LPG

[SpeckledJim]

jmb88 said:

Currently out in Germany spending some time at my better half's, and the garage round the corner has LPG for 0.719€/litre, that equates to about 57.5p/litre I think? If only British prices were like that... petrol is about the same price as back home. I've noticed quite a lot of adverts for LPG out here as well, and the majority of fuel stations seem to sell it. How come it's never caught on like this in the UK?

£0.62 at my local Calor centre, so not far off.

Certainly, running a petrol at half price negates ALL appeal of a diesel.

[Iamnotkloot]

I recently ran a V6 Alfa GTV on LPG. Did a commute to Chester (from Manchester) for about 2 years in it. It was great!

Only downside was the lack of boot space as the cylinder sat in there.

What it did mean was I ran a 25 mpg, lovely sounding Alfa for buttons (relatively speaking) so I would love to have another LPG car.

However, it was already converted when I bought it so the savings were baked in from the off.

[wuckfitracing]

Just an update after running my 2003 Suzuki grand vitara 2.0 for a couple if months now I am getting the equivalent of 46 mpg. This is mainly town stop start driving.

[dave_s13]

Bonefish Blues said:

Beats me - I can't see the downside in most cases.

It's purely down to initial conversion costs surely?

I've thought about doing it on my family bus, a 2003 94k mile Ford Galaxy 2.3 Petrol. Averages approx 26mpg and i'm pretty sure we will keep it for a good few years. It would cost £1k+ to get a decent conversion done though. Probably 50% of the car value.

It's also sods law that I'd get it done then something big would break and write it off.

If you could get a conversion installed for nearer £500 I'd gt it done.

[jmb88]

My conversion on the A6 4.2 V8 still isn't quite finished. Tank installed, all pipework done right through to injectors, vaporiser plumbed in, just the wiring up to do now. Cost to date about £500 I think, just whatever getting the ecu and injectors wired up costs to go onto that now. No doubt it'll need post-cat lambda sensor emulators or something and a bit of tuning to keep EML light off but main objective is just to get it running on gas and sort all those things afterwards.

[Mr Taxpayer]

I'm running a 225bhp WRX Impreza Wagon on LPG. I had the conversion done a year ago for £1270nd have covered 17,000 trouble free miles since. There's a 50l tank (holds about 40l) in the spare wheel well that I get ~200 miles out of. I have been scrupulously measuring mileage and LPG used over the time, I'm getting 24.53mpg on LPG.

Yes I could drive a more economical diesel, but show me a 4-door diesel estate that will deliver the same smiles per mile...

Edited by Mr Taxpayer on Friday 9th May 10:22

[Ace-T]

Another lpg recent convert here: yesterday in fact.

Jag X350 XJ6 with a Prins system. Need to get it to a specialist to have it servicesd and checked out. If anyone is interested I will do a readers cars thingy.

[Challo]

Ace-T said:

Another lpg recent convert here: yesterday in fact.

Jag X350 XJ6 with a Prins system. Need to get it to a specialist to have it servicesd and checked out. If anyone is interested I will do a readers cars thingy.

Could I ask how much it cost for the conversion.

[Mr Taxpayer]

LPG conversion varies from £800 to £1500 for a 4cyl. Add £250-500 for a 6 or 8cyl because you need to buy and instal more hardware. Don't know of a petrol engined car that can't be done.
Price varies according to fitting centre. It takes about 3 1/2 to 4 man-days to do the conversion. So expect to lose your car for a working week. There is a place in South Wales that has applied Lean engineering techniques to the fitting process and can convert a car in a working day.
Plenty more info here.
http://www.lpginfo.co.uk/forum/
http://www.lpgforum.co.uk/

[Ace-T]

Challo said:

Could I ask how much it cost for the conversion.

Ah sorry, a convert to using lpg not converting the car. That was done before I bought it on Saturday.

[andrewrob]

I ran a Peugeot 406 V6 for 7 years covering 80000 miles that I'd bought already converted. Car only cost me £1600 and I've carried the tank over into my next car which is an E39 540. It cost me about £1200 to convert (installed the tank myself and got it checked when the installer did the rest of the installation).

Can't tell the difference between it running on petrol and gas, I've timed a load of 0-60 runs using the Toque app on my phone (uses GPS data so not sure how accurate) and the times were always identical.

I use a Tartarini system, I've also got the software which is very easy to use if you ever want to change anything without having to take it in.
This is what the software looks like

[jmb88]

had a good text off my dad earlier:

"Wiring almost finished: tank and lambda sensors to wire in. Engine still running. No MIL lamp problems yet. System should give correct lambda emulation to ECU without buying new part."

So all being well, I'll have the old girl back on Friday or Saturday. Looking forward to running a nice V8 for 40% less than petrol cost :-) wiring will be done tomorrow but the PHer who's doing it for me will want to check the system's working properly after the autotune has been done on it.

Out of interest, does anyone else use www.findlpg.co.uk ? I've found it pretty useful so far, will certainly be putting it to the test Sunday - Tuesday and seeing how accurate the info on it really is.

[andrewrob]

jmb88 said:

had a good text off my dad earlier:


Out of interest, does anyone else use www.findlpg.co.uk ? I've found it pretty useful so far, will certainly be putting it to the test Sunday - Tuesday and seeing how accurate the info on it really is.

I use FillLPG, users can update the price info and it shows when the price was last updated too
http://www.filllpg.co.uk/index.php?page=lpg.php

[Bonefish Blues]

andrewrob said:

I use FillLPG, users can update the price info and it shows when the price was last updated too
http://www.filllpg.co.uk/index.php?page=lpg.php

Me too.

[edward1]

The issue I see in future is with the trend towards direct injection form lots of manufactures. there are some kits out there but are vehicle specific, so my plans of a XFR on gas when I next come to change are out the window, looks like I'd have to settle for the SV8 if I go down that route.

Just to point out that the comment in an earlier post about any petrol engined car being able to be converted isn't strictly true.

[rswift]

Ace-T said:

Another lpg recent convert here: yesterday in fact.

Jag X350 XJ6 with a Prins system. Need to get it to a specialist to have it servicesd and checked out. If anyone is interested I will do a readers cars thingy.

I have had a x350 on gas for the last 4 years/50k miles. It's a 4.2 V8. Last week on a 400 mile motorway blast, 4 up and cruising a little higher than I should it returned the equivelant of 48MPG !.....gas is 69p a litre near me (Which is at Toddington services on the M1)

[Mr Taxpayer]

edward1 said:

The issue I see in future is with the trend towards direct injection form lots of manufactures. there are some kits out there but are vehicle specific, so my plans of a XFR on gas when I next come to change are out the window, looks like I'd have to settle for the SV8 if I go down that route.

Just to point out that the comment in an earlier post about any petrol engined car being able to be converted isn't strictly true.

OK not strictly true. But between a 1967 Series IIA Landrover with a single-point injection system, a 6.7l V8 Dodge Ram and 1.2 Nissan Micra there aren't that many gaps to fall through. The harware may prove tricky to install in a Smart being as there's nowhere to put the tank (apart from the roof?).

[jmb88]

Mr Taxpayer said:

OK not strictly true. But between a 1967 Series IIA Landrover with a single-point injection system, a 6.7l V8 Dodge Ram and 1.2 Nissan Micra there aren't that many gaps to fall through. The harware may prove tricky to install in a Smart being as there's nowhere to put the tank (apart from the roof?).

I've seen them for sale...

[Tony427]

Just have to share the smugness and feeling of welbeing.

LPG at 64.9 ppl at my local BP site.

An additional 10 ppl discount loyalty card.

Double nectar points.

I'm 55 and I don't remember ever buying fuel this cheap.

I love LPG.

Cheers,

Tony

[Mr Taxpayer]

Tony427 said:

Just have to share the smugness and feeling of welbeing.

LPG at 64.9 ppl at my local BP site.

An additional 10 ppl discount loyalty card.

Double nectar points.

I'm 55 and I don't remember ever buying fuel this cheap.

I love LPG.

Cheers,

Tony
Don't forget to keep a Santander 123 credit card in the car for fuel purchases. 3% off is another 2ppl and close to 5ppl for the occasional petrol top-up.