My Essex V6 Transplant

[Leeday]

Quote - WM: Smell that? You smell that?
Leeday: What?
WM: V6 running, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
WM: I love the smell of V6's in the morning. You know, one time we had a garage swap, for weeks. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' bolt missing. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole drive. Smelled like
[sniffing, pondering]
WM: victory. Someday this swap's gonna end...
[suddenly walks off] - Unquote

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice came in for a coffee, but you know what, I`m going straight back out and gonna` crack on

[Leeday]

Looked into both wheel arches and decided they need cleaning, de-rusting and fresh new underseal before my new bits go in:








oooooh dirty wheel arch




And this is the new parts to be fitted:



New Track Rod Ends



New Lower Ball Joints



New Front Coil Springs



New Front Struts.

Can`t have all this new stuff and dirty wheel arches

[Leeday]

The Essex V6 I have got originally came from a Transit mk3 ambulance and so had the alternator at the bottom right (looking at engine from the front), so to add the power steering pump I need to move the alternator to the top left, so have the alternator bracket (thanks Tim - dieselhead123) so have fitted the bracket, now as the alternator was at bottom front right and I am moving it to top front left the alternator is now wrong (adjusting hole is to the top left instead of top right, I have undone the four screws holding alternator front body and rear body and tried to twist the front around but it won`t turn (always thought you could spin the fronts), so will have to sort that out,
The water-pump has an adjustable pulley below it to tension the belt, on the front of the crank is 2 pulleys (one behind each other, so was going to do away with the water-pump adjuster pulley and run a new fan belt around the inner crank pulley to the water-pump and to the alternator and the alternator would tension the belt .... great idea on paper, however not in practice:





So will have to keep water-pump adjuster pulley and have 1 belt on inner crank pulley running the water-pump,
2nd belt on 2nd crank pulley running the alternator (but will need to space the alternator out on its mounting brackets (which then allows belt to clear everything):



and using the adaptor plate and 3rd (crank) pulley from Tim - Dieselhead123 to run the power steering pump.



Also need 4 bolts that are 5/16 unc x 2 inch long (or longer), anyone got any?
Anyone have any ideas on the alternator front twisting or is it a new one?

[robbie.cee]

Transit apocalypse now ? Lol
Got Wagner track needed !

[whitemice]

i don't think torque will effect the alternator mounted like that, could use a single length of studding through both swivel mountings with 4 locknuts nuts/washers-one each side each side?
5/16 unc, local engineers or ebay will yield them, stainless etc..
front brake pipe looks rusty/corroded?

[Leeday]

Today removed passenger side suspension strut, spring and lower ball joint:









Then cleaned some more sorted any rust (hardly any quite surprisingly for a 26 year old van) and painted wishbone and spring housing in smooth black hammerite and painted all inner wheel arch with hammerite underbody seal with added waxoil:





All going well until I compared my old front shock absorber to the new pair I bought 3 months ago in preparation for this project



The new ones are not the correct ones





So now in a mad rush to locate a pair of correct ones, living on the Isle of Wight limits me to Partco and Halfords Partco can`t get them and Halfords had no idea what I was talking about
So after trawling E-Bay all the listings state the same: front shock absorbers to fit Transit 1986 - 2000 1.6, 2.0 petrol, 2.5 diesel etc and so these also will not be right, so I had to phone FORDS on the Isle of Wight How F******* much . as time is an issue (back to work next Monday) they said for £82.66 + Vat EACH they could get them in next day (tomorrow) from the Mainland, so I said OK, £200.00 on to my credit card and hung up the phone thinking well at least the van will be done this week ................. But Wait whats this at 5.20pm, Ford phoning me and the pleasant man (with an obvious smirk grin on his face) says, No Ford dealer on the mainland have these shock absorbers in stock and they have to get them in from Germany and it will be 3 - 5 working days before they get here on the Isle of Wight ......... well looks like I am taking 2 weeks off work now then .....

[Leeday]

i don't think torque will effect the alternator mounted like that, could use a single length of studding through both swivel mountings with 4 locknuts nuts/washers-one each side each side?
5/16 unc, local engineers or ebay will yield them, stainless etc..
front brake pipe looks rusty/corroded?

Alternator is only sat there as a guide for position, I will either use an M8 x 170mm Coach-bolt with nyloc and proper tubular spacers to make it fit correctly or fabricate a complete new mount, still thinking about it, keep looking at it every now and again to see if a positive decision pops into my head
Have ordered some 5/16 unc x 2 inch bolts off E-bay.
Brake pipes are a little bit rusty, mainly surface so for now have rubbed them down and applied some black hammerite, once I have completed this stage of the project, I will be then starting phase 2 and upgrading the whole brake system and replacing all steel pipes with copper, probably putting some vented discs and better callipers on as well, will leave rear drums on back axle as they are more than adequate.

[Leeday]

Divers side wheel arch stripped ready for painting and new parts:



Front crossmember looking fresher:

[whitemice]

The m8 bolt method will be fine i reckon, only needs 3 nuts too

[Leeday]

Today re-cleaned and painted drivers side wheel arch:





Fitted a Clutch pedal (that my automatic van has never had in its 26 years):



Removed the speedo cable as it is for the auto box and about 12 foot long,
Fitted the new speedo cable to suit the MT75 manual box and fitted the clutch cable:



Bolted the MK5 Power Steering Rack into place:



Was going to drill and rivet the base plate in where the gear lever goes through but have decided to wait to the engine and box are in so I can be sure to align it correctly, wonder if the manual gear shift cover thingy will cover the square indents in the carpet where the auto lever base has been, also have a spare illumination light on the floor now as the auto has a light in the base of the shift lever so you can see what position the lever is in when its dark, I am sure I will make use of it





Have also decided to use the Alternator off the Pinto engine as it has the euro connector plug on the back and the 90amp Alternator that came with the Essex hasn`, so will save me chopping the plug off the engine loom. Started on the fabricated Alternator adjusting bracket:



The 2 bits I will be cutting and shutting











Am still awaiting the M8 x 180mm bolt to hold the alternator on.
Got dark and I am hungry so will be doing the Alternator adjuster tomorrow.

[BROWNYS V6]

your making good progress lee, keep the pics coming

[Leeday]

So first up, alternator bracket:
Cut up the metal brackets I am using:











Weld both bits together:





Fit it and check all is well:







And the bracket is now ready for painting

[Leeday]

My 4 bolts that are 5/16 unc x 2 inch long turned up today so have been able to bolt on the adaptor plate and 3rd pulley, so can run the power steering, fitted adapter plate, pulley and power steering pump:







Now need to fabricate a bracket to hold the power steering fluid reservoir some where, I think as mentioned by Tim that on the mk5 it is mounted on a bracket to the engine mount, so am going to look and decide whether to mount it on the engine via a bracket or mount it to the van inner wing via a bracket, not yet sure and will have to do some measuring (anybody got a spare mounting bracket I can have/buy etc to cut up and modify as it looks like it slides onto the reservoir bottle).

Picture of my current favourite tool:



and my nice neat and tidy garage

[robbie.cee]

Looking good mate
.
Pas pump was attached to second battery tray in my van held in place with cable ties!

Have you fitted electronic ignition thing in the dizzy ? Makes a huge improvement to power!

[Leeday]

Hi Robbie,

Will be fitting electronic ignition, but yet to but a kit..