Around the world trip, Petrol or Diesel?

[StuntmanMike]

Rereading an old book ( Jupiter's travels ) got me thinking, if you were going to spend a year or two driving around the world, what fuel would be best?
No grenadine Diesel story's.
No MPG story's.
You have to drive from London to Cape Town, ship to south America, drive to Los Angeles, ship to Australia, cross it, ship to Singapore, drive through Malaysia, India then back up through the middle east eventually ending up back at London.
You have been given an ex Army land rover 101 ambulance to convert into some sort of all terrain camper.
What engine are you going to put in it?
You need to think about what fuel is available to you?
What substandard petrol/ Diesel will do to it?
The vehicle would have a tired Rover V8 3.5 S.U carb boat anchor fitted, would you keep this?
I'm thinking BMW 2.5 straight six Diesel nineties vintage.
I could of course be wrong, what would you fit?

[GreatGranny]

I would swap the whole thing for a Landcruiser :-)

[StuntmanMike]

GreatGranny said:

I would swap the whole thing for a Landcruiser :-)

Is the correct answer, but not really in the spirit of the thread.

[Puddenchucker]

I'd fit it with a Mercedes M103 engine from the W124 series.
Or maybe the 2 litre from a Peugeot 504.

[BritishRacinGrin]

StuntmanMike said:

The vehicle would have a tired Rover V8 3.5 S.U carb boat anchor fitted, would you keep this?
I'm thinking BMW 2.5 straight six Diesel nineties vintage.
I could of course be wrong, what would you fit?

The M51, notorious for having guaranteed and costly fuel pump failures?
I'd leave the RV8 in there, depending on what you mean by 'tired'. Nothing like an unstressed, low compression, carburated petrol engine for dealing with substandard fuel while being easy to make running adjustments to in order to keep it running right.

[XJSJohn]

petrol has certain advantages .....

1 - fairly easy to restart when completely drained
2 - can withstand much colder weather than diesel before freezing
3 - can be ignited reasonably easily if you need to get an fire going in a hurry
4 - is available most everywhere but in potentially very low grades (it doesn't matter where you are in teh world, people seem to be riding Honda Cub's and they run on (variants of) petrol.

Diesel on the other hand

1 - engines tend to be stronger
2 - tend to provide better MPG
3 - tend to be simpler
4 - can run on any old chip fat, wok oil etc
5 - is available everywhere as there are always lorry's

[Spyder3400]

A friend and I took a RV8 Range Rover down to West Africa. Without comment on the rest of the car I can honestly say the engine was totally shagged when we started but coped just fine including 'petrol' from open air tanks!' It was an early carb car.

If I were to do your trip i wouldnt be too bothered about spending loads of time and money swapping the engine but my choice would be the Toyota 3.0td from a hilux surf. Strong, cheap and simple engine.

[SteveSteveson]

Honda CG125:
Tough as old boots
Will run on awful petrol, and you have much more chance of getting a 10 litres for a 125 in the middle of nowhere than 100 for a 4x4.
Parts are available anywhere and at worst can be posted
Can be fixed with a very simple tool kit
Will fit on any old boat, across a foot bridge or on a raft if you need to cross a river
Much less likely to be the target of bandits and kidnappers than some 4x4 (You don't look like a rich westerner on a jolly), and bullets are not stopped any more by a car door than a bike jacket.

Edited by SteveSteveson on Monday 3rd November 10:15

[Morningside]

Maybe it would better to have an old Diesel that will run on anything from chip fat to heating oil in times of desperation.

[ecsrobin]

XJSJohn said:

Diesel
5 - is available everywhere as there are always lorry's

I take it you haven't been to America? You would have to plan your route very carefully through America. Only select stations have diesel on sale (normally have a big sign on the interstate saying so)

[Monty Python]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/two-people-a-mer...

[XJSJohn]

ecsrobin said:

XJSJohn said:

Diesel
5 - is available everywhere as there are always lorry's

I take it you haven't been to America? You would have to plan your route very carefully through America. Only select stations have diesel on sale (normally have a big sign on the interstate saying so)

to be fair, no - but what do the big Peterbilts and Kenworths run on ???

[Baryonyx]

SteveSteveson said:

Honda CG125:
Tough as old boots
Will run on awful petrol, and you have much more chance of getting a 10 litres for a 125 in the middle of nowhere than 100 for a 4x4.
Parts are available anywhere and at worst can be posted
Can be fixed with a very simple tool kit
Will fit on any old boat, across a foot bridge or on a raft if you need to cross a river
Much less likely to be the target of bandits and kidnappers than some 4x4 (You don't look like a rich westerner on a jolly), and bullets are not stopped any more by a car door than a bike jacket.

Edited by SteveSteveson on Monday 3rd November 10:15

This. It'll be slow, but it'll get you there.

[the_lone_wolf]

All here people wrong

You vant Russia truck - russia truck is best truck:



If have big fuel tank no need fuel station every town!!

Also, save fuel, go in straight line, no road need!!



Is great "run a round" - I use for, how capitalist say "skool ran"

Also, when you do trip, visit Ukraine, latest beach destination in glorious russia...

[Sump]

We drove from Sheffield to Iran in a 1996 Honda shuttle Petrol that cost £450.

All it needed were some bushes in turkey which cost £50 all in fitted at a Bosch garage.

I'd take an extra couple of fuel filters with you though.

[Monty Python]

Sump said:

We drove from Sheffield to Iran in a 1996 Honda shuttle Petrol that cost £450.

All it needed were some bushes in turkey which cost £50 all in fitted at a Bosch garage.

I'd take an extra couple of fuel filters with you though.

Was that for camouflage?

[ecsrobin]

XJSJohn said:

ecsrobin said:

XJSJohn said:

Diesel
5 - is available everywhere as there are always lorry's

I take it you haven't been to America? You would have to plan your route very carefully through America. Only select stations have diesel on sale (normally have a big sign on the interstate saying so)

to be fair, no - but what do the big Peterbilts and Kenworths run on ???

They run on Diesel engines but have HUGE tanks.

[pherlopolus]

I have to say I'd swap it for a radio body zil 131, they are multifuel so as long as you have about 50% petrol the rest can be kerosene/diesel etc, 76 octane is all that is required and it would have a fair bit more room in the back.

[soad]

the_lone_wolf said:

All here people wrong

You vant Russia truck - russia truck is best truck:



If have big fuel tank no need fuel station every town!!

Also, save fuel, go in straight line, no road need!!



Is great "run a round" - I use for, how capitalist say "skool ran"

Also, when you do trip, visit Ukraine, latest beach destination in glorious russia...

Old and new...

[Veeayt]

Your BMW diesel will die a spectacular death since some in some countries petrol stations sell something close to crude oil for diesel. Petrol is definitely the answer.