Update on my new Hiace

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?

I know what you mean regarding losing confidence, I was perfectly happy driving around in my van and all of a sudden it died on a bend. It turned out to be an air leak in the diesel but I didn't trust it for a while and would still go around that bend carefully for ages.

When I first got my van insured and on the road I took it to a mechanic to inspect it and he said it was fine with nothing wrong so I was  very happy. If his definition of nothing wrong is a broken gearbox mounting, knackered stabiliser bushes, track rod, engine mounts, front discs and totally dead air con then I'd hate to see a car he diagnoses as in a bad way. It depends on how good/ diligent the mechanic is and whether or not they really want to get their hands dirty with something that they can't just plug into a computer to get answers on faults.

I don't know about running in new heads but I recommend just driving it and doing more every time. Eventually when I was happy with my van I took it to Wales and put 2000+ miles on it, a lot of which was winding roads and hills not to mention some rough tracks and now trust it completely. I have also changed a lot of parts just to be on the safe side but not really in the engine more on suspension steering and brakes.

One thing that could be a confidence booster and that I have on mine and find quite useful is a separate digital temperature gauge that way you can see things are working well as the temperature settles down and bounces about in the correct range. You could also fit an oil pressure gauge or vacuum/ turbo one ( if you have a vacuum system ) they'd make it look a bit more racey and let you see it's doing well without keeping one ear trained to the engine cover in case of a weird noise.. I've been there.

Hi
We have had a SC camper for 5 years or so now 130000 miles on the clock its a super long wb with 1kzte engine and auto box . It has passed 5 mot's with no advisories , it has never seen a mechanic I do all my own servicing and repairs , I am 75 and a bricky by trade. It has never brocken down but has had its fair share of problems the biggest was the ecu capacitors and things like the filter head pump ingressing air.
But best of all it runs on WVO that I get from our local Indian takeaway for 30p a ltr , that is equivalent to 150 MPG. There are loads of tricks to running these vans that I have mostly gleaned from this forum much thanks to everyone .

I also know what you mean about being paranoid once there's an issue. I had problems with a radiator fan and a temperature sender that caused lots of odd little issues. But in trying to fix it, I ended up monitoring the engine temp like a hawk. Now I can't relax if the temp watchdog starts heading upwards.

One thing I found really useful was the OBD1 reader and software a guy on facebook makes - so you can monitor engine diagnostics as you go. Much like a less detailed OBD2 display. It's saved me quite a bit of cash chasing the temp issues.

He doesn't make many now, and they get snapped up very quickly when he does - but there are some going second hand on the facebook page. If you use facebook, check out "TOYOBD1 Users" and "ToyoOBD1 TOYOCOM OBD1READ Buyers and Sellers Group". There's a webpage but most of the sales are announced on the other two groups. And if you're handy with a soldering iron, there's an Arduino based DIY project for something similar - links in those facebook groups.

A watchdog temp monitor is useful too - I use one of these: https://gaugeinnovations.com/

I have a digital temp gauge the sensor is on the top hose, there is a really good cooling mod on the forum. I have also solved the EGR issue and cleaned out the inlet manifold scraping gunk out by the spoon full, fitted a catch can on the crank case ventilation system to keep the inlet manifold breathing better.

Thanks for all the advice folks, I'll take a look at some of the sensors. Seems like it would give me some piece of mind once installed.