LPG

[Ver.4]

wuckfitracing said:

Has anyone fitted it to a Honda Civic with the 1.8 engine and what mpg are you getting.

I have. It is a 06 1.8 se I-Vtec model and it is fantastic. It has a BRC multipoint system installed with the valve lube kit. I bought the car with it already installed.

LPG is 62.9p a litre around here and a full tank is £20.50 or thereabouts. From this I get ~260 miles until the tank is empty. I haven't tried working it out but the car returns 40-42mpg on petrol. My journey is mainly a motorway commute.

This is the second car I have owned that runs on LPG, and after seeing how well they run (pretty much identical to running on petrol), I am considering buying something fun (M3/RS4), and getting it LPG'd so I can afford to run a car I really can enjoy on all types of journeys.

[Tony427]

Bought a tankful of LPG for the Caddy this week, paid 49.9 pence per litre at our local BP site as we had a full discount card for 10 ppl off and the price had just gone down to 59.9 ppl.

Just have to convert the daughter's Alfa 2 litre T spark ( I have all the bits bar the tank already) and the whole family will be "cooking on gas".

Cheers,

Tony

[wuckfitracing]

Ver.4 said:

I have. It is a 06 1.8 se I-Vtec model and it is fantastic. It has a BRC multipoint system installed with the valve lube kit. I bought the car with it already installed.

LPG is 62.9p a litre around here and a full tank is £20.50 or thereabouts. From this I get ~260 miles until the tank is empty. I haven't tried working it out but the car returns 40-42mpg on petrol. My journey is mainly a motorway commute.

This is the second car I have owned that runs on LPG, and after seeing how well they run (pretty much identical to running on petrol), I am considering buying something fun (M3/RS4), and getting it LPG'd so I can afford to run a car I really can enjoy on all types of journeys.

Excellent . My car is exactly the same model as yours. If my calculations are correct thats 64 MPG on petrol equilvalent. I already have my winter hack converted Suzuki Grand Vitara and was just thinking about getting my Civic done.

[DaveCWK]

Tony427 said:

Bought a tankful of LPG for the Caddy this week, paid 49.9 pence per litre at our local BP site as we had a full discount card for 10 ppl off and the price had just gone down to 59.9 ppl.

Just have to convert the daughter's Alfa 2 litre T spark ( I have all the bits bar the tank already) and the whole family will be "cooking on gas".

Cheers,

Tony

This isn't at the BP garage just south of Reading by any chance is it? My last fill up went below 50p per litre too Certainly a great feeling.
Looking on the fillLPG site, there are some garages in Birmingham selling for below 40p!

[ChimpOnGas]

Synchromesh said:

Same at Asda at Cribbs, Bristol.

Paid 52ppl last week in B'ham - £30 fill for over 300 miles in the BMW 325i.

Nice

That's 23.64mpg on gas which assuming you would have paid £1.05p for 95 Ron petrol at the same station on the same day you're enjoying the cost equivalent of....

47.73 Mpg

There can't be many other BMW 325i's out there doing an average of 48 Mpg!!!!

Great result

As we know you'll always burn more gas than petrol due to the difference in energy values by volume between the two fuels.

What would be interesting to know is your average petrol fuel economy when the car is driven in the same way, this will allow you to measure the efficiency of your system.

Lets say you get an average of 30mpg on petrol & 23.64mpg on gas, your BMW 325i is consuming 22% more LPG than petrol to cover the same distance.

Typically the increase in fuel consumption on LPG on a well set up system will be between 20-25% over your petrol figure.

So my assumed 22% would be spot on, but of course we need to know your true petrol economy to make an accurate calculation.

In fear of stating the obvious...people looking to covert should be aware if you're burning 22% more fuel, you'll need to carry 22% more fuel to give you the same range between fills.

More fuel will mean more weight and those LPG tanks have got to go somewhere so luggage space often suffers, but as we can see from the cost equivalent economy Synchromesh is enjoying the positives far out way and negatives.

People dont tend to talk about it much but....The efficiency of your LPG conversion measured as the difference between your petrol & LPG economy figures really matters!

[Quinny]

ChimpOnGas said:

People dont tend to talk about it much but....The efficiency of your LPG conversion measured as the difference between your petrol & LPG economy figures really matters!

When I first got my jeep back in 06.... I had cause to run it on petrol only, for a couple of weeks... Driving with economy in mind it returned around 24 mpg

Driving the same way on gas gives me around 18mpg....

[ChimpOnGas]

Quinny said:

When I first got my jeep back in 06.... I had cause to run it on petrol only, for a couple of weeks... Driving with economy in mind it returned around 24 mpg

Driving the same way on gas gives me around 18mpg....

So that's a 25% increase in fuel consumption from Quinny which sounds very realistic.

ChimpOnGas said:

Typically the increase in fuel consumption on LPG on a well set up system will be between 20-25% over your petrol figure.

I'm currently seeing an 18% increase on my TVR using the Canems system but 15% has always been my target, weather I'll ever achieve it is debatable.

I do have some new tricks up my sleeve though, so who knows it could happen

The reality is, it doesn't matter how good your system is simple chemistry & physics dictate that you'll never improve upon a 15% fuel consumption increase on LPG delivered as a gas, only liquid injection will better the 15% figure.

[Tony427]

DaveCWK said:

Tony427 said:

Bought a tankful of LPG for the Caddy this week, paid 49.9 pence per litre at our local BP site as we had a full discount card for 10 ppl off and the price had just gone down to 59.9 ppl.

Just have to convert the daughter's Alfa 2 litre T spark ( I have all the bits bar the tank already) and the whole family will be "cooking on gas".

Cheers,

Tony

This isn't at the BP garage just south of Reading by any chance is it? My last fill up went below 50p per litre too Certainly a great feeling.
Looking on the fillLPG site, there are some garages in Birmingham selling for below 40p!

Nope this one is in Aldridge and is now down to 54.9 which means that with a loyalty card my average price will be 49.9 and go as low as 44.9 ppl thats 32.04 per gallon. I'm getting about 24 mpg out of the Volvo which gives me a lowest cost of 8.5 pence per mile in fuel.

The Volvo, which was a £1054 purchase some 30k miles ago, and is maintained by me, is used mainly for business and I'm claiming the IR agreed amounts.... 45 pence per mile up to 12k pa iirc. Just 25 pence thereafter.

I have now perfected the smug smile when departing from the forecourt.

Cheers,

Tony

[Mr Taxpayer]

ChimpOnGas said:

Quinny said:

When I first got my jeep back in 06.... I had cause to run it on petrol only, for a couple of weeks... Driving with economy in mind it returned around 24 mpg

Driving the same way on gas gives me around 18mpg....

So that's a 25% increase in fuel consumption from Quinny which sounds very realistic.

ChimpOnGas said:

Typically the increase in fuel consumption on LPG on a well set up system will be between 20-25% over your petrol figure.

I'm currently seeing an 18% increase on my TVR using the Canems system but 15% has always been my target, weather I'll ever achieve it is debatable.

I do have some new tricks up my sleeve though, so who knows it could happen

The reality is, it doesn't matter how good your system is simple chemistry & physics dictate that you'll never improve upon a 15% fuel consumption increase on LPG delivered as a gas, only liquid injection will better the 15% figure.

I fastidously measured the fuel consumption of my WRX Impreza on LPG over 20,000 miles/18 months and recorded 24.43mpg. That was mostly aquired over a series of 100mile journeys comprising 25 miles B-road, 20 miles fast-ish A road and 55miles motorway/dual carriageway.
I haven't measured the consumption on Shell V-power as I can't be arsed!

[Synchromesh]

ChimpOnGas said:

Nice

That's 23.64mpg on gas which assuming you would have paid £1.05p for 95 Ron petrol at the same station on the same day you're enjoying the cost equivalent of....

47.73 Mpg

There can't be many other BMW 325i's out there doing an average of 48 Mpg!!!!

Great result

Cheers

It pretty much consistently returns 23mpg. Just did a 300 mile tank where 95% was motorway with cruise on at 80mph, but only returned 24mpg, which was slightly disappointing.

On the plus side, even on tanks where >50% of my mileage is urban I regularly get 23mpg. My worst was a full tank of hooning round the Oxfordshire countryside with no regard to economy, which yielded 17mpg, but haven't had anything that bad since.

ChimpOnGas said:

As we know you'll always burn more gas than petrol due to the difference in energy values by volume between the two fuels.

What would be interesting to know is your average petrol fuel economy when the car is driven in the same way, this will allow you to measure the efficiency of your system.

Lets say you get an average of 30mpg on petrol & 23.64mpg on gas, your BMW 325i is consuming 22% more LPG than petrol to cover the same distance.

Typically the increase in fuel consumption on LPG on a well set up system will be between 20-25% over your petrol figure.

So my assumed 22% would be spot on, but of course we need to know your true petrol economy to make an accurate calculation.

I could always do a tank on petrol for the sake on comparison, but it would cost nearly twice as much and I'm not £30 interested! However, I did previously own an E36 328i which averaged high-20s, so the 20% figure would fit in.

[RockyBalboa]

I've been running on LPG for over 8 years and 160k miles - BMW 540i Auto Sport Saloon with circa 250k on the clock. Lots more on my site about it: http://www.lpginfo.co.uk

Key points from me are:

- if you have a high powered vehicle - make sure you fit a system which can cope with the power - it shouldn't switch back to petrol unless you want it to do so.
- if you get a conversion done, do not just rely on a company website - ask to speak to actual customers who have had the same car converted.
- if it is a very high power/unusual vehicle, keep in mind that the installer will be using your car as a guinea pig - nothing wrong in that in itself as long as they are good.
- it helps if you are au fait with car mechanics.

[jimmycrackcorn]

I have a 1997 LDV Luton with a dismal 2.5td Pug engine, returns around 12mpg.
I'm going to do an engine swap to a petrol V8 and then convert it to LPG. Is there a particular v8 that takes well to LPG (or even hauling that much weight) or would I be best off buying a spares or repair Land/Range Rover (failed on bodywork or suspension but good engine and box something like that) that's already being converted and just use that?

[handpaper]

jimmycrackcorn said:

I have a 1997 LDV Luton with a dismal 2.5td Pug engine, returns around 12mpg.
I'm going to do an engine swap to a petrol V8 and then convert it to LPG. Is there a particular v8 that takes well to LPG (or even hauling that much weight) or would I be best off buying a spares or repair Land/Range Rover (failed on bodywork or suspension but good engine and box something like that) that's already being converted and just use that?

The best documented conversion will be on the Rover V8, Rangies brought LPG into this country.

[jimmycrackcorn]

That's what I was thinking, that or an LS400. I need to replace my car in the next few months so I might buy one that's got enough MOT to last til the end of the year use it then when I want to do a conversion break it. Should I look for a single point or sequential?

[Mr Taxpayer]

jimmycrackcorn said:

That's what I was thinking, that or an LS400. I need to replace my car in the next few months so I might buy one that's got enough MOT to last til the end of the year use it then when I want to do a conversion break it. Should I look for a single point or sequential?

Best ask on oneof the lpg forums like http://www.lpgforum.co.uk/

IIRC single point systems are only used in a carbouretter system. Anything injected should use a multi-point sequntial system.

[jmb88]

Mr Taxpayer said:

Best ask on oneof the lpg forums like http://www.lpgforum.co.uk/

IIRC single point systems are only used in a carbouretter system. Anything injected should use a multi-point sequntial system.

My old man's got a Range Rover classic on a single point system and it runs OK, just not as efficiently as it might on a multipoint system. It was on that system when he bought it, as was his previous one.