Pimp Wagon - UPDATE: Restore back in action

Suzuki van tech question and answers.
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Tay
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:03 pm
Location: Melbourne

Hi all,

I think the F5A engine in my Every is on it's way out.

Driving to work the other day, the van felt like it lost a cylinder as reving above a certain RPM would make the van stutter and any slight hill it would struggle to climb.

I turned into a side street, and checked the engine, from my diagnostics, the spark plug to the rear of the engine isn't getting any spark. I've removed the lead and there is definitely spark, so I suspected theirs a problem with the spark plug.

No biggie, RACV total care came to the rescue and towed the van home, and off to work I went.

I had a closer look at this yesterday, I pulled that suspect spark plug out and as I thought, it was covered in thick black stuff, which explains why it didn't get any spark. So I decided to remove all spark plugs to check, the other 2 spark plugs was ok but not the best. I had a spare set lying around so I put those in.
Cranked the van up and it was fine, I could rev the van and it didn't feel like it was running on 2 cylinders.

Now comes my concern, now it's blowing white smoke, I thought it might have something to do with when I dropped a cylinder, and needed to go for a quick prang around the block to clear it up. To my worries the white smoke is still there, I checked the radiator and oil dipstick, no maccas milk shake. But I have been loosing coolant lately, and have to top up every few days.

The white smoke can been seen while driving but more noticeable when idling for split second and taking off, that's when a great puff of smoke would pour out. At idle, it does produce white smoke but once you rev the van, that's when the smoke show begins.

Any suggestion as to what I've blown?
Last edited by Tay on Thu Dec 29, 2016 11:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Karu
Posts: 325
Joined: Thu May 07, 2009 1:31 am
Location: Melbourne

If I remember correctly Tay white smoke is produced by burning auto trans and brake fluid. I would be checking the brake master cylinder.
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Tez
Posts: 1176
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:38 pm
Location: Croydon, Vic

Head gasket gone between a water gallery and a cylinder.

This is exactly the symptoms I had before I did my rebuild...

Cause will be years of running the car with water in the cooling system - not coolant. - Water causes the alloy heads to corrode. Coolant does not.

I'll suspect there will be nothing you can do short of strip it down and get the head repaired before a new head gasket. - If you just replace the head gasket, it will just go again because of the corrosion in the head.

Sorry to say.
Tez
So the adventure continues...
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Brayden
Posts: 9101
Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2004 3:09 am
Location: Canberra ACT
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I second Tez's diagnosis. Rebuild time!

If it were me I'd stick an F8B bottom end in it with larger injectors or a piggyback ECU. :)
F8B EFI turbo - Three pots and a snail.
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Tez
Posts: 1176
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:38 pm
Location: Croydon, Vic

Tay.
I've put up in my gallery a before & after of my head during the rebuild...

Image

Image

Sorry man... :cry:
Tez
So the adventure continues...
Karu
Posts: 325
Joined: Thu May 07, 2009 1:31 am
Location: Melbourne

I can imagine you are upset at this news Tay, who wouldn't be? Well, I suppose someone who is wealthy or someone with a spare car. You might not fit those categories so I can help you. I had this problem and was telling a bloke I had just met. He went to his car, opened the glove box and handed me a gift. Believe me, it was a gift. It was a hard gray coloured block. He told me to crush it (I used a hammer) and put it in the radiator. Now I don't like doing things like that because I have had awful results with these type of products, but what the hell, anything was better than taking the car off the road.

Instant fix! Bloody brilliant!

I tracked it down because since I have had my Carry I noticed that whenever I removed the radiator cap it was always rust coloured on the surface and it had also attached itself on the radiator cap because I am certain my old man never put anything in the radiator but standard tap water. Too often I had to scrap the rust build up from the cap.

I found it at Bursons auto parts. It cost about $8 for 2 blocks, it is called Sealwel and is race tested. The manufacturer is JDM Industries and they are in Eltham Phone 03 9438 5291.

I put a block in my Carry and have had a perfectly clean radiator ever since.

They advise putting in a block every 5000 km. I will be doing that with every car I ever own. It is magic!
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Tay
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:03 pm
Location: Melbourne

Thanks for the replies guys.

I thought this was the case, that's the joys of owning a 20+ year old car :)

I had a gut feeling for some time the Van was not it's usual self, but it had a good run since purchasing it.

Lucky (sort of) for me I still have my convertible swift to drive while the van is off the road, but since the swift is currently for sale, I prefer not to drive it much just in case (touch wood) something happens to it.

Plus with my daughter being born on new years day, daughter and wife are currently overseas and papers will be submitted soon to get them both over here (process time can take up to 6 months!).

So in the mean time, it's not so bad, but I hope the swift gets sold soon so I can start looking into getting a safer car to lug the family around when they both get over here.

I would like to do what Brayden suggested and put in a F8B bottom end to give it a bit more kick, only thing that is stopping me is time + money.
I will be doing most of the mechanical side of things myself, as in removing the engine etc.. but when it comes to rebuilding it, I will get someone to do it. Now when the family comes over, I will most likely have little free time to get it moving along, so it might be a very slow process, which I don't mind, as long as I have another car to drive.

Thanks Tez for posting those pics and as for Karu, it's temping but I see this as a band aid fix and might do more harm than good in the long run.

Also my other concern is sourcing parts for the rebuilt, I assume the F5A in the Van is very similar to what is in the boy and parts should be easy to obtain for a rebuild? I know Mick from Suzi World here in Melbourne rebuilds these motors, I'll also ask my mechanic to see if he is up for the job to rebuild it and also the option of putting a F8B bottom end.

I'll see how I go.

Cheers
Tay
Nehemiah
Posts: 148
Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:39 pm
Location: South Australia

I know you've got it sorted, but my F10A had the exact same issues.
Problem was the same as Tez's... Coolant into cylinder.

Sam
[url=http://www.tamon.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2744]Can a G15A DOHC engine fit into a Carry Van? Short answer...Yes. Click for the long answer...[/url]
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Tay
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:03 pm
Location: Melbourne

Hi all,

It's been a while since I touched the Van and I'm at the stage where I want to get it up and running again.

As others has suggested, time for rebuild I think, I'm mechanically minded as I did swap the engine in my GTi.
Although that was done from the top, but for the Van, it's from the bottom, I thought about giving the Van to someone to remove and rebuild the engine, but to save on cost, I thought I remove the engine myself and get someone to rebuild it.

I had a look at how I would go about in removing the engine and at first glance it looks complicated :-o

Any tips as to how to remove the engine from the Van?

From what I can see, and the most obvious is the gearbox, that needs to come out first. The rest is a jigsaw puzzle.

Regards
Tay
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Brayden
Posts: 9101
Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2004 3:09 am
Location: Canberra ACT
Contact:

You can remove the engine/gearbox in one hit. The engine is mounted to the lower crossmember.

Best bet is to run the front wheels up onto a set of sturdy ramps, that will give you the clearance you need to get everything out.
F8B EFI turbo - Three pots and a snail.
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NozMonkeys
Posts: 152
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 8:39 pm

A few people I've spoken to basically "droped" the engine onto some grass. Not my idea if your going to be using it again.

I removed mine with the gearbox attached but If I was to do it in future I would remove the gearbox as I used an engine crane and it was really unbalanced towards the gearbox end.You may need to remove the front mudflaps as they have a piece of sheet metal going into the engine bay.

Its an easy task. WAY easier than removing a FWD engine.

Remove seats and dizzy cover in rear.
Disconnect all wiring
Drain and remove radiator pipes.
Drain engine oil (optional)
Drain gearbox oil
Unbolt Driveshaft from diff
unbolt gearbox , make sure to remove the speedo cable and sensor wiring
Remove gearbox
Jack the car as high and safe as possible, use axel stands or supports.
Support engine and undo crossmember from the chassis (4 bolts)
Lower engine.

If you've got a bad memory or your going to have the engine out for over a month then label where the wiring went and leave bolts in obvious places.Many times at work I've pulled a motor and we couldn't find a replacement for 3 months.Usually you have the car going within the week on transplants.
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Tay
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:03 pm
Location: Melbourne

Thanks Brayden and NozMonkeys for your input.

From the sounds of things, it doesn't sound too difficult.

Question, with disconnecting the radiator hoses, the radiator stays where it is while the engine comes out?

Reason why I ask is that a while ago I wanted to see if I can remove the radiator to get it checked/replaced/rebuilt, but noticed it was near impossible to remove with the engine still in the car?
Because of the radiator shroud that covers the engine fan and could not find a way to drop the radiator without catching on the fan. I assume when removing the engine, this won't be an issue because?

I thought about getting rid of the belt driven fan for a electric fan? Will this be a better option for cooling or should I stick with the constant belt driven fan?

I have finally got myself an original front bar after almost a year of searching, after realising the one I got previous does not fit and still for sale :)
I will be getting a smaller cooler and relocating back to it's original position.

Knowing me, I will most likely be labelling everything, like I did with my GTi engine swap, this helped a lot when putting everything back together.

Regards
Tay
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NozMonkeys
Posts: 152
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 8:39 pm

To remove the radiator you have to remove the plastic shroud first. Its harder getting the radiator in then out with the engine in.

Replacing the clutch fan with an electric fan will acually be more efficient when hooked up with a thermo switch and removing the clutch fan will gain more economy and very slight power increase. 0.5hp maybe? lol.

You can remove the engine with the radiator in as he engine virtually drops stright down. Just remove the plastic shroud.

Once the engines out remove the radiator if its in need of repairing and put the radiator in first before installing the engine.
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Tay
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:03 pm
Location: Melbourne

Hi All,

It's been a while since my last update, so I thought I better post something as some of you might be wondering where's the Pimp Wagon these days?

Well since then, I have managed to remove the engine a few months ago and just recently gave the engine to my mechanic to rebuild, told him no rush so I'm not sure when it will be done.

I'm very keen to get the Van up and running again as I miss driving that thing.

There will be one major change, I will be getting rid of the oversized front mount intercooler and will be getting a smaller one to put in the factory location.

Over time, the main cause of the engine failure was due to the intercooler blocking air to the radiator (as some has advised). At that time, the Van was my daily and it had it's fare share of highway driving and hot weather.

I have imported a factory front bar for the van from Yahoo, the first one I imported looked the same in the photos but it was for a different chassis. This time around I hit the jackpot. Still deciding if I should use the stock front bar or use the existing one and modify it to look stock and keep the stock one for backup.

I have decided to go with the same F5A configuration as I don't have time to try something else.

Tay
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Brayden
Posts: 9101
Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2004 3:09 am
Location: Canberra ACT
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Good to hear that you're getting it up and running again, but a real shame you won't be slotting an F8B bottom end in.

Don't be put off by the task, it should only be a matter of rebuilding an F8B bottom end and using everything else from the old F5A including the head, manifolds, sump and oil pickup. Then you just need a piggyback ECU to dump more fuel in. BAM! Instant 15kw gain.
F8B EFI turbo - Three pots and a snail.
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