What have I bought?

[northernboy]

Well its actually a 2005 Mk6 Petrol/LPG 260 SWB LR - 155000 miles.

Never had a transit before but used to drive then many years ago. This one seems pretty solid with minimal rust.

Converted to a camper but needs some work to tidy up the conversion.

Previous owner cut a hole in the roof, added some steel braces then bolted on a VW fibreglass HI Top roof !! Interesting but this too needs to be tidied up.

Now the bad bit, the engine runs but is clearly in need of some work - down on power and water leak from inlet manifold. But the previous owner did make that clear so my eyes are open.

My plan is to try and sort the engine first - compression check, find the cause of the water leak and go from there. Even worst case of a complete engine rebuild will probably still be OK

Few Photos as delivered.

[Altransit]

Welcome to the forum

[Luke]

welcome mate -looks good, interesting roof - painting it the same colour will improve it

[northernboy]

I have now run a few diagnostics on the engine and the news is encouraging.

Compression tested OK 225 225 215 225 ( 3 is down a bit but within 10% so can live with that)

Traced the fault to a faulty coil pack - no spark on one cylinder - which is why running rough and down on power.

It turns out however last worked on the engine left a rubber insert from the plug spanner on the spark plug - the original coil pack was installed but due to the rubber insert being still on the plug did not make a sound connation to the spark plug so the coil pack had to work much harder to try and deliver a spark and I suspect burnt out - bit like having plug gaps too wide and stressing coil packs !!

Replaced with a new Bosch coil pack and now running much better - result.

Can't road test yet as on SORN but will now try to find the water leak then give engine a proper service, new plugs, oil, oil filters, air filters etc.

[basso]

Did you manage to sort out the problem with the water leak on the inlet manifold? My Daughters van has this problem, but the pipe from the front of the manifold has popped out of the housing and I am struggling to know how to fix it. Replacement manifolds are impossible to get.

[northernboy]

HI Yes - I think I have managed to fix it. There were two problems, firstly the outlet threads were stripped on the manifold so the outlet pipe would not tighten up properly and secondly there was a crack in the manifold.

I cleaned up the crack and got all the crap out then forced in some J-B Weld PlasticBonder so I could see it be pushed all the way through the crack.

I then found a copper 22 to 15 mm reducer was a nice tight fit into the manifold so I cleaned up the hold and applied plenty of J-B Weld PlasticBonder around the reducer and tapped this into the manifold so it was nice and tight . For good measure I managed to screw in two self tappers to hold everything tight and ensure the reducer cant pop out.

Once done, I filled up the system with antifreee coolant as this is very 'searching' and easy to spot leaks ran the engine to warm everything up.

A first there was as few drips but as soon as the J-B Weld PlasticBonder set and hardened, all leaks stopped. I didn't even need to use any 'Rad Weld '

I have run the engine up to full temperature and number of times and has no further issues with no coolant loss.

I must admin it is a bit of a botch but as you say these manifolds are hard to find and expensive - they are also a poor design in this respect.

I haven't run the van on the road yet but pretty sure it will be OK

[northernboy]

Just too add, I soldered a short piece of 22mm copper pipe into the reducer with a olive compressed onto this to form a lip so the hose wont blow off. The rubber hose then pushes onto this and used a couple of clips to hold it firm.

These plastic manifolds are a poor design as I think this is a common problem.

The crack was probably caused by previous owners not using antifreeze and water has froezen , expanded and cracked the manifold and also damaged the hose take off !!!!

[basso]

Thanks for the reply and the details. Top job! Now I just need to find someone to do it for me! The original fitting had an O ring on it - I take it you have dispensed with the ring and are relying on the JB weld to make the seal.....also, is there a reason you used the JB weld plastic bonder rather than the JB Weld Original Cold-Weld Steel Reinforced Epoxy?

[northernboy]

If you look at the photo you will see I did slide a 'o' ring onto the reducer in the hope it may provide additional layer of sealing - to be honest, I don't think it is doing anything - the JB Weld is doing all the sealing.

As for nt using JB Weld Original Cold-Weld Steel Reinforced Epoxy - I did not know about this product