Club 80-90 Forums

I was over in Germany last week and got to look at a really nice Westy for sale. The engine was a 140,000 km 1.6TD which smoked a bit on startup but seemed to settle down OK. The only thing I noticed was that after a good run on the Autobahn it seemed to be running quite hot, going between halfway and two thirds of the way around the dial, but without the warning light or the fan coming on. I was dropped off at the end of the run and so did not get to check the stuff, in retrospect (and having looked again at the wiki) I would have liked to double check... water and oil levels, air in the header tank, whether the system needed bleeding. The engine seemed in good nick and had had various bits replaced, gasket, (not 100% sure if he meant head gasket but he said a glow plug broke and the engine had to be dismantled to deal with it) glow plugs, timing belt, and so on. Is overheating something to check very carefully before parting with money, should it be walked away from, or are there some simple things to check if I go back ? Bearing in mind I will want to drive the thing 700 miles back home ?
thanks for any advice...
van is in Potsdam near Berlin.

Stefvan

If it`s overheating then expect the worst and budget accordingly. The worst is a new engine at £1500, a bit less will be a new cylinder head, gaskets etc etc at £500. All plus fitting etc.

As an aside, mine ran great for 12 months with a seriously cracked head, apart from a water pressurising problem which could be looked after, you`d not know it was sick at all. When I removed the engine and stripped it, it was unbelievable that it could run so well for so long with the serious damage it had. I bought a good low-mileage second-hand engine rather than rebuild the knacked one as it had over 200,000 KM on it.

Well there is overheating and and then theres overheating

First off, the temperature dials on T3's are anything but exact. They can read quite different values for essentially the same temperature ...so the gauge alone isn't a good indicator

Secondly, a TD does get hot on the motorway ...especially when it has to push a heavy camper, possibly with a high roof or one of those terribly un-aerodynamic pop-up roofs with the luggage tray in front.
Question is ...how fast did you go for how long? Doing 120 km/h for quite a while will certainly get a TD very, very hot under the collar and I wouldn't be surprised to see the needle where you said it was.

If, however, you were doing 100 km/h and the needle shot that far up I would be woried too.

Oh and btw ...you won't hear the fan on the first setting when you're driving, wind noise is far too loud, only on the second setting does it become audible.

Thanks for the advice guys, Ive had a TD before (my first van) - never used oil or water and gauge needle always pointing at the bottom of the warning LED .. I was doing around 100 km/h for 5 minutes or so on the autobahn. Westy Club Joker, is that £1500 for a VAG engine and what other components come with it, turbo, pumps etc ?

Stefan,
If you decide on a second look or need other assistance give me a shout.
I am only about 150 k from Potsdam.

Cheers Titus, PM sent