Well, if you consider a re-con engine for that van is just over £1500, and
if you can't fit it your self it's gonna cost a lot as the bugger has to
come out through the passengers door, lots of stuff to take out the way to
get it out,

and if you just get the head replaced (as you will need to do as when you
take the head off these engines you'll discover cracks along the centre as
it's a known weak point due to the length of the head) and a new head is
from £500 to £800, depending on how many bits you can salvage from yours
when it gets trashed due to a belt breakage.

When i had one of these vans, i changed the timing belt every 3 years
without fail, it's not that hard a job really, just a little time consuming
as the radiator needs to come out, and the crankshaft pulley is bloody
bloody tight, and if it's not put back on done upto the 500+ newton meters
of torque, the cam drive pulley will wobble about, and eventually wear the
locating peg away.

But to replace the belt, you just need a set of VW locating pins, remove rad
and drain cooling system, undoo the crank pulley nut, take alternator drive
belt off,
lock the injection pump pulley, take injection pump drive pulley off the cam
shaft, take rocker cover off, insert the flat bar in the slot in the cam
shaft end,

take cam belt cover off.. loosen water pump and rotate to loosen belt, take
crank pulley off, pull belt off,

re-fit is a reversal of taking it off, but inspect the locator pin inside
the crank belt drive pulley, if it's worn get a new un, about 20 quid from
german, sweedish and french, you might want to replace the water pump whilst
your in there, again about 20-30 quid,

Make sure you tighten the crank pulley right up, whilst your at it if you
have a dial guage with the adaptor, re-set the injection pump timing,

Re-fill with a good quality anti-freeze with corosion inhibitors, i gather
you've been doing that every 2-3 years anyway.

Hi- thanks for that

I think the reason it is so expensive is that the engine has to be
'dropped' to gain access?- i'm not sure whether a mobile guy would be
set up for that?

I was just looking to buy a bit of time as it also needs a new clutch
and brake pads before we head for newquay- which i think altogether
came to £750- so i'd be lucky if i have enough money left to buy
enough diesel to get there!

thanks again for the advice

Mike

In article <d2f7edaa-5f91-4a8d-83f1-1705d118b9b3@
34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>, Mike says...

Yes..it needs to be done sooner than later because the rubber is
already degraded.