This is more of a sanity check/rant more than anything. As some of you may recall, I was purchasing a LWB 1994 Hiace from a dealer and my concern was the rust on some of the control arms. That seemed to check out after independent inspection, I bought the car, and... welp some instant learning experience.
About 40 km into driving, the car plunged into darkness. Black smoke pouring out, zero power, loud knocking anytime I gave any little gas. The thing couldn't get up a driveway if I tried. Called the dealer and they were nice enough to take try and take care of it. First they said it was a blocked turbo gate and the replaced the turbo with a aftermarket one. That did nothing to the problem. Then they turned to the head, which they had replaced several months ago with inexpensive aftermarket version, and found 2 cam shaft lobes completely rounded and the valves weren't opening. They ordered a new head and put it on, changed the oil, and assured me that the oil pump was doing it's job and providing oil to the head. So after 1.5 months of ownership where it's been mostly in the shop, I've gotten it back this last week. Whew
Now of course I'm spooked to death now that this thing is going to explode on me any time. So far I've driven another 30-40 km and it's been running pretty well. I've gotten to know it a little more and will post some questions on some of other bad stuff I've noticed.
My question, I sort of want to take it back into another shop to get some more piece of mind. At this point is there any test that would be good to do? I naively asked whether a compression test would be helpful, but a mechanic basically told me if wouldn't provide much extra data to know how well the car is performing. Should I just put some miles on the car? Doesn't seem like there's really a break-in procedure with a new head right?