Hi All,
Ever since I found an unloved, unregistered '97 SB Combo sitting by the side of the road near Sydney Park and convinced the owner to give it to me for free, it's been known as "The Magic Van" at our place.
"If you can figure out why it's overheating, it's yours mate." Weirdly, when sitting at idle, sometimes the temp would skyrocket, so I took a look and found the water pump impeller was spinning on the shaft! Passed a blue slip straightaway, and I drove it home to Melbourne where I use it as a work van and to pick up pallets of veges from the wholesale market. Magic.
I've had a bit of fun putting 15" steel rims on it from a later combo with rated 50 series tyres on it, and now have some black Japanese import alloys on it nicked from my wife's squashed Mazda 121 bubble.
6 years, a water pump, a clutch, some brake pads and a bit of oil later, it's been the cheapest motoring I've ever had, but foolishly I believed an opel spec sheet from way back that said the 1.4 was a non-interference motor and now with a couple of bent exhaust valves, I'm looking at options...
Probably I should just put a couple of new valves in, check the valve guides, do the gaskets, put the head back on and cross my fingers that the bottom end is OK, but there is an opportunity to have a bit of fun upgrading...
Which is what brings me here.
Anyone had experience engineering a Z18XE or C16XE motor in one of these or a Barina to register in Victoria? Just wondering the costs I might be up for for the paperwork, but any other advice would be welcome. I think member chris_r's Z18XE conversion thread will be of help when I find it, but any other advice or motor/loom parts sourcing help would be useful, so feel free to chip in your thoughts!
cheers,
Richard Allen, Footscray
Warning: This is an Old Thread
This discussion is older than 120 days. information contained in it may no longer be current . Please think of the children before resurrecting this ancient thread!