GTI convsion

[jord]

I am about to do a gti conversion in my 95 sierra. I am getting parts together at the moment. I have read through the gti samurai page. I am still unsure what i will do with the themostat housing/cooling system plumbing, dizzy?? and intake piping.
Has anyone used another thermostat housing or the suzisport dizzy adaptor? The wrecker i bought my motor from said it has a shorter dizzy cap. Aparently from a barina/swift. Has anone heard of this? He also suggested 'modifying' the firewall to get the dizzy to fit but im not keen on this.
I would also like to try and fit a fuel tank with an in tank pump to eliminate a surge tank and external lift pump. So i could just run a vl pump straight from the tank. Any ideas???
Any help on the conversion would be much appreciated. Also,if anyone around the sydney area has done the conversion and wouldnt mind me having a peek,that would be awsome. Cheers.

[beaver700]

Gday,

Ive just finished my gti conversion...

This is what I used:

- Thermostat hosing from a suzuki cino swift (they have a 90 deg thermostat, bolts on, all you need to do is make the gasket and use silastic)
- Mazda 323 GTX rotor button and dizzy cap (hint if you dont have a lathe and patience like me, stick with the suzisport kit, they can be bought for about $400. BTW, the mazda rotor and cap cost me about $25

- VL fuel pump (bazooked helped me here )... at the moment thats all I have got. I would of liked an internal, but my carby fuel tank doesnt have a swirl pot (which would be ideal), but in the future I will place in a primer pump (similar to the VL wagon setup) to prime the higher pressure pump. Somewhere I have seen someone use a nissan pulsar turbo internal pump, but I rang up wreckers for months and couldnt find one... Maybe if your clever you could find an internal pump from a common car (such as a falcon or commodore), and attach a swirl pot to the fuel pump (like an Xf falcon EFI one).

I managed to steer clear of cutting the firewall (just) by using the mazda cap.




I will make a list of the 'fiddly little things' I had to buy aside from the engine...

-longer accelerator cable ($15 from autopro)
-gasket sealer (silastic type stuff), for the oil pan swap
-gasket material so you can cut your own gaskets for the thermostat housing
-rubber gromets for the firewall (accelerator cable, plus wire holes)
- a large number of assorted radiator hoses (heater hose, thick radiator hose etc..
- a few metres of vacuum hose ($6/metre at supercheap)
- about 3 metres of high pressure $10/metre at supercheap)
-a roll of wire, just for the fuel pumps, thermofan etc.
-three bosch relays 30A, $6 each) (assuming you are doing the wiring yourself)
-inline fuses, holders etc.
- crimp terminals (hint dont buy supercheap for this!, go narva or something)
-soldering iron + solder ($40)
-high pressure fuel filter (I used VN commy $18)
-thermo fan from VN commy condenser(ripped $80 at wreckers) saw a new one at supercheap 2 days later for $55.
-for neatness sakes, buy a few cable ties and ribbed plastic casing ($15 total from autopro


Reason I put these down is because it is easy to bypass a budget if you have a low one like I did.


Anyway, if you want some photos, etc, ive got a heap,


cheers

[bazooked]

ive got a brand new dizzy adaptor sitting here ya can have it for 350 if ur keen pm me as it will go on ebay next week.

[ofr57]

so how much did it cost all together?
thinking on doing the swap myself
also i was told if you put a coily tank in you can have an internal pump?

[beaver700]

Round about $1800 finished...

I bought a mk2 gti front cut good nick for $1400


Coily tanks have a built in swirl pot unlike the carby tanks...

I was quoted $250 by a wrecker, so I abandonned that idea!


Cheers

Martin

[jord]

Thanks for all that info. You just saved me a few hours and many problems!

Martin, can you still remove your dizzy cap?

I might look into the coily tank. So i guess it has both an in tank lift pump and swirl pot? Which would do away with my external surge tank and lift/primer pump??? Does anyone know if it bolts straight up?

[beaver700]

Gday Jord,

Now with the dizzy cap, it does have its disadvantages...

1. Its a really tight fit between the firewall + dizzy
2. You'd almost need to undo the engine mounts and gearbox mounts from underneath, use a engine crane from above to inpect and service the distributor and cap... in other words, it is very hard to get at...

Now about the coily tank, I am not sure about coilies, but the 89 sierra I have has the fuel pump external to the tank, on the left hand corner of the cylinder head... could someone confirm if the coily has an intank fuel pump?
The only advantage (I think )of the coily tank over pre-coilies is the built in swirl pot. If you can find a cheap coily tank, then its all good. Intank fuel pump would be ideal....

Also Jord,

Check this site out if you havent already!

http://home.iprimus.com.au/pulsr/g13b/

In this instruction set, it says you can easily accomadate a intank fuel pump of the right pressure from another car... in this case a nissan pulsar turbo pump is used... I have checked at about 10 wreckers around nsw and ACT, and most of them just said that particular pump are rare and expensive .

If you have the intank pump, you could do away with the surge tank... the idea behind a surge tank is so that the external pump doesnt get starved when you go around corners and all the fuel in the tank sloshes to one side, leading to premature pump failure...

Anyway, good luck


Martin