Blown cylinder head gasket-sell or fix? Please help!

[Mushroomhouse]

Hi
I’m a lassie with no tech experience of any kind but I love my Ford Freda (1995) and can’t live without it

Last week I was given roadside assistance following steam pouring our my engine and it stopping in the middle of a motorway near Fife. I got taken to a garage in the village where I live.

They said this:

“We have replaced burst coolant hose on engine and refilled coolant system mixture and bled system.

Vehicle runs but has excessive pressure in cooling system and overheats in minutes.

These symptoms show a blown cylinder head gasket or cracked cylinder head.

On taking advise from a specialist, he advised us the cylinder head will be cracked due to to the severe overheating and would require replacement.Dismantling /removal of cylinder head would confirm diagnosis . If you would like to proceed with repairs please advise”

They are quoting ball park £1800 for repairs which also include changing my brake pads as they are down to the metal.

I spent £800 getting it through MOT a few months ago, including a service and four new tyres. I got a new battery 9 months ago. It has over 650000 miles.

I really need some advice about my options which seem to be:

A. Scrap it for a few hundred quid. Devastated.
B. Pay the £2k and sell it? For how much? Who knows...
C. Take out all the internal beds hob cupboards and buy and unconverted bongo and put all that stuff in - is this even feasibile or possible? It would take me ages to save to buy one and I’d have to pay someone to convert. Then I’d be back to where I started...
D. Pay the 2k to fix it and hope that I don’t end up spending thousands every year running it

Please help me. Are there any other options? How can I stop this or something like it happening again, aside from MOT and services? How do people know when to give up and sell?

I’m totally gutted this has happened and feel like a family member has died. I don’t want to live without my Campervan...

Anna

[Bob]

Hi Anna, and welcome to the Forum. Sorry it's sad circumstances have brought you here.

This (of course) is the 'How long is a piece of string'? Question.

If your Bongo is in good shape regarding body and chassis (rust) with a nice conversion it is certainly worth paying for the repair. Much as that will hurt.

If rust is becoming an issue it may well not be viable to repair it.

Is your mileage correct, or a typo? 65,000 is very low, 650,000 will be past it's sell by date, and is this KMs (very common) or miles?

There's no reason a Bongo shouldn't go on for many years if looked after well, and a vital part of this is maintaining the cooling system, plenty of info on here if you search.

Personaly I would take the advice your local garage had offered, and (assuming it is otherwise in good shape) have it taken to a Bongo specialist and repaired. If you read between the lines they don't seem to want to do the job so I'd take that on board, plus an expert will know how to bleed it and have easy access to parts.

Remember that, while a big bill is a right royal pain, we are running incredibly versatile vehicles with almost no depreciation, one year's worth on a newer vehicle can be well over 2 grand.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

[Tony x]

Hi Anna
Sorry to hear your news.
You could be cold headed - punch the numbers of the cost of repair, the money for breaking the Bongo and the cost of a similar replacement.
However, it's not a simple as that - people get attached to their vehicles and it's not all about the money plus it can be very sad to see something you've had adventures in being broken for parts.
I suspect the best solution, which fortunately happens to be the most economical is to get it repaired. £1,800 should get you a new head and radiator plus maybe a thermostat and waterpump. You do need to know why it overheated in the first place and fix whatever it was.
Make sure the head is good quality - you can get Mazda ones or well engineered ones from third party's. You can also get shoddy ones.
I can't think of any other options.
A second hand replacement engine is a possibility but unless you know it's a good one and at a good price I'd avoid this.
Whatever you do, good luck.

[mikeonb4c]

Excellent posts from Bob and Tony, and Tony has just had to foot a similar bill recently. I did too, 3 years ago, and i'm so glad i did. My Bongo is irreplaceable

[Merlot man]

Good evening all
All good sound advice here , if the rest of the bus is in good condition , rust ,conversion etc I think id take the hit and repair .
A full coolant system service would be a good idea , that's what I did to help shorten the odds of failure
A bongo friendly -specialist garage would be highly recommended as has been said
What ever you do please keep us informed via this post
Brian

[Mushroomhouse]

Thanks so much for all your help and guidance. Sorry about my mileage ignorance. I’ll check. What would be a mileage that is too high for a camper her age? She is 21 years young.

I think what I am going to do is:

- bite the bullet and actually get on the ground and have a look under my camper! I want to see what the rust situation is like...
- find a bongo friendly garage near Edinburgh and give them a call for advice
- pay a recovery company to take my bongo to that garage - unless there is another way?
- pay them to fix the cylinder head gasket and ask them to put a coolant alarm thing in?
- ask them to put sealant on to reduce rust? I’d there something else I can do to stop/get rid of rust?

And carry on with the freda for as long as I have. I hope she lasts a few more years.

Thanks again everyone. Your advice is invaluable.

[sotal]

You ask about a sealant to get off rust. How rusty is it?

You can't really put a sealant on to get rid of rust.

You can under seal the underside before it rusts to prevent it starting but if you sealed it now it would just rust behind the under seal and fall apart.

If it is body work then the rust needs removing and the area left needs treating before being repaired. Once the body work starts to rust you tend to be on a losing never ending battle to keep the rust at bay.

If there is lots of rust already that would sway my decision.

[teenmal]

I totally agree with "sotal" you have already spent £800 for the vehicle to pass the MOTT this Year (If you wants to PM me the registration number I will have a look for you). Rust is the Big problem with these old vehicles , I am afraid the Rose Tinted Glasses need to come off when peeps try to decide what to do in these situations. If it was a VW that " might " de a different kettle of fish.


Take Care.

[Bob]

Good,advice from the guys.

I'm sure Harry had something like 400,000 miles on his Bongo, 200,000 will go on for a very long time if looked after but thses are high figures as they typicaly come from Japan with lowish figures.

It's unlikely you need to worry about it, just wondered if 600,000 was a typo, and 60,000 is very low.

[fatcatlawyer]

Subject to the usual "not my fault" if it goes pear shaped I will just repeat what Ian Taylor said to me three years back when I was in the same boat as you "If you are sure the head gasket has gone then take it from me the cylinder head will need replacing. If it still runs drive it to me you cannot make it any worse". I did and had the job done. £1500 kept my bongo going. It suited me to keep my vehicle don't regret laying out the money one little bit. My bongo has since done 60 thousand kilometres and overall over 315000 kilometres. There is a fund in my budget to pay the same again if necessary (fingers and every thing crossed). I mention this 'cos it may save you the transport costs if money is an issue. Just take plenty of water with you If you decide to have the bongo take itself to the hospital for a head transplant!
Ian G.

[teenmal]

Subject to the usual "not my fault" if it goes pear shaped I will just repeat what Ian Taylor said to me three years back when I was in the same boat as you "If you are sure the head gasket has gone then take it from me the cylinder head will need replacing. If it still runs drive it to me you cannot make it any worse". I did and had the job done. £1500 kept my bongo going. It suited me to keep my vehicle don't regret laying out the money one little bit. My bongo has since done 60 thousand kilometres and overall over 315000 kilometres. There is a fund in my budget to pay the same again if necessary (fingers and every thing crossed). I mention this 'cos it may save you the transport costs if money is an issue. Just take plenty of water with you If you decide to have the bongo take itself to the hospital for a head transplant!
Ian G.

It would appear that this guy has never experienced a Seized Engine with the Pistons Welded to the Cylinder Bores.

[Mushroomhouse]

So...

I found my MOT certificate. My mileage was 84000ml in June. The advisory info says ‘suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive (offside and nearside front inner sills).

I’ll have a look under the van tomorrow and see if I can figure out what that means...

[Mushroomhouse]

Oh and the registration is R699 BBK

[sotal]

So...

I found my MOT certificate. My mileage was 84000ml in June. The advisory info says ‘suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive (offside and nearside front inner sills).

I’ll have a look under the van tomorrow and see if I can figure out what that means...

Is that the only rust on the vehicle? If so I'd look at getting that treated (rub down and a coat of por 15) if you decide to keep it. Normally by that age, the arches are beginning to rust and perhaps a bit of rust around the windscreen.

Ultimately it is your decision.

[Mushroomhouse]

I wanted to update everyone on my woes and thank you for your help. I paid my local garage the £173 for coolant and pipes and decided to pay £70 to get my camper taken to a specialist - I chose Calder Campers because Alan in the garage spent a lot of time talking to me about my options.

Having been quoted thousands at my local garage for a new cylindar head gasket Calder Campers properly bled my camper and concluded that the gasket was fine. They fixed my knackered and rusted brake pads and did some repairs on the radiator and came in at less than £500.

On the downside they did say there was some rust that needed doing which could take hours and hours and cost around £700. However, Alan suggested I wait the six months until my MOT is due to see if anything else goes ok so I can decide then whether it’s worth repairing.

So all in all I’ve saved a lot of cash by coming on this forum and getting the advice to take it to a specialist. I also learnt something about gaskets and coolents. And best of all I’m picking up my camper tomorrow.

Thanks loads everyone!