Transporter

The major difference between a BNZ and BPC T5 2.5 is a bigger turbo and associated map. Well I went and got a bigger turbo so lets see what is needed for more Choo Choo! Unfortunately I never fitted this mod but here are the performance mods I scraped together anyway. Shopping list Before you go modding the crap out of your van it is always good to get an idea of what you actually want to achieve. I wanted a sensible tune on my already plenty powerful engine and to help find extra affordable ponies along the way. As a turbo swap brings in a retune I wanted to change all of the bits I planned to do in one go to save multiple trips to the dyno. As such my shopping list pre-build was as follows: GTB 1752 V Turbo from a BPC engined T5. Bigger intercooler. associated hoses. EGR delete pipe. Boost gague. Stainless exhaust. The turbo came first as a lucky eBay win for £149 from a private breaker down the road. I could have got something bigger but my expertise are limit

Camping in summer is great. Any other time of year it is chilly so rather than burying myself under a pile of sleeping bags; why not try fitting a Webasto? Webasto block heaters are great and can be convinced to work just like a heater with the right wiring and control boxes. The one I went and bought was purely a block heater but it did come with its complete wiring loom, a rear blower with loom, lots of pipe work and even a complete diesel tank so I had the pick up point. What it did not have was a control box or any ability to do what I wanted of it. This left me with a few of options: Get the OEM kit to make this heater come on at certain times like a caravelle. This would be expensive, loose my nice sun glasses cubby hole and wouldn't do what I wanted. Buy a retrofit thermostat kit to make the magic happen  to my otherwise bog standard block heater. Try to be clever and program something using a raspeberry pi. What could possibly go wrong?

Fresh air is great but on those few days in summer it is even nicer if it is freshly chilled. Better still; in misty Lincolnshire, is the ability to clear your windscreen with dry air thanks to air conditioning. Reserach Some forum diving made it clear that a retro fit is a massive pain in the bum and rarely taken on by individuals. Those that have either pay someone to do it or haven't writen a great deal about the experience. The best forum post I found on the subject was by an Aussy chap called Phil on the T5 forum but this was for a 1.9 so I had to be careful not to get sucked in too  much. It looked like the parts were expensive and that was the easy bit. Wiring isn't straight forward and usually mixed into the loom of the donor vehicle if buying from a scrap yard. Nobody seems to make a retro fit loom either so I was looking at a full loom change or some hardcore loom building. This should be an interesting modification! Shopping I bought the front end a

Transforming the transporter's looks. The front end of the T5 Transporter isn't a great thing to look at. It's not bad but it's not great either. The T5.1 sportline facelift looks pretty great which is probably why so many people face lift the T5's. It's a simple bolt of job but does cost a bit to do and that's before you even get to painting the thing. Another look to go for would be to convert the front end to a Caravelle style bumper either from a  Caravelle or Shuttle bus. The bonus of this approach is that I could find one already painted thus cutting costs a fair bit. The reason I did not to do either of these was that I wanted to do something a bit different. I had found a number of forum entries that inspired me to go and try some custom mods. Something I had not done before. A brief forey with the splitter on the right (it did not end well) got me started but it wasn't till quite a bit later till I got really stuck in. T

Changing the coilovers had already done loads for the vans handling but it was now time to go full comfort and loose the 20"s Decisions, Decisions. I wanted to go for some  "19 RS4 style wheels  like the ones on the left. I spent an absolute age shopping around to find the exact style I wanted before I had the cash spare to go and order some. There are loads listed as "weight rated" but none mention to what weight they are rated too.  A few enquirys later proved that NONE  of them were weight rated to the weight of a T5 transporter despite being listed for them. Very naughty! As such I had to broaden my search a bit to find a suitable wheel. Decision Made. In the end I picked up a set of genuine VW 18" 6 spoke sport line wheels in matt black from  Tamar wheels . I rang them on  01752343280 / 07793590038 direct which saves them some eBay fees and you gain a nice set of colour matched wheel bolts for free. I took the wheels to ZR tyres  wh

It's August bank holiday Saturday, the RD250 race bike is ready for the dyno, strapped in the back and I am half way to the dyno when *BANG*. I loose drive and a low grinding noise tells me all is not well as I coste to a stop. Fuck stick. Some roadside deliberating got me thinking clutch but the padal felt fine and there wasn't any noise till I applied drive. A bit of forum bashing (it was a bank holiday so I had a while to wait) later and drive shaft kept coming up again and again. Once the AA guy rocked up he was convinced the duel mass flywheel had gone, hitched me up and towed me home.  The van sat nicely on 100,200 miles and a duel mass flywheel being rated for 100,000 did make it the prime suspect. A blown clutch was one thing but the duel mass was going to make things expensive. A bit of internet shopping had me looking around the £500 mark for the parts. The job shouldn't be out of my abilities and tooling wise I shouldn't be far off so I had a lo