s1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee426/motorprop/

well, have gone to this site and managed to post these 2 photos

The issue is, have owned this 1986 Ford F250 truck with a 6.9 diesel V8 since 1993. I now use it on average twice a month to move items for private use . My mileage on it is below 1000 per year. Have found out that as of next Jan, it will incur a £100 daily charge just to move due to new LEZ ( London Emissions Zone ) legislation. I have secure off road covered parking for it in North London . It is taxed / MOT / Insured and due to the low miles, it's carbon footprint is minuscule .

To pay this charge every time is uneconomic, so these are my options , unless members have better ideas ;

1) Flog it - but am trying to avoid. Just spent £2500 sorting out bodywork so it looks awesome . It is LHD so should sell to somebody in Europe

2) Fit a DPF to make it compliant, but have been quoted £4000 . Plus they choke the motor

3) change the engine / trannie to that from a modern motor - again major cost and that will make it ' modified ' for insurance

4) Claim I'm a ' traveller ' , as ' showground ' vehicles are exempt. I kid you not

5) Avoid trunk routes from next year, as enforcement is by camera and they are only sited on trunk routes. Possible . Or use a continental number plate....

6) Ship it to the Libyan rebels as it will take a machine gun on the bed, easily

Anybody got useful advice ? I have owned this for many years and it's harming no-one...

Boo Hoo to Boris . I cycle 50 miles a week and have solar panels / rainwater recycling in my house. This law is an ass...

Thy're brutal regs to be applying retrospectively. I was going to suggest that you look at the 7.3 powerjoke (which was the direct replacement for the 6.9) in the hope that engine mounts, bellhousing etc would match up easily. But to be compliant it would need to be a very recent one (just before the 7.3 was replaced by the 6.0). Unfortunately, the later 7.3s bear no resemblence to the 6.9 so the swap would be uneconomic.

Boris hasn't proved to be a barrel of laughs, has he?

Just be thankful you don't run HGV's in to London. The industry (apart from the big boys) is already on it's knees with the price of diesel and come 2012 you either have to stump up £4k for a conversion or buy a newish truck. More price rises for goods on the way within the M25.

My objection is the speed of the incremental emmisions regs. Euro 4 from 2012 then euro 5 from 2014, euro 6 engines are available now but these all cost an arm and a leg above euro 3 and I can't believe euro 6 is that much cleaner than euro 4.

In response to your particular problem, you have pretty much covered all the options, i'd sell it.

Edited by PatrickO on 14/04/2011 at 17:21

My thinking was to buy say s 3 litre diesel with auto trannie from a scrapped car , but have been told by several sources that it's too complicated , ECU / wheel sensors . Is it that hard ? my thinking was that a newer 6 cyl 3.0 litre will be so much smaller than a 6.9 V8 , that a swap shouldn't be that hard ? Is there a word for ' reverse shoehorn ' ?