The SA 2.6i Microbus thread

[silverbullet]

The bus is now flying thanks to a correct diagnosis from the syncro-sa forum.
Cut a long story short: camshaft was advanced one tooth, so valves were opening (and closing) too early in the stroke, causing poor cylinder filling, knocking the performance and making it "pink" on petrol. Been like it for ages!!!!
TDC check revealed all and had it sorted in under an hour.

[silverbullet]

Took the lpg tank out today, need the storage space and I will seek a better solution this Autumn.
After vacuuming up the crisps, dog hair and drilling swarf I find....

Look closely. Unimpressed to the last.
PS the bus really shifts without the weight of the tank onboard. Enough to make me question the benefits of lpg, as a small yacht-living friend said today "balance the inconvenience of stuff you can't take with you vs the fuel cost saving and the extra weight carried around"
Don't get me wrong, I love the high-octane fuel and the low cost per mile, but sacrificing so much internal volume is now unacceptable.
More re-engineering required!

[ELVIS]

How many fixings are holding the tank mount in chap? Can see 50% of the holes are not used in the pic, what about the other end?
Surely the manufacturer/designing engineer put them there for a reason?

[silverbullet]

Let me go and take another pic...

[silverbullet]

Looks like something went wrong here..."back" at the front and a surplus strap fitting (with a wonky nut)

Really? In-situ welding to a tank frame? From a professional T3 lpg conversion expert? Who could have burned the van down to nothing?
I thought that I had found all the horrors in this job too...
Good riddance. At least saved me a couple of grand in petrol over the 40k...

[ELVIS]

So if the one (wonky) bolt at the back fell out, just one would have been holding the whole lot in?

Welding burns on the carpet? You're just being picky bro

[silverbullet]

Wonky one was so bad a strap bolt clearly wouldn't go in! Ok so there was 4 through the floor, not in the original holes in the frame admittedly...
Bin material the lot of it. Amateurish. No, worse than that. Slapdash. Shoddy. I will waste a lot of time and money putting the last of it right and I am not even a motor trade "professional"
What a load of sh!te.

[silverbullet]

On a more positive note, I had a leisurely avo fitting curtain tracking to the bus (middle and rear sides only, no need for tailgate with the midships sleeping and luggage guard in place) and then a general faff about vacuuming up drilling swarf & dog hair. I remembered to finally fix the prototype Disklok holder between the front seats, it also makes a handy mini bulkhead when doing a wine run to the co-op!

I have made a version for bulkhead vans like our syncro too...

[silverbullet]

Fresh back from a 2600 mile *E D I T* 18-day trip across German-speaking Europe and soon to be for sale...

Faultless, reliable performance in every respect but its just not big enough for five of us and my teenage lads are now 6-footers!
When the weather got tricky things were challenging, to put it mildly...

No sitting behind commercials or shed draggers doing 90km/h or less on long uphill drags: just check the mirror, drop into 4th and give it the beans. Happy doing 70mph @3300 rpm for hour after hour, it never ran out of torque, power or brakes on the mountain downhill twisty bits.

Running on 98-102 RON Super Plus it never pinked or overheated once despite the load and returned exactly 20mpg over the 2600 miles of flat Netherlands, rolling Bavarian hills, Tyrolean 3rd gear 3000rpm full-throttle alpine hauls up to 1500m, very hilly Ober Osterreich tourist day trips and the last two days of pressing on through Germany and Belgium to get home; I never once held back on the gas and it always delivered.

I really will miss it.

[silverbullet]

I couldnt part with it in the end, too much unfinished business...
The old bus has sat for a couple of months, so I reckoned that I should check the battery.
Key in, give it a flick...
*chirp chirp* Vroom!
Started first time. Still love that noise...

[HarryMann]

Like

[silverbullet]

I will get the spark plugs centralized in the combustion chambers eventually

[silverbullet]

Gave the bus a run up to temperature. Still glad that its here, the noise alone makes it all worthwhile.
Really must get an MOT...

[silverbullet]

There has been a blister here for a year or more, then I poked it. Typical SA localized but severe rust outbreak. Bugger.

[Wychall]

I'm not far behind you in that same location Ian.