A 20+ year love affair with a worthless old modified Vauxhall van

[AltheJazzman]

Alternative titles:

Only 20% original parts

Turning a mundane old van into a hot-hatch track weapon

Modifying a Vauxhall Combo Van

The invincible Isuzu mechanical diesel engine

The Beginning - why I have a van.

Firstly, we have to go back in time, to when I was a Music Tech student at Derby University from 1999 - 2002. My parents have been separated for nearly all of my life, so I learnt to drive in my instructor's Nissan Micra, my Mum's Toyota Corolla, and my Dad's Ford Escort. My Dad also owned an Austin Maestro van for his painting and decorating business. I used to borrow either of my Dad's vehicles whenever I went to see him, and return it two weekends later. I always thought the van was cool because you could get so much stuff inside it, which as a musician meant throwing guitars and keyboards in the back, and being useful to friends. Imagine my joy and surprise when on my 20th birthday, the Maestro van became mine. Also bear in mind that this was already a 12 year old vehicle with an A-series petrol engine, and a 4 speed gearbox, and instead of pottering around South London, it was now being ragged by a spotty youth up the motorway to student gigs. Being young and owning a van though is a really quick way to make friends, and NGL, I loved it. I did what any self respecting 20-year old would do, and fitted bigger speakers, a tape to aux adapter for my portable CD player, and never checked the oil level or tyre pressures.

2 years later, when driving the Maestro van to work up some Surrey country lanes, I failed to allow for the slippery conditions, my lack of talent, or lack of ABS, and crashed corner to corner with an oncoming Honda Civic. As both were 10+ year old vehicles, both insurance companies declared a write-off. I was genuinely distressed when the recovery driver started my van and revved the nuts off it dragging the damaged front-left wheel and strut at an unnatural angle on to the flat bed of his recovery truck.

My first Vauxhall van

My Dad accepted it's fate though as it had needed constant welding in recent years. I doubt he could have sold it to anyone so giving it to me solved a problem! As a musician though I definitely wanted another van, not a boring normal car. One of his builder mates was selling a common-as-muck reliable Vauxhall Combo van, the one with the engine so good Vauxhall couldn't even make their own and instead sourced an Isuzu small truck naturally aspirated mechanical diesel from the GM family. At £2200 for a 5 year old van, this is still the most I've ever paid for a vehicle. I was now white-van-man! I had my Dad's carpenter mate fit the insides of the back of the van with plywood so I could attach stuff to the inside. (or something. I'm really not sure why). I made more friends with other musicians and went took their gear to their gigs for fuel money with dangerous loads and people sitting amongst the gear in the back.

I loved it. I did what any self respecting 25-year old would do, and spent my hard earnings on a custom subwoofer and component speaker install with an Alpine head unit and never checked the oil level or tyre pressures. Fun fact, I still have this exact sound system now. Then I started modifying in the only way I knew - adding electronics and gadgets. I made a handsfree phone system way before these were popular, by hacking apart a set of earbuds with the in-line mic, fitting the mic into the sun visor, and connecting the earbuds output to the aux on the head unit. On my early smartphones - Sony Ericsson P800, P910, I even had a TomTom app. In the back, I carpeted the floor, and had a leisure battery and inverter fitted so I could do cool useless things like have an electric jam session in a park. None of these people are me, just my cool friends.

Way before smartphones had decent storage for music, and because I didn't want an iPod, I built a mini PC to act as a music server to run off the leisure battery. Someone had already realised a similar niche and made a remote control app for the above Sony Ericsson phone so I could control the music server from my phone.

I loved camping in my van, and took it on a road trip tour of the South of England visiting friends and family.

Here I am up a Welsh mountain:

My second Vauxhall van

I don't remember anything important mechanical events happening for the next 5 years, until suddenly one day it just stalled at a junction, and wouldn't start again. Knowing nothing about engines at the time, I had the vehicle recovered and was told it something complicated with the injection pump that would need the engine removed and sent to a diesel specialist. Basically not worth it with an old van. So disappointingly, I need to hunt for a new van. With all my interior gadgets the most economical option I could think of was to find the same model again. The last model year for this body shape was 2001, but even in 2009 they were still easy to find. A bit of internet hunting revealed a 2001 model with the same 1.7 Isuzu n/a diesel, but in an unusual dark blue which I had always thought was more cool than white. I took a mechanic with me to make sure I wasn't buying a lemon, and drove it home.

The next stop was my friendly auto electrician who had fitted the leisure battery to help me transplant all my gadgets. I towed my old van with the new van, forcing my Mum to steer, whilst wrapped in a 12v electric blanket running of the leisure battery.

Over the next week, the auto electrician and I moved over the plywood boards, curtains, leisure battery, split charger, inverter, sound system, my bodged handsfree kit, and an aftermarket alarm and remote central locking I had installed a few years prior. Now I had a blue van that was the same as the white van.

I'm a mechanic

Again I just drove it without caring about mechanical stuff until a neighbour showed me how easy it was to change oil and filters on a vehicle, especially one as basic as this. What a revelation, I thought! Now I never need to pay anyone for an annual service. I probably starting caring about checking the oil and tyre pressures from this point.

My next challenge was to replace a leaky radiator. I checked with my local garage that it really was as simple as detach all the hoses, make a mess on the ground, unbolt the old radiator, replace it, connect everything and fill 'er up. Success! I was now a DIY mechanic! Over the next few years, I even changed a timing belt and water pump, brake pads, discs, shoes, drums etc.

I doubt anything else interesting happened until 2016. I had been dreaming of something more fun to drive for ages. This van was dependable, but with just 59bhp every manoeuvre required a mile's forward planning, and I was a liability on the outside lane of the motorway. Sure this is all fun with something with deliberate character like a 2CV or a Series Landy, but this van was plain boring. People swap engines in cars, right? But everyone I mentioned that idea to said it would be a waste of time. That is until my Mum met her current partner - Alan. He thought it was a great idea, providing I did the research!

The first major modification

So Vauxhall designed the Combo B based on the Corsa B. Now what is a Combo A? Firstly a Corsa A was known as the Nova in the UK. Hardly a secret I know, but the Combo name first came from the Opel Kadett  Combo. This was the A model, branded as the Vauxhall (or Bedford) AstraMax in the UK. Curiously the Corsa B came with a range of exciting petrol engines from 1.0 to 1.6, and diesels sourced from Isuzu consisting of the 1.5 n/a, 1.5TD, and 1.7 n/a. The van though just got the 1.4 petrol or the 1.7 diesel. No turbos, no 16v, nothing exciting. Externally though, all the Isuzu diesels are identical: Same engine mounts, same gearbox, and with the only electronics being a timer for the glow plugs, and a fuel solenoid on the injection pump, trivial to swap. I sourced a 1.5 TD and spent a weekend servicing it on an engine stand. Here is the donor engine in the car I bought it from, and in my next post, we will find out if the engine swap was a success!

[Sir Snipes]

This thread reads like my own retrospective, but with more competency and less FAILURE.

[Zelandeth]

I had a Corsa B with the 1.5TD engine.  It was a laugh.  Very old school turbo - foot down, count to three, theeeeeere's the torque.  It desperately needed wider tyres as it would just smoke the inside tyre if the turbo woke up halfway round a roundabout or junction.

Had 150K miles on the clock when the car was scrapped by the owner after me due to terminal rust, still running like the day it was made.

[Matty]

MORE 

 

(Obvs in your own good time)

[High Jetter]

Astramax were widely regarded as the fastest things on the road. This is a new level, top work.

[Dave_Q]

I had a combo B once and loved it, there is something about bombing around in a 2 seater car derived van that is just fantastic.

[TrabbieRonnie]

8 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Astramax were widely regarded as the fastest things on the road. This is a new level, top work.

I fondly remember the ancient Astravan I had for a year or so (company vehicle).  There's a bump in the road between Nairn and Grantown that would have the thing airborne every time... there was the double crash, first as the van landed, and then the second as all the tools in the back touched down again!

It was the Isuzu engine, and it was genuinely rapid.  I don't even know who makes what van these days, they're all the same and seemingly... all shite.

[TrabbieRonnie]

Forgot to say, great read OP, cheers 👍

[AltheJazzman]

On 4/25/2025 at 8:25 PM, Sir Snipes said:

This thread reads like my own retrospective, but with more competency and less FAILURE.

You need to commit to the long haul, that way you'll be so in over your head that you can't admit failure. I would hate to have to add up what I've spent on this van over the last 15 years. I have to add up the cost of repairs and improvements to my 924 regularly for agreed value insurance, and it's eye watering, and that's on a car with some proper value.

On 4/25/2025 at 10:44 PM, Zelandeth said:

I had a Corsa B with the 1.5TD engine.  It was a laugh.  Very old school turbo - foot down, count to three, theeeeeere's the torque.  It desperately needed wider tyres as it would just smoke the inside tyre if the turbo woke up halfway round a roundabout or junction.

Had 150K miles on the clock when the car was scrapped by the owner after me due to terminal rust, still running like the day it was made.

I've had this problem as well. Wider tyres aren't very achievable in the narrow front wings, so I've gone for stickier tyres instead, as you'll see later in the story.

On 4/26/2025 at 7:31 AM, Dave_Q said:

I had a combo B once and loved it, there is something about bombing around in a 2 seater car derived van that is just fantastic.

There's just hardly any car derived vans now. All bespoke van platforms.

On 4/26/2025 at 8:29 AM, TrabbieRonnie said:

I fondly remember the ancient Astravan I had for a year or so (company vehicle).  There's a bump in the road between Nairn and Grantown that would have the thing airborne every time... there was the double crash, first as the van landed, and then the second as all the tools in the back touched down again!

It was the Isuzu engine, and it was genuinely rapid.  I don't even know who makes what van these days, they're all the same and seemingly... all shite.

The latest Combo van isn't even a Vauxhall or Opel, it's a rebadged Fiat, but the Isuzu engine did live on into the Combo C with a 16v head. Not bad a for a small truck engine from the 80's.

[tooSavvy]

@TrabbieRonnie.. "There's a bump in the road between Nairn and Grantown that would have the thing airborne every time... there was the double crash, first as the van landed, and then the second as all the tools in the back touched down again!"

I used to do runs up 'the borders', from Tyneside, in my WVM days....

Anyone who knows the A68, near the reservoir...

... knows the 'flat out >> hump!!' which is really Zero G 👀. 

🚙💨

[AltheJazzman]

So before we go forward, I'm going to have to back track and add a few things I forgot above. I could edit the post, but it might not make sense.

Maestro van problems

I had forgotten I had two problems with this van. One was too much heat, one was a lack of it. With only a measly 4 speed gearbox designed for pottering around town, at motorway speeds it would overheat and cut out if driven over 70mph. Long journeys didn't need to be that challenging.

Then the blower fan stopped working, which seemed to be integrated into the heater matrix and stuff I didn't understand. Anyway, I pulled the entire dashboard out one Saturday with absolutely no clue as to what I was doing, found the HVAC unit and removed it. What I didn't anticipate was that the heater matrix is part of the engine cooling system (obvs now!), so my plumber neighbour made a loop to close up the cooling system, and I drove it around for a week with no dashboard, the gauge cluster balanced on top of the steering column, with two holes in the floor for the heater matrix, in winter, with gloves on.

Then it was off to the local scrapyard. This was about 2002 when scrapyards were still old school - cars balanced on top of each other 3 high, no high viz or safety rules. Just walk in, they inspect your tool kit, and you go and rip off parts from other cars, then present it back at reception where a random price is agreed. I found another Maestro without any problems (try that now), and liberated the part in no time with my new found experience. Fitted it back to my van the next day and it worked for the rest of my ownership.

The irrational love affair begins

A week into owning the blue Combo I realised I missed the electric windows of the white one. The blue one was full poverty spec: keep fit windows and no rear demister (there can't have been any other options surely?). So I went back to the auto electrician's yard where we had already abandoned it, and relinquished the door cards, regulators and motors. Of course I had hoped my blue one would have the wiring loom in place for leccy windows. Surely it wouldn't make sense for Vauxhall to customise each wiring loom? Alas I was wrong. My mate from Uni was coming to visit though and he's a dab hand in DIY electronics, so he sat on the ground for the afternoon with my gas soldering iron, the Haynes manual, and a bag of wires and heatshrink, and MADE A WIRING LOOM! It still works to this day, although I've had to add extra protection where it pokes through the holes in the door hinges.

Way before I had the chance to do my dream engine swap in 2016, I had fitted heated leather seats from a Calibra (all share the same seat mounts and rails), had the clutch fork break at a junction so I learnt to change gears without the clutch, and then in 2014 I paid my local body shop for a "quick blow over", which turned into an immaculate respray. The local body shop was literally just up the road from me, and we had become good mutual customers, so I got mates' rates too.

Before

During

After

I even rattled canned the wheels as they were letting the side down:

With my proud shiny van, I went on another road trip in Summer of 2015, this time to the West Coast Scottish Highlands:

[AnnoyingPentium]

This makes for great reading. Keep it up. 👌

[AltheJazzman]

2016 - How to do an engine swap - the easy way

 

So as explained above, for 6 years I enjoyed my fancy sound system, fancy seats, bluetooth, electric windows, curtains, shiny paint, and dreamt of the unlikely event that it would ever be exciting to drive, just modified on the inside.  As I hinted, my Mum met her now long term partner - Alan, who had a lifetime of experience either in the motor trade, or just messing about with old cars with mates. He has the uncanny skill of once he gets stuck into a project idea, completely following through with it, and not being phased by a challenge. I did the research and realised that the 1.5TD engine was the only drop-in upgrade - same engine mounts, gearbox, accelerator cable, radiator, hoses and I kept my recently reconditioned alternator. Other Vauxhall's of the era had a 1.7TD which although based on the same engine, involved some juggling of the accessories to make everything fit. To retrofit that engine to the Corsa engine bay requires modifying the bell housing and a few other scary things, but it has been done. We even kept the power steering pump from my original engine still attached to the hydraulic lines so we didn't have to drain and bleed the PAS system.

The best thing about these Isuzu diesels is that they are fully mechanical - injection pump driven off the timing belt, no computer controlled anything, apart from a little electronic box that decides how long to run the glow plugs for. From the many Vauxhall and Corsa forums I had already learnt about all the common mods that can be made to the max fuel screw on the fuel pump, the LDA plunger which controls the delivery of fuel, and how to fit a bleed valve to the turbo wastegate. I learnt about many many more upgrades in the future though.

I also had a really good reason to justify an engine swap. The original engine had a mysterious habit of gradually loosing it's coolant but never leaking it. I had been told this was either a head gasket, or a porous head and I didn't want to throw money at this boring engine. I had also done a couple of horrible jobs on this engine that I hoped not to repeat again: changing a starter motor on my back in the rain with a river running through my back, and changing the sump pan without dropping the exhaust. However the heater matrix leaking into the interior was refreshingly easy to change - it just slots out of the back of the dashboard without having to remove anything else. The funny thing is the mysterious coolant problem actually transferred itself to the new engine, and it turned out to be just a worn seal on the inside of the header tank cap! That took me years to discover.

So I bought an engine for £300 that had done 40,000 less miles than my original, had it delivered to mate's yard, and spent a weekend servicing it: new timing belt, water pump, filters, and even changed a weeping camshaft seal. While it was easily accessible though, I did my first mod, before I had even fitted or started the engine:

That little pale grey washer is a spacer that limits how far the plunger is pushed down by air pressure from the inlet manifold. Now it can go further down which equals more fuel which will equal more boost when I reach that stage! I just had to remember to keep everything clean and don't rotate the position of that plunger! (oops forgot that).

The actual engine swap was done before the end of Saturday, so we called it a night to finish it off the next day. I mostly just watched Alan work fast, and put bolts in random places that he was absolutely confident he would find on the reassembly. That's how he always works though.

I'm hazy on the details as it was 9 years ago, but on Sunday we it cranked over, and over, and over, and over, but wouldn't fire. We tried bleeding air out of the injector lines but they barely dribbled, we tried dragging the van up the road in gear to prime the fuel pump, but it still wouldn't run. Finally I must have done some research or remembered something. There is one bit of digital electronics on this engine: a primitive immobiliser where a transponder on the fuel pump only opens the fuel solenoid if it detects the presence of a chip in the key. I read that some engine transplants take the key from the donor vehicle and tie it to the steering column, which of course I didn't have. There was only one other solution - break off the transponder on the back of the engine (if only we had done this when it was out of the vehicle!), and bypass it. This revealed three wires, presumably 2 for the transponder circuit, and 1 which turned out to be a 12v ignition feed. I then had to solder the remaining 10mm of exposed wire to the 12v ignition feed, whilst kneeling on top of the engine, with my head down the back of the engine, by torchlight.

It only bloody worked though, and that solder joint is still strong 9 years and many diesel vibrations later. That fix only let me down once when I zip tied some of the excess wire to a nearby metal part, which took 4 years to melt through with heat, short circuit and cut out the engine on the M40. I think the RAC mechanic was quite glad to be able to do an old school fix for once! I now carry a bit of wire and tape in all my vehicles.

Photos of this era are non existent, but I'll make up for that later. I can show you a picture of the tiny teeny little IHI RHF32 Turbo before we made a hybrid exhaust from the donor  vehicle and the van.

 

[inconsistant]

“Alan works fast, and puts bolts in random places “ sounds like a Belle & Sebastian song title.

Great thread! I didn't realise you and the Combo had been through so much together! 
 

I am aware of the Combo C but is there a Combo A or did they start with B because it’s a Corsa B & Corsa A was our Nova?

[FakeConcern]

Thanks @AltheJazzman for this very interesting write up, it's a great read! I saw the van and met you at the Flower Farm meet where you hinted that a project thread may happen and I'm glad it has. I'm looking forward to more installments...

 

I'm not sure who the AS members in the above pic are, but they're not the OP!

 

[AltheJazzman]

31 minutes ago, inconsistant said:

“Alan work fast, and put bolts in random places “ sounds like a Belle & Sebastian song title.

Great thread! I didn't realise you and the Combo had been through so much together! 
 

I am away of the Combo C but Is there a Combo A or did they start with B because it’s a Corsa B & Corsa A was our Nova?

Do pay attention 007:

"So Vauxhall designed the Combo B based on the Corsa B. Now what is a Combo A? Firstly a Corsa A was known as the Nova in the UK. Hardly a secret I know, but the Combo name first came from the Opel Kadett  Combo. This was the A model, branded as the Vauxhall (or Bedford) AstraMax in the UK"

[AltheJazzman]

Now comes the fun bit - tuning. There's only two things that can be adjusted on this engine: the maximum fuel screw on the injection pump, and the boost pressure. The latter is achieved by changing the wastegate actuator arm so it opens later, or fitting a boost controller valve inbetween the turbo and wastegate to again make it open later. The best thing about tuning a diesel engine is that the fuel / air ratio is not important - at all! Because of the extreme compression (21:1 in this case) required to even make a diesel engine diesel, when fuel is squirted in at the right point in the piston position, the highly squashed and heated air will make the fuel go bang regardless of the mixture. No risk of running lean or rich like a petrol engine, apart from lack of power, or excessive unburnt claggy fuel smoke out of the exhaust. Many diesel enthusiasts say this is necessary to have enough fuel at the optimum time, but with any sort of electronic engine management, "rolling coal" is surely possible to tune out. However this Isuzu engine obviously does not have such luxuries, so some element of "no smoke, no poke" may be necessary. I'm not a fan of annoying other drivers though, so I'll try to minimize this.

8 years ago is hard to remember details, but I'm just going to say I probably fiddled with the fuel screw and a boost controller, went for a drive, checked the rear view mirror for smoke, and measured the improvement on my "bum dyno". Each improvement felt exciting and like I was pushing the limits of the engine, although I would later find out it had so much more to give. There are videos on Youtube of Corsas with this engine running 2-3 bar of boost, with the only risks being heat, and at extreme levels, cylinder head lift! Just look at the beefy conrods fitted to this engine:

Full poverty spec on this van and engine also meant a dashboard with no rev counter. This simply would not do now that I had an actual power band, so I patiently waited for a used gauge cluster to appear on eBay, and fitted a mechanical boost gauge so I knew what everything was doing.

Here (hopefully) is a video from a few years later when the exhaust fell apart so I did the obligatory no exhaust start up, but you can see the gauges:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NyfvKw2HANk1VTQQ7

 

[AltheJazzman]

2018 - No longer was this just a vehicle modified on the inside, so obviously to go with my newfound power, it wasn't long before I wanted to improve the handling. I swear this is only for performance reasons, not aesthetics!

Front suspension is easy: Any set of coilovers designed for a Nova or Corsa B. Maybe I would hate it lowered though? So I bought some cheap used no-name coilovers on eBay and made a day available to fit them.

Rear suspension is extremely crude though with a solid beam axle supported by leaf springs with separate shock absorbers. I had already replaced all the shocks with new OEM spec a few years prior, but it's no great surprise that there's no sport upgrade option for the rear! If I really wanted to I'm sure I could get something custom made by Spax, Gaz etc, but this was still a cheap experiment. The only method for lowering this type of suspension is called an "axle flip" which is a misnomer though as if I really flipped the axle the brake pipes would be severed and pointing the wrong way. The gist though is reassembling the setup with the leaf springs under the axle, instead of over. No fine adjustment possible, just a quick 80mm drop! I'll try to find some photos of this later.

I replaced the fronts so quickly, I had the rear apart and lowered by the end of the day. Results:

and before, in case you forgot from above:

I even had time the next day to do a ghetto front end alignment:

[AltheJazzman]

I fiddled with the coilovers over the next few weeks, and then remembered I still had to use it as a van for a gig with my band. Oops, too low?

I couldn't let it rest that the black wheels looked a bit boring and didn't stand out, and did some Photoshop mockups. I also asked the opinions on a Vauxhall forum and got lots of stupid answers, like "orange":

I settled on white though, and this time got them professionally powder coated: (and curbed one of them on the day I fitted them because I was too used to parking by driving over the curb first!)

Here it is being a support vehicle from my 924 track car at Curborough Sprint circuit. I must have also had the black roof pod vinyl wrapped to cover up my rattle can paint job shortly after I bought the vehicle. This is probably the best the van ever looked, (apart from the alloy wheels to come later):

[AltheJazzman]

So did I like the suspension mods? Well in stock setup I would describe the ride as: bouncy, underdamped and wallowy. On some tight corners with adverse camber the rear end would even step out with atrocious lift-off oversteer! I guess this was due to the twist and flex of the solid rear beam and soft front springs. So with the coilovers this limited the rear suspension travel to keep the body roll much more under control, even though the ride was hardly refined, but it felt tighter.

I had to take this further though, and started thinking about semi slick road legal track tyres as I had good experience of Toyo R888 tyres on my 924 track car. The trouble is hardly anyone makes track tyres for a 14" x 5" wheel. Plenty of options for 15" wheels, and 13's, probably due to demand from classic Escorts and Minis.

I spotted another Combo B obsessive nearby, and immediately made contact with him. These amazingly are factory 15" steel wheels from much newer Vauxhall's, and usually covered with wheel trims. It's a lovely design for a stamped steel wheel, but I couldn't copy him.

So what 13" wheels did Corsas come with, that would definitely fit over the brakes, and fit within the narrow front wheelarches?

It came down to these, originally fitted to the Nova GTE (I've been told SRI or others, opinions welcome!). Specs: 13" x 4.5J. I found the only set on eBay complete with set cap covers, and had them painted in the same "Ford Frozen White" as the steels. Now for tyres. At the time, Yokohama still made the A048 track tyres in a road legal spec, so here we go. On the day of fitting, I managed to avoid curbing them, but didn't account for the paint causing the bolts to not tighten properly. A scary knocking sound further down the road alerted me before crisis time, and I continued my joy ride out to a beauty spot on the nearby Ashdown Forest to catch the sunset. This is now definitely the best the van has ever looked, and ever will!

[Matty]

Now that looks proper 👌 

[N19]

I don't have owt to add of importance but just to say what a cracking story and a fantastic van.

[New POD]

Which mechanical diesel pump does it have. Lucas CAV DPC ? Or a bosch one ?

I know a little about the On/off solenoid on the lucas one.  There would possible be 3 versions.  Pre 1994. Simple solenoid  no electronics.  1994 to 1996. Simple solenoid and separate electronics on the side of the pump. Protected by a hardened steel cover, with anti tamper features. 1997 on. (This is what I worked on in 1994 to 1996) The SmartSolenoid. Electronics hidden at one end of the solenoid.  With a hardened cover.  There may be features on the pump that mean trying to remove it results in something else jamming internally.  I'd left the project by that time, so don't know if that plan was stuck to.  On the middle version, you can put Bypass the electronics just put 12v on the solenoid. 

On the later version. You'd need to replace it with an pre-94 version.  But you might have to strip the pump down as well. 

[AltheJazzman]

1 hour ago, New POD said:

Which mechanical diesel pump does it have. Lucas CAV DPC ? Or a bosch one ?

I know a little about the On/off solenoid on the lucas one.  There would possible be 3 versions.  Pre 1994. Simple solenoid  no electronics.  1994 to 1996. Simple solenoid and separate electronics on the side of the pump. Protected by a hardened steel cover, with anti tamper features. 1997 on. (This is what I worked on in 1994 to 1996) The SmartSolenoid. Electronics hidden at one end of the solenoid.  With a hardened cover.  There may be features on the pump that mean trying to remove it results in something else jamming internally.  I'd left the project by that time, so don't know if that plan was stuck to.  On the middle version, you can put Bypass the electronics just put 12v on the solenoid. 

On the later version. You'd need to replace it with an pre-94 version.  But you might have to strip the pump down as well. 

I believe it's made by Denso. Lucas is obviously British. Even Vauxhall isn't British anymore, and this is a Japanese engine. 

Yes that's basically what I did. Wire the 12v ignition feed to the solenoid. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

This is a great read, thanks for sharing.

[New POD]

1 hour ago, AltheJazzman said:

Lucas is obviously British. 

Yes that's basically what I did. Wire the 12v ignition feed to the solenoid. 

Lucas had a factory in Blois in the Loire Valley.  In 1998 they made 1.2 million DPC diesel pumps for the 4 cylinder European market. One every 6 seconds. 

[chaseracer]

43 minutes ago, New POD said:

Lucas had a factory in Blois in the Loire Valley.

Every day's a school day.  Still smelled of Poulain chocolate last time I was there.

[New POD]

1 hour ago, chaseracer said:

Every day's a school day.  Still smelled of Poulain chocolate last time I was there.

Smelled of diesel calibration fluid when I went.  The look and smell and taste and viscosity of diesel, and none of the explosive qualities.  

[vaughant]

Great thread, van looks amazing. 

I have a huge soft spot for a combo and modded one, even more so.

[AltheJazzman]

I wrote bits of the story in the wrong order again, and completely missed out anything dramatic in 2017- 2020:

I ruined the gearbox. Before I had any sense of mechanical sympathy I thought it was fun (and I pretended that it was a useful skill) to change gears without the clutch. I did this on a regular basis priding myself on my superior rev matching. Then someone described to be the immense wear on the moving parts and how the synchromesh was really taking up all the discrepancies that the clutch should have been performing, and how it's almost impossible that I could perfectly rev match every single time. Following the engine swap and therefore power and torque increase, it became dramatically noisier. Fortunately back in 2017, a gearbox for a diesel Combo B or Corsa B was only £75 from a scrappy. Asked Alan for help again. We did it outside with just axle stands, in an afternoon. What a champ.

Front end alignment. Due to not deciding whether I liked the coilovers or not, and using unbranded worn out coilovers the first time around, I ignored getting the front end alignment done properly and put up with terrible uneven tyre wear. To combat this I spent a couple of years driving it with various unmatched part worn tyres. The used coilovers quickly developed unfixable wear and problems, so I eventually found some Gaz coilovers on eBay, again used, and had to buy helper springs, spacers, and top mounts to fit them. I probably should have just bought new and made life easier. At this point my camber was set with an old shop loyalty card between the coilover spring and the inside of the tyre. Somewhere between 0 and -2 degrees. Ride height was set with a tape measure from the body to the ground. Toe was set by measuring the distance between the front of both front tyres, and comparing with the distance between the back of both front tyres. Bodges!

I still had to take it to an alignment workshop. It was after that I was inspired to find the 13" alloy wheels and improve the handling as above, then re-purpose the steel wheels as winter wheels fitted with proper winter tyres. I have swapped winter and summer wheels on both this vehicle and my 924 ever since and highly recommend it!

2018 - Things kept falling apart.

The best part of the rear brakes on this van is that they are drums: self adjusting, hydraulic, fit and forget. The worst part is that they are drums. I never inspected them. The mechanism disintegrated one day. That day I learnt you can just buy a "fitting kit" which is all the springs and levers that makes the drum brakes operate inside. Then the wheel cylinders sprung leaks.

The exhaust rear section blew several holes.

I wore the front brake pads down to the rivets, and had to replace them on a garage forecourt, somehow right next to a Vauxhall dealership.

CV joints started knocking.

Ball joints developed excessive play.

The radiator sprung a leak.

The wiper arms broke at the hinges.

The starter motor died, and I even remember bump starting it for two weeks whilst it still worked a bit.

The exhaust middle section blew several holes.

The heater matrix leaked all into the interior.

I upgraded the engine again in 2019  I was forced to, honest! I found a crack in the exhaust manifold, and I think the turbo was making some weird noises. The natural solution was an upgrade whilst I was at it. Through weeks of research I learnt that the manifolds for the 1.7TD have exactly the same bolt pattern, but upgrade from the teensy IHI RHB32 Turbo to the IHI RHF4 Turbo, also upgrading from a journal bearing to ball bearing:

It was almost that simple, except the oil feed pipe had been cut by the breaker (grrr), and it didn't mount in the same place as my original. By this point I had become even more friendly with The Village Garage in East Grinstead who did the respray, and so the head mechanic offered to help me fit the turbo out of hours. On that same industrial estate are several excellent engineering companies, so with only a delay of an extra day we had one good oil pipe welded together from two.

If you look closely, you'll also see that the turbo outlet points in a different direction the bigger turbo. This was no challenge for my tame mechanic though and we riffled through the bin of random radiator hoses and found some bends that fit. It was a slight bodge, but it stayed in place for years! Time to turn up that boost controller a bit more!