MK1 engine options

[travelingwilbury]

It's a topic that has been addressed before, but from a petrolhead's perspective, and sporadically.

Say you're a layman, like me, and you've got an MK1 camper ('76) with a V4 1.5 Cologne engine downing oversized pints of petrol every few miles, maxing out at about 60 m/h, beautiful but unwieldy when confined to urban environments. Remember how she worked ever so well on short and memorable trips, but now she faces a usurper, the imminent arrival of a new car on the block which will propel the combo tax/petrol expenses through a roof you can't afford. Imagine your options, you're cornered, lesser cars are trying to work their cheap and utilitarian spell: not easily wooed, you will have to sell the aforementioned camper anyway unless certain economical modifications are made, and you've got about 500 quid to spend on, say, a new and trustworthy engine and complementary gearbox, not a bullnose (which are exceedingly rare in my neck of the woods), from an unspecified make, what would you do? To make matters worse, imagine you've been having heretical dreams, inspired by haunting visions of soaring storage costs for so high a vehicle, of converting the camper into a regular van, giving it less pounds to haul. Say these nightmares are obscured by a flawed knowledge of the the confusing plethora of transit builds, making it difficult to judge what configuration my chassis (double wheels at the back) will hold, if any, not to mention what kind of work such a transformation would imply.

I'm sure you can relate and enlighten me! It's a mixture of nostalgia, heartache, pride, and a lukewarm interest in golden oldie transits mong continental buyers (unless you let them go at an insultingly low price), that has brought me here

thanks

Jokke

[Luke]

swb yeah then 2.0 mondeo zetec keeping the flat front would take a bit of engineering to get it in but i dont see why it wont fit loads in mk1/2 escorts

i'd fit one in mine (mk1) but it's a lwb and the extra weight puts me off i'm thinking of going diesel and cutting out the bulkhead to keep the flat front

[madmark]

well done luke you have seen the light ,the zetec will be no good in a lwb

[baconsdozen]

So the V4 is slow.thirsty and unrefined.Modern technology can help improve it is most of those areas,at least it then stays a Mk1.
Personally I can't see much logic in wanting to drive an old vehicle then slowly turning it into a poor copy of a newer one,but then I'm stuck in the past anyway.

[travelingwilbury]

never said she was unrefined, but you can't deny she's slow (if Jason Statham would have driven this camper instead of the mark 1 van in The Bank Job, he would have been overtaken at the very first roundabout. Her speed wouldn't be problem actually if she didn't guzzle down an average of 18 liters every 100 km. I know you can't put a price on nostalgia, then again you can; with pump prices what they are, it's simply too steep if your camping ambitions reach beyond the local common. So it's either the Sierra diesel engine (can be picked up for about 250 quid), or me and some mates buying up the carcass of an old MK2 and building a hybrid van, an Mk 1 1/2 if you will, to see how that goes. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated

[madmark]

i like to stay with the v4 myself its a classic vehicle ,but you have the german engine 1688cc not a bad engine what about a carb upgrade??????

[baconsdozen]

"Her speed wouldn't be problem actually if she didn't guzzle down an average of 18 liters every 100 km"
I get 25mpg I don't know what that is in Euros.

[ian666]

25MPG - heaven. My fire van gives 18 at best, and on the local moor roads I got 10 going to one show. hence an engine re-build to try and improve performance and mpg.

[baconsdozen]

I've got an overdrive box which helps.An electric fan and electronic ignition help too and when I rebuilt the engine I spent a lot of time smoothing out the inlet tract and matching the manifolds to the heads etc.
High compression heads help increase power.I smoothed any sharp edges in the heads and polished them to help slow carbon build up which makes the engine run on with this silly eco friendly petrol we have to use now.
I think the german engines are probably better than the essex version although I've had little to do with them,best of luck with the rebuild.

[madmark]

the first thing to do with the german engine is take the fan off to help the life of the ballance shaft gear!

[Zealot]

hi,

im a transit mk1 owner from holland.
i got almost the same problem. the v6 engine that is in the transit now is worn(blows out all the oil)

i also like to know witch engine you can put in the enginebay.
i was thinking: a ford sierra/scorpio 8v 2litre engine (with a carb)

hope to hear from you

[Zealot]

i read here a 2.9i engine from a scorpio with mt75 - 5 box will fit whith some work think i go for something like that

[Andrewb]

I've fitted a VW 1.9 TDI in mine, with a mechanical landrover TDI fuel pump and adaptor plate to fit it to a ford g/b. It fits easily into a flat front and does 35mpg (should do better when I change the diff)
If you play with the pump, injectors and turbo you can get lots of power too

[px166bajaj]

I've fitted a VW 1.9 TDI in mine, with a mechanical landrover TDI fuel pump and adaptor plate to fit it to a ford g/b. It fits easily into a flat front and does 35mpg (should do better when I change the diff)
If you play with the pump, injectors and turbo you can get lots of power too

what car was that engine out of?

[Andrewb]

2001 Caddy