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Can anyone assist me with info on how to achieve more uphill speed out of the old lady. I'm tired of upsetting other road users with my 40 km uphill speed. Someone mentioned the possibility to do some changes to my diff gearing. Does this make sense at all. All other advice would be much welcomed.
there is a simple method to get more out of a non turbo diesel and i ve used it for years going back to my old 1980 golf diesel when "cars dont run on diesel sir"..
In laymans terms....Get the wife to press the accelerator and look for the lever on the injection pump that moves. You will notice it hits a stop screw. count the number of turns as you wind it out to allow the lever to travel as far as it can and re tighten the locknut and make a note of the number of turns for when you m.o.t it....
Job done, and you ll notice a vast improvement on power...
An old 106 pug diesel becomes a hot hatch
be warned, dont be tempted to over rev the engine past its max ...
And remember , this is totaly useless information if it doesnt have an acceleerator cable and is fly by wire
Having lived through the 2.5 non turbo era, my feelings are that you are best advised to grin and bear it! to achieve better performance will cost a lot of money, which is probably more than it's worth. It is possible to fit an aftermarket turbo but it will cost in excess of a couple of thousand, if you are mechanically competent and have somewhere to work it is possible to change the engine unit for something more suitable but again more cost / effort than it is worth.
The only bright side is no matter how slowly it goes it always gets there.
______________________________________________________________ John
we also run a ducato 2.5 non turbo.
and have the same experiance soon as the old girl sees an hill its change down a gear.
but if i see the the hill approaching before the engine does i have a bit of a faster run at it . and before the old girl as realised its an hill we are half way up it ...
we just accept that the old engine chuggs along..
although sometimes i wish the same as you, a bit more power would be nice ,rather than having 40 tonners queing up behind us.
but we have learned to accept what we have got and treat the engine with respect as she is working very hard to get us to our destination.
We've got the same engine. I tend to avoid motorways on the whole, and chugging uphill doesn't worry me particularly. France seems to have loads of crawler lanes anyway, and that's what we do - crawl. Even down to 2nd in one memorable and amusing occasion, engine screaming, wife on map, lorries flying past, kept going though, no remap/ecu worries, cheap servicing, good consumption. I have to say I'm quite fond of the old thing - then I get back in the Passat at home!
Having said all that its only really a struggle uphill, everywhere else we keep up with the rest, although with more noise. What interests me more is how to quieten the thing down.
Looking at the picture of your van, you would appear to have - how can I put this politely - challenging aerodynamics?
So pushing all that air aside that gets trapped under the very tall and square overcab, plus gravity holding you back when you go uphill...
So my advice would be to travel in a convoy of split screen VW campervans, then people overtaking you will be too busy waving, grinning and giving thumbs up to the VWs crawling up the hills at a similar speed to you, that they won't notice you!
Looking at the picture of your van, you would appear to have - how can I put this politely - challenging aerodynamics?
So pushing all that air aside that gets trapped under the very tall and square overcab, plus gravity holding you back when you go uphill...
So my advice would be to travel in a convoy of split screen VW campervans, then people overtaking you will be too busy waving, grinning and giving thumbs up to the VWs crawling up the hills at a similar speed to you, that they won't notice you!
The OP wants to go faster - telling them to drive in convoy with split screen VWs can only have the opposite effect.
PS the "waving, grinning and giving thumbs up" is actually "shaking fists, grimacing and sticking one finger up".
______________________________________________________________ Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Are you really down to 40Kmph on hills. Our 20 yr old FIAT 1900 non turbo based MH is also underpowered. No rev counter so not aware of revs but if I have to go down to 3rd gear I will still try to keep it at 50kmph.
I doubt changing gear ratios will help you much so my only advice is to keep the weight down as much as you can - it can make a noticeable difference. Do you need to carry a full tank of water, do you need a full tank of fuel, do you need a second liesure battery or solar panel.
As for aerodynamics - not relevant at 40Kmph
I would check the weight, any weigh bridges where you are, chances are you have over the years exceeded the max all up weight (mam)
______________________________________________________________ Regards Frank - - please follow me on twitter @FrankieBryant
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Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray 
