Back on the road! :) Westy camper

Discussion in 'Show Us Your Ride' started by alez, May 4, 2018.

  1. Dear all,

    Months after my thread that our beloved "late Bay" Westy camper had suffered a massive engine failure, I thought I'd open a new thread to say the engine rebuild was completed successfully and the van is back on the road :)

    In the end, we commissioned a local alleged specialist to do the job and well, it worked. He procured all the spares, put the whole thing together and the result is great: the engine sounds smooth and pulls really well and he did the job for the price agreed beforehand: 3150 € grand total i.e. bits + workmanship + tax.

    Which to us it's a lot of money, but we now have a new engine pretty much. I'm not familiar with terminology in English, but all the top end is new including cylinders, pistons, heads, valve trains, valves, etc. All that's been kept is the bottom end, i.e. block, crankshaft, rods, etc.

    I wanted to say big thanks to you all, as the advice received in the thread I opened for this was invaluable. One of many lessons learnt is we really want to install some indication of temperature, probably a head temp probe and/or an oil temp probe. I plan to look into that before the Spanish summer hits.

    Anyway, here's a family picture we took in our first trip with the rebuilt engine (a trial trip, not too fast, not too far) :)

    [​IMG]

    Thanks!!
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2018
  2. CollyP

    CollyP Moderator

    Well done!!!
     
  3. What a great picture :thumbsup:
    Its all worth it in the end, never give up :)
     
  4. Flakey

    Flakey Supporter

    Brilliant Pleased for you.
    By the way you type better English than many on here
     
    Razzyh, art b and Skyelectrix like this.
  5. MorkC68

    MorkC68 Administrator

    :eek:

    nice one on the rebuild, happy adventuring!
     
  6. Utter creep :rolleyes:
     
    Jack Tatty likes this.
  7. Jack Tatty

    Jack Tatty Supporter and teachers pet

    Muy bien :thumbsup:
     
  8. It's a nice picture and it just came out like that... we didn't even have a tripod and just put the camera on the ground, with a small stone to make it point to us, hence the unusual angle :D

    Absolutely. If, in the distant future, we decided to sell the van, it would be sold in a condition that we consider good enough for ourselves to enjoy. In other words, I'd never sell it as a no-runner (broken engine, etc.) I'd always repair first. That's what works for me from an emotional standpoint, and often makes the most sense financially anyway.

    Speaking of emotions, I'm surprised that we are somewhat attached already. For example, my wife was excited about buying a camper van, but at first she wasn't particularly interested in classics. Try to convince her now that we should replace this van with a modern day one. Well, nope :D

    Here's a nice story. The other day, she was explaining my 4 year old niece how this is a very old van, hence it's had several other owners before, who bought it, enjoyed it, then sold it at some point. The child turned clearly gloomy and specifically asked us to never sell the van. We then came to the agreement that any such decision would be a joint one including her.

    Having the opportunity to practise it here is great because I don't use so often these days.
     
    paradox, Merlin Cat and Terrordales like this.
  9. It's true..
     
    Barry Haynes likes this.
  10. Barry Haynes

    Barry Haynes I dance in leopard skin mankini’s

    Bloody cheek:p
     
  11. Merlin Cat

    Merlin Cat Moderator

    Hola @alez .

    Hurrah! Que chulo!! :)

    Have you any trips planned? I used to live in Los Gallardos, provincia de Almeria. We drove back to UK quite frequently but only a few times close to Madrid as it was very hot driving through the middle of Spain without air con!

    We stopped at Aranjuez a couple of times, it’s very nice there and around.

    One time we were in the T2 (usually T4) and it had been v hot in Los gallardos so we wore summer clothes. By night time we were nearly passing Madrid and v cold! No heating in the van.

    We left the autovia for the nearest town and hostal as wanted a bed and warmth for the night. We drive around a little town asking for a hostal in our UK reg van.

    Shortly after we got to the hostal and were having a drink in the bar below 2 Guardia Civil came in and checked us out, I said hola, como esta? In my politest voice and they spoke to the owner and then all was well :).

    I think they must have heard/seen the van and wanted to check who the hippy extranjeros were! :)
     
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  12. Trips planned? We plan to travel as much as we can! :D We've been to different places since the repair and we'll be out this weekend too.

    Our "air con" is one of these filled with water:

    [​IMG]

    We spray each other often and it works pretty well :D

    Nice place, popular in Madrid because it's near and beautiful.

    You have a T2 and a T4 too? Nice combo!

    Absolutely :) Just on our return home last time we went out, there was a police check on the road, with several guardias civiles. I don't really know what it was about... The guy who spoke to us had a look inside the van, said "you can continue, it's a really nice van!!" enthusiastically :D
     
    Merlin Cat and paulcalf like this.
  13. BTW, probably not many of you go van camping in Spain, but for the ones who do, this resource is popular here and may be useful:

    https://www.furgovw.org/mapa_furgoperfecto/

    The map is part of a Spanish forum. The places in the map have been tagged by forum users as suitable for staying overnight in a vehicle. Clicking on one takes you to the relevant forum thread (surely Google can translate them for you).

    It also has places outside Spain, but not as many.
     
    Jack Tatty, Weasel and Merlin Cat like this.

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