Engine In !

At last the engine is fitted and running, but not without a couple problems along the way.

The engine came out reasonably easily, we took it out the top, although if we could have lifted the van up enough or had a ramp, it would just as easily have come out the bottom. One thing that struck both Jon and me is how well made and thought out these are. One neat little trick they have built in, if you undo the front grill panel and remove it, then undo the top 2 13mm bolts, this allows you to pull the radiator up and forward from the engine, but still be attached, so you can get to everything that is down the front of the engine, which would be the fuel pump, the alternator, the starter etc, I just thought it was well planned.

Anyway as the engine was coming out, the engine was tipping forward, so it was snagging on all sorts of things, this was because the hoist mount points are both on the front of the engine, the only badly designed bit I could see, although it may be more useful to have it tip forward if dropping out the bottom, so maybe this is why.

Jon built the new engine up with the turbo etc, new timing belt kit, and clutch and swapped any sensors over that were missing, whilst I was working, when I got home, it was done and ready for me to help him get it back into the van, this proved difficult, for 2 reasons, one was trying to get the right angle for it to mate up with the gearbox and push onto the gearbox spline, if the angle is slightly out you might as well be trying to shift a stubborn elephant, the second really annoying thing was that the hydraulic engine hoist decided it was going to constantly creep down no matter how much we turned the valve screw, which ended up in Jon working the top of the engine, me working underneath trying to get the right angle, and Jen pumping the hoist furiously trying to keep it at a stable height, the feeling when it finally popped onto the spline and Jon managed to get a couple of gearbox bolts in and started was great.

Jon then connected all the leads, hoses, cables and fuel pipes etc back up in lightning quick time, and Jen called me at work (I was working the chinese delivery job tonight), and told me that Jon had left it just needing the fluids putting in and the battery putting on, and that "it would be running tomorrow", hmmmmm.

Well tomorrow came and went, and unfortunately I just didnt have time to get it done, so resigned myself to waiting until Friday to finish it off. Friday came and I finished work, had a bite to eat then went out and with alot of hope, put all the fluids in and connected the battery, popped the key in and turned it over, and turned it over, then turned it over again until the battery started fading. Diesels are renowned for being a pain to start due to air in the fuel system, but I was sure that it should have started in the time I was turning it over. I rang Jon who kindly popped round on his way home from work, got it running on some brake cleaner straight into the inlet manifold which made it run albeit very noisily and only for a few seconds, but it proved the engine did actually work ! Nothing obvious showed itself, so he promised to come back saturday dinnertime and have a longer look.

Saturday came, and so did Jon, Martine you were a star waiting for him all that time in that heat !, after trying lots of things, and rechecking all the connections etc, we were stumped, and my mood wasnt getting any better, as Jen will vouch for, I was finally getting fed up with the whole thing, the amount of money I have spent on everything so far I dont want to think about. The engine replacement, including buying it, all the bits fitted whilst the engine was out, and giving Jon a few drinks came to around £1000, maybe just under, so understandably I was considering my options if it just didnt work.

Anyway whilst me and Jon were outside just about deciding that the problem was actually the fuel pump, which came with the new engine, we decided that the pumps black box was actually coded to the ECU, and obviously this new pump wasnt being recognised, and I had just agreed to pay Jon a little more to come back next week and swap the fuel pumps, not an easy job and lots of work !, Jen was ringing round any vw related garages in the hope that one would be open on a saturday afternoon, she finally got through to Blake Services in Stroud, and spoke to a guy called Richard, who was very helpful, knew his stuff, and told us that if we broke the black box off the back of the fuel pump that was on the van, we could run a live wire to the fuel cut off switch that was behind the box, which would allow the fuel through, this black box is very tamper proof, and took alot of persuading to actually come away from the pump, the reason for this is that it is the vehicle's immobilizer, the chip that is in the ignition key speaks to the ecu which then speaks to the fuel pump and tells it it can open the fuel shut off switch because the right key is being used, only it coulnt recognise the new pump so couldnt tell it to. Doing away with the black box meant that all the electronic circuitry that was preventing it from starting was no longer there, and using the live feed that went to the black box, which only works when the ignition is on, it now starts and stops perfectly, it just doesnt have an immobilizer at the moment, something to fix at a later date, probably with a switch hidden somewhere inside the camper.

As soon as it started, Jon went on his way and I tidied up. Started putting all the bits back together and fitting the metal engine cover that sits along the bottom of the engine to stop any road debris from being kicked up and damaging things. Started the engine again and realised that the oil light was flashing constantly andit beeped like mad to start with, well by this time I was getting used to disappointment, so rang Jon who was still on his way home and asked if he had any ideas, he didnt, so went and moaned to Jen that we now had another problem and that I was going to scrap the bloody thing ! I went back out and tidied up some more sulking. Meanwhile Jen looked on a few forums and this problem has come up a few times before, most of them had traced the fault back to the alternator, and one of its 2 small wires being damaged, so off came the metal protector underneath the engine again, and I had a look at the alternator, the lower plug with the red wire looked damaged, so I went to pull it off and it almost fell away in my hand, shone a light and used a mirror to see into the plug recess on the back of the alternator and saw that the single pin was bent over, so obviously making no contact at all with the plug, bent the pin back straight, pushed the plug back on and tried starting it again, this time the oil light went out and stayed out :). So well done Jen, for the third time in a couple days you did a great job :) x.

For the final time I put the cover back on and built the front and radiator back up and started it again, oil light went out, drove it to the end of the road and back, and it ran fine :), darent take it any further until its back off of SORN, ie taxed, but looking forward to giving it a proper drive and seeing if it goes as well as the old one did before it blew.

So thats it, its up and running again and for the first time in 3 months is sat in a slightly different place on the drive :).

Today (sunday) I was supposed to carry on with the seating, only problem is that the tubing I bought allowed very little clearance when putting one inside the other, this is very important to the design and i was really disappointed to find that the tubing just doesnt fit, which is a real pain as Andy has already welded the main structures together, so am having to rethink the whole seating and try and incorporate what I have already and get it to work as a pull out bed. Nothing is coming to mind at the moment, so tomorrow may be covering the sliding door panel as the carpet has turned up along with the extra yellow to finish off the rear roof panel. BUT I really need to figure this seating out asap.

Thats about it for now, the windbreak and shower have turned up, so getting there.

This is the new engine fitted :) Come back soon ! :)