Re:isuzu 1.5td 4ec1 engine conversion

Looks great, I see you have great tools and skills for fabricating parts

Well i'm an automotive engineer and have free access to a CAD package for the design work, and fortunately i work at a place where i can use the kit for my own purposes and we've got some really good contacts to get small stuff made cheap/for free. Should have a nice CNC machined billet spacer for the gearstick coming today/tomorrow

*any of the ratty welding is mine, all the lovely neat welding is our fabricator's

Oh god i love ebay, and the piece price of mass produced OEM car parts!! Just bought a brand new radiator for a mk1 renault Megane for £22 including delivery. I chose this one as it should fit nicely in the available space and it has both hose spigots on the near side. They need to be on that side really for a neat install, avoiding having a great big top hose cutting across in front of the engine.

I also bought a brand new genuine ford intercooler that isn't a big wide one for £17 including delivery!!!! This one is more of a punt and hopefully i'll be able t work it in somewhere nice.

Just did a quick calc and the new gearstick should give me the choice between a maximum leverage ratio of 4.82 and a min of 3.69. The standard gearstick had a ratio of roughly 6.29 giving a throw of 122mm. This means that the throw of the new gear knob will be reduced by between 24% and 41% (also giving an equivalent increase in required gearstick effort). I've not driven a vauxhall Omega but i've seen anecdotal evidence that the standard gear change is sloppy and not very nice. With this in mind hopefully the new setup will be tune-able to a much nicer feel whilst giving me the 'defender' look i was going for.

Gearstick is ready for a trial fit so I can make sure it works properly and put a bend in the bar to get the gear knob in the right place. Quite chuffed with the spacer block, especially as it was FOC.

Also had the two odd ends of the prop shaft machined so that they spigot together. Just need a bit of cleaning up and then welding.

looking good,

Yes its all good there. some proper engineering going into this project