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.