Reconditioned engine

[FredTransit]

hmmmm, admittedly your engine doesn't sound pristine in the first place! Oil use can be all sorts of things, did it smoke a lot? Leaks won't damage the engine as long as it's kept topped up. the old Di (86-91) is near bullet proof, but yours is a bit later. Running without oil is more likely to damage the bits that wear, like big and little ends.

[pictishpunkgirl]

It did smoke a bit. Where we back up to the fence in the drive, there's a big black sooty patch on the fence and it's only been up a couple of weeks. For all I know the engine may have been twice round the clock instead of once and the guy before had towed a heavy collector's Jaguar to shows & thought it lacked power (knackered the clutch too which he didn't tell us about). There's always been a lot of oil going into the air filter, especially when it's been under pressure.

I think a new engine is probably needed on reflection - if I thought it was a good engine then the head gasket replacement might be an option but it would be nice to have an engine that doesn't leak like a seive!

Many thanks for the advice. Hopefully the rest of the van will be found to be sound.