Gas conversions Sacrelidge?

[mufdady]

Im in bulgaria at the moment and gas conversions are so cheap, connection can be put inside the boot on the opposite side to spout for the petrol tank.
But is this blasphemy?
any thought appreciated
Thanx Paul

[eLSerbera]

By gas you mean LPG/propane/autogas/GPL?

Most people would deride it because you will lose alittle HP, but I think you would have to be elitist and earn more money than the almighty not to think about it if you are keeping the car long term.

[RUSSELLM]

With current fuel prices......Gas round here is £2.13 v petrol at £5.00 a gallon

In my case

6000 miles @ 13mpg @ £5.00 pence is £2307.65
6000 miles @ 13mpg @ £2.13 pence is £983.07

£1324.58 a year saving plus a bit of grip for the rear wheels

That said, what frugal person would ever by a Cerbera in the first place ?

Edited by RUSSELLM on Thursday 8th May 14:18

[SimonSparrow]

I've long thought about doing this, and with LPG vapour injection I think it could be viable. Remember the Jaguar V6 powered sports cars at Bedford Autodrome have been dedicated LPG powered from day 1.

My car in NZ has run dedicated LPG for over 13 years, I used to race and hillclimb it too.

Its a good clean fuel with a high octane rating, so set up well could be great. Beware that most LPG kits only mimic fuel injection timing for the LPG injectors. LPG burns slower than petrol so needs more initial ignition advance. The only way to do this on the Cerbera is a re-map or custom ECU.

Not modifying the ignition advance will lead to bad running and poor economy on LPG.

[Byker28i]

Hows LPG filling stations around your way. Not many around my way:
http://www.getlpg.org.uk/

[mufdady]

I've got a Saab V6 fitted with LPG, fitted with separate injectors. Cant tell the difference. The system is by Icom, doent use a vapouriser to turn liquid into gas, but burns the LPG in liqiud form as though it was petrol.
Thinking of bringing a kit back with me. Hence garnering opinions.
Conventional system though

[SimonSparrow]

mufdady said:

I've got a Saab V6 fitted with LPG, fitted with separate injectors. Cant tell the difference. The system is by Icom, doent use a vapouriser to turn liquid into gas, but burns the LPG in liqiud form as though it was petrol.
Thinking of bringing a kit back with me. Hence garnering opinions.
Conventional system though

Direct LPG injection would be best of all, due to the cooling effect of liquid LPG vaporising in the inlet tract. If these people have got a good system that works, could be the best option.

[methodwares]

I think the biggest draw back is the tank. It needs to be pressurized and as such is very heavy steel. Also, you can't run it empty. It always needs to be like 10% full or something. I was looking into composite tanks a while back, there was a company (Swedish?) that was working on one, but didn't look like it was on the market.

[Mr.Cerbera]

Byker28i said:

Hows LPG filling stations around your way. Not many around my way:
http://www.getlpg.org.uk/

.... and they don't let you on Chunnel crossings !!

[SimonSparrow]

methodwares said:

I think the biggest draw back is the tank. It needs to be pressurized and as such is very heavy steel. Also, you can't run it empty. It always needs to be like 10% full or something. I was looking into composite tanks a while back, there was a company (Swedish?) that was working on one, but didn't look like it was on the market.

Yeah, that is a bit of a problem. If I ever do mine, I'll be looking to go dedicated LPG, so will remove the petrol tank and put the LPG tank in its place. It'll still need attaching to the chassis, but shouldn't be too bad.

This is exactly what I did with my car in NZ, and the LPG tank fits where the petrol one used to be.

[SimonSparrow]

TVR Moneypit said:

So has anyone actually done this to a TVR?

As has been said, if the car is a keeper, it kinda makes sense.

I think its been done to a Griff/Chim and also pretty sure a Cerbera, all some time ago. Not too many details on PH.

When I look at my fuel bill over the last five years, it does look attractive. Maybe a project for later next year.

[mufdady]

They wont let you on euro tunnel
but ferry's ok
the filler would be inside the boot so they wouldnt know anyway

naughty me

[eLSerbera]

Current LPG conversions are allowed to have the filler inside the vehicle, it must be on the out side the car...

Biggest question is where does the tank go I would not really want to put it in the boot...

[B19GRR]

SimonSparrow said:

mufdady said:

I've got a Saab V6 fitted with LPG, fitted with separate injectors. Cant tell the difference. The system is by Icom, doent use a vapouriser to turn liquid into gas, but burns the LPG in liqiud form as though it was petrol.
Thinking of bringing a kit back with me. Hence garnering opinions.
Conventional system though

Direct LPG injection would be best of all, due to the cooling effect of liquid LPG vaporising in the inlet tract. If these people have got a good system that works, could be the best option.

I've been umming and ahhing about lpg (for lesser cars) for sometime. The direct liquid injection sounds good but I can't find anywhere in the UK that does them (Icom or Vialle LPi) everywhere is all about multipoint sequencial injection which is still gas state based.

Cheers,
Rob

[SimonSparrow]

B19GRR said:

SimonSparrow said:

mufdady said:

I've got a Saab V6 fitted with LPG, fitted with separate injectors. Cant tell the difference. The system is by Icom, doent use a vapouriser to turn liquid into gas, but burns the LPG in liqiud form as though it was petrol.
Thinking of bringing a kit back with me. Hence garnering opinions.
Conventional system though

Direct LPG injection would be best of all, due to the cooling effect of liquid LPG vaporising in the inlet tract. If these people have got a good system that works, could be the best option.

I've been umming and ahhing about lpg (for lesser cars) for sometime. The direct liquid injection sounds good but I can't find anywhere in the UK that does them (Icom or Vialle LPi) everywhere is all about multipoint sequencial injection which is still gas state based.

Cheers,
Rob

If I did the Cerbera, I'd just use the LPG injectors (gas or liquid if its viable) and drive them with either the MBE ECU or an emerald. The latter would be good if still using petrol, as it can have switchable maps.

The best place for the tank is probably the boot unfortunately.

[AlVal]

no congestion charge either

[carl_w]

I think it's a great idea, because it allows you to run a decent petrol car (knowing that diesel is the work of the devil) without ruinous fuel costs. And what with the price of diesel currently running 10p/litre more than ordinary unleaded, I think and hope we will see more of these conversions.

Not enough boot space in the Z4MC unfortunately, but I don't do many miles so it isn't really a problem. Would seriously consider it (LPG, not Z4MC) for a daily driver if I was driving to work.

[markh1]

I had LPG on the Rangie. For a car like that its mad not to have it. It literally was half the price of normal to run. I think I would wait a bit until the technology improved a bit before I thought about sticking it onto a TVR.

[Silvervanman]

Whats the average price for a lpg kit for a v8. Considered it a while back for my aston v8 but decided to keep her just the way god intended ! 13mpg to be precise. Never failed to make me a smile even after emptying £100 quids worth of unleaded into her. And with the cerb getting about 25mpg you'd need to be doing serious miles to notice a saving ? SVM

[RUSSELLM]

25mpg ?

Going to work and back, I get about 15mpg...... At best