Morning folks, realisation has hit - we have decided to not use the Hearse for the very reason we bought it for! Calling forum guru's for advice and wisdom.
Our annual trip to France, where we are walking our way through the GR3 long distance footpath, this one traces the route of the river Loire (and just happens to go through all the associated wine regions...) is coming up in September, and we're taking the kia Venga CRDI (55-60mpg) rather than the Hearse (20odd mpg). Also diesel is quite a bit cheaper over the pond compared to petrol.
So its time to seriously think about an engine swap, and maybe get some planning done. I'd like to pick the brains of the wise folk on here as to what might be the best swap for this situation
1. Power, it must have enough grunt to be able to haul the hearse along the péage at 80 mph when fitted with campervan interior stuff, like a water tank, fridge, furniture/carpentry etc (read added weight!).
2. Economy, this is reasonably important as we want to use it for european travel, although we do plan on an LPG conversion down the line. But I imagine most engines will be better than this gutless 2.0!
3. Ease and cost of installation, without knowing any different i'm assuming this limits us to the 4cyl engines? The simplest being an n/a 2.3.
I'd love a 6cyl engine, as then there is no turbo lag to deal with (and the noise!!) and in my mind it's be easiest to have the whole car of the engine donor, so bits can be swapped straight over, the 2.0 from the hearse can go back into the donor, which can then be sold or used by us. Part of the reason for obtaining the whole donor car is that I assume i'd need a different gearbox, maybe propshaft, possibly extra sensors/looms etc which can all be swapped over.
The hearse at SF19 with some blokes perched on it. Rather good photo, courtesy of Fatharris of the appropriately named slightly sweary forum, at a slightly sweary event.
Thanks all!