Not many for sale around here so will go and look anyways and also keep checking locally for others
Must remember head must overrule heart

Great you're now sorted and can hopefully put it all behind you and have many happy outings in what is a great little campervan. I do strongly suspect though that there was a problem with the van when you bought it. The low coolant alarm is great for warning of coolant loss due to a leak in a healthy engine in my experience but i can see there could be circumstances where it might be fooled by a sick engine. Did the dealer offer any £s support in getting it fixed?tacky wrote: Mon May 14, 2018 2:32 pm It's been a while but I thought I'd give an update. The bongo lives again! It was a cracked head as suspected, we decided to go for it and get that plus anything else needed to get a new mot done. ADS in Bristol were really good, they could see what a position we were in and did their best to keep the costs down.
So the good news is the van is behaving well, the weather is lovely and we've just come back from Cornwall having had a brilliant long weekend!
A few posts back someone asked if the low water alarm went off. The answer is no it didn't. I think what happened is the engine crack pressurised the water system, water ended up coming out of the reserve tank tank. I think the crack was already there rather than being caused by the lack of water.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Yup, maybe best put it down as lesson learned and get on and enjoy Bongoing. Still think they could have behaved more honorably thoughtacky wrote: Tue May 15, 2018 5:26 pm Classic campers weren't any help when things went wrong. I doubt they are setting out to shift knackard vans but it's worth thinking about what kind of back up/warranty they offer. An agreement in writing up front would be a good idea. I assumed that the van would be ok and it was only when we had a problem did we discover that there wasn't any come back or help available. All of that is probably good advice no matter where you get you bongo from.
Did I mention we are off bongo'ing again this weekendWoohoo!
You can pressure test the head without buying hoses, it can be done with a few bits of thick perspex some bolts and some gasket material. See YouTubetacky wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:22 pm Thanks for all your thoughts. It's a tricky decision, in a way it would be better if the cost was either £1000 or £10,000. It would certainly be easier to make up our mind what to do!
Having had a good chat to the garage who are looking at it (ADS) I think the rest of the van is in pretty good shape. No horrible bodge welding etc. So what we are going to do is replace the hoses and get the pressure test done. There's a chance the head isn't at fault and if it is at least I'll know.
As for how much classic campers knew about the problems with the van, it's hard to say. What I can say is they aren't helping resolve the situation. I would have hoped they would offer to do the repairs at something approaching cost price. In the end there was no benefit paying over the odds buying the van from them.
Fingers crossed with the pressure test, let's hope for a bit of luck!