Regarding our whole sordid history of our van-
we bought it used 2 years old with about 48000 miles.
it was checked by a mechanic , and the price was low
enough to spend 2k on a rebuild and still be at blue book.
plus i'd had such good luck with our 71 bus......

well, first thing was low oil pressure within a few months..
at that time the heads were pitted and i made the wrong
decision to have the mechanic just stick them back on
with lots of sealant. after numereous constant minor
costly repairs, last year the water pump went and much of the esxhaust
was so thin that epoxy patches wouldnt stay in . this
seemed like a lot at the time but little did i know...
then [about a year ago] the head gaskets finally went..
replaced them with new heads,.. new clutch-why not?-
then the cross over pipe, then the radiator. then we had/have
a constant 1200-1800 engine surge as we accelerate from a stop.
we spent a lot of time and $$$ on that [i think i've finally
tracked that down]. 
  next this!! well, i'm going to get it diagnosed and probably junk the
beast. its a pity because ,except for the extreme lack of reliability,
i really love the car. maybe if i'd just swapped the engine at 50k
none of this would have happened.
 as to the driving we do with it-its pretty much all hard city miles.

now i feel better!after wallowing in self pity above.

bill