Kizashi Club

A lot of money spent there!

I've got a 1971 Triumph 2500 MkII PI - a vehicle of English origins with various mods. I'll try and get some pics together ( note: it isn't pretty and is part way through a very long "restoration" - of sorts....)

I've talked about it before, but this is the most appropriate place. I am restoring the family's 1976 VW Westfalia camper. Its been in the family since 1996 or so. My dad is a huge fan of these air-cooled VW buses, especially the campers and has had about 5 or 6 in his life time, 3 of them in mine.
The current one was in running, but poor condition so I started a restoration project with the goal to make it a near daily driver in terms of condition and reliability. With a car this old, you don't mod, you FIX.
Over the years, I have worked on it here and there, but recently put in the money and time to really get things restored. It's still very much a work in progress that I am doing in phases. I recently just completed Phase One which included:
Phase One:
- All new KYB shocks. Old ones were completed useless and shot.
- New drag link. Old one was knocking when you turned.
- New steering damper.
- New front brake pads.
- Rebuilt front calipers.
- New brake lines and brake hoses for front brakes.
- All new CV boots and disassembled and repacked CV joints with Redline syn grease.
- Miscellaneous repairs of mirrors, doors, lights.
- New #3 cylinder heat sensor.
- All new tires.

Phase Two: (yet to be completed) will include:
- Valve adjustment.
- New spark plugs.
- New spark plug wires.
- Check/replace Distributor.
- New manual transmission fluid (putting in MT-90 which is the same as in my Kizashi)
- New heater fan.
- Tear out and replace all air and heater hoses.
- Installation of LED third brake light.
- Few other things here and there.

Despite the overhaul phases, some things just break on you and you have to fix it then. That was the case with the #3 cylinder sensor.
I have also torn out the curtains (yes, the car has curtains) and the new tires have white walls that give it a different look. Also got a white front spare tire cover so I will take more updated photos and upload them.

Here are some pictures I had on my phone:

Nice, the neighbour across the road often has a couple of "Combi's" parked in his yard. His son (a mechanic) owns one and so does his son's girlfriend. One has the camper conversion like yours. They sell for a lot of money here.

Unfortunately, this little gem isn't mine, but I figured people might get a kick out of it. A friend of mine had this thing in college. The Exhaust was functional on both sides and the car had a small compressor to operate the air horns and a few other pneumatic toys the car had.

Saabaru Un-edited Notes
Things that have been done to the Saab in order.

Front passenger tire replaced with shaved tired to match

Oil change ~102K Mobil1 full synthetic extended performance

Power steering line repaired (took about 2 weeks to get the right parts)

* Rust bullet coat on many of the underbody parts

* Painted the front snow tires

* Front brake calipers painted with rust bullet















Plugs changed (~May 5)

Driver side pillar painted (May 12-13, 2012)





Still a little messed up at the bottom but better than rust.

* Buffed and waxed car.

* Rear snow tires painted. Prepped with self etching primer
* Discovered metal under front bumper could use a little TLC.

Rear diff fluid change (May 16, 2012)

Front diff/manual gearbox fluid changed (May 18-19, 2012)

* Pulled intercooler and prepped/painted lines for heater

* Replaced coolant lines that require the intercooler to be pulled

- Line from turbo leaked replaced with old line

* Drained a small amount of oil from engine as it was slightly overfilled

Appears that leaky drain plug on oil pan is repaired. Gasket reseated on oil pan. It might still be leaking but it is much slower.

Timing belt kit (June 2-3) ~104K miles

* Kit went in without a problem

- Skipped the crankshaft seals and oil pump seal as they seemed very difficult.

- Two of the four idler pulleys were starting to go bad.

- During disassembly discovered I needed to replace the tensioner on the A/C.

* Cobb pulley

-Easy install putting things back in after changing timing belt

* Radiator

- Seems good instal wasn’t too bad, but I did have to shorten the bottom main radiator hose because it was trying to kink. The shortened hose should not be able to kink, but is not perfect.

- Also needed to get some metric bolts that were not included with the radiator.

Tensioner pulley for A/C belt. (June 4, 2012)

- New tensioner made from metal old one was plastic... added significant weight.

225 miles on timing belt change no notable leaks or weird sounds. (short storm chase & drive back from minnewaukan)

Noticed some oil usage on road trip to WI and back. About a quart over 1000 miles. (oil was added at 400 miles so it never got very low) It was very hot outside driving speed was close to 80 for much of the trip. Research revealed that it is not particularly uncommon given is was using the mobil 1 with specified motor oil weight. I may switch to something a little heavier for the rest of the summer, and I will now closely monitor the oil level. (will be doing some follow up to make sure there isn’t a bunch of oil in the intercooler.)


PCV valve replacement and check for oil in IC (Aug 3 ~106K miles)

Did not seem to be much oil in the intercooler. Just a small amount in a low area on the engine side. Nothing wet on the turbo side. PCV valve replacement was fairly easy other than some clamps that were difficult to get apart. No real noticeable oil consumption in the last. 800+ miles

Stage 1 flash Aug 2012 ~106k

Didn’t really want to flash to stage 1, but when installing the access port it forces you to pick a map other than your stock one.

Trying to troubleshoot boost issue. I must have a massive leak. on the intake side of the turbo. I ordered all new lines for the intercooler and intake. intake is a PITA to replace.

Fixed boost issue Sept 2- 4 ~106k & tire ordered

Replaced all intake and intercooler hoses. Also replaced gasket for intercooler. All changes showed no improvement.

Problem ended up being that the arm on the wastegate actuator had fallen off because the e clip (6mm) holding it on had rusted through and it fell out.

Cleaned and fixed the heat shield as best I could. It took a whole day to get the heat shield off. all of the bolts were totally rusted.







Oil Changed Castrol Syntec

~109300 Changed oil to Castrol High Mileage (synthetic mix)

November 22 ~110000k (oil consumption seems to have slowed significantly)

Noticed a smell of gas in the car on a cold start. Re-occurred several times.

Found it to be a common problem with WRXs

http://saab92x.com/viewtopic.php?id=17792

November 25 tightened the screw that is accessible. There are two, but the other one is turned upside down so you can not get a screwdriver on it.

Also pulled the cabin air filter which was very dirty.

November 23

Cabin air filter is not available in grand forks without ordering a new one. Made one out of a spare furnace and used that. It was the same material and has now been working fine for close to a month.

December 14

added around a half quart of oil before driving home so there is still some oil consumption. (about 1500 into change)

Jan 3-5 2013 ~ 111550

Fixed the gas smell issue.

http://projects.geothunder.com/2013/01/ ... how-to-fix

Changed oil to Rotella T6 which is a turbo diesel oil, but meets all the required specs for gas engines. Seems to be well liked amongst the community for both the saabaru and WRX. If consumption is less than 1 quart over 1000 miles I will stick with this oil. so far I have over 100 miles on the change with no noticeable drop on the dipstick.

Jan 9-10 2013

Installed new catless Down Pipe. Damaged stock DP in the process. The O2 sensor twisted off. I will probably be able to weld it back up with a spark plug adapter. (On the old DP)

Ordered a new O2 sensor, but got the old one out with a lathe at work. Installed.

Now running a basic stage 2 flash. Boost pressures actually appear to be a little lower than stage 1, but it may have been conditional. No problems observed so far. Due to low temps have been taking it easy on the car.

Since I had access to both sides of the turbo during the last two jobs I checked for any play from both sides. No play was observed and there was no new oil observed in the intercooler. I believe that mobile 1 synthetic break down on hot days may have been the culprit of my missing oil last summer.

Jan 18 2013

Installed new 02 sensor on DP

April 28 2013 114100

Oil and Filter change Rotella T6

Modified heat shield to work with the new down pipe and replaced.

Max boost pressure observed 15.8psi. (During load testing in third and fourth gear)

Total oil consumption for the last oil change was probably about 2/3 to 1 quart. Added around half a quart sometime in the middle of the last change and it made it through about 2550 miles. Oil still looked good even after lots of long warmups due to the excessively cold temperatures we experienced this winter.

+ 2 oil changes of Rotella T6 over the summer now up to 119000

Upcoming projects starting next week

All four struts and strut mounts and front axles and axle seals.

So the Saab (and I assume salted roads?) keep you very busy Moto?

murcod wrote:
I've got a 1971 Triumph 2500 MkII PI - a vehicle of English origins with various mods. I'll try and get some pics together ( note: it isn't pretty and is part way through a very long "restoration" - of sorts....)

Here are some details on the 2500 PI : http://classic-car-digest.blogspot.com. ... 68-77.html

Basically, it's a small- medium size rear wheel drive sedan. Weight in original spec was around 1190kg and with the original engine the 1/4 mile time is listed as being 17.0sec - so not too shabby for the time. It also has independent rear suspension and other nice features (for the time) that have surprised me eg. a low fuel warning light.

Some details:
- Originally fitted with a 2.5l straight 6 fuel injected engine with 3spd(?) auto , previous owner removed that and fitted a 3.3l straight 6 (Holden 202) and Toyota W55 (?) 5 speed manual transmission

Improvements I've done:
- Electric water pump and electric thermofan fitted
- It had an aftermarket rear swaybar fitted, I've also fitted a front swaybar off a later model 2500 and upgraded all bushes
- All shocks replaced with Konis (nice!), uprated springs also fitted. Virutally every suspension bush replaced with polyurethane
- Converted the ignition system from points to electronic pickup
- 15x7" alloys and 205/55R15 Yokohama S Drive tyres replaced the stock steel rims, guards rolled to suit
- Front brake discs replaced with BMW 3 series vented rotors and Mazda RX7 four spot calipers (it now pulls up very quickly.)
- Lots of rust cut out and body panel beating done, more to be completed. Including "new" doors and a boot lid.
- Installed an alarm, a modern Pioneer bluetooth head unit is also sitting waiting to be installed.
- The interior is basically gutted at the moment.
- The battery has been moved to the boot to allow for the future fitting of aircon.
- I've also got the parts for a twin carby setup (SU's), it's currently running a single SU on a "homemade" manifold.

It's still very rough and has a bitsa paint job , but it was never going to be a pretty restoration as it's all been DIY with help from a relation. I really need to dig up the "before" photos to show the improvements!

Moto, how are you liking the Rotella oil? I made the switch to T6 from Castrol Syntec and Mobil 1 and couldn't believe the difference it made on my GTI!

can Rotellat6 be used in gasoline engine? I thought they are for diesel only?

I saw the Combi in your photos, Murcod. Yeah, they go for some money here too. People just want them. Occasionally, we run into people who will offer to buy it on the spot, but we turn them down.

Here are some more photos taken today to show the most updated look.

murcod wrote: So the Saab (and I assume salted roads?) keep you very busy Moto?

It hasn't been bad for over 10K miles.

Salt was a serious problem in the cars previous life, but it isn't bad in its current location. I got the car out of Detroit, MI. My cousin owned and drove it on the freeway every day. In Detroit they would rather spread ten thousand loads of salt than push two inches of snow off the road.

Now this car spends most of its life in North Dakota and Northern Minnesota now which use a lot less salt and there is no traffic so no salt spray getting sucked into the engine.

Salt usage is dependent by state in the US. In North Dakota we just learn how to drive on packed snow/ice for five months out of the year.

The other issues I have had with the car is that my cousin knew he was selling it for a long time so he wasn't really keeping up on required maintenance. (He didn't know he would be selling it to me)

bootymac wrote:Moto, how are you liking the Rotella oil? I made the switch to T6 from Castrol Syntec and Mobil 1 and couldn't believe the difference it made on my GTI!

I will never switch back to anything else for the saabaru. It seems to be really stable oil for turbos and consumption has dropped to near zero. I still watch it, but it is good stuff especially if you can find it on sale.

newworld2004 wrote: can Rotellat6 be used in gasoline engine? I thought they are for diesel only?
Specifications, Approvals & Recommendations

RotellaT6 is a fleet oil that tends to be bought in bulk in drums. In the gas engine world we care about API SM, SL rating. It meets the specs for modern gas engines. From what I can tell arount 10-15% of all WRX owners run rotellaT6
It is formulated for turbo diesels but it meets the following requirements.

API: CJ-4, CI-4 PLUS, CI-4, CH-4, CG-4, CF-4, CF
API: SM, SL, SJ, SH
ACEA: E9
Caterpillar: ECF-3, ECF-2
Cummins: CES 20081
DDC: 93K218
Ford: WSS-M2C171-E
JASO: DH2, MA
Mack: EO-O Premium Plus
MB Approval: 228.31
Volvo: VDS-4
Source http://www.euris.rs/maziva/Rotela-T6.pdf

Lots of guys with performance orientated engines love it. Its relatively cheep and stands up to abuse. It also coats the inside of the engine really well so you usually don't get much knock on startup. The downside to that is your engine has to be warm to check the oil you will find that this stuff walks right up the dipstick when it is cold.

A lot of the subaru and TDi guys go crazy and get their oil test regularly the T6 seems to be some of the best oil on the market for turbo engines.

If you want to you can run more than double the recommended change interval without a problem. Most guys don't but testing seems to indicate that you will not have a problem doing it.