I fear this may be something serious...

[Bobass]

Hi all.

I should be somewhere by the sea now - for a week of fishing and surfing.
Sadly the van only made it 3 miles out of Bristol.

Last year in france, I overheated and blew a few pipes. To fix, a frnch mechanic (Renault dealer!!) fixed blown pipes with a bodge job of different diameter pipes and jubilee clips - and bypassed the thermostat - which he found was the only way to avoid the massive build up of pressure in the coolant system.

I've driven it like this over winter with no problems, but having no cabin heating.

Last week - in addition to a full front and rear brake rebuild - I had my mechanic reconnect the thermostat. He informed that pressure was still building up a little, but may be OK if I took it easy ---- not easy in a 1.6D.

Still, having driven it around a bit, it seemed fine, until 3 miles into holiday trip. It was chucking it down yesterday, so I didn't notice, because of the spray, that a pipe had blown, and steam was spewing out behind me. It wasn't until I saw a darker/smokey steam (?) behind me that I pulled over. Got towed to outside of garage ready for a visit on Monday.

Does anyone have an idea what may be happening to the coolant system - why the pressure builds up so easily - could there be some sort of blockage? Secondly, the engine seems not to start despite starter motor whirring -- could I have done something horriffic like warped the engine by driving a mile or so without coolant?

Any thoughts on remedies to problems or how much a new/reconditioned engine fitted is going to cost me would be great, thanks.

Sorry for such a long post. I'm just trying to come to terms that I'm not going away for the week, may have to fill the week with decorating/garden centres, and and spend another zillion pounds on my van.

[Titus A Duxass]

Rising pressure in the cooling system usually mean a blown head gasket. The exhaust gases are escaping in to the cooling system.

Mine did that a couple of years ago, it blew the rubber hose off the plastic pipe by the bulk head. I too did not see the steam out back.
The temp gauge did not move, but that was because there was no water around the sensor.

All this came to a head whilst driving through the Elbe tunnel, where it stopped.

I needed a new engine, all the plastic bits (including the ones in the rocker cover) melted.

You may be lucky and need only a new head + fitting kit.

[jamesc76]

sorry but do the words replacement engine ring a bell id say if you got black smoke after driving with no coolant and it wont turn over now its all most defo took the engine out

[edoh]

might want to check elite motors in essex for installing a replacemet enine - usually has favorable reviews on the forum - 5 to 600 squids?

[Bobass]

Cheers Guys.

It's in garage - hopefully they'll look at it sometime soon.

I've rung the Elite - who may be the way foreard - depending on what my garage diagnose/quote.

[sheffieldcoljules]

I still cant come to terms with people saying its a new engine if the head goes etc. I have blown many a engine head gasket (never VW though) and just skim, polish and port at the same time, then i get better revs, torque and better compression...

My van had 2300eu worth of work done in 05, got the bills from a previous owner, and shocked with the milage that people need to spend serious money or new engine, had loads of toyotas and v high milage and my last bimmer had half a million km on the clock, never smoked, burnt out and would blast on the autobahn like it just left the factory..

I know the flat 4 is a old design, but surley that means its tried and tested..im off on a big euro trip soon and getting worried...

[Laurie]

Working as a rep for URO, many years ago, I covered 250,000 miles in a van with the 1.6D engine and they are horrible.
Try to find a naturally aspirated 1.9 or got the whore hog and fit a turbo engine.
VW should have been shot for producing such an awful pile of crap!

A golf SB turbo engine is not too hard a fit and will do the job with finesse, even though it is only a 1600 too.

During the 250,000 miles, the head blew first at 8,000 miles and regularly thereafter.

Dump the chump!

[sheffieldcoljules]

During the 250,000 miles, the head blew first at 8,000 miles and regularly thereafter.

Why? no engine should keep failing if its well looked after, inc bolts etc. i know Rover 1.4 engines failed, but that was cos of a crap design and a design fault but skips me at present...

[Laurie]

Dealer serviced from new. 54BHP and the need to drop to 3rd on the slightest hill. It was a design fault in itself. The run back holes for oil from the head were the small ones on the early engines and half your oil would end up in the rocker cover on a cold morning. Add to that the fact that the oil pump shat ran off the back of the cam belt and would slip on a cold damp morning. They were great for local delivery, but never for proper work. i HAD 70,000 trouble free miles in a 1.6 Turbo van and had the marvellous experience of doing 80 with ease.
It was a very bad choice of engine to fit in the van. URO also had 1.7 naturally aspirated which gave no end of trouble. Then they went to type 4 and then, in sheer desperation to TRANSITS!
There is a guy in Durham fitting the 1.9 Peugeot turbo diesel units. My favorite diesel engine! I've had 6 Citroens now with Peugeot units, 2 topped 250,000 with cam belts and oil changes. My HDi Berlingo is coming up to it's first 100,000 (3 years old in July)
MIght be worth seeing if you can find the bloke and get a GOOD engine fitted.

Bear in mind, I have worked with VW engines since the early 70s and am sad to have to slag theirs off.

[sheffieldcoljules]

Thanks for taking the time to write that Laurie...explains a few things, Tonion and others say never rev the engines as they dont like it (the engines that is!) I must admit when i got my T3, i was still driving it like a car, now settled down to slow driving hehe

I didnt think it would be a lack of power, must be more behind so many failures.
I spent many years with Celica's, and know the odd faults some had, same goes for bimmers (plastic water pumps fitted as new, need replacing with metal as they ALL fail at about 150,000 )

I still havent worked on a flat 4, or seen one close up, but i would have thought with the age of the design, little faults would have been ironed out by the 80's

I have to pop over Austia and Italy etc, and i belive there are mountains etc i have to pass so i think as long as i take it steady..

Theres a great very long steep place in W Germany, it widens to 8 lanes at least as it cuts up the mountain (reminds me of the 80s arcade game outrun), i used to blast up that at over 120 in the bimmer (way over what was allowed!!) and 2 lanes were Vw's and trucks crawling up, i guess i will be one of them next time

[Syncro G]

I think the resioning behind what engines VW used is simple really - its just what they had at the time. The Aircooled engines, though a pritty sorted design wern't meeting modern emissions regs and were thursty and underpowered. Watercooling the boxer engine was the cheepest way to more power as it didn't require a complete redesign of the hole van (why bother when the T4 would soon be on the cards). Not long after they'd done that engine they probubly got their hands on the 5 pot audi engines but by that point the T4 was on its way so they wisely didn't waist their money on reengineing the T3 - save that for the south africans where it must have been more economic to do. Because the WBX was partly a new design when it was released its not so surprising that bit (the water bit) suffers problems, though most only suffered when ageing - remember most did run reliably when new though and many still do!

What about the diesels? Again, they needed a diesel and the 1.6 was what they had at the time. They did improve it with the turbo and 1.7 version pritty quickly but again future upgrades to 1.9s were saved for the T4 as it wasn't worth the design time re engineering the T3 and 1.9 for a short production life.

The non turbo diesels are slow but have proved reliable and incredably ecomomic when used as a low speed delivery van - what they were designed for, if you wanted to go faster there was the turbo version (well a bit faster) and the 2.1 - not so economic but if you wanted to go fast you had to pay. As T3's are getting on most have left their working lives behind them so there are few diesel delivery vans working the towns now. The same vans are now campers and working up and down the motorways at 50+mph unlike their design use - that coupled with age often causes problems but if they were so "pooh" from the word go, how come they've lasted 20 years?

Any engine can be killed through lack of maintinance or prolonged thrashing. A high powered car will be hard to thrash on the motorway as anything with a 3 figure top speed is unlikely to be driven at Vmax for hours on end, probubly even on the autobarn. A van with a top speed around 60 on the other hand is easy to drive at full load and it won't like it - back off a bit and it'll be much more happy, if a bit slow. My School had an old transit minibus with a non turbo 2.5 DI engine in it (good strong workhorse engine as it was big and torquy), that was a snail that struggled to do 60 aswell - thats how diesels were in the 80's, people seem to forget when they drive a modern VW TDI and think those engines have been around for decades. The main problem with old diesels is the new ones are so much better - you have to drive the old ones like a lorry or tractor.

Ofcouse if an engine has been badly damaged in the past, it might not take to repair properly and will always cause trouble there after regardless of surviceing and simpathetic useage - thats when its better to bin it and get another block! Maybe an engine that blows garkets every 8k is a scrapper so put it out of its misery.

Detour/hikack/rant over, back on topic! What to do about this perticular 1.6D - Diesels really hate being overheated so theres a good chance something has been warped. Might be worth taking the head off and examining the head and block for cracks, they could be internal though. Thats more of a 1.6 turbo problem as they are more stressed and run hot to start with but I recon a fryed N/A could suffer the same way. If all seems fine maybe put it back together with new gaskets and head bolts and see how it goes, any trouble and it goes in the bin, shouldn't have to wait too long for the answer of wether you got away with it. Skiming the head if needed could be worth it if its cheep enough but considering its such an out of date underpowered design I woundn't want to spend too much on it as converting to a 1.9D will be a simular price and a better engine (remember they are later than the 1.6D which is why they wern't fitted originally!) than a fully rebuilt 1.6D.