine cradle. I had a rear chassis section to mock up on, so I made up some reinforcing plates from 3mm steel section with steel tubes to guide the mounting bolts.
Thanks to the mock up the mounting plates went on with no problems at all.
Gave the engine a bit of a clean and painted the cam cover and cambelt cover and replaced the sump as it was rotten with a 10v quattro one, although I had to drill the side to take the SA filler neck (glad I had collected a few parts over the years).
Laying the 5 pot on it's side and rolling it under on a bread tray trolley (thanks Geoff) didn't work until we threw health and safety out and used an engine hoist around the tow bar to get the rear up high enough for the larger axle stands.
Measuring the engine bay I realised it's 4 inches shorter than the SA so had to fit it and alter the engine bay once I could see where it was a tight fit.
The back of the dizzy was really close to the bulkhead, which meant getting busy with the angle grinder.
It was still tight but at least nothing was touching.
A little bit of welding needed to mount the airbox.
and drilling to route the vacum pipe to the inlet manifold.
had to make up a bracket for the PAS resevoir, just need a couple of pipes making up.
Engine was bolted in with no problems at all and looked spot on
I decided to patch up the load bed as it had a few holes in it.
I also made up a better engine hatch (old one was made of plywood) so I cut up a metal hatch and surround and made this.
here's a linky for a vid of my doka
Cheers Andy e
The first thing to do was get it running smoother so the first to go was the ill fitted LPG kit. The engine was missing it's breather pipe which is a SA item only so I decided to make my own for now complete with flame trap from copper pipe and fittings.
Flametrap
Breather pipe made up
and fitted
The next step was to strip the bus of the body and start to strip out everything I needed for the conversion and make it possible to fit bot the bus and Doka in the lock up.
Engine out
start of the clean up
There was a lot of parts that needed replacing as they were F**ked basically, like the engine mounts.
Having recently sold a Ur quattro I had parts I'd bought to overhaul the drivetrain and not got round to using. The engine mounts were used for the overhaul of the engine cradle.
Also had CV boots from the quattro that thankfully fit the larger SA driveshafts (thank god for Etka) so I could strip and clean them up at little cost.
The exhaust downpipe was very badly corroded and blowing. So after buying an Audi 90 downpipe off Ebay for £10 I cut the ends off and welded them to the SA part.
Manifold cleaned up with new fixings
Oops, almost forgot. Bye bye DG
After the WBX and loom were finally out I started adding all the brackets and drilling holes where needed for the 5 pot. This was so much easier as I could use the bits off the bus and measure where they needed to be. I also stone chipped the engine bay and painted it "Wheelie bin Green" (Vauxhall Reed Green) before fitting.
Bracket to mount ECU
Brackets for heatshield/exhaust
Fuel pump mount
Gave the pump a good clean and mounted it
Next was the job I was most worried about getting right, mounting points for the engine cradle. I had a rear chassis section to mock up on, so I made up some reinforcing plates from 3mm steel section with steel tubes to guide the mounting bolts.
Thanks to the mock up the mounting plates went on with no problems at all.
Gave the engine a bit of a clean and painted the cam cover and cambelt cover and replaced the sump as it was rotten with a 10v quattro one, although I had to drill the side to take the SA filler neck (glad I had collected a few parts over the years).
Laying the 5 pot on it's side and rolling it under on a bread tray trolley (thanks Geoff) didn't work until we threw health and safety out and used an engine hoist around the tow bar to get the rear up high enough for the larger axle stands.
Measuring the engine bay I realised it's 4 inches shorter than the SA so had to fit it and alter the engine bay once I could see where it was a tight fit.
The back of the dizzy was really close to the bulkhead, which meant getting busy with the angle grinder.
It was still tight but at least nothing was touching.
A little bit of welding needed to mount the airbox.
and drilling to route the vacum pipe to the inlet manifold.
had to make up a bracket for the PAS resevoir, just need a couple of pipes making up.
Engine was bolted in with no problems at all and looked spot on
I decided to patch up the load bed as it had a few holes in it.
I also made up a better engine hatch (old one was made of plywood) so I cut up a metal hatch and surround and made this.
here's a linky for a vid of my doka
Cheers Andy e