1989 VW LT35 2.4D

[bl1300]

I purchased this yesterday for moving my projects around and also because its cool and I like it. On the other hand its not the easiest thing in the world to drive. It does have power steering and the ride and handling is good for what it is but the engine and gearbox certainly give the driver a workout. The gears are all there and once selected work lovely the problem is finding them. Unfortunately if you do miss a gear change the lack of power means that you literally end up back in first gear and starting again.

Under the cab is a 2384cc Inline 6 NA Indirect Injection diesel. It sounds sweet but in a vehicle this size the 67bhp it puts out is barely sufficient giving me a top speed of about 50mph when loaded and a lot less on hills. Saying that she is good on fuel and will keep plodding along happily just slowly.



She does have a few issues but they are minor. For instance the windscreen seal needs replacing and causes a leak into the fuse box. Because of this the wiper relay has been removed giving meaning no self park or intermittent function, but they do still work. There is a chip in the windscreen that needs repair and a few minor knocks and scrapes and a couple of areas that need patching.



She has a 4ton winch and as you can see the bed is plenty long enough for anything i'm likely to carry. Payload is 1700kg.



Of course being a 26year old VW I see no reason why the truck itself can't be on the show field in its own right despite what its carrying.

I do intend to do some usability modifications as she needs more power. At the moment i'm in two minds between and engine and gearbox swap, I have a land rover 300tdi and autobox in the shed the keeps catching my eye, or modifying the original engine for more power. If anyone knows much about these and can advise me on the feasibility of these options it would be appreciated.

[vitesseefi]

double post......

[vitesseefi]

There's a turbo version of the original 2.4, used in various versions of the LTs and 700 series Volvos.

Years ago a company I worked for had an LT35 truck with a turbo version of that engine and that went respectably well. Could manage over 70 given a long run-up and favourable winds. It had done about 400k too so may have lost a horse or two.

Another possibility would be to go to the 2.5 TDI 5 cyl as used in the 100/C4 A6/ Volvo 850/V70 TDI and many transporters. Strong engine capable of big power. Might involve an ECU though.

Gear selection problems will relate to knacked bushes in the linkage.

Nick

[usedabused]

Id sell the landrover engine and an D24T ( ACL ) engine a turbo charged version of yours, with a the boost and fuel upped a little and a decent intercooler that will sort the engine then just rebush the selector linkage and your laughing....

A Forum rught up your street.....

Love these engines will graft all day and sound great....

[discostew]

I once bought a VW T3 camper in Germany. The seller kindly took me and the van to the local office to get it registered on the back of his petrol powered LT car transporter. That thing was really slow....

[rjbell78]

Love these vans. The panel vans were the widest around with internal width of 6.7' great for a camper conversion. Being so wide i've also seen one modded to a 4 seater.

[bl1300]

Jan 29, 2016 16:05:20 GMT rjbell78 said:

Love these vans. The panel vans were the widest around with internal width of 6.7' great for a camper conversion. Being so wide i've also seen one modded to a 4 seater.

Yeah the cab is proper wide. Most small recovery trucks the bed is wider than the cab on this its the same width. It really does miss a trick only having two seats in the cab so I intend to fit a double seat as well. If my defender pickup can fit 3 seats this most definitely can. Next run out is tomorrow it will be interesting to see if it goes any faster with a DAF 44 / Spitfire on the back than it did with a Defender.

[tonup]

Love these LT's! Years ago there was one around my way that I always wanted. It was painted brown and orange and sounded awesome, i think it had a straight 6 in it.

[joe90]

She has a 4ton winch and as you can see the bed is plenty long enough for anything i'm likely to carry. Payload is 1700kg.

Might be an idea to get it weighed as that sounds a lot, my last one weighed 2.5 ton empty.

Bryan

[bl1300]

Had it weighed as suggested payload is 1500kg she weighs nigh on exactly 2000kg unladen.

Sadly she is giving engine issues at the moment so will likely be getting an engine conversion, a shame as the 6 pot sounds sweet but they are very thin on the ground and rather underpowered. I'm wondering if anyone knows what engine could be linked up fairly easily with the current gearbox as she has a recently rebuilt gearbox that I am loath to lose if I can avoid it?

The last time I took her out she was going strongly when she suddenly started knocking and chucking out clouds of smoke. Strangely she didn't lose power when doing this nor did the engine try to run away. By the time id limped her to a safe stopping place the smoke had gone and she sounded normal again. Drove home fine aswell, currently starts fine and is smoke free. So maybe its something small like the cold start wax stat sticking and not terminal. One can only hope.

[dodgerover]

I would say you had a sticking injector and it's cleared itself. A can of forte run through it might be a good idea.

[bl1300]

Hmmm thinking about it the fact it had a bottle of redex injector cleaner in the tank makes your suggestion seem all the more likely

[vitesseefi]

Injectors are simple and have replaceable nozzles.

Same lump in Turbo form was used in the 740 TDs. You might find that the 5 pot diesel fits too. These can be found in the C4 A6 (AAT=115 bhp, AEL =140bhp) but these have fly-by-wire throttle so there'll be some wiring. Volvo 850 / V70 uses what is basically the AEL engine.

Guess the 4 pot 1.9 TDIs would also fit.

Nick

[joe90]

Some Volvo diesels have the turbo LT engine in and can be had as a complete car for not a lot of money and also check out the older audi diesels.

Bryan

[mattiwagon]

I had a P reg ex authority crewcab tipper td version of these old LT's and it was huge inside I remember unladen it was a hoot to drive but it lacked torque as when laden it would creep up hill full of lads gear chip and a chipper on the back(kinda understandable really now I think of it!) loved it but It was a curse word for parts and that was in 2005

[gn3dr]

On engine choice. A guy I know is doing this www.superturbodiesel.com/std/showthread.php?tid=7116

[giuliettaevo]

My friend owns two of those. One has an Opel omega c30ne engine and auto gearbox in it.sure made it a lot faster compared to the original 2.0 petrol engine.

Other one will receive a Mercedes om606 diesel engine and auto gearbox. Should be a nice ride also.

Vw lt engines were not that good we were told. That's why we didn't even consider putting one of those in.

[Knugcab]

No, the heads on those inline sixes are very prone to cracking unfortunately, actually the shop manual (at least for Volvo) says that some kind of cracks are so common that one should not even worry about them.....

[bl1300]

All working again now seems injector cleaner did the trick. Had another surprise today though which was easily remedied but still rather surprising. Had to break fairly hard to avoid a door that was opened into the path of the truck as I was driving and this somehow caused the two halves of the prop shaft to separate thus causing me to lose all drive. Turns out that the bolt that holds the front prop half to the Centre UJ bearing assembly had come out allowing the prop to separate.

What is strange is this bolt hasn't been disturbed in all the time I have owned the vehicle which is 6 months so why did it decide to come undone now. The thread wasn't damaged and it did back up without a problem. The only thing I can think off is that it has obviously had a new gearbox fairly recently and the prop was separated when the box was fitted and whomever did the job didn't reassemble with thread lock and a new locking tab. I didn't have either with me whilst out so I will be separating it again and making sure that it does have a new lock tab and some locking compound as that was not a lot of fun

[Deleted]

as you like your daf's what about a cummins motor out of a daf 45? they go realy well unrestricted. wind the boost up and they are pretty quick. loads of landrover cummins swaps online. and they have a relitively cramped engine bay. so cant see it being a problem with this thing.

Not to mention , if you buy the whole truck thats got no mot and rip the engine and box out. itll work out cheaper than buying an engine second hand.

And then cut it up and sell the axles etc...