Club 80-90 Forums

I know its a difficult situation and you are disappointed with the van. But I still feel you would be wise to spend as little as you can to get the engine stable and sell it on as is. If it were me, I would be selling it now as is and take a loss, rather than spend money which you could be spending on your MK1.

I posted the story of my son's purchase which turned into a money pit and its still not sorted.

I say again, your van has a current MOT and would be saleable and you may get your money back or suffer only a small loss. But if you leave it until the MOT runs out you would be in a weaker sale position.

Yes I did have lots of metallic glittery metal in the oil. How did your camshaft bearing wear? What was the cause? You had similar symptoms?

My valve must be beating itself backwards into the cylinderhead as it sits so much higher than the other one on TDC. And it went out of adjustment in about 50 miles

I'm not sure whether to rip the engine out and rebuild the lot or do the bare minimum to get it working again. I really don't have the time right now to rebuild it and it's costing £1000 on insurance and tax just to keep the thing on the road, don't have anywhere right now I can park it off the road. We plan to go travelling and I want to rebuild the engine before that anyway. Really not sure

One of my valves tried escaping out the top of the head. The van would still truck along at 60mph on the flat and only showed the power loss when climbing hills even in this state. At least being an air-cooled engine the fix was relatively simple. Have you tried sticking your endoprobe down the inlet manifold to see how bad it looks?

mgbman wrote:I know its a difficult situation and you are disappointed with the van. But I still feel you would be wise to spend as little as you can to get the engine stable and sell it on as is. If it were me, I would be selling it now as is and take a loss, rather than spend money which you could be spending on your MK1.

I posted the story of my son's purchase which turned into a money pit and its still not sorted.

I say again, your van has a current MOT and would be saleable and you may get your money back or suffer only a small loss. But if you leave it until the MOT runs out you would be in a weaker sale position.

Such a shame, but your right. It's going to have to go

BOXY wrote:

One of my valves tried escaping out the top of the head. The van would still truck along at 60mph on the flat and only showed the power loss when climbing hills even in this state. At least being an air-cooled engine the fix was relatively simple. Have you tried sticking your endoprobe down the inlet manifold to see how bad it looks?

Ouch!! Well I imagine mine is pretty bad now as I adjusted the valve clearance again and it still doesn't run on cylinder one (don't have a compression tester to hand) but I only imagine a chunk of metal has been smashed off after driving it 50 miles, no amount of valve adjustment will fix that lol. The van is 50 miles from work and I need to get it back home tomorrow, will be great fun on 3 cylinders knowing there's probably a chunk of metal smashing it's way through piston number 1

Always thought these engines were dam good? Very quickly going off them. Is it a normal thing then for your valve seat to decide it doesn't want to sit anymore?

Not sure if we will get another t25 after this one. Maybe just use the Mk1 and a tent hahaha

not normal no
in fact it's rare.
Usually the product of previous owner abuse. (which manifests from ignorance)
FYI a lot of these old engines are on their second trip to the moon...so as for being damn good, I can agree with that.

The head in my photo is a non-VW one that must have been fitted when the engine was re-conned before I got the van. Probably the same time the solid lifters got installed and the 009 dizzie. Like Kev said, most of my engine is over 30 years old and well past the design life VW expected out of it. I try to have £500 a year in the piggy bank to cover any mechanical problems. So far in seven years that's covered that head, a valve snapping off at the collet and the clutch going last year, with a bit to spare for new dizzie, improvised heating ducting etc.
I think you need to reassess your plan for owning a camper. Firstly even if you got a "good" one, can you afford to run it. If you're spending a grand just to keep it on the road you need to consider it's going to cost at least that again in petrol to do less than 4k miles per year. If you can afford that sort of ongoing outlay, can you change your time frame to keep this van? You've got a van that needs work, but can you set yourself a realistic goal of having it on the road it 12-18 months instead of this year. If you can find somewhere you can store it and work on it would that not be the best option? At least you'll know that most of the potential problems these van have will have been sorted on yours.

Got one in atm, got a recessed inlet valve and no compression on cylinder number one. Caused by a split rubber elbow on idle circuit onto inlet manifold, running lean caused overheating, and over many miles in France it steadily vaporised the valve seat.
Compare that to cylinder 2...

All for a split rubber elbow...

(Pics taken down spark plug hole with the cheapo usb camera scope from HK)

Well that explains mine as well. The rubber tee and elbow were both shot when I got my van.

You will get more fun with the mk1 and a tent.

BOXY wrote:The head in my photo is a non-VW one that must have been fitted when the engine was re-conned before I got the van. Probably the same time the solid lifters got installed and the 009 dizzie. Like Kev said, most of my engine is over 30 years old and well past the design life VW expected out of it. I try to have £500 a year in the piggy bank to cover any mechanical problems. So far in seven years that's covered that head, a valve snapping off at the collet and the clutch going last year, with a bit to spare for new dizzie, improvised heating ducting etc.
I think you need to reassess your plan for owning a camper. Firstly even if you got a "good" one, can you afford to run it. If you're spending a grand just to keep it on the road you need to consider it's going to cost at least that again in petrol to do less than 4k miles per year. If you can afford that sort of ongoing outlay, can you change your time frame to keep this van? You've got a van that needs work, but can you set yourself a realistic goal of having it on the road it 12-18 months instead of this year. If you can find somewhere you can store it and work on it would that not be the best option? At least you'll know that most of the potential problems these van have will have been sorted on yours.

I know exactly what your saying. I'd happily take it off the road and fix it up over the next two years but I have absolutely no where to put it. Once my golf is done I can put it there and do it. I wouldn't mind restoring the whole thing as we want to go travelling in it in a few years

Which rubber elbow are you saying that split? I checked my carb for air leaks and couldn't find any but it sounded like it was leaking. Enrichment screw didn't do a great deal. Is it from the servo under the dash? Also my plugs were fairly dark and looked like a good burn. Not a lean one

Well about to drive it 60 miles home on 3 cylinders and then start stripping the head off. Sigh, I'll keep you posted, thanks guys

I am helping my son restore his mk2 golf and get it back on the road. The mk2 is in the garage, so dry stored. Its good fun working on it and my grandson helps as well as he loves cars.

The T25 sits in the drive way and seldom driven. As it wasn't being driven, the front brakes rusted and seized so cost more money to replace them with new plus new hoses, pipework, calipers and disks. It goes on.

Last year both rear suspension arms had to be replaced as mot failure due to rot, plus some sill welding. More cost.

If you have thoughts of long term restoration for your van, you will need to find somewhere near and cheap to store it and work on it in the dry. Storage costs money.

If you leave the van on the road you would need to keep it taxed and insured and mot'd. In storage, you could sorn it, but you wouldn't be able to take it out and drive it while sorn'd.

You have few options unless you are rich.

There's a rubber elbow on the left hand side of the engine bay in the corner under the carb. If you follow the metal pipe it's connected to across the bulkhead you'll find a tee on the other end attached to the other carb an servo pipe. There are even some short sections of rubber hose under the air box. All of them can weaken the mixture if leaking. Have a good look around the Ratwell site, there's load of air-cooled info on it.