Arnage Green label engine vs 6.75 old faithful ?
Discussion
Holy thread revival here....
I am seriously considering chopping in my L322 Range Rover for an Arnage next year when I start back at work and save up a bit. The RR has the BMW 4.4 engine on gas - its a fantastic lump that I know well and that I know copes perfectly with LPG with no reliability worries or valve recession.
Ideally I'd have a Green Label Arnage due to it having the same engine, and get it gassed. However, part of me is sorely tempted by the fact that prices seem pretty much even for the 6.75 version due to the greater number of them for sale.... anyone know if the old bruiser takes well to being put on LPG?
I am seriously considering chopping in my L322 Range Rover for an Arnage next year when I start back at work and save up a bit. The RR has the BMW 4.4 engine on gas - its a fantastic lump that I know well and that I know copes perfectly with LPG with no reliability worries or valve recession.
Ideally I'd have a Green Label Arnage due to it having the same engine, and get it gassed. However, part of me is sorely tempted by the fact that prices seem pretty much even for the 6.75 version due to the greater number of them for sale.... anyone know if the old bruiser takes well to being put on LPG?
it would depend mainly on the LPG conversion.
I have worked on maybe 50 "professionally" converted cars over the years and I'd say the quality of the conversion varied from "poor" to "you shouldn't even start the engine". I have never seen one which I would describe as "acceptable" or better.
highlights have been main control ecu mounted inside the air filter box and glued under a front wheelarch with no-more-nails.
If done properly, there should be no problems, but this would take at least a week's worth of engineering time, something that the industry doesn't seem to understand - its all about "quick dollar"
I have worked on maybe 50 "professionally" converted cars over the years and I'd say the quality of the conversion varied from "poor" to "you shouldn't even start the engine". I have never seen one which I would describe as "acceptable" or better.
highlights have been main control ecu mounted inside the air filter box and glued under a front wheelarch with no-more-nails.
If done properly, there should be no problems, but this would take at least a week's worth of engineering time, something that the industry doesn't seem to understand - its all about "quick dollar"
2woody said:
it would depend mainly on the LPG conversion.
I have worked on maybe 50 "professionally" converted cars over the years and I'd say the quality of the conversion varied from "poor" to "you shouldn't even start the engine". I have never seen one which I would describe as "acceptable" or better.
highlights have been main control ecu mounted inside the air filter box and glued under a front wheelarch with no-more-nails.
If done properly, there should be no problems, but this would take at least a week's worth of engineering time, something that the industry doesn't seem to understand - its all about "quick dollar"
I couldn't agree more - as an owner of a LPG converted vehicle, I am definitely not a fan - a Jeep Commander with the 5.7 Hemi - when I bought it, it already had a conversion by the previous owner - decent one (Prinz or something) for a lot of money. Tidily fitted too. But significantly less power on LPG, reliability issues, requirement to service the system and also the question mark over long term effects on the engine.I have worked on maybe 50 "professionally" converted cars over the years and I'd say the quality of the conversion varied from "poor" to "you shouldn't even start the engine". I have never seen one which I would describe as "acceptable" or better.
highlights have been main control ecu mounted inside the air filter box and glued under a front wheelarch with no-more-nails.
If done properly, there should be no problems, but this would take at least a week's worth of engineering time, something that the industry doesn't seem to understand - its all about "quick dollar"
So it wasn't long before I elected to switch off the LPG permanently and I've done the last 20K miles exclusively on Petrol. Infact, I tried to switch over to LPG the other day and it doesn't want to switch over anymore, something's gone wrong with it.
If you add everything up - cost of conversion, cost of servicing, potential cost of engine repairs. I would also say, for an Arnage, probably additional depreciation in value because I think, when you come to sell it again, the existence of an LPG conversion is going to turn more people off than it turns on; the fact that LPG is a pain to buy as it isn't sold in so many places and, for me, when I was running it, I used to clock up extra miles going to find it; that the vehicle will achieve lower MPG on LPG; that these vehicles still use a surprising amount of Petrol, even if you are apparently only running on LPG (on start up, and also if the ECU has been set to pump a bit of petrol in under hard acceleration).
When you take all this into account - I've been unable to see a good enough saving to justify keeping it running. It just feels psychologically better because when you fill up, because it costs less per Litre. But in reality, I don't think it's worth it - and it's a contracting market because there are very few big petrol engines being fitted to vehicles any more - only to niche and ultra high performance models - so I think there will be less and less places to buy it as time rolls on.
Edited by matt5791 on Saturday 19th November 00:07
Sounds like you've had a bad experience then to be honest.
The pre-fitted Prinz system on my Range Rover has always seemed perfectly ok to me, no appreciable power loss and seems an extremely high quality install. Several bills in the paperwork for the previous owner suggest that whilst that reliability hasnt always been the case, but i seem to have got lucky. I'm also lucky in that there was a very cheap LPG depot right near my work, but even if I had to go a few miles afield to find one, the fact that I saved £4k in fuel over 20k system maintenance/fettling-free miles of motoring can't be sniffed at!!
Sounds to me like I should, if I go through with getting an Arnage, I probably should stick to the 4.4 though rather than chancing my wallet and sanity with a 6.8...
The pre-fitted Prinz system on my Range Rover has always seemed perfectly ok to me, no appreciable power loss and seems an extremely high quality install. Several bills in the paperwork for the previous owner suggest that whilst that reliability hasnt always been the case, but i seem to have got lucky. I'm also lucky in that there was a very cheap LPG depot right near my work, but even if I had to go a few miles afield to find one, the fact that I saved £4k in fuel over 20k system maintenance/fettling-free miles of motoring can't be sniffed at!!
Sounds to me like I should, if I go through with getting an Arnage, I probably should stick to the 4.4 though rather than chancing my wallet and sanity with a 6.8...
ChemicalChaos said:
Sounds like you've had a bad experience then to be honest.
The pre-fitted Prinz system on my Range Rover has always seemed perfectly ok to me, no appreciable power loss and seems an extremely high quality install. Several bills in the paperwork for the previous owner suggest that whilst that reliability hasnt always been the case, but i seem to have got lucky. I'm also lucky in that there was a very cheap LPG depot right near my work, but even if I had to go a few miles afield to find one, the fact that I saved £4k in fuel over 20k system maintenance/fettling-free miles of motoring can't be sniffed at!!
Sounds to me like I should, if I go through with getting an Arnage, I probably should stick to the 4.4 though rather than chancing my wallet and sanity with a 6.8...
I think I have had a bad experience. But, I would say that a very good friend of mine has a Range Rover 4.4. When he bought it the first thing he did was have a conversion to LPG as he drives London-Scotland a lot. It did, ultimately, require a extensive top end engine re-build - it was after a few miles, but the LPG did, in the end, toast it. It was re-built by a land rover specialist in Worcestershire - can't remember how much that cost, he did tell me.The pre-fitted Prinz system on my Range Rover has always seemed perfectly ok to me, no appreciable power loss and seems an extremely high quality install. Several bills in the paperwork for the previous owner suggest that whilst that reliability hasnt always been the case, but i seem to have got lucky. I'm also lucky in that there was a very cheap LPG depot right near my work, but even if I had to go a few miles afield to find one, the fact that I saved £4k in fuel over 20k system maintenance/fettling-free miles of motoring can't be sniffed at!!
Sounds to me like I should, if I go through with getting an Arnage, I probably should stick to the 4.4 though rather than chancing my wallet and sanity with a 6.8...
If you want more info on this, I can find out the detail if you're interested. It's worth knowing if you are running the same car.
matt5791 said:
I think I have had a bad experience. But, I would say that a very good friend of mine has a Range Rover 4.4. When he bought it the first thing he did was have a conversion to LPG as he drives London-Scotland a lot. It did, ultimately, require a extensive top end engine re-build - it was after a few miles, but the LPG did, in the end, toast it. It was re-built by a land rover specialist in Worcestershire - can't remember how much that cost, he did tell me.
If you want more info on this, I can find out the detail if you're interested. It's worth knowing if you are running the same car.
That might well be the Jaguar 4.4 engine - they have sold valve seats and do get toasted by LPG. Mine is a BMW engine like the Bentley, BMW engines have extremely hard valve and seats and are legendary for withstanding LPG with no seat erosion and no requirement for flashlube.If you want more info on this, I can find out the detail if you're interested. It's worth knowing if you are running the same car.
Balmoral Green said:
The sales figures tell it all, as soon as they put the old engine into the new car, sales quadrupled, whilst the Green Label quietly faded away
Whilst that was great for the brand then, for the owners, the truth now is that the Green Label runs fine, and the Red Labels are all in the shop with engine issues!Edited by Balmoral Green on Thursday 8th January 19:08
And now, Bentley uses the Audi 4.4 V8 … in the Conti and Flying Spur and Bentayga, and they're more successful than the Mulsanne 6.75 … which has been dropped ... and the only reason to drop a Line, is because of poor sale. And the 4.4 V8 cars are selling like hot cakes, and the Bentley brand are more successful, than Bentley ever was before they were bought by VW ... so there is that .... !!!
And let's be honest here, Bentley were doing so well with the 6.75, that they had to be bought out by another company - cough!
So other than a vain sense of nostalgia, I'm just not seeing a case of the 6.75 unreliable motor, over the Greens!
Edited by utubecomment21 on Thursday 13th January 14:28
Edited by utubecomment21 on Thursday 13th January 14:31
Edited by utubecomment21 on Thursday 13th January 14:35
utubecomment21 said:
the Conti and Flying Spur and Bentayga, and they're more successful than the Mulsanne 6.75 … which has been dropped ... and the only reason to drop a Line,
The Mulsanne was a very different car than the others you've mentioned. Unique to Bentley and much more hand built than the others, which are all based on other VAG platforms. Poor sales isn't the only reason to drop a line, poor profits due to lack of shared parts will no doubt come in to it.I think you're being very unfair on the 6¾, we're talking about the engine with the longest production run in history here (I've excluded the Chevy small block as it wasn't fitted to cars for part of it's production). Will these Audi V8's be around in 61 years?
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