Club 80-90 Forums

Hello All!

I'm about to purchase a 1900 T25 camper on the weekend that has a engine problem.

I am told that there is a suspected crack in the cylinder head, but obviously I can't confirm untill I've striped it myself.

I've read a few comments on the internet regarding the 1900 engine's reliability, so my question is...

Should I spend my money on a full re-build of the 1900 engine or is there a more reliable engine I should source?

If I decide to rebuild, could someone recommend a good parts supplier please.

Cheers
Dave

all depends what sort of price van is
lorrie pettit is the man by all acounts never heard a bad word about him
allow a grand if going to refit a 1.9 '

me im going boring and will diesel mine over the winter

Laurie Pettit has retired - allegedly!

Another 1.9DG that others speak highly of, when setup well, good compressions and carburrettion.

If you can find JX to strip, a 1.9 AAZ/1Z TD diesel or similar is not a bad way to go, talk to Louey et all on that.

The utlimate but much more expensive route is a 1.9 TDi or Subaru 2.2 to stay with petrol. The latter would be a grand for converstion bits maybe, an engine (£120-250) + a fair bit of time (wiring, etc) but a very nice van at the end of it.

My conversion was the 1.9non turbo diesel engine.

But if you want to stay petrol then there are the Golf family of engines too - see the Alternative Engine Forum for more details

I've just rebuilt my 1.9 DG.
Spent three weekends doing it. (Combination of ordering wrong bits, wrong bits turning up and 'while we've got it down this far, why don't we do this bit too...' all added to the time scale)
Only bit I didn't touch was the big-ends. Couldn't find any end float, so left the crankcase intact.
(Do these engines get the old end float issue?)
Cost about £550 (inc exhaust system, clutch kit, water pump, gaskets), a few cuts, bruises, strains etc...
Got the bits from a mixture of sources..

JK - Just Kampers
GSF - German Swedish French
Main VW agent also.

Engine was fine until I tried to change the exhaust.
One disaster lead to another and ended as an engine rebuild.
Van has done 74K.
The head gaskets were starting to perish, so they would have needed changing soon anyway.
Head studs were absolutely fine. (Almost looked new).
Clutch was wearing and the thrust bearing was worn.
The water pump was on it's last legs too.
(It's almost as if the van knew it was going to need work soon and let me know by blowing a hole in the exhaust.)
Engine was put back in. Started first time, tappets were incredibly noisy for about 5 mins until the oil got round the engine.
Took the van for it's MOT two days later and it sailed through.
Now so quiet, I thought it had stalled the other day and tried to start it whilst running

Check out Heritage VW for recon price.

MG

Indeed they do go well...

From memories of an early 1.9DG panel van, loaded with carpets (up to the screen), underlay, tools, 3 (or 4) fiiters and sarnies, they are indefatigable - go well, stop well (if back brakes in good nick), corner well and quieter than many tradesman's vans of that era (20 years ago).

What the consumption was I don't know, but seem to remember about 20mpg, but driven by a madman with a purpose, that seemed good at the time!

PS I was usually a passenger.

Dave G, nothing at all wrong with the DG engine if put together right. I did full rebuild of mine two and a half years and 60,000 miles ago (cover some huge mileages) and never missed a beat since. I get an average of 26mpg and the van is a hitop. If you are going to pull the engine down I would personally go the whole hog and do all the mains big ends and camshaft bearings ( I did ) and for goodness sake replace the water pump, its cheap from GSF but will wreak havoc if your old one goes wrong.
Red Sqirrel, the end float is critical on these engines and in order to set it up right you should use a dial guage and double check the end float with the guage at various positions on the 369 degrees of the crank. For the sake of the few pounds it costs I would always replace the shims with new ones. Too greater end float can wreck one of these engines in a disturbingly short space of time. The noisiness on starting is (as I am sure you realise) only the hydraulic tappet adjusters sorting themselves out. Cheers John.

Sorry, just read my post so before anyone else says it the 360 degrees of the crank!!! No typing is not my forte and the 9 is too close to the 0. Cheers John.

I think we are all hopeful in that direction! Cheers John.