Bongo Fury

Ok, so after a few weeks of following the overheating fact sheet and eliminating/replacing a faulty radiator, replacing dodgy hose and thermo, and various attempts to bleed via the you tube vid, I have been informed today that by 2.5 diesel has failed a pressure test indicating leaking head gasket and maybe other issues to do with the head. Even after bleeding it several times it inevitably ended up chucking coolant out of the expansion tank overflow after a few days.
I just would like a bit of guidance on options - steel seal is it worth a try? Bongo friendly garages in (North)Derbyshre that would do the work without ripping off. I have looked at the head gasket factsheet and don't think I have the ability to do it without making things worse.
Any other suggestions welcome via PM - any tech savvie member in the area looking for work etc....
Thanks for any replies... it's been a bad day

sorry to hear of your issue

forget about any rubbish steel seal, its not a fix, you will always be paranoid waiting for it to go again !, some people do this and shift it on a bit quick, a cruel option for the new owner, not something i would ever do

unfortunately its not gonna be a cheap fix, if you are gonna get the head done just go to a garage who know their bongos, not some back street have a go outfit

best of luck with it

As a rough guide you're looking at £1500 to £1800 for a full gasket and recon head supply and fit, if its just gasket it'll be nearer £900 so not cheap but its worthless with out having it done, also insist that who ever does it uses a genuine mazda head gasket kit, yes it costs more but its the right tool for the job.

Keep us all posted

or do what i did buy a bsecond hand engine fit it .and there you go cost me under£600 and ive sold lots of stuff off the old engine ,nearly £200 back !!!

Just a big thanks to all the posters who have made sensible suggestions, and given encouragement I really appreciate it. I am currently looking at my options and I am also consulting with Northern Bongolow on other options - so I will keep you posted and hopefully get the van back on the road. as they say in spamalot - not dead yet!

Spenner wrote:Just a big thanks to all the posters who have made sensible suggestions, and given encouragement I really appreciate it. I am currently looking at my options and I am also consulting with Northern Bongolow on other options - so I will keep you posted and hopefully get the van back on the road. as they say in spamalot - not dead yet!

Not by a long shot. Hang on in there kid, and good luck (NBs a good guy - he'll look after you)

NBs a good guy - he'll look after you)

But he'll steal your breakfast if your not carefull.

Tony

dont want to start any gossip tony,but i only like your breakfasts .
(full scotish) yum yum. .

so everyone else is in the loop too. im just going to pressure test it, and see if there is anything obvious. like checking pressure caps etc. you never know it could be so simple,and there nothing lost to check.
anyone got any suggestions.

Doesnt hurt to check and check, and get a different opinion, had a customer in today, in tears her import not a bongo had nearly overheated 3 times in last few days, and chucked its water out and was pressurising and venting steam out of the overflow pipe. Another garage had looked at it and said head or head gasket, £1500 give or take. I looked at it, and very clear within minutes that water wasnt circulating as bottom hose to engine was at 27 degrees and top one at 98, thermostat out in bucket of boiling water, nothing in the way of movement new one in flushed twice new antifreeze and checked for circulation viola, 90 top 45 bottom, no gushing no venting sorted.... £25 parts £35 labour...so a second opinion always very worthwhile.

Paul

lpgimports wrote:Doesnt hurt to check and check, and get a different opinion, had a customer in today, in tears her import not a bongo had nearly overheated 3 times in last few days, and chucked its water out and was pressurising and venting steam out of the overflow pipe. Another garage had looked at it and said head or head gasket, £1500 give or take. I looked at it, and very clear within minutes that water wasnt circulating as bottom hose to engine was at 27 degrees and top one at 98, thermostat out in bucket of boiling water, nothing in the way of movement new one in flushed twice new antifreeze and checked for circulation viola, 90 top 45 bottom, no gushing no venting sorted.... £25 parts £35 labour...so a second opinion always very worthwhile.

Paul

Yet another excellent post

How many of the serious isuess with cracked heads etc. have resulted from circulatory problems that could have been avoided with just a little preventative maintenance. We take our engines too much for granted - thats the problem

lpgimports wrote:Doesnt hurt to check and check, and get a different opinion, had a customer in today, in tears her import not a bongo had nearly overheated 3 times in last few days, and chucked its water out and was pressurising and venting steam out of the overflow pipe. Another garage had looked at it and said head or head gasket, £1500 give or take. I looked at it, and very clear within minutes that water wasnt circulating as bottom hose to engine was at 27 degrees and top one at 98, thermostat out in bucket of boiling water, nothing in the way of movement new one in flushed twice new antifreeze and checked for circulation viola, 90 top 45 bottom, no gushing no venting sorted.... £25 parts £35 labour...so a second opinion always very worthwhile.

Paul

thats the sort of thing paul.
to be fair spenner has done or had done quite a lot of things,stat/rad/pipes off etc.
but to me something doesnt sound like the head after chatting to him. hope its not famous last words .

I thought I would do an update on my problems outlined earlier - here is a re-cap and then what has been done. Hopefully it is a useful archive or reference point and a few lessons learned along the way...

The original problem was a loud noise going down a steep hill and the temp guage shooting up. My local garage had all the hoses off and we replaced a bulging one. Each time it was road tested it chucked coolant out of expansion tank. so in order we replaced, bled, re-road tested the following - thermostat, radiator (by this point the garage handed back to me suspecting head problems and I posted on the forum) with the snow and christmas leaving it off the road for a while.

Enter Northern Bongolow and Widdowson 2008 who looked over the system, flushed, tested caps, tested hoses and re-filled and bled. Despite the belief that it wasn't a failed head it performed well for a few days then started chucking coolant out of the expansion tank. At this point we were confident in the hoses and thermo so tried the final area still under suspicion - water pump. Abley assisted by W2008 this was replaced. The old one is on a different thread with pics of the damage. Firstly it had been weeping from the lower of the two holes (undetected coolant loss anyone?) secondly the impeller blades were bent with shot blasting type of marks on them. the general consensus on that thread was probably cavitation - going back to the noise on first breakdown and coupled with the undetected coolant loss this all ties together neatly.... However despite all this and re- bleeding, it broke down 3 days later with coolant from header tank yet again

Had I lived anywhere near Dover it would have been over the cliff at this point! We thought we had it but it still refused to respond. Further e-consultations with NB and W2008 and our checklist had reached the bottom, the one we hoped it wasn't - probably a small crack on the head.

My options became clear but due to being made redundant at christmas the bank balance would lead me to look at steel seal. Ordinarily I would have considered a traditional fix but took the decision to try steel seal. It did weigh heavy on my mind as I read all the threads with the pros and cons and the moral argument of re-selling. What tipped the balance was my Bongo will not be for sale - I would rather it dropped to bits of old age than sell it on - we love camping and argue over who gets to drive it.
So there we have it. Once again assisted by W2008 we followed the steel seal directions to the letter apart from bleeding it the bongo way at the start during the heating up cooling down 3 phase instructions - thought it was better to get the air out first.
All went well and now we are 3 weeks down the road with 500+km on the clock. Not a drop of coolant lost (daily checks) and everything running smoothly. It has been round the peak district a few times as well as town runs etc. It will get a longer 100 mile plus run at Easter. I read the other guy posted 6000 miles and still motoring - so we are thrilled to have it back on the road.

Lessons learned - get to know the coolant system, buy a relevant alarm to detect early signs, don't rely on Garages and get a third opinion, ask for help and trust in Bongo members to come to the rescue when you need it. I leave this episode much more knowledgable about my van and would be willing to help anyone locally if necessary with bleeding etc... Hopefully there is enough info here to help anyone else make informed choices if they recognise signs and symptoms.

A special mention has to go to Northern Bongolow and Widdowson 2008 for all their guidance support and tips. They will drink you out of tea but it is a small price to pay!
Any questions or comments welcome on here or PM. I will post updates on progress periodically.....
It will be interesting in 2 years time when I change the coolant whether I need another bottle of steel seal? there is a debate waiting to happen - the others who have tried it will be ahead of me....

On the one hand i'd say what have you really got to lose by trying steel seal? On the other hand, if it doesn't work, what problems could it lead to if you replace the head in the future?

I've not done any in depth research into the product i must admit, (I did a bit a few months back, but i've slept since then!)

It would appear that the biggest vindicators of the product are the one's that haven't given it a go, or been unlucky and it hasn't worked for them. Short of doing a full on forum search, many (it would appear) have tried it with great success!

Did you get to the bottom of why your water pump had suffered that damage? Is that what caused the head to go pop? I wonder if it would be worth removing the pump for a visual inspection on six monthly intervals to see if it's receiving similar damage again somehow?

I can see where spenners logic comes from. Out of work, funds low, need the transport, GOT to be fixed.........etc.
Whilst going through this with spenner and NB and observing at the various stages, I would like to offer the following, based on what I saw.

1 - The pump damage? No idea what the truth is, but, I have had suggestions (and read articles) from more than one source that cavitation can cause this sort of physical damage and be accompanied by a 'noise'.
As far as visually checking the pump in situ is concerned, you would need to remove some drive belts to gain visual access to the lower hole on the pump which had (in spenners case) been leaking.(not actually sure what the belts are).

2 - The most annoying thing about this saga is that we still are not sure where the leak was from, and will never know without stripping the head off and inspecting. Yes, the leak appears to have stopped, but was it the result of a cracked head? or just a damaged/leaking head gasket? Probably never know.

Hope the fix is long lasting spenner - at least long enough to give you time to get a job and some brass through the door.

Big weekend coming up for spenner. This or next Not sure. Scarborough. First long run.