Club 80-90 Forums

Seriously though Simon.

I have the GTI in now and though it's ultra reliable I can't help wonder if an ultra-simple diesel would be a better alternative with more Syncro suited torque.

Perhaps a 1.9TD/TDI/MTDI?

Simon Baxter wrote:

thebobster wrote:

keith wrote:just for clarity...

diesel is what comes out of a pump.....it bears little relationship to how slow D.E.R.V.'s go.

i.e....there are slow diesels and there are even slower diesels.

the comment about rusty bodies is really important unless you have lots of dosh or own a body shop or are best mates with a guy called Mike.

its a bit like blondes or brunettes or red heads.....I like all 3.

Fixed that for you

Race you.

A

discipleofsketch wrote:

ninja.turtle007 wrote:

discipleofsketch wrote:
However fingers crossed i'll get many years out of my next engine (tdi), and mpg's in the 40+ mpg range.

Expect low 30's. Which is very reasonable.

I'll report back in a couple of years after the conversion I'd be disappointed with low 30's, but if it gets my overweight fully laden camper up the devon hills..

I thi I that you will be disappointed, your hoping for the bullshi! Figures that vw give in the sails broushure, figures that are almost impossible to achieve in the real world, tom is talking from experience of acutualy driveing a van with the converted engine,
Personaly I could not warrant the expense going tdi with the mileage that we cover in the camper.
And if you have ever driven a goog and I mean good and healthy 2.1dj you would know that they are very well suited to the van. I have driven 2 very very good Westy syncros both in very very good condishion both quiet as a mouse, smooth powerfull and effort less to drive. When you drive a good one it makes you realise vw got it write

Neil

I think the 2WD's get a bit better mpg than us Neil, not in the 40's though.
As all these threads prove, there is no right answer.. only whats right for the person doing the conversion, whether that's petrol or diesel. You might find more people sticking with the WBX if there was a good rebuilder around..
And the lure of power is a strong one.....

From my very biased experience, 45,000 miles in 4 years, 8,000 of which in the last 4 months in our AAZ 1.9td it has to be diesel every time, couldn't afford to put that much fuel in a petrol or compromise space and reliability with an LPG conversion, also beyond the UK and France LPG is much less readily available.

Don't know what the comments about them being smelly are about, ours definitely isn't, but they are noisier at low speeds, but doubt you could tell the difference once cruising in the 50 to 65mph range.

It is slow by modern standards but not dangerously so and keeps up with normal traffic in town and on motorways, and we don't have to sit with the HGVs in the inside lane. It can even feel quite spritely on rural A and B roads when we often catch up with slower driven modern vehicles, unfortunately we cant always pass them! We does lose some speed on long inclines but on UK motorways and dual carriageways rarely drop below 55mph, on the very long inclines in Europe with crawler lanes we may end up at 45mph but the HGVs are doing 30mph or less in similar circumstances. On very long and steep mountain passes we often end up slower but rarely feel we are holding traffic up as there is nearly always someone else going slower than us.

Average fuel consumption over the last 8,000 miles has been 32mpg without any adjustment for the significant use of the diesel Erber heater during the coldest winter periods in northern Spain.

Most people with petrol T25s we have bumped into and chatted with on our travels seem to be getting mid to high teens or very low 20s, I have nothing against petrol by the way and actually chose a petrol over my previous diesel car, but for the van a diesel just makes more sense for us.

phil_b wrote:or compromise space and reliability with an LPG conversion, also beyond the UK and France LPG is much less readily available.

.

rubbish

Hi,It all depends on how heavy your right foot is....ours is petrol and we love it the whole reason we bought our van was because it was right for us,right layout good bodywork and mechanically sound.If you want to go fast buy a t4 or a t5.
We love cruising in our t25 thats the beauty of them.You arrive in comfort and stress free and if it does happen to breakdown with a little mechanical knowledge you can normally get yourself back home as they are not complicated like later vehicles....

Not looking for an argument, but which bit?
The lpg tank has to go somewhere, and I wouldn't be happy without a spare wheel, or to lose any internal storage space.
An aftermarket conversion is additional components and complexity and therfore more to go wrong, certainly compared to a diesel set up, only going on hearsay and what I've seen on forums about reliability though..
We have an underslung LPG leisure tank and have looked for lpg in many European countries and beyond in the last twelve months, l believe my comments are correct, I'm not suggesting lpg isn't available just less so in some countries requiring advance planning, internet searches etc including Spain. We didn't find any lpg filling stations in a month in Morocco but did see some dodgy looking practices including bottle to bottle refilling etc.

phil_b wrote:The lpg tank has to go somewhere, and I wouldn't be happy without a spare wheel, or to lose any internal storage space.

That was the show-stopper for us.

An aftermarket conversion is additional components and complexity and therfore more to go wrong

True. BUT if you have a fuel system problem, you should just be able to flick a switch and continue on the other fuel.

We have an underslung LPG leisure tank and have looked for lpg in many European countries and beyond in the last twelve months, l believe my comments are correct, I'm not suggesting lpg isn't available just less so in some countries requiring advance planning, internet searches etc including Spain.

Going on our own experiences from just filling the cooker tank, Spain's probably the worst. Other countries are more widely available than the UK, some are similar-to-less. Certainly if we'd been trying to drive on LPG, we'd have spent a lot of time on petrol - but, unless you're happy to organise your route around fill-ups, that's the score here too.

phil_b wrote: Most people with petrol T25s we have bumped into and chatted with on our travels seem to be getting mid to high teens or very low 20s, I have nothing against petrol by the way and actually chose a petrol over my previous diesel car, but for the van a diesel just makes more sense for us.

Our 2.1MV PopTop has been very accurately monitored over the last 5 years of European trips...lots of mountains and slow sight seeing, too and froing to the shops etc ..the trips have ranged from 1800 to 2500 miles, the overall MPG of each trip has ranged from 25.1 (lowest) to 26.7 (highest)

Would you swap a smooth and powerful 2.1 petrol that is a joy to drive (average MPG over 25 MPG) for a noisy, less powerful, slightly smelly Diesel engine van just because it does 6-7 MPG more? hmmmm let me think.
I don't know about you guys but I really enjoy driving my van and having driven a similar van with a 1.6TD I can honestly say that enjoyment would not be as much even with the fuel saving.

Martin

California Dreamin wrote:Would you swap a smooth and powerful 2.1 petrol that is a joy to drive (average MPG over 25 MPG) for a noisy, less powerful, slightly smelly Diesel engine van just because it does 6-7 MPG more? hmmmm let me think.

We test-drove 1.6TD JXs against 2.1 DJs before buying - and it was a no-brainer to us at the time.

We've got used to driving a KY 1.7D lately, and... it's very... different. So different that I'm not even sure there's an easy comparison to be drawn. I've not measured economy from the KY, but the owners assure me it's around 40mpg. I can believe that, tbh.