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We recently bought a 1993 Toyota Hiace camper van. There is some surface rust in the engine compartment, on the engine mostly. Under the car everything looks good. Otherwise we wouldn't have bought it of course.
The question now is: Do I need to make an effort to remove all the rust, or will it cause no problem?
I read different answers on similar questions on the internet, not sure what to do.

The previous owner lived near the sea, we don't.

If you are just referring t oa surface rusty colour on a cast engine block, this will not cause any problem and there's very little you can do anyway.
If you really wanted to clean this up it would entail removing all the engine ancilliaries and dismantling everything in order to clean off the surface rust with a wire brush, treating it and then painting the block with VHT paint.
Feel free to get back to us if I've misunderstood the question or location of the surface rust.