VW bi turbo?

What year? The CFCA engine had significant problems - is that what you're thinking of?

All VW engines are given an engine code, and (in theory at least) all engines with the same code are identical, within VW's manufacturing tolerances.

The first of the bi-turbo 4-cylinder engines that VW fitted to the T5 had the engine code CFCA - that's what I was referring to, but it was just a guess, because you didn't say what year of T5 you were referring to. They made a series of bi-turbo diesels, and an evolution of the CFCA is still available as an option on the current T6.1 - though of course with a different engine code.

The worst of the CFCA's problems seem to have been during the period 2010-2012, though even after that there seem to be a lot of cases of extreme bore wear.

The 5-cylinder engines all preceded the CFCA, and none of the 5-cylinder engines suffered from the problems that the CFCA engine does. The engine codes for the 5-cylinder diesel engines are AXD, AXE, BNZ, BPC and BLJ.

Yours probably has engine code BNZ - you should be able to see this code printed on the front of your Service History booklet. Our earlier T5 has an AXD - in relative terms slightly different from the BNZ, in that neither the AXD nor the AXE have a DPF fitted (though they do have a small catalytic converter instead).

frederic wrote:So what's this about the Bilbo's engines?

I'm not sure, because you're not giving me much info to work with.

There's nothing specific about problems with the engines that Bilbos use. In terms of engine and running gear they just use standard, unmodified Transporters (they use the Kombi SE model as the basis for almost all of their conversions).

One of the options that Bilbos (and presumably Auto-Sleepers) offered on the facelifted T5 (2010 onward) was the biturbo engine, and all of them would have been prone to the same fault - excessive bore wear, resulting in high oil consumption. The problem is not in any way confined to Bilbos, and if you bought an A/S Trooper for example, based on the T5.1, then you should expect to have a good chance of that type of fault if it had the CFCA engine.

You wouldn't expect to see the problem here much, because very few Troopers were made post-2010.

Yes - a 2008 T5 with Tiptronic 'box (or the manual box for that matter) will have been fitted with a DPF from the factory (VW's factory, not A/S).

As I understand it, the cost of the T7 is very high, so I'm not sure that we will see many non-VW conversions in the early days.

The great thing about the T5 -> T5.1 -> T6 -> T6.1 evolution is that it was essentially the same van. If you made a bed, or a side cupboard unit, or a pop-top roof for the T5, it would fit anything up to the T6.1 with little modification, if any. But the T7 is based on a new platform, and I would expect that every single panel on it will be different.

So companies like Bilbos will have a major re-work to do on all of the parts that they use during the conversion. I might pop along there and have a chat with them some time, as they are not far away from me.

It would be interesting to hear how much prep they have done for the T7 to date - though of course they might not be willing to tell me!

[Edit: looks like they have dropped the biturbo engine for the T7! The only diesel they seem to be using now is a development of the 2 litre engine that I've got in mine - single turbo, now up to 150BHP]