I was on route to getting an estimate to restore my body work. Smoke started pouring out of the engine, frightened the life out of me. Made me happy to have purchased a fire extinguisher!

Turned out to be steam, so thankfully no risk of fire. After an hour wait for the AA, the van was fixed at the roadside and I was on my way. It had just been a loose cap on my coolant ball.

After arriving and leaving the garage, I broke down a second time in almost the exact same spot as before! This time I was helped by a nice police officer who helped me source some extra coolant and waited till I was back on the road.

Except, just a couple of mins and the steam was rising again 😭. Yep. This time I knew that there was no getting home so it was time to get the AA out again to tow me home. Or more specifically, to my garage.

This is where my troubles got worse. It was not a faulty coolant ball. Diagnosis showed my head gasket was on the way out. My garage were unable to help due to the classic nature of the T25.

I spoke to my neighbours garage Vw Resurrection (Wiltshire). Super helpful👌. I could get a head gasket fix, but there would likely be other issues. Apparently the water cooled T25 engines rot for the inside out when left unused due to the water. My van had been sitting for almost 2 years. I decided to get a new engine and as reliability is important to me I decided against a reconditioned original T25 engine and decided to go for a 2l VW GTI petrol engine conversion instead. Fitting by Coast VW (Devon).