Petrol Ford Transits - talk to me
Discussion
This week, a friend of mine has had his 2006 Transit 80 T350 nicked ( http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... ).
Now, in the sadly likely event he doesnt get it back, he wants to get another one the same age or a bit newer - and he has allowed 5k for this.
I was telling another, London-based friend of mine about the situation, and he came up with an interesting idea. According to friend 2, a lot of Transits down in that area are running the 2.3 Petrol engine on LPG to sidestep the LEZ, and a fair few are now turning up on ebay as they get replaced due to age. Given that LPG up here is 50ppl vs £1.20 for diesel, and that the LPG vans will do more than half the mpg of a diesel one, it would seem a no brainer to get one instead.
Friend 1 is also intrigued by this idea, and has asked me to find out more. However, neither of us have ever seen a petrol Transit, let alone been in one or driven one, so are they actually any good? Obviously they will need to be revved a bit more than a diesel with a heavy load on, but are they refined and driveable, or gutless and harsh? Are they worse/equal/better for reliability than the 2.4d? What sort of mileage is acceptable before they go from a good buy to knackered and worth avoiding?
thanks
Matt
Now, in the sadly likely event he doesnt get it back, he wants to get another one the same age or a bit newer - and he has allowed 5k for this.
I was telling another, London-based friend of mine about the situation, and he came up with an interesting idea. According to friend 2, a lot of Transits down in that area are running the 2.3 Petrol engine on LPG to sidestep the LEZ, and a fair few are now turning up on ebay as they get replaced due to age. Given that LPG up here is 50ppl vs £1.20 for diesel, and that the LPG vans will do more than half the mpg of a diesel one, it would seem a no brainer to get one instead.
Friend 1 is also intrigued by this idea, and has asked me to find out more. However, neither of us have ever seen a petrol Transit, let alone been in one or driven one, so are they actually any good? Obviously they will need to be revved a bit more than a diesel with a heavy load on, but are they refined and driveable, or gutless and harsh? Are they worse/equal/better for reliability than the 2.4d? What sort of mileage is acceptable before they go from a good buy to knackered and worth avoiding?
thanks
Matt
Having replaced an engine, steering rack, gearbox, clutch and DMF recently in a 75k 2.2 diesel transit, I'd say your man is being quite sensible looking at anything other than the diesel.
I hate this van with a passion now, it's cost me fortunes, and is also starting to rot round the sills and arches, hateful thing that it is. Grrr...
Anyway, petrol? If carrying any form of load, I'd check the torque figures before making a judgement.
I hate this van with a passion now, it's cost me fortunes, and is also starting to rot round the sills and arches, hateful thing that it is. Grrr...
Anyway, petrol? If carrying any form of load, I'd check the torque figures before making a judgement.
Driven a fair few LPG transits - a business acquaintance runs a few of them. He has always bought ex Council - over maintained and under worked
IMO they are fairly nice to drive (mark6 & 7), they are fairly quiet, very smooth and pretty quick.
They start up on petrol and switch over automatically to LPG when they reach operating temp, although you can switch LPG on/off manually. When driving them my opinion was they drove better on LPG than they do on petrol.
I'm fairly convinced that when on a steep hill or the engine being really pushed they switched back to petrol until the throttle eased off as there was a couple of times the fuel (petrol) level dropped when running on gas.
IIRC they are 143bhp - compare that to the diesel 90/100/115 etc. it probably explains why when driving one of them I managed to out pull a diesel transit whether I was loaded or not.
The main problem that he has had with them is Coil Packs on the mark 6 - if replacements required don't go for the cheapie packs. Buy the Bosch ones.
Pagey said:
Driven a fair few LPG transits - a business acquaintance runs a few of them. He has always bought ex Council - over maintained and under worked
IMO they are fairly nice to drive (mark6 & 7), they are fairly quiet, very smooth and pretty quick.
They start up on petrol and switch over automatically to LPG when they reach operating temp, although you can switch LPG on/off manually. When driving them my opinion was they drove better on LPG than they do on petrol.
I'm fairly convinced that when on a steep hill or the engine being really pushed they switched back to petrol until the throttle eased off as there was a couple of times the fuel (petrol) level dropped when running on gas.
IIRC they are 143bhp - compare that to the diesel 90/100/115 etc. it probably explains why when driving one of them I managed to out pull a diesel transit whether I was loaded or not.
The main problem that he has had with them is Coil Packs on the mark 6 - if replacements required don't go for the cheapie packs. Buy the Bosch ones.
This man has it in one. Even spot on with the power figure. Good little units, the only weakness they have is Head Gaskets, but its fairly rare. IMO they are fairly nice to drive (mark6 & 7), they are fairly quiet, very smooth and pretty quick.
They start up on petrol and switch over automatically to LPG when they reach operating temp, although you can switch LPG on/off manually. When driving them my opinion was they drove better on LPG than they do on petrol.
I'm fairly convinced that when on a steep hill or the engine being really pushed they switched back to petrol until the throttle eased off as there was a couple of times the fuel (petrol) level dropped when running on gas.
IIRC they are 143bhp - compare that to the diesel 90/100/115 etc. it probably explains why when driving one of them I managed to out pull a diesel transit whether I was loaded or not.
The main problem that he has had with them is Coil Packs on the mark 6 - if replacements required don't go for the cheapie packs. Buy the Bosch ones.
I sell Commercial Vehicles for a living, and have sold a lot of these on to customers with new bodies, and they love them. They pull well, they are quiet, and as refined as you can get in a Transit of that age. And of course, skip the whole LEZ rubbish
Pagey said:
I'm fairly convinced that when on a steep hill or the engine being really pushed they switched back to petrol until the throttle eased off as there was a couple of times the fuel (petrol) level dropped when running on gas.
All LPG kits switch back to petrol at full throttle as far as I know, because petrol contains more energy than LPG.Thanks for the recommendations every one, friend one lives the idea and is now looking for a van to come up in the right length and height for his needs 
Not true. A properly specified LPG kit has injectors matched to the horsepower of each cylinder, so should be more than capable of handling full throttle. Neither my LPG Range Rover or my friend's LPG 325i switch to petrol when being caned
Hooli said:
Pagey said:
I'm fairly convinced that when on a steep hill or the engine being really pushed they switched back to petrol until the throttle eased off as there was a couple of times the fuel (petrol) level dropped when running on gas.
All LPG kits switch back to petrol at full throttle as far as I know, because petrol contains more energy than LPG.Gassing Station | Commercial Break | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff