Poor fuel efficiency - diesel Xsara

Post by **Peter.N.** » 28 Nov 2010, 11:11

The memories come flooding back

Post by **CitroJim** » 28 Nov 2010, 11:34

Peter.N. wrote:The memories come flooding back

Ahh yes

Going sea fishing with dad late at night with a Tilley lamp for both light and warmth, not forgetting the gentle homely hiss that it made.

Where we lived as a kid in the rural Somerset sticks, a Primus stove was essential as our electricity supply was not that reliable...

Our first touring caravan had gas lamps. They had the same lovely light and warmth as a Tilley along with the hiss but were rather less trouble. You just needed to be sure you had some spare mantles as a particularly vigorous tow could break them...

I've still got a couple of paraffin blowlamps in my workshop, not fired them up for years now. I found a packet of prickers for them the other day. A pricker is a tool for clearing the vapouriser jet when it got blocked, a frequent occurrence if the paraffin was not spotlessly clean.

Dave, sorry to drift so off-topic in your thread. It happens a lot on this forum

Post by **Peter.N.** » 28 Nov 2010, 12:04

Ahhh, I did my first diesel conversion in 1959, a Perkins 4/99 engine into a Vauxhall Cresta, I can still remember that 'sweet' exhaust smell when starting from cold. Practically everyone had paraffin heaters in those days, they used to do terrible things to the inside of TV's. I still have a blowlamp and a primus stove in the garage.

Peter

Post by **Paul-R** » 28 Nov 2010, 12:45

Never done a diesel conversion myself (yet! The MGB still beckons.) but in the late sixties, while we were still at school, a friend of mine inserted a Perkins diesel into a Mk IX Jaguar.

He got it up and running and actually took it out on the road. The problem was that there was no vacuum for the brake servo and you had to grab hold of the roof to get enough pressure on the brake pedal to have any effect. He experimented with a flap on the inlet tract to get some vacuum (a la Land Rover) but it wasn't enough and he project, sadly, mouldered away in his drive.

Post by **Peter.N.** » 28 Nov 2010, 18:13

The cars used with my early conversions didn't have servo brakes

so it wasn't a problem, when the need arose though I devised a butterfly valve arrangement in the inlet manifold connected to the throttle cable, worked a treat, when the Sherpa van came out I found that British Leyland had nicked my idea

Peter

Post by **Paul-R** » 28 Nov 2010, 18:34

Like I said, my friend borrowed the idea from Land Rover so it predates the Sherpa by a good while.

IIRC the Jag had Dunlop disc brakes all round, which is why it was so poor without a servo.