With 2.5 years of development under his belt, Ramón Arias de Bles at HY Conversions in The Netherlands has honed his designs for dramatically accelerating HY Van performance and delivering stopping power to match.
We first announced his business back in February 2014 and did a follow-up piece in May 2019. We are pleased to see that things have progressed to the point that he now has stock of all the adapters and conversions parts for the transformation of HY Vans.
So, what’s new you might ask? — Plenty:
- Ramón now uses the Volvo B230FT engine which is exactly the same as B230FK, but is turbo charged and with a simple turbo booster easily outputs 200Hp. Torque power is 264 Nm @3450 rpm. Some clients prefer not to have a turbo and he uses the B230FB with 136Hp and torque of 185 Nm @2950 rpm.
- The air intake is converted to fit the van, so it is concealed with the engine bay and does not detract from the interior or exterior design.
- There is now a new choice for the gearbox. It comes from VW/AUDI/SEAT/SKODA (brand Getrag) and has 6 gears. With the turbo charged engine an empty HY Van will run at just 2000rpm @110km/hr. The has made a coupling adapter for the Getrag gearbox to the Volvo engine so that both can be mated without modification.
- The drive shafts used are from the heavier cars like Audi A6 3,0L. To fit, there are a few adapters. One is to lengthen the shaft and the other to fit the HY wheel pitch. Moreover the rubber dust cover is converted to not touch suspension of the HY.
- The design of the disc brakes are still the same as before and are from Citroën C5. (Ramón sells the same brake kit that can be fitted to the Traction Avant 15-6). The handbrake can be on front wheels.
- The brake booster adapter is based on a VW T4 and has a double vacuum chamber. Because of the new version’s electric power steering the reservoir, it is moved and a new reservoir is located at the front of van with clutch reservoir joined.
- The brakes can now be connected crosswise; FR & RL, and FL & RR, like modern vans.
And those are just the highlights. Engine support and gearbox support are CadCam designed and laser cut. Also, the turbo pass through, and other parts, are 3d printed. All original parts used are completely revised — not a single part stays untouched.
Check out the way the exhaust is snaked through the ladder frame. The original exhaust ends up front and fumes easily permeate into the cab. Now it exits at the rear yet does not protrude from the bottom where it could be potentially ripped away.
Very impressive!
So if you would like to have your coffee truck, (or any other HY Van), be truly ‘expresso‘, visit the HY Conversions Facebook page and check out Ramón’s album for more pics:
https://www.facebook.com/HYconversions.nl.
Update — August 14, 2023: Dubious dealings have happened through HY Conversions in the Netherlands doing H Van disc brake and engine conversions. You can read about that here: https://citroenvie.com/h-van-horror-in-holland/.
As such, the company has been flagged in related articles and removed from our Services Guide & Directory as we continue to try to protect Citroën enthusiasts in North America and abroad from fraudulent operators.