Trouble in Bongo Heaven...

[ELZE]

I feel its worth fixing it properly assuming it needs a head I believe thius is around £1000 fitted?
Then you have a perfect van again

I fail to understand why anybody should RISK £1000.00 on a ATTEMPT to repair a vehicle that is probably worth £1000.00 or even less.

Probably because you could spend 3-4k on another one and have the same problem Better the devil you know than the one you don't anyone can fix a vehicle if they take the time and follow instructions. Although a fairly tricky job it's a good learning curve. If it's worth a grand now and you spend a grand and it all goes tits up I am sure most if not all the money could be recouped on parts...especially a new head?

Bongo's are fast becoming like Land rovers in that they are worth more broken up than whole.

As for the incline on the road, try compensating with a good pair of ramps! and wedges under the other wheels.

[Northern Bongolow]

That's interesting Northern Bongolow. We discovered when we had the original problem that we didn't have the proper bleed hose (actually no hose and nothing to attach it too) which was a little worrying. To get it to the garage I bodged a bleed hose extension and we bled the system as per the you tube video. It leaked a lot on the way over but we kept it topped up and it did the job. We told the garage to fit the proper bleed hose, but they took the we know better attitude and set something up so supposedly it now bleeds automatically. I was profoundly sceptical I have to say, and remain so, but I was offshore at the time so it was somewhat out of my hands.

Thats what's weird though. We don't seem to be getting through coolant or oil much at all, although having said that we're not doing a great deal of mileage. I'd best get that pressure test and report back.

the no bleed hose or stub is a standard repair by a well known repairer who has one of the best reputations in the known bongo kingdom, so you should be ok with that bongo. he has a (special secret way) of bleeding. this unfortunately doesnt help you later on. a simple cheap modification is easily done to make youtube vid bleeding possible.
any leak out of the system lets out pressure, no internal pressure means the coolant boils at a lower temp, more important is when it cools down it may suck in air. small amounts of air in certain cases can be automatically sorted out in the expansion tank but most will gather up until they stop flow of coolant and cause local boiling.
i would love to see details of this bongo if it bleeds automatically, not saying its not possible, but it may save me hours of labour as i do quite a few.

[NathM]

Are you sure the cooling system was fully cleaned? its not uncommon to leave a pocket of oil somewhere in the system. You have experienced a gasket failure so you know what the symptoms are, if your not getting any over heating or over pressuring then carry on driving it!! remove the sludge stuff and check again in a week and see if its reappeared or if it was left in the system from before

Nath

[Beirdo]

Sorry guys busy times. I appreciate the replies.

If you decide to fix this on the road make sure you have plenty of tax and MOT. The latter is difficult to get if the job drags on.

Thanks for that Bob seems like pretty sound advice.

In my experiance I have found if you can establish the fault then spend the money fixing it then you have a vehicle thats right.
If you trade it in you have another unknown.
I replaced the head on my car at 175000 miles cost £500, its now done over 200,000 and drives like new, of course I could have scrapped it and bought another £500 car but again its an unknown.
The OP needs to sit down and weigh up the money he has to invest in a vehicle and what best suits his needs, then decide how to spend it, you must remember if you spend say £8000 on another you will loose £1000 when you drive off the fore court.
I would fix it but thats me as I believe in keeping vehicles on the road and not throwing them away.

I'm inclined to agree, provided the Bongo otherwise has plenty of life in it ( i e no serious rust problem)

My thoughts exactly. One of my key problems is knowing how much rust is too much rust. I mean it does have some rust, but it's only done about 115k so running perfectly it ought to have a few years left and be worth a fair bit more than a grand.

Part of me is interested to try fixing it just for the sake of the skills I'll develop in the process. I accept that may not always make a lot of sense financially, but how often am I gonna have a broken/possibly broken van outside my house to practice fixing up (obvious bongo break down jokes aside ).

ELZE I particularly like your point about reselling the parts, I hadn't thought about that.

Are you sure the cooling system was fully cleaned? its not uncommon to leave a pocket of oil somewhere in the system. You have experienced a gasket failure so you know what the symptoms are, if your not getting any over heating or over pressuring then carry on driving it!! remove the sludge stuff and check again in a week and see if its reappeared or if it was left in the system from before

Nath

In all honestly Nath I've got no idea, but I guess I'll carry on driving it for now and get it up to Cramlington for a pressure test. The problem with a straight comparison with the previous head failure, is that now we don't have a thermostat in, so it's staying pretty cold. The warmest its got (according to Haydn's temp sensor) is 85 C and that was over the hills round Allendale. To be honest, other than the gunge, which I cleaned out the other week I don't think we have any conclusive symptoms, although I'm always pretty uneasy with it all the same.

I dropped my usage right off to give me some space to think. Now I should probably get back using it and try and diagnose as best I can.

Can anyone comment on whether other than when I'm bleeding the system I need to avoid being on a slope for the actual process of doing the head change? Cos I can easily role it on to the flat to bleed it once it's been put together?

Thanks again for comments, sorry for the prolonged absence.

[NathM]

Your reluctance is understandable! we've all been there and been worried about driving a car aft a major repair and always tend to be overly cautious when we get the vehicle back on the road, listening and watching for anything we may consider a harbinger of doom!!

as you said, if you start using it and you'll know either way, but if your not getting any symptoms then cross everything and hope for the best!!

Bleeding is always best done on level ground, to i have done them with the car sloping (gently) backwards and never encountered a problem

Nath

[haydn callow]

Sorry guys busy times. I appreciate the replies.

If you decide to fix this on the road make sure you have plenty of tax and MOT. The latter is difficult to get if the job drags on.

Thanks for that Bob seems like pretty sound advice.

In my experiance I have found if you can establish the fault then spend the money fixing it then you have a vehicle thats right.
If you trade it in you have another unknown.
I replaced the head on my car at 175000 miles cost £500, its now done over 200,000 and drives like new, of course I could have scrapped it and bought another £500 car but again its an unknown.
The OP needs to sit down and weigh up the money he has to invest in a vehicle and what best suits his needs, then decide how to spend it, you must remember if you spend say £8000 on another you will loose £1000 when you drive off the fore court.
I would fix it but thats me as I believe in keeping vehicles on the road and not throwing them away.

I'm inclined to agree, provided the Bongo otherwise has plenty of life in it ( i e no serious rust problem)

My thoughts exactly. One of my key problems is knowing how much rust is too much rust. I mean it does have some rust, but it's only done about 115k so running perfectly it ought to have a few years left and be worth a fair bit more than a grand.

Part of me is interested to try fixing it just for the sake of the skills I'll develop in the process. I accept that may not always make a lot of sense financially, but how often am I gonna have a broken/possibly broken van outside my house to practice fixing up (obvious bongo break down jokes aside ).

ELZE I particularly like your point about reselling the parts, I hadn't thought about that.

Are you sure the cooling system was fully cleaned? its not uncommon to leave a pocket of oil somewhere in the system. You have experienced a gasket failure so you know what the symptoms are, if your not getting any over heating or over pressuring then carry on driving it!! remove the sludge stuff and check again in a week and see if its reappeared or if it was left in the system from before

Nath

In all honestly Nath I've got no idea, but I guess I'll carry on driving it for now and get it up to Cramlington for a pressure test. The problem with a straight comparison with the previous head failure, is that now we don't have a thermostat in, so it's staying pretty cold. The warmest its got (according to Haydn's temp sensor) is 85 C and that was over the hills round Allendale. To be honest, other than the gunge, which I cleaned out the other week I don't think we have any conclusive symptoms, although I'm always pretty uneasy with it all the same.

I dropped my usage right off to give me some space to think. Now I should probably get back using it and try and diagnose as best I can.

Can anyone comment on whether other than when I'm bleeding the system I need to avoid being on a slope for the actual process of doing the head change? Cos I can easily role it on to the flat to bleed it once it's been put together?

Thanks again for comments, sorry for the prolonged absence.

As long as the vehicle is pointing up hill it should help the bleed process

[GreenBongo]

I thought that I read on here that no bleed hose is a sign of a Ford Ranger head having been fitted.

[rita]

I thought that I read on here that no bleed hose is a sign of a Ford Ranger head having been fitted.

Its not really the head that is the problem its the fact that this part (that some peeps fit)does not have the bleed pipe outlet.

http://www.vospers.com/parts/mazda/genu ... results=50&

[Peg leg Pete]

I fit a bleed pipe to our old Bongo, got a tee pipe from local calor gas shop, bled ours in our street facing uphill-- worked a treat!