engine replacement

[iowcamper]

bought my camper last autumn and was running fine, over the long winter (hopefully judging by the sun today we've seen the end of it) i left the van untouched for a couple of months (apparently a bad idea!), since then she plays up something rotten until she's properly warmed up. Took her into a garage to get some other bits sorted and asked the mechanic to have a look ( he specialises in vw's). The mechanic says the tappets have had it and there is a leak from the engine however he will need to steam clean the engine to find it, basically he thinks with replacing the tappets and various seals, finding and fixing the leak etc the bill is likely to reach £600. He suggests replacing the engine with a spare he has in a similar age crew cab for £400 all fitted and keeping the existing engine for spares as he says the engine is good overall (he has done compressions tests etc and these are fine). What he is saying seemed to make sense to me and i trust the guy i think as he has done some really good bits of work for me on the heaters and gears but i suppose i just want a second opinion that this is the way to go. Mine is a 1.9 watercooled 1983, when i start her up she will run fine for about 3-4mins until the choke stops and then she will keep cutting out, takes about 10 mins of keeping the pedal down before she stops cutting out, and then she drives lovely.
Dont mind spending the money on her to get everythign right as plan to use her a lot and am going to sell my other car and use her daily once i get the high top taken off and a pop top put on
would appreciate any wisdom and some reassurance that i'm doing the right thing with her
ta
rod

[Ian Hulley]

If there's a cooling system leek, try bleeding the cooling system, run it as a daily driver for a few days, I'll bet the tappets will clear and then you can decide how bad the other things really are.

Despite what some will have you think these vans do NOT thrive on neglect, service them properly and run them often and carefully, they are really great old vehicles.

Ian.

[kevtherev]

There's a lot of issues here
as to the tappets:-
An engine flush then a couple of oil changes with 20w 50 will quieten them down.

as to the running:-
I would suggest an auto choke operation check, sounds like there are some issues with it's operation in that the choke flap is not working or set properly, or the pull down unit is busted.

[chuckle-bus-tom]

As said, do an engine flush with a can of Wynns Engine Flush for petrols and change the oil with 20W 50 and then repeat after 500-1000 miles of regular driving. A can of carb cleaner over the choke pully (bottom right corner under the carb) could clear the hardened gunk and save a strip down. Try putting some new spark plugs in as a period of time standing could have left sediment to harden off, and consider having a look at your fuel
filters or using an in-tank treatment like redex.

Always worth a good service before forking out garage fees, no matter how trustworthy the garage!

[clartsonly]

agreed also clean the air filter ducts and check for signs of blow by gas condensation (oil) and emulsified gunk in the oil breather and oil breather pipe, you may find as the weather warms up it runs just fine and then starts to faulter again once the winter months approach, you may be able to simply live with that.

it also could be the carb heater / inlet manifolod heater. I had two years of mine not idling unless it had been running for 10 minutes - still not really sure what has sorted it out? oil breather / timing / non blowing exhaust. we used to dred red traffic lights unless we had already been running for 15 miles.

in obvious agreement with everyone else change the oil and go for a really long run the tappets will stop tapping and be fine as long is it is run quite regularly.

[ghost123uk]

The mechanic says the tappets have had it and there is a leak from the engine

Follow all the advice above

It is very unusual for the hydraulic tappets to have "had it" on these vans.
They usually require no attention other than regular driving, but you might like to read the info provided by our wiki = https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Hy ... _explained" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A good long run (AFTER you have bled the water system = see https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Co ... ing_system" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and changing the oil) will often sort out the hydraulic tappets.

Re this leak you mention, is it oil or water ?

[iowcamper]

Hi guys

sorry i should of said it is an oil leak although a very small one to be fair, i changed the oil, oil filter, plugs, leads and air filter recently.
The tappets do quieten down eventually after a decent run, basically my mechanic said that the oil slowly drains out where the tappets are hence nearly all vw's do this when started , however mine will be noisy even after a good 20min - 30 min run but then if started again a couple of hours later are back to noisy again, he explained this as the oil is flowing out too quickly and bits will need replacing to stop this happening, he said with the tappets it sounds like some are worn but without taking it apart he wont know whether it is 1, 2 or all 8 of them and apparently these now cost about £20 each (he said a year ago they were £60-£70 a set but have doubled in price), he also said someone had tried to do something with the pushrods thats he doesnt think is right but i didnt really understand what he was on about (i was happy in my blessed ignorance before things like pushrods and tappets came along!!).
The engine has had a full service by myself recently and he said there was little point in doing this again as i had done it all properly (good old haynes manual) and had used all vw parts.
He seemed to be saying that whilst i have a decent engine in mine it is economically cheaper to just replace it than spend the money on him finding and repairing the faults, this sounded amazing to me but i guess these engines can be bought quite affordably.
He did say in fairness that my engine may well run with no problems for years to come but as i had mentioned that we want to do a lot of touring in europe in her that he personally wouldnt take the chance of going that far afield as she is?
It's so difficult to know what to do as i dont want to throw money away but equally i want to get her perfect and dont object to spending a bit to do it, having said that so far ive had a new heater put in, the gears revamped, am having the hi top taken off and replaced with a pop top, thinking of putting alloys on and lowering, it may just be cheaper to buy a new van!!
thanks for all your advice so far
rod

[ermie571]

Hi Rod,

no such thing as a perfect T25!! They all need something doing at all times!!

Minor oil leak - do you know where from?

He said he has a runner to replace with for £400. Unless it comes with a guarantee....it could be as bad if not worse in a few miles. especialy if its been sat not running for a while. The oil seals may have dried out...so it will be fine one day.....and emptying itself all over the floor the next (I know from expereince - bought a 1.9 that had been sat due to owner having heart attack and then unable to drive it. Test drove, no leaks, bought, drove fine for a fortnight...then splat!!!) Its one of those piece of string questions. You could be lucky - we were - we paid £300 for an unknown 2.1 runner over 3 years ago. It has an oil leak (rear engine crank seal we think) so I keep an eye on it. It stinks in the morning with a few seconds of lovely blue smoke (worn rings we believe), but it is a super engine - rarely get tappet noise, pulls very well, and returns ok economy. Runs on the LPG and, to date, has been pretty damn reliable in the engine department. I cannot decide whether to get the oil leak and rings done.

Your mechanic sounds like a decent fella....but your engine from your description doesn't sound terminal (yet), and neither does mine. (wait for dead engine post now I have written that!! ) You could clean the engine and work out where the leak is coming from...and then the gurus on here will be able to give advice on how to treat it.

I doubt that there is anyone on here who will be prepared to give you a do this or do that answer. You must make your own decision (and get good european recovery )

Enjoy your van, whatever you decide to do!

Em
x

[iowcamper]

thanks em

you make sense, he has said all along that we have a good engine and it is worth keeping it (he suggests either for spare parts or that i learn how to strip down and rebuild myself !sounds like a tall order) basically he knows of a crew cab that has been put in on the £2000 scrappage deal, he has always serviced it for the guy and says its a great engine, presumably he hasnt had to pay the scrap dealer much for the engine, but im sure he knows his stuff, also it is quite a small island (here on the isle of wight) and i doubt he would stitch me up for the sake of a couple of hundred quid as he knows id be back every time somehting goes wrong giving him earache. I know a couple of people who have had major works done by the guy and they swear by him.
I think i will go ahead with the new engine but then try and strip mine down myself and repair, if i get my two teenage kids to help then maybe what they will learn about engines in the process will save them more than £400 in their lifetime! i might then look for a project that i can put the engine into.
Fingers crossed i make the right decision.
Out of interest my van has only done 45k , do i have to then declare the mileage the new engine has done or is the mileage about the vehicle not the engine???
rod

[clartsonly]

perhaps the tappets simply need adjusting... but if you are sure you want to commit to having a new engine fitted then go ahead.

Other issues which may add to the cost in labour / parts is exhaust, drive shaft issues, you may as well change the starter, cranks shaft oil seal, and clutch at the same time, is the gearbox from a crew cab 5 gears instead of 4, do they both have the same water hoses (eg df/ dg). Your engine bearer may need replacing at the same time, what are the tin works like, is the inlet manifold, carb and air intakes included, are they the same as you existing. If you are getting the carb included is it worth sending that off for a professional service / strip down at the same time. I expect this is only a tiny amount of the things you should be thinking about.

At least if your thermostat housing breaks during the removal we know where they are only £40 currently

45K miles is very low my camper has done over 100,000 miles how many did the crew cab do, was it used for carrying heavy loads, towing etc?

£400 is a good price for an engine but if you need the other stuff above that will be about £1200.

[chuckle-bus-tom]

Change your valve covers and their cork seals. These cover the tappets and prevent the oil leaking out. Its a ten minute job with the oil drained out that will cost around £35 in parts and £5 for a decent pry bar to lever the retaining clips. My tappets make an absolute racket, even after a run, but doing this job means I only go through a liter of oil every 600 miles instead of 100 miles!

[kevtherev]

reset the tappets
and use 20w 50 mineral oil


there are instructions in the wiki to reset tappets correctly

[iowcamper]

blimey!!

theres a fair bit to consider there guys!! have looked at the links but have to admit at this stage in my mechanical career (this is the first vehicle ive owned that doesnt just plug in a computer and tell you whats wrong!) its a bit above my head.
I think i need to enrol myself in a night school to learn a bit more about proper engines
The crew cab had been owned by a guy who is the gardener for a large stately home/park and he just kept it in the park for moving earth / turf etc, not sure of mileage but cant imagine you could go far in a park despite the size of it. The guy has said he will fit it all in including the exhaust for £400 and says it is in far better nick than mine (he serviced it each year for the guy and put the exhaust on 2 years ago), now obviously he has a vested interest in me having this done as the vehicle has been scrapped under the scrappage scheme he is probably paying very little for it, but if he was in the market to rip someone off a) why not charge more?? b) why not offer to knock a bit off for my engine (he has advised i keep it for spares or to repair myself) ?
i think it is obviously going to be prudent to ensure the price we agree is for eveything and its not going to turn into more and more cost.
I will have a good read through the wiki and think again
I love driving the van its so much more enjoyable than my car (4 yrs old) and makes you feel like you are actually in charge of a real machine not just steering a computer - but i am starting to fear i may have bitten off more than i can chew !!!!
thanks for all the advice - its left me as confused as ever but is nice to know that there are so many knowledgeable people out there willing to help
rod

[chuckle-bus-tom]

If you can persuade him to throw in a 5000mile/12 month warranty, and you have storage for your current engine then do it! With an afternoons spannering you could have the current engine in bits and on the general for sale forum to recoup a couple of hundred nicker!

[iowcamper]

oh right thats worth thinking about maybe i could raise enough to get myself some nice alloys
the guy runs a local vw club as well so dont think he is likely to put a piece of s*%t in there as that wouldnt do his reputation much good!
im sure i can find some room somewhere for the engine although the wife wont like it on the kitchen side!!!