Bravo (Classic) Van with a difference!!!.

i had to lol at the first pic of your old exhaust

Not to be mean, but you should really practice that welding; those suck!!
Is that a different exhaust manifold from the original?
No lambda probe on that one? did you move the position of the lambda probe?
any mpg/performance change if so?

After reading your post last night i went out and saw a silver skyline with the, as you put it, 'slow and tame 2' graphics down the side. Wrong model skyline for the graphic too, made me giggle.

aurick86 said:

Not to be mean, but you should really practice that welding; those suck!!
Is that a different exhaust manifold from the original?
No lambda probe on that one? did you move the position of the lambda probe?
any mpg/performance change if so?

Click to expand...

No youre spot on my welding is absolute rubbish, no shame in admitting that! That was welded on the old decat in 2009, I welded some of that exhaust and my dad welded the other part needless to say my part broke several times as it was done very crappily...! But I've been practising all day, no work done on any of the cars...

Thats the original manifold for that head, I hope to have a custom 4 branch made up before summers out... There is a lambda probe its out of shot in the pics but it is there. The decat makes a huge difference to economy if used correctly (my experience differs to other people as my tyres gear up the cars speed and the6 speed helps a lot on economy, a lot of times mpgs plummet as a result of a decat). With the old cams it returned about 52 mpgs on an economy run, far higher than the manufacturers quotes. Now with the high lift cams its gone back to approx 48mpgs, still pleased with that though and yes, the decat makes a huge difference to low down driving, more go at lower revs

whhhhaaaat ? you get 48mpg, how ? thats freaking awesome, mine does on average about 30-32 mpg, then again i do drive with my foot to the floor now and then, to have a car which does move for a 1.2 and get that mpg is pretty good tbh, jealous

lol, i didn't even get that from my stilo jtd when i drove it daily, I only averaged 34mpg

He said "about 52 mpg on an economy run," so 48 is still on an economy run.
still very good, assuming a speed of about 85km/h.

Normally its about 41 mpg but an economy run is on a 80kmh road to Dublin, which is a straight road

I have my exhaust ready to be welded, keep a look out later...

im the same with mine and the focus 1.8 16v.Averaging about 32-34mpg on both cars :s

I try and not work out how much fuel i'm burning, it'd upset me lol.
The only car that returns a good mpg is my cinq 1.2 but i hardly drive it. Use my Vito daily which is good if its not me driving it but dragging 2.2 tonnes around at speeds certainly uses plenty of diesel lol. And if i'm not in the Vito i'm generally in the sei turbo which is useless on mpg

Another thing that helps the mpgs is the petrol I put in, exclusively BP Ultimate or Texaco only. Cheap rubbish nearly destroyed this engine in my old car, that taught me a lesson on fuels...

I've been very busy all weekend... Now where was I with my exhaust

First, my car sat here for 2 days. Longest time it hasn't been driven since it was road legalised


Not welded up yet but looking in the ports, dirty rough castings


Couldn't have that




Now its ready


And clamped for security


It sounds so much different now I must get a video but it no longer screams at 3k rpm, all the noise is at the back now and it sounds quite good so far

My rear arm is gone on the right, meaning I have to drop the tank :bang: But I'll make the most of that situation :devil:


And I shall disappear for the moment with these 3 pics, will anyone spot something in one of the pics...

m20b25 said:

And I shall disappear for the moment with these 3 pics, will anyone spot something in one of the pics...

Click to expand...

something in this picture i wonder?

I spotted a lot of silicone. Looks like ur going to do leather doorcards, where did u get the material and what type is it. Im gonna retrim my doorcards soon in black to match the alfa seats. But I was'nt planning on sticking it on. Im gonna do it Alfa doorcard style with the stitching angled forward. My plan is to mark it out in lines and drill very small holes for the needle and thread to go through. And maybe Ill put a foam backing to pad it out for more luxury! Maybe this mite be worth a try for you MB if the silicone dos'nt work out.

Looks more like PVA to me... I'm intrigued to see how this comes out, i'd usually recommend spray adhesive for that kinda thing. Good luck, hope it turns out OK

russ12 said:

something in this picture i wonder?

Click to expand...

Maybe...

neddyIRL said:

I spotted a lot of silicone. Looks like ur going to do leather doorcards, where did u get the material and what type is it. Im gonna retrim my doorcards soon in black to match the alfa seats. But I was'nt planning on sticking it on. Im gonna do it Alfa doorcard style with the stitching angled forward. My plan is to mark it out in lines and drill very small holes for the needle and thread to go through. And maybe Ill put a foam backing to pad it out for more luxury! Maybe this mite be worth a try for you MB if the silicone dos'nt work out.

Click to expand...

I got it in Navan, a shop called James Joyce on watergate street. €20 for 2 metres. Its leatherette, nearest I could get. I was looking on ebay for just the doorcards but they only sell as a full set. These are temporary untill I get HGT or leather doorcards

blu73 said:

Looks more like PVA to me... I'm intrigued to see how this comes out, i'd usually recommend spray adhesive for that kinda thing. Good luck, hope it turns out OK

Click to expand...

Cheers! Tis skirting panel adhesive, it stuck my armrest very well so I hope this is the same

Double whammy time, in the bad news sector

First a lesson on how to dismantle a turbo, sort of

Take your time to begin with!

Now, clean it up well and apply plusgas to the bolts on the housings, feeds and brackets


Come back the next day and repeat. Remove the bolts to the wastegate actuator


Withdraw it


Now for the turbine housing youll need to remove the oil feed pipe.


And mark it so it aligns on installation. I just used a marker


Remove 6 bolts. Whip off the inlet turbine housing


Oh dear this one wasn't minded. New turbine needed :bang:


But it gets better. Holding it in a vice, attempted to remove the turbine by holding it on the other side. Spins freely Turns out the shaft has snapped in the middle!!!!


So it gets the bin once reassembled

Now onto my other misfortune

On monday, driving along, suddenly no power. I've made a thread about it but I'll run over the parts I've changed below along with the vid of the problem. The thread goes into a bit more detail I may have missed below, its the full story.

Well the video is more appropriate first I guess. This is the running problem: It works only at full boot. Any other position the throttle is in, the car gets starved of fuel. Full boot, it opens. Don't mind the video and sound at the end too much it becomes unsynchronised


Since monday the crank sensor



Elusive throttle body...



Temp sensor/sender...


And airmass meter...


Have been all changed. The maxi fuses were cleaned up


Holder cleaned


And then I decided to use new fuses



With copper grease


And it still runs like crap

If anyone can shed some light on this I will very much appreciate it!!!

check and recheck all the vacuum hoses, and any connectors you may have joining them.. Lamda sensor??

blu73 said:

check and recheck all the vacuum hoses, and any connectors you may have joining them.. Lamda sensor??

Click to expand...

I never thought of those bits, I'll chance my arm later and try them, the cars been unplugged the whole day

Now I needed another stepper motor. Oh my I can get distracted

Came back with a pair of...


Cheers to neddy for the tip, they fit perfect with the Marea front

All these too


Oh yeah


Just need an airbag now... I had to take my mind off the running problem!

Gooooooooooooooood news

SORTED!!!!!!!!!! :worship:

I don't know whats caused it though.

Earlier I changed the pump relays


Lambda sensor


And cleaned up the ecu and plugs


Normal driving at last Wasted no time getting out there and putting up 50 miles!

I'm a very happy camper, a great end to a brilliant day

glad to hear mate. hopefully it will last.

SamuraiDragon said:

glad to hear mate. hopefully it will last.

Click to expand...

I will be stocking up on lambda sensors and fuel relays As a result of all the new parts, the car is even better than before much smoother, takes 6th happier at town speeds (it used to go all lumpy at 1500 rpm, no accelerating) and most importantly theres a huge wallop of power at 4000rpm, just like my dads old Sporting when it had a broken cat :devil:

Now as some of you may know from another thread I'm further reducing the weight of this car (using the term "diet" is appropiate here, off topic for a moment but why bother with diet food, some of it tastes like cardboard :yuck

The subs are going this afternoon, the amp is staying though, simply for the bragging rights of "I'm driving an Italian 2 seater with a mid mounted V12" :yum:

Heres the main reason why theyre going though...


Very very funny in my old Seicento, not so much fun in the van...