T5 Crazy Conversion Project

[Golf Loon]

Been a while since I had any good projects to share so thought I'd post this up.

As some of you know I had a t4 tdi transporter for years, chipped and lowered, best van in the world. Sadly written off by a P plater and sadly missed.

So I replaced it with a budget T5. Had a good spec, 2 sliding doors, colour coded bumpers, barn doors at rear and sunroof. It's black so I sign wrote it like the A team, got some fully sick 20s off a commodore and lowered it with coil overs from slammed distribution. However, the reason for the cheap van was the 360,000ks and its automatic! It's had a new engine at some point, but the auto is a world of slow and I hate it.

Van as it sits now.





We have done heaps of manual conversions on T4s. How hard could it be on a T5?

[Golf Loon]

So we needed a whole vehicle as a manual donor for this conversion. However, due to the high cost of engines and gearboxes for these vans they are expensive to buy even as a write off.

Ended up buying a ute from Canberra unseen and getting it delivered. Lifted the bonnet to find its a twin turbo, four wheel drive bad boy. Jump started first go and has 35,000ks on it!

First we took the dash out of the donor ute and interior to access the wiring loom. Then the dash, then front end and engine and box. Subframe copped a big hit on the ute so need to use the one off the van. Hope they are the same!

Then yesterday we started gutting the van. Drove it to work in the morning, by smoko we had the front off, engine out and the dash and interior was out by lunch. No turning back now! Firewall panel is different, so we are changing that too.

Some progress pictures.

Donor ute

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Interior, heater box and dash out

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Engine, box wiring, pipes everything out

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And now the firewall. This is the point of no return

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[Golf Loon]

This is what came out !



And this is what is going in

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So we have found out that the subframes are the same, but the rear engine mount is different between the 2 and 4 wheel drive vans, this is one of the few bits I had to buy, the one on the ute was broken.

Vw had a new mount, so can mount the engine and box to subframe tomorrow.

The two front clips are different, but we were able to fit the later radiator and inter cooler straight into the earlier t5 front. Much as I would like a face lifted van, if it goes together black I don't need to paint it or redo my sign writing.

gonna put it together 2wd to start with but am keen to mount up the rear diff and props shaft. Vw didn't make a swb 4mo so I would have to get the shaft shortened and balanced, but that is achieveable.. I'd like to hear it run first though.

Wiring will be fun. Engine side doesn't worry me, but the ute and van have different numbers of doors and accessories, there are some unused plugs, so it may all plug in, maybe not, will keep you posted on that. I want my remote central locking and rear wipers and demisters. Ute had climate control and rear air cond so that's going in too!

Ute was a 2011 build, 2012 first rego and van is a 2005. Basically the same, but in someways not.

More tomorrow.

[Sunny43.5]

That is one hell of a conversion looks like a heap of work , I would imagine there will need to be some serious talking to the computer to get every thing to work I would hate to see the fault codes after assembly . Looks good or as the young ones say that's sick !!

[Jarred]

Wow, good luck!

I got scared when I saw all the wiring! :O

[Ivo]

The ultimate jigsaw puzzle!!

Keep the pics coming.

[Valleyboy65]

Nice job,

A lot of work, good luck.
Look forward to seeing the finished van.
How much the donor cost if you don't mind me asking??

[t5dude]

You're right. It's a crazy project but I love it!
Keep us posted on progress.

[h100vw]

Commercial build thread nice.

Escaped from a high security military stockade etc

[Golf Loon]

Nice job,

A lot of work, good luck.
Look forward to seeing the finished van.
How much the donor cost if you don't mind me asking??

Been trying to find a $3000 donor for six months but an engine or gearbox for a T5 will cost you $9k plus!
Ended up shutting my eyes and bidding online for the ute. I paid $9k unseen! I didn't know what engine was in it or how many ks till it got delivered! It only has 34,000ks and started straight up.

The bargain black van was $8k from Vic and a road trip to pick up! That had 360000ks when pulled apart. The engine and auto have both been changed and still work, so I hope to sell the leftover bits of both vans to recoup some costs.

I already fitted a multivan interior into the A Team van, so it should be a beast with the new engine and manual box.

[Golf Loon]

So I put the whole abs system in from the later ute, so the wiring will work out. As the ute was long wheel base, had to shorten the lines to the rear. Took the bits to pirteks who flared the ends and put the connections on for me. The van had a joiner on the lines, so utilised that to my advantage.

Had to take the covers off to do a neat job, so thought I'd just theorise where the diff would need to go.

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One bolt hole was there, welded in captive nuts for the other two

[Golf Loon]

Sitting Pretty

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Holes were in the floor for the one propshaft mount, once again needed to weld in threads.

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gonna need a shortened driveshaft section to fill in this gap

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[Golf Loon]

Will need to use handbrake setup from the ute to clear the diff and probably the exhaust system.

Covers underneath will be a good mix of van and ute.

In other news, firewall and wiring went back in sweet as.

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Engine mount arrived, the 4 wheel drive and 2 wheel drive ones are different.

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this meant we could then bolt the engine and box to the subframe and bolt it into the van.

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Sent the propshaft away Thursday to be shortened and went home.

[Golf Loon]

Friday we mounted up the front end. Inter cooler and radiator section fitted into the earlier T5 front and bolted it up.

Connected all the pipes and hoses, filled cooling system and plugged in wires. Have column inside loose but plugged in, put a battery on and tried to start it.

I have been involved in many conversions over the years and this is the only on that has ever fired on first kick of the starter, no priming of pump, no winding, over, just broom, starts and runs! Wow.

That has taken a week so far, now for the hard bits.

None of the wiring connectors inside for the van loom are the same ad the ute!!!!

Swopped over the front door modules and wiring, now have central locking and remote for the front doors, only 4 more to go and a sunroof.

Gary modified the ute loom to fit the van and run the rear diff wiring, also taillight loom.

got the propshaft back, only cost me $170 shortened and balanced! It fits haven't tried it yet.
rear shafts fitted straight into van hubs, all t5 rear hubs have provision for 4 wheel drive.
Had a factory built 4mo van in the shop today, compared the two, looks like I guessed the measurements right for the rear diff!

need to put the front hubs and big brakes on, dash and steering column inside, make lots of wiring work, covers, exhaust and handbrake underneath and lots more. At least it runs and the end is in sight!

[Rebuild]

Impressive, the amount of work and stuff.

So it's gone from a 2.5 174?? to a 4WD 2L 132KW ?