The dreaded news – cylinderhead !

So after trying flushing the coolant system, the bongo still heated up. This was especially noticeable in Urban driving. On the move with the air going over the engine on a flat motorway/dual carriageway was ok, but as soon as a stop….wooop up goes the temp sensor !

Long and short of it, I took it back to RD Motors who confirmed the worst, the cylinder head had gone. I was shown the pitted head today where water had got into it confirming the issue.

Good news is that a replacement head isn’t insanely expensive, but I’m sure the labour costs will add up.
I got to see the Bongo with the new head on, and seeing it well in progress was great. Seeing the old head off I could see the damage and how much work had already gone into putting the new one on.

To mitigate a recurrence of cylinder head damage, I’m also getting a Haydn CM2 alarm (combi clock) fitted. Hopefully this will ensure that at least any future cooling issues wont come from lost coolant, and the engine temp sensor will quickly show any problems where I can stop the bongo and any further damage to the cylinder head !

So, hopefully in a week or so’s time I’ll have the bongo back, and can enjoy what is left of a very warm English summer with a bit of bongo touring !