Stu & Clare Present Murphy - Aircooled Campout 2020 Pics

[K@rlos]

Glad your happy with the pan mate, sorry I was a bit slow posting it though haha.

I best get my finger out and get mine done then meet up for a drag race :lol: :lol:

 

[StuF]

Fantastic write up Stu and it all looks the nuts!
I should have done one when I did mine...better make sure I do for it's next conversion!
How you finding the radiator set-up with the side belly pans as I'd have thought they restrict the hot air escaping? Or are those holes added to assist with that?
I was concerned that the fans would run too much for my liking, but really fancy Richards set-up for the future...
Cheers
Al

Thanks mate - havent really put enough miles on the bus yet to give you a firm answer, there is a large enough gap between the back of the rad and the crossmember to let the hot air out and we were cruising at 70 mph pulling the rapido over towards newark maintaining around 90 degrees without the fans kicking in so it seems to be working well. I think there is enough capacity to deal with most of the issues. The holes were added to facilitate connecting to the rad and the central one is from the old heater tube. Think a big part of preventing overheating is bleeding the system effectively and removing the air - that causes most of the issues ive read about, as im sure you read we used a pressure bleeder with the bus ass high in the air to help force the air out. And there was a fair amount of bubbling and air coming out every cycle.

Once we have managed a longer run we'll see especially with the temps we are currently experiencing, have had the fans cut in when in standing traffic though and although you can hear them whirring its not obtrusive, might fit a switch at some point so I can have them running whenever I choose and basically override the ECU control. Future plans!

Richard certainly makes quality parts!

 

[StuF]

Glad your happy with the pan mate, sorry I was a bit slow posting it though haha.

I best get my finger out and get mine done then meet up for a drag race :lol: :lol:

No worries Karlos - its a lovely bit of kit and in spot on condition. Fits like a dream

Drag race haha - you'd have my pants down in first and second without a doubt but would be interesting to see how Murphy behaved with a rolling pull from 30 upwards. First time ive driven a properly quick bus and you do have to treat it with respect! Hope you get yours finished soon - gonna be cracking to see it on the road 8)

 

[Myvanway]

Hats off to you Stu for attempting this conversion yourself.... whilst moving house and with work on!
It may not catch the eyes of the purists but you sure deserve hats off and well done for what you have achieved, and in a fairly short time frame.

Fair play dude..... See you and 'C' at the weekend! :mrgreen:

 

[Myvanway]

Glad your happy with the pan mate, sorry I was a bit slow posting it though haha.

I best get my finger out and get mine done then meet up for a drag race :lol: :lol:

No worries Karlos - its a lovely bit of kit and in spot on condition. Fits like a dream

Drag race haha - you'd have my pants down in first and second without a doubt but would be interesting to see how Murphy behaved with a rolling pull from 30 upwards. First time ive driven a properly quick bus and you do have to treat it with respect! Hope you get yours finished soon - gonna be cracking to see it on the road 8)

This would be super cool.... (Santa Pod) H20 V's AIR!!!??? 8)

 

[Myvanway]

Glad your happy with the pan mate, sorry I was a bit slow posting it though haha.

I best get my finger out and get mine done then meet up for a drag race :lol: :lol:

No worries Karlos - its a lovely bit of kit and in spot on condition. Fits like a dream

Drag race haha - you'd have my pants down in first and second without a doubt but would be interesting to see how Murphy behaved with a rolling pull from 30 upwards. First time ive driven a properly quick bus and you do have to treat it with respect! Hope you get yours finished soon - gonna be cracking to see it on the road 8)

This would be super cool.... (Santa Pod) H20 V's AIR!!!??? 8)

VW Action this year Guys???? 8)

 

[StuF]

Will have to look at dates and talk to you this weekend ref action Paul.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment on the thread - I know a Scooby engine/box isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but it’s been a long and sometimes difficult conversion so wanted to document the journey even if it was done retrospectively.

Tonight I replaced the hopefully duff Lambda sensor with a nice new one ready for this weekends camping trip.

Having read a little more I should have really replaced every single sensor on the engine/box and exhaust with new when I was rebuilding it as they mostly have a service life of around 100k. But it would have been rather expensive to do that in one lump.

Anyway the new lambda for the pre-cat section of the exhaust.

Got it installed and will test it soon enough




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[K@rlos]

My bus won’t be ready till next year but will be worth the wait. However, Don’t rule old the old Skool approach my motor was making 165hp and 177 ft lb with a mildish cam, smaller heads and 44’s. Now got a race cam, very high flowing big valve heads and Weber 48 IDA’s. So minimum should be 190hp now and will be coupled to a race box. :msn4: But a lot of is comes down to many things other than power. Suspension, tyres and skill too.

Great effort with the conversion mate. Not my cup tea at all but I fully appreciate why people do it and at the end of he day it’s your bus so you can do what the **** you like with it :mrgreen: glad your happy with pan, having a father in law who is a blaster & powder is useful as you can tell from my thread :lol:

 

[StuF]

Cheers Karlos - the bus is not meant to be a speed machine, wanted the torque and pulling power to safely and reliably pull the Rapido up and down the country. Yours will be scary quick looking at those figures! The impreza box is a little more sedate than the old aircooled one too so makes for a much quieter drive, only downside to this is you can hear other noises that perhaps werent audible before!

Be worth the wait though im sure - thanks for the kind words, I know you arent a particular fan of Scooby buses but your engine alone was waaaayyyy out of my budget never mind the resto work, gearbox or brakes! gonna be epic when its done!

 

[K@rlos]

I’m old fashioned, fat and stuck in my ways I’m afraid but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect or appreciate it :lol: As I say if your happy with it then that’s all that matters. Yeah that’s why I have big carbs, can’t hear bits falling off :lol:

Catch up soon hopefully 8)

 

[mattie]

Absolutely fantastic job mate can't wait to see all your hard work in the flesh and have a drink to Murphy.

 

[StuF]

Absolutely fantastic job mate can't wait to see all your hard work in the flesh and have a drink to Murphy.

Hopefully catch up with you this weekend mate! Looks like it might be beer drinking weather 8)

 

[Bundy]

Bleeding the system sure can be testing! I have a bleed pipe on the high point of the radiator to assist. I started with the Vauxhall header tank but struggled to get it to work well and ended up with the T25 one and burp tank. Was much happier after that, but I feel I cooked the engine slightly in the initial set-up that may have led to it's eventual demise! One thing is there is a huge amount of fluid in there that needs a fair amount of room to expand and contract and I'm not sure the Vauxhall tank has the capacity...time and experimenting will tell I guess, but keep your eyes on that worry gauge until you know all is going to be well!
Cheers
Al

 

[StuF]

Bleeding the system sure can be testing! I have a bleed pipe on the high point of the radiator to assist. I started with the Vauxhall header tank but struggled to get it to work well and ended up with the T25 one and burp tank. Was much happier after that, but I feel I cooked the engine slightly in the initial set-up that may have led to it's eventual demise! One thing is there is a huge amount of fluid in there that needs a fair amount of room to expand and contract and I'm not sure the Vauxhall tank has the capacity...time and experimenting will tell I guess, but keep your eyes on that worry gauge until you know all is going to be well!
Cheers
Al

Cheers for the advice Al - yep ive got my worry gauge(s) to keep an eye on and also use an OBD2 Bluetooth sender plugged into the ECU so I can monitor various bits on the engine, interrogate and clear fault codes and check the gauge is accurately displaying the correct temp - all this on the fly whilst we are rolling along.

So far so good with the level of coolant and my header tank only sits half full so fingers crossed there is enough capacity to take any extra through expansion when warm. If I need to employ a second burp tank there is an unused port that could be hooked up for that purpose. Massive learning curve with these home brew conversions - need to check out Fellows stand at Skeg or TSR's work and see if they have come to any different solutions that I can repurpose (steal) :msn4:

 

[pkrboo]

The vauxhall tank setup is exactly the one that fellows use. You rarely hear of problems with their conversions.

 

[Bundy]

The vauxhall tank setup is exactly the one that fellows use. You rarely hear of problems with their conversions.

Might well have been down to my engine or set-up.... :?

 

[StuF]

The vauxhall tank setup is exactly the one that fellows use. You rarely hear of problems with their conversions.

Might well have been down to my engine or set-up.... :?

Can often be very difficult to correctly bleed all the air out of the rad and pipes without a compressor and the correct vacuum bleeding kit. That might have been a cause of your issues? What rad setup were you running with?


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[Bundy]

The vauxhall tank setup is exactly the one that fellows use. You rarely hear of problems with their conversions.

Might well have been down to my engine or set-up.... :?

Can often be very difficult to correctly bleed all the air out of the rad and pipes without a compressor and the correct vacuum bleeding kit. That might have been a cause of your issues? What rad setup were you running with?


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I've had various home brew affairs...the best was a Jag XJR Rad with 16" fan, but the fan bounced too much and ate the rad eventually!! Currently on an ally race rad with twin fans. The engine was from a 1993 Legacy so was no young 'un!! (and it had absolutely nothing done to it apart from timing belt, plugs, leads and oil in the 6 years service it gave me )...oh, and a water pump to change outlet orientation...
The T25 header and burp tank is good at farting the air out the system under load at temperature, but one thing I did find is that replacement water pumps can be crap in comparison to originals and in my opinion won't flow the water as well. In a conversion where we are trying to shove 10-12 litres of water round we need all the help we can get

 

[mike202]

Great work Stu, I am exhausted just reading it[emoji23]

I am sure you’ll enjoy driving on your trips more now. [emoji41]




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[gas1man]

Amazing job ,well done.
Awesomeness if there is such a thing? :lol: :lol:
Can't wait to see it some time. Belated Happy Birthday also.

J & P