Old shite and LPG

[Bobthebeard]

Greetings fellow peasants!

Has anyone any useful advice on using our normal mode of transportation with LPG?? Is the conversion worth doing for a medium to long term shiter?.... 20K per year/ versus massive hassle? Dunno!

[Bobthebeard]

Incidentally, I used to own a Montego efi if that inspires anyone to answer! I don't own it now of course, it was shite... Horrible oversteer and woohoo wheel spin...

[Morgan84]

You forgot to mention beige or brown

[Bobthebeard]

It was metallic blue.... Does that count? Looked great, but sadly dissolved in the rain

 

[Morgan84]

My cousin had a B plated light blue met Montego estate for years,and at one point had that and a beige one. They were then replaced by 'The beast ' which was a young MK3 Cavalier SRi !

 

I remember the blue Montego started to dissolve and gain brown streaks !

[michael1703]

something with s.u. carb(s) is cheap to lpg, plenty of bits on ebay, lpg tanks from boats normally floating* about on ebay pretty cheaply

[Bobthebeard]

Lol.... Brown streaks kinda came as standard after six months!

[Morgan84]

I'm sure the price of gas will soon be close behind petrol prices,but at the moment,if you have a thirsty car in regular use and you do a high milage,it's still worth doing,if you can do it reasonably cheaply

[Bobthebeard]

Guess that is the big worry... That LPG prices will rise!

[Morgan84]

In the 1980's,diesels were seen as the eco way forwards,and it was encouraged to have diesel.My dad bought a new motorhome back in 1989 ( Talbot Express Autohomes Merlin 2 ) and that was diesel,but then,it was about 29p a litre,now its about 1.40 a litre !

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yeah but the average wage now is about £26k, back in the 80's it was 2/6d

[Morgan84]

Diesel was always the cheaper fuel,but now its a few pennys more - well,more tax ..... * walks of muttering about tax* ....

[Mr_Bo11ox]

tax

[Des]

I've been running LPG for about 6 or 7 years, and It's saved me thousands, there's always been an expectation that it will increase in price to match petrol, I think I used to pay 33p ish a litre, now it's 75p ish. So I used to save about 30p a litre, now I save about 60p, looking at it that way, it's got cheaper.

It's a big win to run old stuff on gas, in theory you lose some power and MPG, but in reality most older carb or injection systems are past their best so the difference is not so marked, I've seen an improvement in the last thing I converted, it was carbed, now when started cold on gas it runs like it has injection only without a rich mixture going all homocidal on the engine, and drives noticably smoother. The best thing about gas, while stations that keep it are few and far between, the pump is usually empty while all the others are stacked with 3+ deep queues of mindless zombies.

[CortinaDave]

^^ This. I've run a few old shitters on lpg and its great. I'd do it again if I could find somewhere reasonably locally who'd do the job at around the grand mark. Quite a few places down south do but in Scotland they all seem to want 2k plus and they can sod off.

 

If you can get it done at the right price on the right car its an epic win. I ran an 8 valve calibra on the stuff for 40,000 trouble free miles of 37p a litre motoring in about 2006. Had the kit shifted to a Probe which didn't take to it nearly so well - had issues with the system backfiring ofetn and blowing the MAF etc.

[HillmanImp]

Yeah, Auschwitz the white Audi only runs on LPG as the carb pisses fuel all over the exhaust. It did about 25mpg on LPG but at 65p a litre its VFM. Volksy has it now whilst I am smoking around in a 2.6 petrol.......

[RichardMoss]

I've been running LPG for about 6 or 7 years, and It's saved me thousands, there's always been an expectation that it will increase in price to match petrol, I think I used to pay 33p ish a litre, now it's 75p ish. So I used to save about 30p a litre, now I save about 60p, looking at it that way, it's got cheaper.

It's a big win to run old stuff on gas, in theory you lose some power and MPG, but in reality most older carb or injection systems are past their best so the difference is not so marked, I've seen an improvement in the last thing I converted, it was carbed, now when started cold on gas it runs like it has injection only without a rich mixture going all homocidal on the engine, and drives noticably smoother. The best thing about gas, while stations that keep it are few and far between, the pump is usually empty while all the others are stacked with 3+ deep queues of mindless zombies.

Spot on. I've run plenty of large engined cars on LPG over the last 8 years and saved a fortune. I always loved driving XJ40s for about the same cost per mile as a Metro!

[rml2345]

Often thought about having Telly done but it depends on mileage. I'd guess unless you're doing 12k a year or more it'd take ages to make it pay.

[RichardMoss]

I got a cheap (new) kit on ebay and fitted it myself. The payback time was just 5,000 miles and then I was in profit.

[DSdriver]

I could be shot down here but AFAIK the tax on LPG is the same as petrol but it is cheaper to produce? My Safari which is my daily driver has an LPG conversion, does about 120 miles to a tank full (about 25 litres). Usually buy Shell LPG as others have quality control issues. LPG does not have the same RON rating as petrol so you have to give it more welly to keep up with the others, but still much cheaper to run. Goes well with the £0 historic road tax and classic insurance for economy motoring, balances out the higher maintenance costs of keeping an old banger up to scratch.

Open wide by DSdriver, on Flickr

The LPG tank is under the boot floor in what used to be the footwell for the kiddy seats, petrol tank is under the back seat.

LPG tank by DSdriver, on Flickr

[richardthestag]

that looks good ^^

 

Range Rover 3.9 runs great on LPG And over the last 80k miles it has averaged nearly 15mpg which is pretty good even with the narrowing cost against unleaded. Still makes it more economical than the asthmatic dizzle rangies and I don't generally drive like miss daisy. Nowt wrong with dizzle rangies off road, they are brilliant but I prefer the v8 grunt for daily driving.

 

I bought a single point, closed loop (i have lambda sensors that can help control lpg flow) setup with a vertical toroidal tank that sits where the spare wheel went from tinleytech for about £650. Installed it myself in a weekend and then got a certificate of compliance from TTech for the insurance company.

 

On a full 65litre fill I can get 180 miles of mixed round town and motorway driving. On a good long run I can easily see 220 miles of 70ish mph motoring.

 

It was the trusty steed of choice for thestag family holiday to south of france last year and loaded up with mrs, 3 herberts, 4 bikes and a ton of luggage managed 14.5mpg there and back at 130clicks on the old peage.

 

So I say YAY for LPG but be careful who does your install if you dont do it yourself and personnally I would avoid 2nd hand lpg bits . LPG is nasty stuff and needs to be installed properly if you are to avoid distributing parts of your motor over a large area.

[Volksy]

As mentioned previously i'm running the White Audi 100CC on gas, for ultimate mingebag motoring I can't beat it, cheap fuel, Insurance at £107 per year, and given I don't actually use a car that often, it's perfect for me.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

The tax on LPG is much lower than petrol or diesel. It's just over 20p per litre, including VAT.

 

There is a rolling 3-4 year commitment to LPG taxation in the UK budget, and I think I have also come across EU guidelines stipulating that the retail price of LPG as a vehicle fuel should be around half the price of petrol.

 

Getting the conversion right is key- there are some very mediocre systems and a few shit installers out there but, once you've got something that works well, you're saving money and, crucially, you end up actually getting MORE out of your shite as the marginal cost of a journey is that bit lower (for me, an LPG conversion can be the difference between staying at home on a Sunday or having a traditional dinner at a pub with mates in Leicester- 60 miles from here).

[RichardMoss]

LPG does not have the same RON rating as petrol so you have to give it more welly to keep up with the others, but still much cheaper to run.

LPG has a higher octane rating than petrol - typically around 110 RON. This makes it very resistant to pinking and you can normally advance the ignition by at least 5 degrees (if not more) to take advantage if this to increase the power produced. It's like running on 5 star petrol (if anyone else is old enough to remember that!).