The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I am thinking that a Mondeo 1800 TD is not such a good idea because the gain in fuel economy over an 1850 may not be
significant enough. A Mondeo can achieve just over 45 mpg.
An LPG conversion to an 1850 would be worthwhile I think, but is not an option for me because we have Tesco here and all
the filling stations bar one are now closed down. The nearest LPG outlet is in Easter Ross over 80 miles away.

Mondeo only manages 45 mpg!
Wife Diane had a Duratec engined 2litre Ghia Mondeo that I drove 150 miles down to Devon and I achieved 45 mpg from her PETROL Mondeo, plus I got up to 90 mph (on a private road section) to overtake.
Her Mondeo was approx 140 bhp and was quicker than a Sprint on acceleration and would have totally blown a Sprint away on top end.

My sprint is currently going LPG. That's original engine, original sound (ish), No drop in performance and 70mpg.

I won't need to put up with lag, use ear defenders or anything.


£1.45 a litre is for crazies.

GM regularly used a 6.2 litre V8 diesel in the 70s. My friend has one in his pickup and it's the most evil sounding thing I've ever heard in a small (relatively) passenger vehicle.

Still, If you're going to use diesel, at least have it running through a jet engine or something???

How do you figure the 70mpg bit though?

Assuming that LPG were half the price of petrol, which it isn't, then I could see the logic there, but where petrol's typically £1.35/litre these days and Diesel £1.38, LPG is usually around £0.90ppl and set to rise in line with other fuel costs in time.
Even the LNG is now up to £0.97ppl and there's only one place between Edinburgh and Newcastle that sells it so any advantage in using it is absorbed by the trip down there. Unless of course you run a bus service, in which case it appears that you're allowed to hold your own stock of the stuff.
Still, following your logic, a Mondeo Diesel-engined Dolomite with an LNG conversion would do an equivalent 90mpg, if LNG actually were half the price of petrol and cheaper than LPG.
It's not that putting me off, it's the idea of opening the bonnet and seeing the Ford badges.

JPB wrote:How do you figure the 70mpg bit though?

Assuming that LPG were half the price of petrol, which it isn't, then I could see the logic there, but where petrol's typically £1.35/litre these days and Diesel £1.38, LPG is usually around £0.90ppl and set to rise in line with other fuel costs in time.
Even the LNG is now up to £0.97ppl and there's only one place between Edinburgh and Newcastle that sells it so any advantage in using it is absorbed by the trip down there. Unless of course you run a bus service, in which case it appears that you're allowed to hold your own stock of the stuff.
Still, following your logic, a Mondeo Diesel-engined Dolomite with an LNG conversion would do an equivalent 90mpg, if LNG actually were half the price of petrol and cheaper than LPG.
It's not that putting me off, it's the idea of opening the bonnet and seeing the Ford badges.

LPG = 72 ppl.

Petrol = 137 ppl.

Diesel 142 ppl.

Went past ASDA this morning. Those are the prices. lol

http://www.petrolprices.com/

Avg Min Max
Unleaded 140.17p 134.9p 155.9p
Diesel 145.82p 139.9p 157.9p
Super Unleaded 147.40p 139.9p 164.9p
Premium Diesel 154.77p 146.9p 164.9p
LPG 77.89p 67.9p 85.9p


OK, not quite half, but then I'll be running higher compression giving me better economy than with petrol. Being injected as well will give me at least 40mpg (actual) on a run. That's over 70mpg (equivalent)

All for less work than a diesel conversion.

If I lived somewhere that expensive for fuel, I'd shift!

It'll be a sad - if perhaps inevitable - day when Diesel, or indeed any road fuel, costs more than £1.40 per litre but LPG and LNG are much dearer than half the price of the liquid stuff so I'd buy all the gas you can before your local Associated Dairies forecourt realises that they got it wrong and the gas goes up in line with other places' prices.

And why no mention of LNG at that site?

Eh? Those prices were national.
The price of LPG may well go up 'in line' with petrol and diesel. I'll still make the same saving.


People have been blurting out things like "they will just put the tax up" for over a decade. If the government want to increase the price of LPG duty above that of petrol or diesel, they have to give us 3 years notice.

In 2000, Petrol was 76ppl, LPG was 36ppl - in real terms, who's been hit hardest?
I have Asda @ 72ppl, 3 Shell stations @ 73, 76 and 77ppl and that's without leaving the City of Derby. There's a Total garage in a nearby town that's also at 72ppl.

LPG doesn't even need cold start enrichment. No choke, no wasted fuel when cold, no emissions tests, no fouling plugs. Just lovely cheapness.

National perhaps, but for which nation, Norway or Switzerland may well be able to meet those higher figures?
I'd have to travel about 70 miles to find anything - of the liquid variety - that expensive, yet the LPG prices are invariably much higher than the site suggests.
Then what about the LNG? It's the fuel of the future - according to the people who are fitting the kits FOC to cars belonging to people willing to sacrifice some existing fuel space for the tank - especially now that fracking has Lord Smith's weight behind it and we know that it won't break the planet.
Dolly with Perkins Prima (forget that Ford engine) and LNG tank would be one seriously cheap thing to run.

If you must put a diesel into a Dolly then i'd go BMW. It's designed for inline fitment and unlike a Mondeo diesel engine sounds much less like a tractor. However by the time you have bought the engine, fitted it etc I'd imagine the payback period would be quite long. I would be interested though in seeing a diesel Dolly but please don't pollute it with a transit engine.

Diesel has been well over £1.40/l for ages round these parts, petrol has been hovering around there too (currently £139.9) - and we're only 40 miles from the local refinery... No idea what they're asking for LPG though, and I don't know of anywhere that sells LNG.

JPB wrote:National perhaps, but for which nation, Norway or Switzerland may well be able to meet those higher figures?
I'd have to travel about 70 miles to find anything - of the liquid variety - that expensive, yet the LPG prices are invariably much higher than the site suggests.
Then what about the LNG? It's the fuel of the future - according to the people who are fitting the kits FOC to cars belonging to people willing to sacrifice some existing fuel space for the tank - especially now that fracking has Lord Smith's weight behind it and we know that it won't break the planet.
Dolly with Perkins Prima (forget that Ford engine) and LNG tank would be one seriously cheap thing to run.

This is the United Kingdom.

Those prices are pretty much spot on here for all of the fuels, I'm in the middle of the country too, which is probably as good a guide as any. You are reading the avg, min and max right aren't you?

LPG, in the City of Derby is under 74ppl in 3 of the stations. Diesel is over £1.40 in all of the stations.


Or maybe you've taken the Delorean for a spin?

This morning at the AsDa forecourt (11 miles):

Diesel £1.39.7
Petrol £1.34.7

(I rang to ask ).

And at the Shell (a further 10 miles), High cetane Diesel (they'd run out of the regular stuff that works perfectly well enough) is £1.51.9, LPG is £0.89.9 and, at the one bus depot that keeps it (4.8 miles) and sells to the public; LNG £0.93.9 (been there and back for a look as I had a couple of MGF suspension displacers in being fitted with Nitrogen valves for an erstwhile student of mine), so increasing in proportion with duty hikes but still cheaper by a large enough margin to make LNG worth the hassle.

Yeah, I like that BMW engine too, but like most modern common rail jobbies it's a pain to have to footer on with turps substitute if you choose to run one on veggie and they don't like pump bio-diesel apparently, hence my belief that anyone who can actually be arsed to go Diesel in a Dolly would be better with something older and kits for the Perkins are cheap and easy as plenty of Land Rover folk have them N-S in their engine bays.

Though I still like the idea of an ex-FSO Polonez or Caro 1.9XUD as that too is fitted N-S in its native application and comes with a decent enough Fiat-sourced gearbox and bearer plates that would reduce the hassle in mating it up to the Dolly subframe.

That's very helpful, we'll inform the rest of the country that the average price is wrong.

You seem far too proud in knowing that Asda used to be Associated Dairies - ASDA, short for Asquith Dairies. The brand name is now 'Asda', no capital D - I rang Walmart and confirmed.