Somewhere that'll do a good engine rebuild?

[Becandjoe]

Hello again!

We've just had some very sad tidings from Westgate about our camper. It turns out all the troubles we've been having with carburetors and starter motors and so on are being caused by the engine itself.

The van is a 1979 T25. Aircooled. Cranky.

We had the whole thing replaced with a reconditioned engine about 2 years ago by a garage I won't name after the previous one died in an oil filter catastrophe. I have my suspicions that this unnamed garage did a hack job putting the engine in, as it's never really been running right since.

Anyway. The engine is sticking, and has got to the point now where it simply wont run without flooding with fuel and drowning. So apparently we need to look at getting the thing rebuilt. I'll be honest, I still don't know enough about mechanics to really understand the problem. I just know we need to find someone who can do an engine rebuild for us, and to pray that doing so will solve all our woes.

So, can anyone recommend a place, or have any experience with getting this done? We're based in London, but also slightly in Sussex (Forest Row is where my parents still live), so anywhere between the two would be ideal.

The van is currently at Westgate Garage in London Fields, so we need to sort out getting it towed out of there as soon as possible.

Any help or advice is hugely appreciated.

Joe and Bec.

[ronsrecord]

You need to ask whether it's worth rebuilding or getting another recon. Rebuilding is expensive. Garages I'd trust to rebuild would be Campershack and Brickwerks, but they'd probably recommend getting a recon.

[kevtherev]

Rebuilding an Aircooled engine is probably the easiest and cheapest engine to do this with IMHO.
Personally I would start collecting the parts you'll need over the coming months.
What engine code is it CT or CU?
A flooding engine is not caused by the engine.. I would be getting a better diagnosis before spending money.
Campershack is the place for that

[Plasticman]

As above and whilst not meaning to offend,please remove the wish for a garage etc within such a small area ,you need at times to travel a long way to get things done right and if you have a 1600 fitted then maybe 2000 is the way fwd
mm

[Dazco]

I would not have thought that having to drown it with fuel to make it run would point to the engine needing to be re built as Kev says. Possibly more likely a carb issue . Eliminate the cheaper easier options first before jumping to the costly and time consuming option of an engine rebuild.

[timpjones]

Oh no... I've just picked my T25 up from Westgate today so must have seen yours in there. Have you spoken to Chris Cross on Green Lanes? I'm not sure if they do full rebuilds but they definitely know their way around an engine so may be able to help.

[Paul Weeding]

There are a few other people that do type 4 rebuilds...

[clift_d]

It might be an idea to get somebody else to look it over before you press the button on a major rebuild. I'm not saying Westgate are a bad garage - they're quite competent for standard bodywork and basic repairs. Just that I would be wary of relying on them for more complex issues. We felt a bit let down by them when it came to fixing our JX. It took them a long term to diagnose some pretty fundamental problems, and while they got us back on the road again eventually, they had made a couple of basic errors in reinstalling the engine which required some work by others to put right.