Mark,
If you really like the MV (does it have the WKR package?) and want to
hold on to it, you need to be prepared to spend at least $3-4K to
take care of all the items mentioned by Mike (they're good ideas).
You could bring that number down a bit if you have good access to
quality tools and can do some of the work.
Your other options might be to consider:
1. an engine swap, a chipped 1.9 TDI? or
2. hold on to this one (as a parts vehicle) and buy another 93 MV, or
3. buy a 00/01 MV
I hope you go for the TDI option...
Jerry
--- In ev_update@y..., Mark Kumler <kumler@x> wrote:
I was driving my '93 MV from southern California to the S.F.
Bay
area, where I intended to leave it with in-laws while I headed off
to New
Zealand for a year. It was a hot (*very* hot) day, but the van had
recently had a major tune, was performing wonderfully as usual, and
I
plowed through the Central Valley with the AC on. After a lengthy
lunch
break (when the engine should have cooled down a bit), I hit the
road
again. But within 10 minutes the AC faded, I lost considerable
power, and
I barely made it off the highway before a t-valve in the cooling
system
blew and -- as I would later learn -- the head was irreparably
damaged.
My boys loved the ride in the tow truck and the unexpected
Sunday (or
course) evening in a hotel pool, but I hated the news the next day
that it
would be several days and several hundred dollars, at a minimum.
After
several trans-Pacific phone calls and nearly 8 weeks, I hear that
it'll be
$2200-$2500 for a new head, piston rings, etc. For an engine that
already
has 150,000 miles on it.
I'm trying to decide whether to a) repair it, b) buy and have
installed a newer engine ("81,000 miles, compression: 175") from an
unknown
dismantler I found on the web, for about the same total price, or
c) sell
it for parts and buy a newer (but still used) one when I return to
the
States in a year. Any suggestions?
