T
Tim Hobbs
Guest
On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 15:41:36 +0000, MVP <mr.nice@*nospam*softhome.net>
wrote:
>interesting thing happened today whilst chatting to the wife about our
>impending purchase which will be a discovery with a budget of around
>£5k.
>she mentioned the word V8.
>I'm a big fan of diesels myself and as our purchase will be around 10
>years old a tough, long lasting diesel seems all right and good.
>but.
>
>a V8.
>
>it'd have to be an LPG as I have not won the lottery hence couldn't
>afford to run it on petrol, but I understand the running costs of a V8
>on LPG is about the same as a TDi, am I right there?
My 3.9 used to give 30-31 mpg equivalent. Since then LPG seems to
have become cheaper as a proportion of diesel prices, so might be even
better. I don't have first hand experience of 300 diesels, but I'd be
surprised to get over 30 mpg out of one.
However, I suspect that if you are heavy footed or drive on hilly
terrain the V8 would suffer more than the diesel.
>
>Also I can't afford to lose any boot-space, and I want to have the
>option of petrol also, so, is there sufficient room underneath to have
>a reasonable size LPG tank and a hundred-or-so-miles worth of petrol
>tank?
>
60 litres of useable gas is easily achieved in the sills without
touching the petrol tank. You won't drive to John O'Groats on that,
but as long as you have a local easy source of LPG you'll be OK. Do
be prepared for the fact that LPG seems to take years to deliver
though - it's a real PITA in winter as you freeze your nuts off
waiting for the fuel to dribble in.
>Are there any servicing complications with a V8 & LPG system? I do all
>servicing myself and have never delt with a V8 nor an LPG system.
>
Well, there's a whole other fuel system to go wrong....
>Waterproofing... approached in an orgsanised fashion, how hard is it
>to make a V8 comfortable with 2ft to 2.5ft of water?
>
Standard wading depth is 500mm, and mine went considerably deeper. On
the second lap of the Billing course it became a V7 (and probably a V5
at its worst) but it never stopped and suffered no ill effects long
term.
>I'm in two minds, the 300TDi is my engine of choice, but, oooo a V8...
>
>
I'm in at least two minds about your predicament. If you get lucky,
and get a good LPG conversion you'll almost forget it is there. It
will cost about the same to run as a diesel, go considerably faster
and sound nicer.
Then again, I suspect that many LPG conversions are for sale because
they never ran right. Lots of them are fitted to engines with worn
cams, imperfect ignition systems and often to poor standards. When
Warren did mine it was crap, because the engine wasn't in great shape.
A new cam and ignition overhaul worked wonders.
In the real world I know two TDi's which have way over 200,000 miles
on the original engine, without major work, just good servicing.
I know which I would choose, but history shows that I'm really quite
stupid....
--
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 88" aka "Stig"
'77 101FC Ambulance aka "Burrt"
'03 Volvo V70
My Landies? http://www.seriesii.co.uk
Barcoding? http://www.bartec-systems.com
Tony Luckwill web archive at http://www.luckwill.com
wrote:
>interesting thing happened today whilst chatting to the wife about our
>impending purchase which will be a discovery with a budget of around
>£5k.
>she mentioned the word V8.
>I'm a big fan of diesels myself and as our purchase will be around 10
>years old a tough, long lasting diesel seems all right and good.
>but.
>
>a V8.
>
>it'd have to be an LPG as I have not won the lottery hence couldn't
>afford to run it on petrol, but I understand the running costs of a V8
>on LPG is about the same as a TDi, am I right there?
My 3.9 used to give 30-31 mpg equivalent. Since then LPG seems to
have become cheaper as a proportion of diesel prices, so might be even
better. I don't have first hand experience of 300 diesels, but I'd be
surprised to get over 30 mpg out of one.
However, I suspect that if you are heavy footed or drive on hilly
terrain the V8 would suffer more than the diesel.
>
>Also I can't afford to lose any boot-space, and I want to have the
>option of petrol also, so, is there sufficient room underneath to have
>a reasonable size LPG tank and a hundred-or-so-miles worth of petrol
>tank?
>
60 litres of useable gas is easily achieved in the sills without
touching the petrol tank. You won't drive to John O'Groats on that,
but as long as you have a local easy source of LPG you'll be OK. Do
be prepared for the fact that LPG seems to take years to deliver
though - it's a real PITA in winter as you freeze your nuts off
waiting for the fuel to dribble in.
>Are there any servicing complications with a V8 & LPG system? I do all
>servicing myself and have never delt with a V8 nor an LPG system.
>
Well, there's a whole other fuel system to go wrong....
>Waterproofing... approached in an orgsanised fashion, how hard is it
>to make a V8 comfortable with 2ft to 2.5ft of water?
>
Standard wading depth is 500mm, and mine went considerably deeper. On
the second lap of the Billing course it became a V7 (and probably a V5
at its worst) but it never stopped and suffered no ill effects long
term.
>I'm in two minds, the 300TDi is my engine of choice, but, oooo a V8...
>
>
I'm in at least two minds about your predicament. If you get lucky,
and get a good LPG conversion you'll almost forget it is there. It
will cost about the same to run as a diesel, go considerably faster
and sound nicer.
Then again, I suspect that many LPG conversions are for sale because
they never ran right. Lots of them are fitted to engines with worn
cams, imperfect ignition systems and often to poor standards. When
Warren did mine it was crap, because the engine wasn't in great shape.
A new cam and ignition overhaul worked wonders.
In the real world I know two TDi's which have way over 200,000 miles
on the original engine, without major work, just good servicing.
I know which I would choose, but history shows that I'm really quite
stupid....
--
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 88" aka "Stig"
'77 101FC Ambulance aka "Burrt"
'03 Volvo V70
My Landies? http://www.seriesii.co.uk
Barcoding? http://www.bartec-systems.com
Tony Luckwill web archive at http://www.luckwill.com
