LPG - talk at me

[RichardMoss]

I've run half a dozen cars on LPG over the years without any real issues.  All were single point systems which I installed myself - apart from one "professionally" fitted kit on an XJ40, which was installed more amateurishly than my efforts.

 

Any newly installed kit will take a bit of fine-tuning but should deliver significant fuel savings  thereafter.

 

 

 

I can confirm that there is a power loss on the single point system. It's fine for milling about, but on the back roads you have to switch it off for serious hooning.

Unless you have a nice, bug engine to begin with   On 827s, XJ40s and V6 Voyagers I never missed the little bit of power I lost.  You can feel it on smaller engined cars, though

[lisbon_road]

An additional thought, I have a 1967 car and when I start it up (occasionally) the pong is horrendous.  I reckon LPG is the best way to sort that out and improve the emissions on an older car no end, and can even be done with a closed loop conversion without too much difficulty.

 

I never had any trouble with the gas freezing (or not flowing for any reason) including when the car was buried in snow.  Might be because the LPG in the UK has more propane than in mainland Europe where I believe there is more butane, but you get more mpg as a result.

[Des]

Diesel is just dismal but LPG is for winners. For anything modern enough to have circuit boards, sensors and all that rubbish then the complicated injection system is needed, and have a word with yourself for driving a stupid modern. For proper motors a simple basic mixer system is easy to work out, the Blos mixer works very well, just remember that the spark plug gaps quoted in the handbook are for running on the expensive stuff, need closing up a shade for the dry fuel.

[Angry Sheep]

Thanks for the advice shiters. Suspect it'll come down to whether anything decent on LPG is available if and when I sell the BMW. It's certainly not worth LPGing the BMW - the conversion would be more than I paid for the car.

 

Suspect diesel is a more sensible idea, but I'm yet to find anything that wouldn't bore me straight away that my insurance company wouldn't screw me over for. I reckon a Pug 306 diesel would be the ideal compromise but even these seem to be silly to insure.

[gordonbennet]

The Subaru conversion cost £200 more than the car did to buy, thats the beauty of doing it, you get a stupidly cheap and powerful car that gives you Diesel economy without the Massey Ferguson soundtrack, people can't give well maintained bomb proof gas guzzlers away quickly enough, then they'll spend umpteen thousands to buy a boring pile of shit that saves them £15 a week on fuel.

 

Never mind, its a niche market, and to be honest probably best kept that way, if it became popular dick turpin would only hammer the tax on it.

[philsford]

I have had 2 vectra 1.8 factory LPG conversions and they are ace. I did about 100k in each one and put 5 gearboxes in the first one and 2 in the second one, but they ran great on gas in fact I couldn't tell the difference. They switch to gas from cold within a couple of mins and do around 28mpg on it. I can get LPG for 60p a litre round my way. I had previously had a single point mondeo st24 which didn't like LPG unless it was properly warm, a short trip from cold was expensive as you struggled to get it switched over.

If Cadbury's hadn't made the vauxhall gearboxes I would have another tomorrow but if your doing normal miles instead of the large number I do each day you would probably have no issues.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I can't help but think you're going to have to keep that old car 5/6yrs+ before you reap the benefits GB?

Surely LPG is too expensive in the UK to get back any returns quickly enough unless you do 35k a year?

I love a big petrol engine too, but my man-maths quickly told me a small, cheap diesel is a better bet for a daily drive.

[gordonbennet]

I can't help but think you're going to have to keep that old car 5/6yrs+ before you reap the benefits GB?

Surely LPG is too expensive in the UK to get back any returns quickly enough unless you do 35k a year?

I love a big petrol engine too, but my man-maths quickly told me a small, cheap diesel is a better bet for a daily drive.

 

Its in good enough condition, i think, to make those 5 years, and thats my minimum plan for it, hopefully more, have spent a considerable amount of time checking the car over, serviced thoroughly bumper to bumper and now as rustproofed as i can make it, still got one more auto box fluid change to do and if it doesn't rain i'll do that tomorrow.

Had the Merc around 12 years, similarly overmaintained, and that shows no sign of not lasting another 18....which is more than can be said for me.

 

The Benz although made in 96 is arguably an 80s design, the Subbie is a 52 but model is 90's, thats as new as i want to go, and hope never to have to own another piece of modern shit as long as i'm upright.

 

I liked older Diesels, but i can't stand 4 cyl versions at all except for Toyotas 3 litre, and the newer you get the more they destroyed what made Diesels so desirable, their tough simplicity...i also like proper auto boxes and they're not so common in Diesels unless you go Merc or BMW or heavy 4x4, the other problem with more modern Diesels is that twats believed the bullshit that oil changes could be left for 20k miles, and finding properly maintained oil burners is bloody near impossible...then you get into keyless go, automated manuals, electric parking brakes and other shit i just aint buying into, ever.

 

Fuel tax is too high on Petrol/Diesel, break even or getting into profit isn't the only criteria to me, basically once converted then fuel costs are no longer an issue, legitimitely paying less tax to dick turpin every time i fill up gives me great pleasure.

 

As i said its not everybodys cup of tea, but for us and our situation its as good as it gets for now.

[warninglight]

Diesels are grim these days, they kill dual mass flywheels and injectors for fun, and even particulate filters etc. are heading towards shite money, they're a minefield in my opinion.

 

A good simple understressed petrol will be smoother, sound nicer, give a much better useable band of torque and still sound good when you hammer it, as has been said, the more powerful the better really. You missed a trick with my C70 T5 I sold 6 weeks back for £950, fitted with Prins vapour injection (which for a long time was regarded as the best of the best kits, only lagging behind in the software stakes now, the hardware is still top notch)

 

It was the 240bhp model, I bought it with 170k on it, I think it had been on the magic juice since around 100k. I put 30,000 miles on it in 18 months, totally trouble free and 99% of it on lpg. The only downside to it was the boot space, not a huge boot on them to start with and the 80l cylinder tank really didn't help, but in fuel savings over that 30k, and the extra saleability at the end more than made up for that. I only sold it due to a lack of practical boot space, I had even fitted a towbar and roof bars to excuse it! So my advice, get a powerful large saloon or estate, and make sure it's been converted for a few years so you know it's good. There's no reason for any car to throw engine lights on etc. when running on a proper conversion, so don't believe any of that tripe that sellers try to feed you.

 

And if you're looking at LPGd Volvos, avoid the factory fit Bi Fuels - they use ancient (obsolete, unreliable, £££) Necam Koltec parts, and were only available with the 140bhp engine anyway. I knew all this but bought a V70 Bi Fuel blind after the seller claiming it was a conversion. Turns out it's original factory spec up to the gas vapouriser, after that it has a new ECU and injectors. And the EML light is on for a lambda sensor. And it's gutless. And it changes back to petrol on kickdown (sign of a knackered vapouriser)

 

So either take my advice (like I didn't) or, don't, and buy my V70!

 

Multipoint/sequential is the way to go on 80s motors onwards, I also run my series Landy on a very simple single point system, which is good but to run on petrol you really need to tweak the timing each time.