Kamper help

[pork]

Been offered this beasty for £500



Engine is out, I asked what was wrong he said it was pouring white smoke out because of piston rings!?!?! Hmmmm

It's got lots of green curse word over it, had a quick once over and after a clean up it won't be to bad


What I want help with is :

what mode, is it? Like, what roof is it?

How easy/ hard is engine rebuild

What other things I need to know/be aware off?

[Del]

The Kamper was an Autohomes conversion. Some good info here:
www.autohomes.vwt25camper.info/html/vw_t3_autohomes_ci_kamper.html

[pork]

Cheers that was a great help



What bout the engine? White smoke to me says head gaskets!? But bloke was saying rings!?

Is it worth £500

It's a bit skanky

Are different roofs interchangeable?

[dubholstery]

I had one of these and sold it about 4 yrs gal and bought a t4 you need to check if the roof top is ok because the timber can rot and the rams can seize up and pull away from the fixing points in the roof.Parts on the dodgy to look at are
Rear quarter panels
Around fuel cap
Outer sills
Cab steps
And around the windscreen
You can also fit a vw 1.9d aef engine into them
Thanks ant

[pork]

Thanks

Think the roof is a duff, so could I swap for a different style? (Never played about with a camper before)

There's a bit of rust round the top of the windscreen, and a little bit of surface rust in places, but not too bad

This has a 2l water cooled petrol,

[SlackDub]

Assuming its a petrol... Its a watercooled progression of the aircooled flat4.
They have a piston and liner which sits in a water jacket. Not head gasket as such, but there are sealing rings at each end of the liner which stops water from the jacket entering the head/block.

they're not the easiest engines to rebuild especially if youre used to an inline. Theres nothing scarey in there though...
Except... running through those water jackets are 8 cylinder head studs on each side. If it didnt have regular coolant changes when it was a runner they'll be rotten.
They snap. And they can be almost impossible to replace.
If youre unlucky they snap as you loosen the nuts.
If youre really really unlucky they snap as you tighten them... rendering your new (and expensive) newly fitted seal set useless...

If its a Diesel... ignore all of that, there are a plethora of engines that will pretty much bolt straight onto a Diesel bell housing including all the 80s/90 inline 4 Petrols and Diesels. Common one at the moment is the 2.0 GTI

All the seams are potential rust spots and they rust from the inside out... also the seam at the bottom of the front panel behind the bumper.
Rear trailing arms rot. Again from the inside out, as do trailing arm mounts/jacking points.
Otherwise chassis are generally good. Front arches and seat belt mounts are another area (up behind the breather tanks in the front arches).

Expensive bits potentially... front to rear coolant pipes... likely itll have the plastic ones with metal inserts in the ends. If the metal inserts have started corroding and pulling out of the ends they're scrap. Stainless ones are just under £200 a set.
Fuel system... tank, and filler neck area... again a couple of hundred quid in bits to make it right if its rotten. Tanks rot on the top.
Gearboxes are a little fragile, and good used ones are very hard to find. Good ones with the best ratios change hands for £500 upwards (that wont have one of those though ).

My honest opinion of that is that it looks a bit dear at £500. If you can get it a bit cheaper then its worth sorting an engine and doing the other bits it will need, but ive seen and heard of so many "cheap" T3s that turn into money pits that generally its usually better value to buy a runner.

[SlackDub]

Jul 16, 2013 20:26:06 GMT pork said:

This has a 2l water cooled petrol,

it will be a 1.9 Carb engine on a B reg. Watercooled were 1.9 or 2.1, aircooled were 1.6 or 2.0

Most of the Autohomes seem to be petrols. No idea why.

You'll probably find a lot of the roof metalwork is still under there, although what condition its in is another question entirely.
Putting another roof on neednt be a problem though

[pork]

Many thanks for that!

Think il go back and have another route about, it's a bit overgrown round it and couldn't get a great look

[SlackDub]

Its definately worth a look. they're one of the better VW Models for a camper, bigger than a T4 or T5 and more usable than the T1 and T2.

When they're good they drive great too
This is mine: