Blimey what a story, i am just on the hunt for my first T4 and viewing one today so been trawling the forums to get fully armed with knowledge this week. your posts have been inspiring to say the least and lots of good info. the tale of one man and his van was awesome and should be a movie, it had everything, good times, hard graft, friendships made, travelling the road, heartache, frustrations and hopefully a happy ending, any ideas who will play you? lol

I have always wanted one and just been undecided until now whether to go for the older classic camper or T4 but then decided T4 all the way. I am fully prepared to commit both emotionally and financially when i find my first one and know these are a labour of love but just have to say Kudos for sticking that out and hope you get sorted soon.

Thanks for the pictures, info and entertainment of the thread.

Jamie

 

Thanks, the whole thing has been a bit of a mission! I am hoping my friend who has it at the moment will post up on here at some point some of the more technical stuff because to be quite honest the wiring and stuff is beyond me!

Don't let my tale put you off, these vans are really reliable considering age/mileage. I just think I was unlucky. You have to bear in mind as well, I had the van for a few years by the time it blew up, and as I am sure I pointed out it was there for my 30th, my proposal, my wedding.... I won't deny, this has put a massive strain on my finances and patience what with the stress it has caused, but I am hoping it will all be worth it in the end!

As for who would play me in a film, my wife who would also be in it, would be Angelena Jolie and I would have to be a cross between Brad Pitt and a young Chuck Norris! I have been writing a seperate article on the whole thing which I will probably send into the T4/T5 magazine when I know the conclusion, just to show people some of the horrors that happen.

 

Cheers, look forward to reading it. got my girl now, her name is Tilly, pick her up in a few days.

 

Great work your vans certainly starting to take shape ! Bonzi Ps cool pics !A:

 

So, My friend and I have been working on my van on and off over the last few weeks. We have been working on it as much as we can given the weather, daylight etc. The good news is, we are SO CLOSE to firing it up for the first time I can almost taste it! Don't get me wrong, its not exactly going to be off to the MOT station this week, but getting it running is half the battle, then it will be time for final fit and finish.

In the last few weeks my friend has been wiring in a new megasquirt ECU, fabricating some parts to make it all fit and doing what seems like miles of wiring!

It show how long this van has been off the road, check out the tax disc and my parking permit expiry date!

 

But it went bang around July 14 I: so a couple of weeks then and it will be running with a not :*

 

Not sure I totally understand that... but its been a long day and my brain is slightly frozen.

There is also another side to the story so far, which is the legal side. However, I'm only going to discuss that once its been completed as I don't want jinx anything or give anything away..

 

Small words work well for me!

The funny thing is, I remember saying 12 months ago that my van would be on the road this year! I:

 

You can't write a good novel quickly just hurry up because its getting boring waiting for the ending.T:

 

ENGINE PORN!!!!

Its nearly running now...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnbzpwlfHv0&feature=youtu.be

 

Was it easy moving the expansion tank over to the UK drivers side? What new pipework did you have to buy and what did you use as a bracket to mount it?

 

copied and pasted from one of Jon's build threads on my van


Appologies I used to live on forums but am getting rubbish at getting round to updating this build thread. But I have some time to update it as the van is so close to running now that I spent a my days off in the garage freezing my nuts off and the last couple days have had a horrendous cold. However it is finally starting to ease so tomorrow will get back at it.


Since my last update I have built the loom and installed it

Hooked up the intercooler

Installed a throttle body and cable

all the plumbing is done.

The stock vacuum hoses and stuff have all been removed and blanked off.

Brakes and clutch have been bled and work flawlessly

Also managed to install a winch in my garage so I can pull the van in and out to work on it out of the wind and rain.

I am now at the point of turning it over but it will not start. So tomorrow I have got some problems solving to do. I am starting with the fuel pump. It seems that "bodge it" garage did change it and drain the tank but it doesn't sound like it is doing a lot and is definately not pumping fuel. I tried putting fuel straight to the rail from a gerry can but that didn't work either. Voltage at the injectors was only 9volts so I'm thinking it could be I need some beefier relays as i just used a couple i harvested off the old loom.

So tomorrow I will start by pulling the tank it's already detached so jus need to drag it out. I might even do that in a minute and can sit in the garage with a 12v battery and the heater on to test it out. If it is a bad pump I have a universal one fitted to our mini which I will steal to try and get the van started but hopefully this one just needs some fetling

Once I know I have fuel pressure will try starting it again. If it still doesn't start, ill pull a plug and check I have spark, if I have spark ill move to the injectors and make sure they are opening. If not will look into the voltage side of things. Maybe relay, gauge of cable or bad earth somewhere.

Well that should be enough to keep me busy for a day. Jon (The owner) will hopefully have some pics as he was over being tea bitch for me last week. Once we had everything hooked up it certainly made for some reasonable engine porn. If you look closely you will notice a lot of stuff that needs making pretty. That will come once the engine is running and we know it's good then I will start on the cosmetics.



Time to text Jon and see if can post pics and if he will be tea bitch tomorrow

 

Oops had I known about this thread before today I would have tried to update it but started my own one instead. At some point I'll write a full build post to show whats been done.

I can honestly say its really frustrating how long it has taken me, I took ages to start getting stuck in to it and for every hour i've spent working on it i have probably spent 10 hours figuring stuff out. Then winter came and made it even more difficult to get stuck in to. Fortunately now we have installed a winch in the garage and have turned the van around so it can be nosed in to the garage. Once all the problem solving was done and I was able to start spending Jon's money I was able to motivate myself to get stuck in. Now I am at the point of turning the engine over just got to figure out why it won't fire. Something simple I'm sure but hopefully will get there soon

Hopefully tomorrow will be the day it starts. If not I will be crying like a cat in a bonfire!

Here's the thread I have been doing

http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=509322&page=3

 

Once all the problem solving was done and I was able to start spending Jon's money I was able to motivate myself to get stuck in.

Lol - Don't believe him, he has been VERY good at spending my money right the way through!!

 

IT RUNS!!*

*albeit with no exhaust, fuelling needing to be tuned and lots still left to do!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9thLHyYgO0

 

Awesome! Must have been a good feeling when that started up

 

It was. I am hoping that once we start the tidy up of wires etc it won't be long before we start looking at getting ready for MOT time!

 

I didn't think it was diesel:*

 

It only sounds like that as its got no exhaust!

 

Doubt it.... I guess it will be a couple of months until I next get it to a meet. Still a lot to do and I want it looking good when it finally comes back.

 

Hi Gents

The reason sounds like a diesel is it turns out the VR wires were the wrong way round so although it worked it was firing at the wrong time and it was idling at about 450 so was only just holding. As soon as I touch the throttle it died so I knew something else was wrong.

After swapping the VR wires I had to start from scratch with the map to get it to start and now is running way too rich but I haven't fitted the O2 sensor yet so don't know how far it is out. Still had the problem with the the throttle so swapped the TPS wires round and boom! problem solved it sounds 100% better now even with no exhaust it is incredibly quiet.

I now have it starting and running so tomorrow after fixing a burst pipe at mothers I will soldering up the last of the loom and getting it wrapped. I also need to sort the wire from the starter as at the mo I am I just touching it on a live wire. I did try wiring it up to the ignition barrel but when I cranked it, it pulled all the power from the ecu so got to sort that out so we can start it of the key.

Once that is sorted I need to figure out a way of getting a signal from the speed sensor to the clocks as none of the old wiring is there apart from the light circuit. Grr!

I need to put the front end back together, mount the intercooler and sort the boost pipes so they don't pop off as soon as they get some pressure and want them nice and neat unlike at the mo.

I have also noticed that bodge it garage threw it together so quick they destoryed the drive shaft gator so got that to fix and hopefully the driveshafts are actually fitted properly.

Theres a few bits of pipe to order, a boost controller, few gaskets and a wideband o2 sensor but I am almost done spending Jon's money so he will be pleased.

Hopefully I'll get the downpipe built this week meaning I can fit the o2 sensor when it arrives.

Other than that I think it is just putting things back together, getting rid of wires I don't need to tidy the engine bay and fitting his bilstein shocks.

The beauty of the wideband o2 is I can see exactely how rich or lean I am running so we don't need a rolling road to tune it we can literally just go for a drive ill get Jon to hold at certain rev ranges and ill sit in the passenger seat tuning the map. We'll probably set up three maps. A Daily map, a fast road map and track/drag map. To change map all that will be needed is a turn on the boost controller knob and save the relivent map to the ecu. This is the beauty of Megasquirt combined with wideband o2. It means the engine bay will be very tidy as there are very few wires.

It won't be at this meet but definately the next one. Unless there is a major hickup it will definately be at the next one!! Hardest part now is going to be getting the VRS clocks working. I've got the wires for tacho and fuel just got to figure out speedo and maybe some other sensors but need to find a VRS clocks wiring diagram first.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a sexy photo and video of Jon's van looking like a van, running smoother and my drive looking less like a breakers yard

 

Hopefully tomorrow will be a sexy photo and video of Jon's van looking like a van, running smoother and my drive looking less like a breakers yard

Although he has promised to help put an engine in this....

So it probably won't be long until he has an even bigger van taking up space! :jmpg

 

He forgot to mention that he is still spending my money!

 

Are you breaking yourself in for t5 ownership then John with all that mo ey your spending.

 

I know for a fact that for the money I have spent I could have had a decent T5. It was one of the options I looked at when getting into all this because of needing a LEZ compliant van. Having said that, this T4 has been there for many major trips with me and several life events... I didnt want to feel like I was just giving all that up.

 

Watching...

 

Well here is a video of the van running again, this time it has a bit of an exhaust but not much. Its really quiet compared to the old diesel it did have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNEbF-wfGQM&feature=youtu.be


Here it is sitting with the front bumper on to give an idea of what it will look like....

 

Looking (and sounding) good chap! A:

 

A couple of setbacks this week as we had an issue with cold starting it. So much time was spent sorting a map out and curing a few small bugs to make it run properly. There are a few bits left to do: fit new shocks, CV boots, tidy up wiring in engine bay/dashboard, fit new clocks.

The smoke you see from the exhaust is because it is still blowing through the last of the from when the engine originally exploded. Once it has been for a good run we are expecting that to clear. As you can also see, we were kind of limited for space!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFtiABt9z-Q

Its pretty late and im knackered after a long day... but good news!! The van passed its MOT today! I will write up a full post on it soon.....T:

 

Link doesn't work Jon you coming to the meet then in Ashford T:

 

I just tried editing the link. It doesnt show up on here in the forum but hopefully should take you to youtube which will play.


As far as the meet goes that strongly depends on my good lady, she is due to give birth on the 2nd... so the 30th is cutting it a little fine. But yeah if we can we will! T:

 

Ok, after a really long day yesterday, Here is a proper update!

So I got a lift over to Monkeys house in the morning, and ran through the last few bits that needed doing like wiring up the horn (note to self, badass airhorn needs to be ordered! ). We then got the van fired up and took it over to Gillingham where we went to see a friend of a friend who happens to be an MOT tester. As the only thing we hadn't been able to do was sort out the map and fuelling we didnt know how it would manage with the emissions test. We had it put on their machine and adjusted our fuelling and map to make it suitable to pass the MOT (If its good enough for VW, its good enough for me! ). We did that and ran it through the MOT which it passed pretty well!!

It still has loads of stuff that it needs doing, such as:

make rev counter work
sort out fuel guage
reconnect heaters
fit new rear shocks (new Bilsteins just fitted on the front)
repaint and refit dashboad with new instrument cluster
get hold of a new floor and fit that
build new exhaust system with soundproofing
Rolling road for properly mapping the ecu.

There is probably loads of other stuff but thats just off the top of my head!