Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[old iron]

Mulling over either a transit Jennings campervan of 1972 vintage or a Morris J2 Paralanian of 1963 vintage. Both almost mint condition ready for use and likely would see me content for the next ten years.
Question I am asking is how reliable is the Ford V4 engine, read bits and bobs suggesting it's not that good? I guess other Ford mechanicals are OK but this particular campervan has an automatic gearbox, bonus for me but are these any good?

As for the Morris, lovely old thing fully restored and fitted with the Sherpa 1800cc engine. Much more old fashioned style to the transit but that is part of its charm imo.

I would be interested in your comments.
Both camper and are very over priced so I will have to sharpen my haggle skilled

[Kenham]

I really liked the Mk1 Transit, I had three altogether, one had the Perkins diesel, one was the V4 and one was the later with the 1600 cross flow engine. Without any doubt the most under powered was the Perkins but was very reliable, without any doubt the most unreliable was the V4. I did not buy it new but it had not done many miles when I bought it but I never knew its history. It was a good truck when it was running right but alas that was never very often, trying to keep the water inside the engine was always a problem. I became very good at changing heads , having heads skimmed , always had a stock of head gaskets etc. It was such a shame as it was a lovely truck and nice to drive with plenty of power, perhaps it had a hard life before I got it, they do not like overheating at all. One other well known problem was the hexagonal drive shaft to the distributor I seem to remember it wore away into a round shaft. The 1600 cross flow was the best of my Transits and was always very reliable, lasted a lot longer than the van which rusted faster than I could drive it! Saying that there must have been thousands of V4's in various vehicles that never had problems so its just a matter of luck I suppose. I think the BMC 1800 was pretty bullet proof in my experience.

[baconsdozen]

I've had my My Mk1 camper for about a dozen years.I had two more a long while back. I've heard all sorts of stories about how terrible that engine is and I've rebuilt mine and a few others.My camper has never let me down and I've done tens of thousands of miles in it and other V4s. They are prone to vibration and rough running as the balance shaft doesn't damp out the inherent out of balance forces,they dont take kindly to being revved hard cold when thick oil puts a strain on the oil pump drive and over revving when cold can damage the fibre timing gear (you can buy steel ones but they are expensive and noisy). They have enough torque to pull a reasonably heavy body but an automatic might prove slow. I converted mine to disc brakes and overdrive,its no road burner but trundles about quite happily,it seems the in thing now to rubbish some older british vehicles,but I'm old enough to remember when the V4 transit came out and what a revolution they were compared to the competition. Design has moved on a bit in the last fifty years though.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

[Kenham]

They certainly were a revolution in design when introduced, I wouldn't mind one now. Dad drove a new twin wheel truck where he worked for many miles and I can't remember that ever having problems. Most commercials have a hard time from new with many different drivers I would think campers have hopefully had more considerate owners.

[baconsdozen]

I drove a nearly new twin wheel down a motorway and we got an indicated 80 on the speedo ,that and the interior size of the thing really was something streets ahead of the competition at the time.
That also means that 1, I had far less mechanical sympathy then,than I have now and 2, If I was overtaken by a group of teenagers grinning from ear to ear while thacking the hell out a van with no belts etc, I'd forget that I've done exactly that and probably get all self righteous.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

[old iron]

Interesting comments, thanks for posting.
I am leaning more toward the Morris with the reliability of the 'B' series engine and the old World charm style of the J2. Hopefully I can soon find a buyer for my Vauxhall 20/60 saloon and then make a deal with the seller of the J2. Will post up in due course which way it all falls into place.

[Rick]

[Dipster]

In my opinion the transit is streets ahead of the J2. I had experience of both when they were current (fyi the JU250 that followed on from the J2 was awful). If you drove a J2 after a Transit you really felt as though you had traveled back in time.

But as your possible purchase is a V4 auto.... The V4 was not good, rough running and quite thirsty. I had one seize solid on me. this was quite a surprise as I was humming along at about 60mph at the time! The drive to the oil pump failed. And the auto is probably a 3 speed. I think this could mean you struggle on inclines. Not to mention hills!

Frankly I would buy neither and look for a good Bedford CF!

[old iron]

[old iron]