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

[rover]

Absolutely superb!

This thread just gets better

Rover.

[cartooner]

Fuel. - A few problems needed to be tackled here. 1/. I hadn't realy used the fueltank anymore since the installation of the LPG and the tank needed repair. 2/. New fuel lines had to be made, including a return line which originaly was not in the car. 3/. An electric fuel pump with filters was needed for the new injection system.

At first I repaired the old fuel tank with some welding and hard soldering. This went amazingly well and to finish the tank I treated it with a product called 'TankCure'. At first this looked perfect, but after when I put fuel in it, it all went horribly wrong. Large flakes of the stuff came loose and even the manufacturor of the stuff was puzzled. My luck. The tank was a write off. Here's the horror:

There are not many complaints about the stuff, so maybe I did something wrong or I had a bad batch.
I had another one from the van I had scrapped, but this also had holes. I decided to order a new one in Germany, but they are currently out of stock. Very Nice! I had already put a lot of effort in it. All work I had done sofar was with the intention to use the original tank.
All new copper fuel lines, a fuelpump from a Peugeot 405 ( Bosch 909 variety.) Waiting for a stock fuel tank in this pic. Remember a pre-pump inline filter is also needed.

The drippy stuff is protective wax. I could not use the Scorpio's pump, because it's an in-tank pump. I did use the fuel filter and bracket and the inertia switch. This switch cuts off power to the pump in case of an accident.

[cartooner]

Ok, I needed a tank. I considered having one made of stainless steel like Luke did, but while running through ads on the net, I found a very nice tank. It's a polyethylene tank designed for use in boats. It's dimensions are ideal, it has the right connections. Outlet, Return, Breather and fillerneck. It also came equipped with a sender unit. The sender speaks a language the Scorpio's fuel gauge understands, so I was very happy with that. It's pretty accurate too.
The capacity is 49 liters, that is less than the original 68, but I can live with that, because the new engine will have better MPG than the old one.
The tank was a real bargain and only a 15 km ride from my home. I paid only 100 euro for it!Most new cars have tanks made of this stuff and it feels very solid. This is the tank:

The only problem with this tank is the width of the filler neck. It's 38mm(1,5inch) and the car's filler tube is 51mm(2Inch). I ordered an adapter hose for this. Now I had a new problem. The original filler pipe exits in front of the rear wheel, goes underneith a chassis crossmember and enters the original tank in it's flank. The new tank however must be entered from the top. This ment changing the spot the filler pipe exits the car, because the tank could not be lowered enough to use the old connections. I changed it and it now exits right above the tank's fillerneck.

I modified the original tankstraps, added some rubber padding and there it is:

The new tank is longer , so I had to change the position of the pump and mounted it to the floor so it clears the tank. You see, everytime you make a change there's a lot of other things that have to be altered too

[rover]

Rover.

[ztorm]

Quality work Jos!
I'd like to see your work sometime. Maybe that can be arranged? Don't know where you live in Holland. I'm in the upper north.

[cartooner]

Exhaust.

I used the first part of the Scorpio's exhaust. I needed to cut a piece off of it because it collided with the transmissioncrossmember. From here I designed a complete new exhaust. At the time I designed the exhaust I was still planning on using the original fuel tank. That eliminated the ideas for a full dual exhaust set-up. The left-hand side would run too close to the fuel tank. How was I to know I would use another fuel tank in the end?

I ordered all the parts through the net and from here it would be fingers crossed, how the setup would sound. I decided to have a single 2,5 Inch pipe from the front to just behind the rear-axle.There it splits into two 2 inch pipes to the end. First I had to cut two 45 degree pieces and welded them together to bend over the transmission crossmember like this.

After that I used another two 45 degree bends and a flex-pipe ( to eliminate vibrations) to go under the propshaft to a large absorption damper from Simons. Like this:

and this

From there further with 2,5 Inch and a prefab axle-bend into the prefab splitter and further with 2 inch pipes with again two absorption dampers from Simons. Like this:

and this:

[Luke]

amazing work there i knew this thread would be a cracker from the 1st post

[cartooner]

Thx Ztorm, I like Your work too man. You really saved your van! I'm in Spijkenisse, I know You are from Den Helder. Mine is not on the road yet, but later we can plan a meet somewhere halfway.

Back to the exhaust. I forgot to mention that I had to relocate the right-hand Lambda-sensor, because it hit the firewall. When measuring everything up I already knew that, but I thought I could get away with a little dent in the firewall ( Hammer ). After the change to the subframe and the shift backwards of the engine this was not sufficient and I had to relocate the hole for the sensor about 5 Inches lower in the pipe.

The sound of the exhaust is absolutely superb! The reardampers arrived later and without them the sound was too loud. With the rears on the sound is spot on. A nice dark sound all through the revs and above 3.500 rpm the K&N really sound superb. Man,how sexy can a V6 sound! The Scorpio was so quiet and dull. This is so much better!

[cartooner]

Thx Luke! Don't forget how much guys like You enspire others to do things like these. I've seen some brilliant work done by other members too.

No, i'm not gay.

Soon to come : Interior.

[ztorm]

That would be great Jos. And some traveling to see yor Van is well worth it.Spijkenisse is not that far.
Really like what you did with the exhaust. When the bodywork of mine is done I'll have to tackle that also. So I pay close attention to what you're doing with yours. Absolutely superb!!

[bortaf]

That's a dam fine looking zorst mate

[cartooner]

To reach the wiring looms in the Scorpio I had to remove the complete dashboard. This is when I got the idea to try to put it into the Mk1. A quick trialfit gave me the confidence it might actually work. I decided to go for it and cut out a large portion of the original dash, to make room for the new dash. In the nex pic the cowl for the blower is still present, but I cut that away too to make room for the Scorpio's heaterbox. I made sure to keep the lowerbeam of the dash that runs from left to right intact.

Trust me, I didn't sleep well that night.

The Scorpio was still running and slowly I cut out all the looms I would not need. While doing this I got the idea to take the complete wiring loom from the Scorpio including fuseboxes and of course the Ecu. I needed to find good spots for the fuseboxes. In the Scorpio they are under the hood exposed to moisture which often causes problems. In the Mk1 I put them inside under the dash. The next picture shows the auxiliary fusebox for which I found a nice spot on the drivers' side (Left) just next to the steering colom.


I cut out all the existing wiring from the Mk1 except the loom running backwards to the taillights. All other wiring including fusebox and iginition switch were removed. I fed the engine loom through the bulkhead on the right, while making sure all connectors would reach there destinations on the engine without having to cut the wiring. All this was done before I put the engine in. The loom is long enough for the Mk1, so I could nicely tuck it out of the way. Later, with the engine in, I only had to plug-in the connectors to their respective (unique) counterparts.

[ake]

This is a crackin job

[cartooner]

Thx Ake.
Because the new dash folds around the old dash in the middle and where the glovebox is, the new heater/airbox from the Scorpio needed to be put in so high that the blower motor that mounts on top of it did not fit under the dash. Arrgh! I had already cut away the cowl for the original one, so I closed that hole with a piece of sheetmetal. I made a box to house the blowermotor. It now sucks air through a hole in the righthand pillar(?) under the dash. So it takes it's air from under the righthand wing.
It then blows upwards into a tunnel that runs to the heaterbox besides it.(Hope this makes sense). This setup works perfectly. It blows about 4 times harder than the original setup.

I had to mess around with the set-up of the air-hoses too, but finally it works very well although the knob to switch from defogging to heating and 'off' is now reversed. On the right you can also see where the main fuse/relay box and ECU are placed.

I decided I also wanted to use the stalks, iginition switch and barrel from the Scorpio. It turned out the topbearing of the steering colom on both cars is 3/4 Inch(19,05mm). I grinded the head of the Scorps' steering colom off and welded it onto the Mk1's outer shaft like this.

[jerry2]

Some decent work there m8 well done and good luck