Deisel

[mike.perry]

There are limits however, my Daimler Sovereign XJ6 burnt a severe hole in my bank balance. I got rid of it when it cost me over £50 to fill the two ten gallon tanks and that was a long time ago.

[simon68]

Ouch! wonder what that would cost at todays prices.

[chrisryder]

2 x 10 gallons = 20 gallons = 90 litres

£1.25/litre x 90 = £112.50

[rayofleamington]

A Minor makes a great everyday car, and if you're not doing silly high mileage then they are not a lot of work to maintain. The mpg is as good as many modern cars, albeit not as good as diesels or the more recent very economical petrols. If you're doing enough miles to justify needing a diesel then there are plenty of cheap diesels available.


My daily driver was chosen with 6 requirements when I bought it just over 18 months ago:

Estate sized boot
5 proper seatbelts (demanded by the wife)
Good Fuel economy (under £120 a year to tax based on emmissions ~= 50+mpg)
Not much more than £1000
Fairly modern/comfortable (i.e. comfortable warm and able to hear the stereo on the motorway)
Aircon


What I got was a 2001 Astra turbo Diesel Estate . All requirements met except the Aircon doesn't work and I was too tight to get it fixed. When you're doing over 3000 miles a month, fuel economy makes a big difference! For a while I was doing 600 miles a week just to get to work and back, so the car has nearly paid for itself - the previous car was around 34 - 40mpg and the Astra average 48mpg but 52 to 56mpg per tank when doing the big commuting.


If you're doing high mileage then fuel economy matters more - however doing very high mileage in a Minor isn't what I'd recommend (been there done that, still got the mental scars). If you destroy a cheap modern car doing 30,000 miles per year, you've not really lost anything. On a Minor you'll be loosing nearly all your spare time just to keep it repaired.

If you want to do a diesel conversion just for the fun of it - then don't forget the 1.5 Diesel from a Metro...

[Ratbag]

LPG conversion on the A-series? Should be pretty cheap.

[bmcecosse]

Yes - I stupidly turned down the chance of an LPG kit just over a year ago.......

[rayofleamington]

there have been a handful of lpg Minors, but the only one I know of did have a few headgasket problems.
Again, with the cost involved you need to do a heck of a lot of miles to make it financially worthwhile as the car in standard form isn't that bad.
For something like a 70's V8 gas guzzler it doesn't take nearly as many miles to pay for itself!

[chrisd87]

Personally I'd prefer to go for an LPG conversion of the A-series than for diesel. One of the joys of Minor ownership is the simplicity and ease of working on the car and a newish diesel engine (with all its complexities) would spoil that completely. Older diesel engines are generally noisy, slow and not as efficient.

I did seriously consider an LPG conversion a few years ago when fuel prices got silly, but once they went down again I forgot about it. The way things are going it might be on the cards again, especially as I'm now doing far more miles.

I have worked out that it'd take about 10,000 miles to break even in a Minor. The kit for a carb-based car is cheaper than for an injected car at about £500 from a supplier near me.

Unleaded for 10,000 miles @ 38mpg = 263 gal.
LPG for 10,000 miles @ 33mpg = 303 gal.

263 gallons @ £5.85/gal (128.9p/l) = £1539
303 gallons @ £3.35/gal (73.9p/l) = £1015

Saving = £524.

Obviously as Ray says the heavier the fuel consumption of the car the quicker you'd break even, so something like a petrol Land Rover would recoup the cost far quicker.

There are a few minus points though. LPG fuel is only as cheap as it is at the pumps because it's subject to far less duty than petrol. It's supposedly safe until at least 2014, but there's nothing to stop the government increasing the duty if it fancies a bit of extra cash, particularly after that date.
Lead replacement additives for LPG are available but none as far as I know are FBHVC approved, so an unleaded head might be needed. Positioning the tank in a Minor isn't ideal either. It would be hard to mount a 'doughnut'-shaped tank in place of the spare wheel, and the only other option of mounting a decent-sized cylindrical tank in the boot would take up a good deal of the usable luggage space.

[bmcecosse]

Since LPG is ~ 108 octane you can raise the compression ratio to offset some (possibly ALL) of the mpg loss. It's also only @ 67 p/litre near me. If you search around you may find a non-petrol station outlet selling it cheaply near you. I also know someone who has an LPG tank for his heating - and a tapping he uses for filling his cars.......... It's MUCH cheaper - and of course impossible to detect - no nasty red stain in the gas !

[rayofleamington]

I also know someone who has an LPG tank for his heating - and a tapping he uses for filling his cars.......... It's MUCH cheaper - and of course impossible to detect - no nasty red stain in the gas

I doubt they would be happy to know you were dobbing them in for something that illegal!

This isn't the only way to cheat road fuel tax, but most ways are illegal - however I still believe it's legal to use up to ~2000 litres per year of recycled/used veg oil without paying tax on it (rules changed in ~2008). Veg oil runs well in some of the old diesel engines so they can be VERY cheap motoring if you can get hold of the waste veg oil!

[mogmad57]

All I can say is, 200 lbs ft torque, 120 bhp, 50+ mpg Don't knock it until you've tried it
http://community.webshots.com/user/mogmad56

[chrisryder]

impressive mogmad, what's that engine out of?

i was talking to a mate with a landy today. he's started running on veg oil. his source? the shop! can't remember what shop, think it's just a wholesalers. they sell veg oil, 20L for £18. or about 90p a litre. gotta be better than £1.35+!

[rayofleamington]

i was talking to a mate with a landy today. he's started running on veg oil. his source? the shop! can't remember what shop, think it's just a wholesalers. they sell veg oil, 20L for £18. or about 90p a litre. gotta be better than £1.35+!

Financially better, but in 'green' terms it's not great.
The use of new veg oil for road fuel has pushed up the prices, and is affecting the food prices in developing countries.
Producing veg oil uses a fair bit of fossil fuel energy so it's may be a lower cost alternative but is not (yet) a low-carbon alternative, unlike when using waste (used) veg oil.
It's a purely personal choice whether that worries the driver or not, but there are often far reaching implications of any choice.
One advantage to using waste oil is that the landrover will smell more like a burger van (I loved the smell when I had mine, and have smelled this a few times when following Landys and Transit vans )

[chrisryder]

can't imagine he's that fussed about saving the planet. he says he gets 30mpg on a good day! and it does smell like a burger van

he also mentioned the 2000litre tax thing. but said that once you get to that level, you have to repay the tax on that first 2000l too!

also, his maths came up with 16000 miles at 30mpg with the 2000l limit. which for a lot of people will be way over what they cover in a year.

[mogmad57]

what's that engine out of?

Hi Chris, the engine is a Peugeot 1.9 dturbo from a 306, and it doesn't mind the odd wee drink of veg oil
Andy

[davidpidge]

All I can say is, 200 lbs ft torque, 120 bhp, 50+ mpg Don't knock it until you've tried it
http://community.webshots.com/user/mogmad56

Someone has built my perfect van!

Everytime you think of a mod that know one has possibly done of you can find it somewhere on the interweb. I once thought it would be briliant to have a lowlight van then Iactually found photos of one that had been converted already!