Engine crisis!!:humble plea for advise

[warwick71]

We have a bit of an engine crisis, less than 100 miles in to our planned 1500 mile Inner Hebrides road trip we found ourselves returning to base on the back of a recovery vehicle! The engine had started to make horrible noises and so we pulled in to a garage to be told that our main bearing or big end had gone and not to go any further.

So having returned from a rather cramped holiday, it's amazing how quickly you get used to everything that these vans have to offer, we now have to start thinking about what to do to get our van back on the road asap. :roll:

We were told the top half of our engine was fairly new when we bought it 2 years ago, so do we spend the money on repairing the engine we have or do we take the opportunity to upgrade to a larger engine that may be more suitable for longer road trips?

We've been looking at the engines from The Engine Shop, has anybody used these?
Would a bigger engine mean we have to change lots of other stuff, will they be as reliable as a 1600?

Any advise on what to do, costs of repair v exchange, names of companies in the south east worth contacting etc would be very gratefully received.

This is such bad timing and we really want to get it sorted quickly before the season gets underway.

Cheers A & P

 

[VeeDubMan]

I would say don't take anything the previous owner has said for granted. If you've been told the top end is OK, get it checked out for sure. This will need to be done anyway when the bottom end is re-done.

The cheapest way to go would be to stick with the same size cc, get the case align-bored and checked, get the crank checked over and do a re-build from there. As soon as you start talking more cc, you're into much more money. 1776cc would be the next usable size up, but expect to pay over £1K for parts alone for it.

Take a look at other threads on here about engine rebuilds to get some ideas.

 

[Araon]

Theres a couple of engines in the for sale at the mo, looked to be reasonable, it will get your bus on the road rebuild your current one and sell on or keep as a spare

 

[Slammed]

I can PM you the number of a very good engine builder near Hadleigh in Suffolk if you're interested. He builds engine for the Outlaw drag racers and is a very talented guy.
He's built engine for a few of us and we've never had any problems.

8)

 

[flynster]

a & p,
sorry to hear of this ....what a bummer kids,
have a chat with fredster , he may be able to help out, pretty reasonable by all accounts and knows his stuff,
or do as araon says, plenty of decent engines out there, also have a word with panelvan(chris) too, knows loads of peeps and a top bloke in my book :mrgreen:
gotta get it sorted for the bang though as it won`t be the same without you two scallywag, wine guzzling veggies!!!!

ste :lol: :lol:

 

[ianscooby]

sorry to hear,
we just had a 1776 built by a guy in stafford who builds them in his spare time to pay for his drag racing, very reasonable at £500 but we supplied the barrels so add around £190 to this. Obviously it would depend on spec and reusable parts etc. He did supply a second case with a good (standard size) crank within this price, full flow etc

 

[Araon]

spill the beans then ianscooby....

that sounds rather interesting

 

[Bookwus]

Hiya war,

Be aware that what follows is simply a personal opinion.............

While I think that a 1776 is probably just about the greatest thing since sliced bread, I don't think that I'd put one in my 1970 Bus. Why? I think that your transmission is a limiting factor here. You will, no doubt, experience more power and torque through the gears but those are the very same gears that your 1600 was spinning. You will get through them more quickly but they will still limit you. Indeed, if you were dead-set on installing a 1776 (or larger engine) I'd recommend that you look at a later transmission also.

 

[froggy]

If your capable then i would strip the engine out yourself, remove all the top end items leaving just the case and internals and then get the bottom end rebuilt (unless you can do this yourself, i recently have and its not that scary :lol: ) it will save you plenty of money.
The only issue might be time and knowing what to check for

 

[warwick71]

Thanks for all the help and advise guys. It's so hard to know what to do for the best, we are a bit scared of doing anything to the engine ourselves but don't want to get ripped off paying people to do stuff all the time, gotta start learning whats what.

Luckily a good mate has come the the rescue a bit, he is gonna help us get the engine out and has booked it in with the guy that rebuilt his bug engine. Then we can find out what the damage is. :shock:

If the repairs clock up to over £500, I kinda feel it may be worth spending more for a bigger, newer engine than to repair the old one, is this a waste of money? Our gear box isn't great, it could be building up trouble for the future. Or we could end up paying out again cos our old engine goes again :? :? :?

Ste we'll try and make it to the bang, one way or another

 

[Araon]

Our gear box isn't great, it could be building up trouble for the future

doesnt sound good sure its just not a linkage issue, if your putting a big lump through a dodgy box its gonna sting you at some point....

wait and see what happens from the report, though I think if I was you to save cash I'd break it down to the short block and hand it over, you'll get a little hands on and see what the top ends like, less time for him on the engine is more of your hard earned in the bank...

 

[panalvan]

If you need advice or a hand contact me mate not a problem

 

[ianscooby]

spill the beans then ianscooby....

that sounds rather interesting

Araon

nothing special just a bit more poke, the guy just built a 2027 for dubberdaz at a reasonable cost also

 

[Araon]

I was kinda hoping for his details as thats a damned good deal for a reasonable engine....