One item on our list of preventive maintenance is to rebuild the injection pump. They are prone to leak after a while due the dried out seals and of course a healthy IP is crucial for a well running van. As this is something way beyond my knowledge, I handed over DinoEvo to the pros at CVI Automotive in Richmond. These guys are the experts and it seems like they can rebuild an IP with closed eyes. After I saw it disassembled, I can not believe someone still knows how to put it back together. CVI did a great job and I highly recommend them if you have any problems or work to do on your JDM.
It was time to make some room for our upcoming Espar Diesel heater and the hot water system. One thing we didn’t use a single time over the last few years in a Delica is the aircondition. While the front AC might come in handy when we are down South, we didn’t see any need for a separate rear AC.
So I dropped off the van at IcyCool to empty the system. After that I was able to dismantle and remove the whole rear heater/AC assembly, which opened up a nice, large space with all the necessary connections. The plan now is to create a water tight aluminum box with a service lid to fit the new equipment.
The front AC system is also plugged and fully recharged again.
Our van is now official broken in. :)
After our last little road/camping-trip DinoEvo made it over the 100,000 km mark. Hopefully we can celebrate another few of these in the future.
The project makes only slowly progress at the moment, due a few delayed parts and some busy days far away from the garage.
Santa Claus was good to us and brought another part for our fresh-water setup straight from Germany. An Elgena Nautic-Junior M. It’s a 10 litre, stainless steel, coolant feed, fresh hot water tank. The tank will be connected to the coolant lines of the Diesel heater as well as the engine. So while you are on the road you’ll get hot water for a shower and when in camping mode, the Diesel heater will do the job. I already have an idea how and where to mount the whole system, but it’s going to be a bigger project with a more detailed post, so stay tuned…
Due the lack of interior light from the roof insulation project I went on and installed a Vision X LED utility flood light right beside the sliding door. Initially I wanted to mount in on the roof rack as this light is also water proof, but decided against it. It should work as a interior light when a lot of light is needed (like packing, cleaning or finding stuff) as well as a flood light for the area in front of the sliding door for camping. I built the bracket in way so it also can be used for outside when the door is closed, to keep the bugs out. Right now it’s hooked up to the sliding door mechanism, which turns the light on when the door opens. With 500 lumens output and 120° wide angle beam pattern it emits a spread out, very bright light, but is too bright to use it all the time inside. Once the ceiling is finished, I’ll add some smaller LED accent lights to have a more dimmed environment.
The insulation of the roof is done. At first the old headliner came off. Hidden behind was a wimpy layer of flees as well as the air conditioning vents. Took all of this stuff out as well and started again with the remaining sound deadening layer. On top of that I glued – with a head resistant double sided tape – a layer of 1/2 high-density Neoprene from Foambymail.com. After tons of research this material turned out to be the most efficient in terms of used space, water resistance and thermal insulation.
Initially I was planing to put the headliner back but after seeing the additional space and voids I decided against it. It opened quite a few more possibilities for storage and mounting stuff. I might add a thin wood panel over the insulation later, but since all the wiring still needs to be done, I’ll leave it like that.
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