'TRANSCORPIO'- 1974 LWB MK1/1994 2.9V6 Scorpio crossbreed

[cartooner]

Hi, guys. My name is Jos from the Netherlands and I like to share with you the story of my Mk1 project.

It all started in 1999 when I bought my 1974 Mk1 LWB ex Feuerwehr van imported to the Netherlands from Germany. It had driven only 26.000 km in 25 years and was in fairly good nick. Sadly it had been standing stationary in a shed for the last 2,5 years. This resulted in shot wheel brake cilinders after the first real push and I had to replace all 6 wheel cilinders and master cilinder. I also fitted hardened valve seats and had LPG installed. My intention was to use the car mainly as a camper-van and therefor I had installed some simple facilities. I painted it matt black. and it looked like this for the next 4 years.



(This is at the 2002 Lowlands Festival).

I used the van as a daily driver and although it was a nice van, it had a lot of flaws that most of MK1 drivers will know. Terrible seats that brake your back. Hugely underpowered 1700ccV4 engine that screames like a pig at cruising speeds. Drum brakes front and rear not capable of stopping the 1700 kg vehicle at speeds above 70km/h. A thirst for fuel like there was no tomorrow. Furthermore a stupid footpump windscreenwasher, a ridiculous heater/blower unit with the blowing capacity of a 3 year old toddler.

All the above made it not a very nice van to travel long distances. In the next 50000km I had to replace the balance axle bearings and the distibution gear twice and had to replace the headgaskets twice. I had changed the outside appearance with camouflage paint. On a van this old you will have bad spots once in a while and this makes spot repairs easy.

It now looked like this:

[cartooner]

In the last picture the van is towed away when the dreaded V4 finaly decided to spoil my holiday last year in the middle of Luxembourg. Nice note with this picture is that on the way through the hills in Luxembourg one of the straps that hold the car to the tow bar had disengaged and we were close to losing the van
After return in Holland I took the engine apart and it was a small miracle the engine still started allthough it made a lot of noise. This was what I found inside:



So this was the end for the V4. You might think I'd get rid of the van because of it's flaws, but fact is that when You have a car for so long ( 10years now), it becomes a part of your life. This is the longest relationship I have been able to maintain So this is why I decided to update the van and make it more comfortable, economical and driveable. I thought about putting a diesel in, but decided to go for a 2.9 V6 with 5 speed MT75 from a 1994 scorpio.

After a few weeks of searching I found a nice donor car with very low mileage (100.000 kms)
with a 5 speed manual. A real find because 90% of these cars have automatics. This was the donor car:



I also needed a bull nose front and I decided to not only use the engine and box from the scorpio, but also the seats, complete wiring loom with fuse/relay boxes, the complete dashboard and heater/blower unit.

[cartooner]

Allthough the project is nearly finished now I haven't had the time to post about it a lot. I will now post regularly and will try to tell You about the progress. It seems like a fairly easy job, but trust me when I say it is not for the faint hearted. I made a few mistakes along the way and I hope this will help You with with Your own projects. Some times You think of a nice solution for a problem, but if You don't plan ahead very far, your nice solution only creates new problems and sometimes You have to go back to square one.

Final result is a 1974 LWB Mk1 with a 2.9 V6, 5 speed MT75, scorpio seats, central locking, power windows, scorpio dashboard and meters, scorpio heater unit, fuseboxes, electric fans, 4 pot (MK2)front brakes, custom built 2 1/4 inch exhaust and K@N air filter.

[rover]

Looking forward to seeing more pics of this

Rover.

[cartooner]

Step one:

I had to find a bullnose to make room for the V6. I found a scrapper 1975 Diesel SWB van. It was a very sick, very rusty example that hade been standing in a shed the last 15 years. Luckily the bullnose front, bonnet and bumper were not bad and after scrapping it I had a few usable spare parts and some cash, because surprisingly stock-car racers pay decent money for transit rear and front axles. So altough a lot of work the bullnose didn't cost me much.

After reconditioning and some temporary( will be redone completely after conversion) paint the new nose looks like this:



In the meantime I decided to solve another the problem. The wobbly side mirrors. I had already relocated them from the wings to the doors back in 1999, but they had been shaking ever since and I have replaced them with these stainless universal truck mirrors.

[Scotty86]

Looking good so far

[ztorm]

Nice to see a fellow Dutchman putting time and effort in upgrading his van.
I'll be following this with great intrest!

[cartooner]

Thx guys.

Step two.

I decided to use the scorpio as a daily driver the next few months, to see how the engine and gearbox behaved and to get familiar with the electronics of the scorp.

In the mean time I had to source a gearbox crossmember. I had learned through this forum that the width between the frame rails of the transits has been unchanged for decades. I needed a gearbox-crossmember from a Mk3/4/5 that had been equipped with a MT75 gearbox.
Mind You the Transit MT75 is a different box. Ideal would have been a MT75 from a V6 transit, but that would be looking for a needle in a haystack. The gearbox from the Scorpio only has 100.000 kms. and the only real problem is the gearstick. It's positioned at the rear of the box, but unless you have a twinseat passenger seat you're gonna be ok. In fact the new position of the gearstick is absolutely fabulous. No more reaching forward, just let your arm hang down and there it is! . I found the right crossmember through a scrapyard and this is it:



The front holes line up perfectly, but the rear holes need to be drilled. I made small holes on the side of the frame rails to accomodate for a bolt and a washer placement.Like this:


The installed crossmember looks like this:
In the background you can still see the original V4 enginemounts. Notice that the complete drive train is not dead centre, but placed about 6 centimeters to the right of the car .

[Luke]

i do love an ex Feuerwehr especially one thats a bit different keep the pics coming

[cartooner]

Wow this is actually hard work, I'll continue later. Cheers guys!

[Luke]

Notice that the complete drive train is not dead centre, but placed about 6 centimeters to the richt of the car .

yep i found that out too it's all in line with the back axle which is offset make sure you get the gearbox crossmember on the right way round

[bortaf]

Cool
gonna be looking forward to the rest of this !

[jolly olly]

Can you also put some pics up of the dash board and your interior as well and keep up the good work.

[ake]

This looks interesting

[AlanN]

Interesting thread, keep it coming