Isuzu Bellett 1500 Project

[miss_bellet]

Hey; This is my isuzu bellet 1500 she's my baby & i love her to death. I picked her up for free off a friend of mine so i'm pretty stoked abou that i'm on the look out for another one too:]

Here are my plans so far & on the start;

Engine: In the building process DOHC G200 turbo, exhaust, new gear box, injectors, front mount intercooler, computer, boost controller etc

Body: full respray, rust cut out (unsure about colour GIVE me an idea :S)

Wheels: Some sort of rims & break upgrade :tu:

Interior: All my interior is sweet:] except for my flooring, so just get that all redone and i need my dash repaired.

I aim for my beast to be on the road early feb:]

Give me any feed back & tips will be highly appreciated thanks heaps,



Monnie

[Alistair]

Nice to have you here with what sounds like a very ambiguous project to have done in febuary. Unless you mean 2010

Not to sure what others with big power belletts have done but you will also need to consider what you're doing in the differential department, as I dont think the stock bellett diff and axles are up to much abuse. (I utterly destroyed my 67 corona diff with a mere 185kw 4age turbo )

What ecu are you going with?

Throw up some more pictures of your motor and everything, would be interesting to see.

[2ldohc]

Welcome to the forum and can I say that is a great looking base for your very ambitious project!

First up, check for rust in the sill panels under the boot lid (above the tail lights) and the shock towers on the engine bay side because that's where you'll see the worst of it.

As Alistair said, What ECU? I'm running a Motec on my G200W engine (in a gemini) but want to turbo it and I'm not sure which one to use or if the Motec will cope!. Any experience with turbo G200W's would be good to hear (good and bad)!

Magna brakes seem to be the go in that department (see the Tech section, it's being thrashed out there). Be careful with the rims, I've had all kinds of clearance issues with mine and they are only 6.5 wide by 14" but the offset was wrong... Now I'm running a 7mm spacer at the front and a 3mm at the back just to keep the 195/60's off the body!

Colour? Dark Blue, like a new BMW colour (I can hear the sharp intake of breath from the other members ), with all the chrome polished to within an inch of it's life

Anyway, good to have you aboard the forum and if you have any questions we'll be happy to help

Good luck with the project and be sure to post pictures of the progress over Christmas and into the new year.

Cheers,
R.

[miss_bellet]

Hey guys,

Rust issues; i'm actually pretty rust free! i have one dent in a my right hand rear door so i have a little bit of surface rust there. no rust in seal panels, so i'm really lucky. only rust is in that little grill above the bonnet do you know where i am talking about?

Sorry- i didn't post up anything about my diff. But I will definetly be putting something in & a break upgrade depending on the rims I want to run. Ah yes rim problems. Probably a set of simmons, my boyfriend has the same problem with his mazda.

We actually have a magna, maybe i'll steal those breaks:D haha.

Hmm i haven't seen that blue, maybe I'll check it out. I love that purple bellett, maybe just because i'm a girl:) Or i was just thinking original so many decisisions I don't want to paint it like 3 times lol like my vl turbo.

ECU- Well I actually haven't even looked into it HA HA. Maybe haultec, nobody seems to have problems with them but they are about $2,500.

[Alistair]

I think you might be talking about the scutter panel. Sounds like you arent too bad on the rust front then. Well compared to mine

Another ecu to look at is the link ecu from NZ and also one called the EMS stinger. Both well priced units with a number of serious powered cars that they control!

As above, throw up some more pics when you can, would love to see how you're getting on.

[miss_bellet]

Thank you i will look into those! Will take some photo's tonight i will have to load them at my mother inlaws though because i don't have a cable on my computer- have to do it via bluetooth.

2ldohc; i think i saw you at the intersection of port wakefield & churchill road north today

I'm really excited, i didn't even know how many belletts there were lol, i thought i was the only one in Adelaide ha ha!

[cute wee gem]

Diff should handle a mild turbo g200. There's a guy in melb with a 340hp rotary powered Bellett that's running the stock diff. Apparently they only ever broke the bolts for the half shafts.

Diff center isn't exactly small either, like most old Isuzu's. (Gems for example are quite big compared to similar sized cars) The only problem I can see is the factory gearbox as I've seen a few of them blow, the steel center (bearing carrier?) piazza gearboxes are supposedly stronger (don't quote me on that, someone can probably follow this up)

Sounds like an awesome project either way, I'd look VERY closely at the lower shock towers (just below the top wishbone bolts) as they pretty much all rust there, taking the chassis rails with them.

[cute wee gem]

Not all magna brakes fit. You need tm/tn/tp model disks and obviously need to make a caliper mount.

[miss_bellet]

yeah i'll leave all of that to my partner ha ha, i'll just be paying for it

i'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, but when it comes to technical terms my brain turns
to jelly lol.

thanks for your help, your bellett isn't bad either cute wee gem.

ordering my number plates this week, thinking mz belet:P

ha ha ha.

[PR91]

the diff will be fine.
the 13B turbo'd race car you speak of was about 400hp, and as CWG said, the only real prob was with the axle to half shaft bolts. the car hasn't been used for a few years now, and sadly, the owner/driver passed away due to cancer earlier this year. he was only 56 (from memory)...

my race car uses a normal bellett diff, and it's fine too.
a worthwhile thing to do is to put high grade 'unbrako' type bolts and locking nuts in the axles and tailshaft bolts as they can strecth and come loose with a power upgrade.

i've broken an axle universal in my race car tho in the past, so i changed the whole lot (the 2 in the axles and the 2 in the tailshaft) with HQ V8 holden unis. they are the same size, and the "X" in the middle is a bit thicker than the normal 6 cylinder ones that are used more often in belletts.

hope this helps.

[bellett65]

For the ECU consider the Wolf from AEMS. www.wolfems.com.au/ Made in Melbourne and more versitile than most of the others. Mine runs an early 3D and is easy to tune. It is totaly suitable for any engine from 1 to 12 cylinders. Also suitable for turbos. It can also control boost.
Also check for rust in the suspension towers wher thet meet at the chassis rail, also at the end of the sills where they are under the guards.

Feb 2009 not impossible I did mine in 3 months. It had to be worked on every day for at least 4 hours, then on days off work at least 12. So good luck and keep us posted.

[miss_bellet]

thanks for all your help, yeah i've got a few huge FAVOURS from all my mazda crew friends.
so they all going to lend a helping hand.

this means cheap respray, engine rebuilding etc etc..

and my boyfriend is a toolmaker so he will be doing all my metal things etc!

will be keeping you all posted on my beast rebuild

monnie.

[2ldohc]

Sounds like you've got all of the right mates to make it happen

I've just spoken to Dave and it seems that car is familiar to us... There is definitely rust in the shock towers but not badly and a little bit else where but you're right. Generally rust free!

Did you find the chrome strip off that door with the dent in it? Did the alarm system give you any grief with the dodgy install there!

And as we keep saying.... keep us posted and when you're done we'll catch up for a cruise somewhere... Weather should be nice by the end of Feb

Cheers,
RS

[miss_bellet]

I've ripped all that crap out lol, who the hell does that:S i was like what the hell is this:S looked like some italian put jars in it to warn off burglars:P hahaha!

It's being rubbed back & panelbeated and should be primed soon ready for paint just waiting for parts for the engine so hopefully, all things falling together nicely.

Picked up the G200 for 300 bucks off a mate, god knows if i got ripped off there or not lol! but he chucked in a manifold too .

[2ldohc]

Good plan! That shit was weird

$300 for the G200W.. with loom? Either way that's a good deal, even for parts!

Good luck with the body!

Cheers,
R.

[Tuomas]

Am I the only one here that has destroyed a Bellett diff?
A couple of days on the race track did the job. Cornering raised the inner rear wheel and had it slipping. Any diff would be destroyed sooner or later doing that. The little gears and their axle inside the diff were worn out. The only thing I noticed was that I had a lock on the diff every now and then. The solution was easy. I welded everything together inside the diff. Little tricky to drive on the road, but never better on a race track or on a burnout zone. Donuts, donuts...
I once had to replace the original Isuzu X joint on the right hand side with a Lada one. Been replacing it ever since. The left hand X joint is original and still going strong.
Good luck with the G200 turbo project! A never-restored Bellett body of that condition would be a rarity up here.

Tuomas, Finland

[PR91]

Am I the only one here that has destroyed a Bellett diff?
A couple of days on the race track did the job. Cornering raised the inner rear wheel and had it slipping. Any diff would be destroyed sooner or later doing that. The little gears and their axle inside the diff were worn out. The only thing I noticed was that I had a lock on the diff every now and then. The solution was easy. I welded everything together inside the diff. Little tricky to drive on the road, but never better on a race track or on a burnout zone. Donuts, donuts...
I once had to replace the original Isuzu X joint on the right hand side with a Lada one. Been replacing it ever since. The left hand X joint is original and still going strong.
Good luck with the G200 turbo project! A never-restored Bellett body of that condition would be a rarity up here.

Tuomas, Finland

No, you're not alone...
I have broken one in my race car. I know I wrote that it has been fine, but it broke due to my doing, not a massive amount of power, or an inherant fault.
It was welded too, but it broke due to abuse (I punish the poor thing), and the diff itself was suspect of being a "bad" one (read: noisey)to begin with. The diff failed at the pinion bearing... the bearing itself fell to bits. We found that too much weld to begin with only made the "bad" diff worse, as the heat involved in welding effected the bearing, making it weaker than normal.
As this was the first welded diff we'd used, a "bad" one was chosen, and we didn't want to ruin a "good" diff it the experiment didn't work.
Since then, we have welded another diff for it, but I haven't gotten around to fitting it. It should be better, as we have changed the way it was welded, and it seems better than what the first one was when "tested" on the bench.

I agree that after a while a "free spinning" inside wheel will kill a diff, but we have found that the axle unis and the 4 axle bolts are the weak link/s, and they fail first.
No one I know has "broken" a Bellett diff that was left standard.

[65bellett]

How is the project going? Looking forward to the road burning Bellett.

[BELLQLD]

hi miss bellett are you chasing seals for front and rear screens gt orphanage is working on a supplier at the moment .also you dont have any spare front gaurds ??/,,,,,,,......regards dave

[GTtoo]

Mon, Whats with you guy's and makin' Belletts into high powered thrashing machines. Anyway good luck and love to see the 'oldie' when she's done. Agree with 2ldohc, look at my metalic deap sea blue gt, turns purple at night under fluro. Also plenty of classy chrome to compliment, looks phatt !! Was called honda blue in 1991, but VW have the same colour now. Autopro made me up a perfect match for some touch up, but sive brains here can't remember the code. If your interested I can definiely get the colour code.

B.