Bongo Fury

Hi All,

My names Chris, recently bought a bongo 2.5 v6 petrol on a bit of a whim, I've no doubt l'll need some advice so I thought I'd sign up here and introduce myself.

I'm 39, a maintenance engineer from Nottinghamshire, I've a life long history of fiddling with cars and bikes, the bongo is the fifth edition to the fleet alongside my 2008 bmw 530i estate which is the daily, a 2002 bmw x5 4.4i, a 1998 ducati 916 and the wife's 2013 mini countryman.


This is the bongo I bought for not alot from a lovely guy called Marvin in Sheffield. Marvin had it for awhile and used it on a few decent trips away but lately ran into a few issues with and due to his circumstances (young family and doesn't do his own spannering) decided to move it on.

I found it on ebay and decided that as i work shifts and have a 3 year old it would be good for nights away with my daughter and occasionally the wife when it suits.

Marvin had problems with it overheating since the waterpump had been replaced, I took a punt that the system just needed bleeding properly but did some maths and had a look around and found a full headset isn't more than £500 if I found the headgasket had gone.

I originally planned on parking this up till nearer Easter as I've alot of other stuff on but this week due to other unforeseen circumstances I needed to use it to take me to work for the week.

I spent an hour bleeding it after watching videos on youtube, the radiator was virtually empty, I wonder if the last garage didn't know it needed filling seperately, the rad cap has had it so I'll need to source a replacement.

I bled it on my own through a complex arrangement of cable ties holding the funnel to the grab handle on the a post whilst I'd dash to the front to keep fluids topped up whilst using a long stick across the car to press the throttle and so on, the outcome is the bongo no longer overheats, I've done a round 60 miles in it now, but the heaters are stone cold.

I think a better attempt needs making with bleeding it (probably with a spare person), I plan to remove most of the cooling pipes and flush everything through at some point whilst making sure everything else is at mechanical standard too, and I'll probably throw a new thermostat at it too.

Think that will do for an intro,

Thanks
Chris

Welcome aboard!
Yes the cooling system can be a bit fiddly, but I suspect if it hasn't been well maintained then the problems grow! I've had 2 V6's and the only coolant problem was one burst top pipe whilst heading thru London. Otherwise 15 years of ownership between the two vehicles.
Yes ideal for weekends away for just one or two people!

Looks good, very warm welcome to the Forum.

Hi Chris, welcome to the forum

Not sure what the bleeding procedure is on the V6 but couldn't imagine doing on the diesel by myself

ever after. wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 12:53 pm Hi Chris, welcome to the forum

Not sure what the bleeding procedure is on the V6 but couldn't imagine doing on the diesel by myself

I think it's pretty much the same, funnel in the bleed pipe on top of engine, fill radiator then expansion tank, raise funnel up and down to burp air out of the funnel without allowing either the funnel or the expansion tank to go empty and then run the engine and repeat until the lower rad hose is hot and bubbles stop coming out the funnel.

Hello all,

So i think it'd be good to start with a reintroduction as it's been a long time since I posted and things didn't quite go according to plan.

Nearly 3 years has gone by in a haze of building extensions, work redundancies, other vehicles and life and my 3 year daughter is now 6 and I didn't mange to get anywhere with the bongo and the rust got considerably worse.

So one evening while doing my usual ebay search of all things broken I discovered a 2.5 petrol v6 that looked fairly solid but had a broken engine.

I know the engine and gearbox in my bongo were good so I decided practically it will be quicker for me to swap engines than cut into my bongo and go down the rabbit hole of chasing rust. For me the maths also stacked up, I agreed a deal of £1100 for the new bongo, it comes with a kitchen conversion which I didn't have and would of cost me £6-700 at some point and I'd priced the repair panels up from bongo spares at about £600 so I was going to spend £1200 plus paintwork on top so the deal made sense to me.

That's the new van and a picture of my old one going for scrap. I'll put up a thread shortly to document the 'new' build as it progresses.

Thanks
Chris

Sounds good! Wonder what trips you have made or perhaps have planned?

Only trip I have planned so far is the first outing which will be to woodhall spa.

It's only 30 miles away which is close enough to home if my daughter decides she doesn't like sleeping in it but at the same time has enough there to be worth the trip (lido, decent kids playground and kinema in the woods.)

Outside of that if we all take to it then it'll be weekends away in the peak district as again it's local enough and possibly an annual Cornwall or Scotland trip.

Fortunately if it turns out camper life isn't for us then the project itself has enough work in for me to feel it's worthwhile even if we sell it on, I like repairing stuff and as long as I don't lose more than half the money I'll have tied up in it I'll be fine with that.

Thanks,
Chris.

Glad you're still on board and things are moving forward.