sluggish duetto

Bulletguy wrote:the 'turbo' is a total joke and the 'banana' engine is possibly the worst Ford designed.

Any specific reasons why you say this?

The turbo is tiny, but the advantage there is that it gets up to speed really quickly, so although the power gain is not great, I never noticed any lag. On my current VW T5 the turbo appears to be bigger, and it is ~much~ less progressive, with noticeable lag.

-mojo- wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:the 'turbo' is a total joke and the 'banana' engine is possibly the worst Ford designed.

Any specific reasons why you say this?

The turbo is tiny, but the advantage there is that it gets up to speed really quickly, so although the power gain is not great, I never noticed any lag. On my current VW T5 the turbo appears to be bigger, and it is ~much~ less progressive, with noticeable lag.

Any Ford mechanic will tell you the 'banana' engine is something Ford would prefer to forget. It was always seen as a backward step. My old 'Trannie' (direct injection) was fortunately not the banana type and a very different engine to drive with.....more like driving a car than a van. The turbo on the 2.5TDi simply isn't sufficient enough for what basically is quite a heavy van.....even more when full laden. Given Fords well established history in performance engineering it's all the more surprising and they could have done much much more.

As I said I believe from what i've heard from owners that the later 2.2TDCi engine fitted in the Mk6 onward is a very different engine though I would like to try one. A friends son has one for his washing machine business so is often pulling around weighty objects and he is very pleased with it......and his car is a 500+bhp Cosworth Sierra so is used to performance!!

Well, never having driven my Duetto more than 20 miles, and only on A roads I didn't have an opinion until now.
Just drove From Newport to Manchester fully loaded for 15 days away and maintained a steady 60-65 all the way including hills and used about seven sixteenths of a tank from full.
Considering it's a heavy automatic I don't think it can be considered sluggish at all.

mikethebike wrote:Hi Celticbiker, It sounds like yours is a turbo.
But steady cruising on motorways is not the problem.
Its getting all that weight up to speed when joining the motorway and avoiding the lorries at 58 mph.Its all about acceleration times.
regards
Mike

BIB Mike is bang on. In fact I had a bit of an embarrassing experience last year when going off on my travels, van fully loaded and the motorway junction is only a few miles from where I live so hadn't been on the road very long. Drove down the junction to join the motorway watching my offside mirror, big HGV approaching but some way behind so I pulled on. I was in 4th gear and accelerating but within seconds this HGV was up my rear end with lights flashing and one not very happy truck driver! I had totally misjudged his speed plus not taken into consideration the weight I was pulling. Modern day HGV's have amazingly powerful engines.

As you rightly say it's all about getting that weight up to speed and acceleration which on the 2.5TDi is not as efficient as what it could be. I would like to try the 2.2TDCi to see the difference.

Just come back from Shell Island, will go back. My partner is from Anglesey so he new how to get there. We came across a very long steep winding hill but our little Duetto made it OK, the other drivers were probably cursing us, but never mind. Usually my partner will let them pass.

Saw the photo of the drive away awning. We did take a gazebo with us but it was useless, so we are thinking of a drive away awning. Not sure how these go on. There is a metal strip under the canopy does it slide in there? I will let him see the photo to see what he thinks of them.

Bulletguy wrote:
As you rightly say it's all about getting that weight up to speed and acceleration which on the 2.5TDi is not as efficient as what it could be.

Yeah, it's true that acceleration isn't exactly breathtaking, though the Duetto is significantly heavier than mine, which was SWB and didn't have the extra weight of the shower cubicle in the back.

The comment about efficiency is probably true too - it surprised me that even after I'd taken the viscous fan off, it always seemed to run a bit cooler than I would expect. But for hill climbing that's probably not a bad thing - our previous (Pinto-engined) Transit would heat up quite alarmingly on long mountain climbs...

HildaB wrote:Just come back from Shell Island, will go back. My partner is from Anglesey so he new how to get there. We came across a very long steep winding hill but our little Duetto made it OK, the other drivers were probably cursing us, but never mind. Usually my partner will let them pass.

Saw the photo of the drive away awning. We did take a gazebo with us but it was useless, so we are thinking of a drive away awning. Not sure how these go on. There is a metal strip under the canopy does it slide in there? I will let him see the photo to see what he thinks of them.

Yes the metal "u" shaped strip acts like a gutter rail whereby you can use what is known as a figure of 8 rail which clips/slides into said gutter rail and you thread your drive away awning porch bead into which then when everything is tightened up holds the awning to the van. You will need to buy the figure of 8 rails separately. 3 of which should do the trick.

When you want to drive away just unclip the fig 8 rails from the gutter rail leaving them attached to your awning ready to be clipped back in place when you return.

I would suggest having a couple of fluroscent pegs as markers so you know the exact position which your van needs to be returned to otherwise some cursing may occur as the awning won't line up.

Hope this helps

Ours has a banana engine and after a proper service will do 75 on the flat and is happy at 65, that is enough to keep up with traffic, I was worried about holding up traffic but have had not caused a problem so far.

Hilda B wrote "Saw the photo of the drive away awning. We did take a gazebo with us but it was useless, so we are thinking of a drive away awning. Not sure how these go on. There is a metal strip under the canopy does it slide in there? I will let him see the photo to see what he thinks of them. "

My Sister (who's van it is) didnt pack the figure 8 track - if she has it- so I just attached awning cord to each end of the awning 'extension', threw them over the top of the van and pegged them down the other side. Doing it like this also made it really easy lining the van up again, when returning from trips out
Used my new rock pegs for the first time and what a difference they made. Bought from ebay, cant remember the price but well worth it ( by Pyramid - looks as if I had 'shaky hand' syndrome when I was taking the picture )

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The van is due for MOT next month so Sis is going to get them to investigate the 'sluggishness'. She said she had the fuel filter changed last time it was in the Garage, but it never made any difference

Moira