P Lynn Miller (?first name?)
Ah, yes, another sad case. No cure for it
either. Welcome to the brotherhood of the doomed. (No sisters yet,
but I am sure we will eventually acquire one or more.)
But in my surfing I have come across the Subaru transplant lists, and that changes everything. And then there is the TDI conversions by Jaeger, which opens a whole new world of performance for the T3.
The plan of action at this point is to buy a Syncro with the best body possible and in good running condition which can be set-up to seat 6 people comfortably. I want to be able to run at least 12 months before I need to do anything major and at that point either do a 2.5L or 3.3L Boxxer or a Jaeger style TDI conversion.The Subaru SVX engine is not current production, with all the usual problems this brings. The Subaru 2.5 is current and represents a very good power plant for the Syncro. One of the list members, Andy in Ceduna, has already done a 2.5 conversion. The Jaeger conversion is strictly Germany only. Best to stick to what's available locally. There are a good number of 2.5 conversions being done in the US. This would be my choice.
I usually buy vehicles on a 10 to 15 year plan, and so I would be looking to keep this T3 for a very long-time. So several questions come to mind.
The T3 comes in several variants, round headlights and flush, are the differences only cosmetic, or are there subtle differences in the floor pan and etc which I need to be aware of?The Syncro was built from 89 to 91 and was sold in Australia over that time. There was a limited supply of very basic Syncros, round headlights, no side windows, no diff locks. The most common was the Transporter, four headlights, fixed side windows, no rear seats, most with rear diff lock. It was also sold in the Caravelle form, all seats, fully trimmed, very nice in fact, but massively expensive..There are differences between the 2WD and 4WD T3's. The 4WD Syncro has a hefty sub-frame to carry the front diff, so the fuel tank had to be moved to the rear, above the gearbox, with a filler at the rear on the RH side. In the 2WD, the tank was at the front and the filler was just behind and below the driver's door. The floor pans are the same. As far as I can recall, there are no other differences.
Also whether to buy a T3 with a pop-top or not? Eventually, I would want to convert it into a camper. So is this important or a non-issue if I want to have a pop-top installed down the road?You can add a pop top at any time, as I have done in the past.If you need seats for six, you will have to give some thought to providing two lots of two seats at the rear but still be able to build in the storage space you will need to provide the needs of two adults and four children.The pic on the home page of the Syncro_T3_Australia website is my 89, fitted with the Trakka GoldPak camping conversion. This is the only way to travel. If you are a family with four kids, please let me give you a hint - a hint based on my previous T2 with pop top and 300,000 miles. The fold out bed arrangement is hopeless. Before you can bed down for the night, you have to move every mortal thing in the van before the bed can be pulled out, then every mortal thing has to be re-packed again in the mnorning before you can even make a coffee.I made pull-out slats for the upstairs bed, got a good quality foam mattress (not a sheet of foam plastic, and my lady and i slept in the pop top. There is nothing to equal waking up in the morning and finding a family of kangaroos grazing, washing or snoozing just five paces from the van. The two children slept downstairs, one on the rear seat, and the other on a mattress on the floor. With the T2, I had a pop top installed and made the rest myself. I have added pull-out slats to the top of the Syncro. As supplied by Trakka originally, it was just two sheets of ply, one of which slid back over the other, took up a lot of headroom and rated only for 75kg. My arrangement is rated for a small elephant and slides back to occupy only 18" at the very rear. I have pics of this arrangement if you want to see what I have done.Les HarrisThanks,
P. Lynn Miller
Sydney, Australia
www.chainringtransitauthority.com