Has anyone converted to propane or LPG (1 Viewer)

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hello!
welcome to the site!
(you may want to introduce yourself)

there has been at least one cruiserhead from the UK who did the conversion and reported on it here IIRC.
 
I have done the conversion to LPG just over 2 years ago, to be honest, I just hate running on petrol :)

Any questions you may have I will respond
 
converting to anything but petrol is something i'm going to do on most of the cars I own... can't stand sending money that way, bio diesel mostly for me in a few years, haven't thought about lpg but doesn't sound bad
 
I have done the conversion to LPG just over 2 years ago, to be honest, I just hate running on petrol :)

Any questions you may have I will respond

How is the wheeling over there in england, I was born there and do make it back every few years. My cousins friend wheels a disco over there and says most of the better stuff is in scottland but the best, closest, stuff is over in France. I'll be getting married at a castle in scottland in july and found a 4x4 experience site that my fiance is going to let me do for a couple days as a present.
 
yer its not bad over here but no where near as good as the USA... Ya bastards :)

as for the LPG I can fill up my tank with 75 litres of LPG for £28 if the same for petrol its about £70
 
yer its not bad over here but no where near as good as the USA... Ya bastards :)

as for the LPG I can fill up my tank with 75 litres of LPG for £28 if the same for petrol its about £70

WOW! You got my attention:idea: DETAILS PLEASE:D I have thought about a conversion but havent done any research yet, with those numbers Im all ears! Thanks in advance for the deatails.
 
WOW! You got my attention:idea: DETAILS PLEASE:D I have thought about a conversion but havent done any research yet, with those numbers Im all ears! Thanks in advance for the deatails.
ya got to remember though gas is still $3+ more a gallon over there than over here so the numbers wouldn't be that good here... I do believe gas is still cheaper than lpg to buy here
 
ya got to remember though gas is still $3+ more a gallon over there than over here so the numbers wouldn't be that good here... I do believe gas is still cheaper than lpg to buy here

Damn:doh: I guess your right... I got an intsant :banana: when I saw those figures! I could buy alot of goodies with savings like that:grinpimp:
 
I was going to convert my 80 to be able to run on either gasoline or CNG (compressed natural gas) but my wife freaked when she found out the conversion would cost around $2000. We make CNG where I work and could buy it for $1/gal. Figured that I could make the money back in one year but she didn't see it that way.
 
Many people run on LPG here due to high petrol prices and silly salaries.

Pros:
One big 'pro'. This fuel is cheaper than gas in Poland

Cons:
It depends on many factors, like the type of installation you have and your luck. First of all you can have a sort of backfire or detonation that can shatter your intake manifold, MAF sensor and some other stuff. This applies to the older (cheaper) type of LPG equipment which mixes LPG with air before the intake. There is also this newer type of LPG, where the fuel is injected straight into the cylinder, but I wonder if it doesn't require some sort of drilling of the engine head.

Another problem could be worse mileage. It is also dependent on the type of engine. Unfortunately smaller engines have smaller differences between petrol/LPG. If LPG is, let's say, 50% cheaper than petrol, but the LPG consumption is greater, then your savings could be of 30%.

There are problems with the petrol injectors sometimes. When the vehicle switches to LPG, the injectors, obviously, don't work. So they are not cooled and lubed by petrol and they could heat up and seize. You know that we have 6 of them and they are not cheap.

The next thing also depends on the type of installation, but in general the LPG systems are not designed to emulate all the engine sensors. When you switch to LPG you have to switch off the injectors, you add a different fuel which needs a different A/F ratio. Your o2 sensor senses it and the ECU learns stupid data. Later there are such problems that when you switch to petrol the engine runs like crap. You cannot run without petrol. The truck must start on petrol and it runs on it until it gets up to normal temperature, then it switches to LPG.

Another problem is the lack of space. An LPG container the size of a tire is the minimum. So where do you put the spare tire? So do you want a propane container rubbing against rocks? Not necessarily. You end up putting the LPG tank in the trunk and you can't put third row seats, can't fold the second row, and have less space. In order to have LPG for long distances you would need to have a tank like a boiler tank, from door to door. Do you want to loose all that space?

Another aspect is another fuel system to take care of. Change components, filters, have less space in the engine bay etc.

Of course I am being pessimistic here, but these are common aspects of LPG. I wouldn't personally install such a thing if I lived in the US, with your fuel prices and salaries. Plus, while wheeling you want to keep your rig as simple and reliable as possible.

LPG is the best solution for a cheap commuter. Buy an '86 corolla with a small (non ECU-controlled) engine, put the cheapest LPG and drive it basically for free.

Wow, that was a long post.
 
Good job with that post. You probably cleared up a lot of questions for us here in the US. I too was curious about LP. Sounds great when you talk about anything cheaper than petrol or as we here call it Gas.

Are there environmental benefits with petrol?
 
Just adding some facts to MikePL's LPG quotes.


LPG here in the UK is less than half the cost of petrol, LPG 39pence and petrol is 90pence and over.
If you have a proper installation which has its own engine managment system it will run faultlessly, I have done over 350000 miles on LPG with no problems at all.

It does have to start on petrol, but is fully automated, it starts on petrol and as soon as the engine has warmed a little which is far less than a quarter of a mile (it does not need to get to normal opperating temp) as soon as it reaches the set temp it switches to LPG faultlessly, the only way you can tell that its swapped over is by the LPG gauge turns to green, you don't get any back fires/splutters etc, you can switch from LPG to gas at any time with a puch of a button, when it swaps to petrol you don't get any problems whatsoever.

The injectors are drilled into the inlet manifold which will need the manifold to be removed, the LPG tank is mounted where the spare wheel is kept, it fitts tightly up against the underneath of the chassis and I have never once scrapped it, but if your a real wheeling nutter :) then I would probably have a shield put over the tank.

I have had the system on my cruiser for over two years, you are asked to have it checked once a year, all they do is plug a laptop into the LPG managment socket and it come up on screen how its running and if any alarms have been activated, all parameters are adjusted via the software on the laptop, which is cool.

I don't notice any difference in power between running on petrol or LPG
perhaps its because the 4.5 is an old fashioned engine and quite laid back, perhaps if LPG was installed in a more refined and sporty engine, perhaps then you would notice when swapping over, I can still pull 120mph on LPG

Because you are running on LPG which does not produce much carbon, the oil change times can be lengthened as the oil stays cleaner for much longer, its really good to see the oil on the dip stick when you check it, as it's the same colour as when you changed the oil, as new! :)

LPG also adds about £1000 to the resale value of the car.
 
Thanks for all the info. on LPG:)

MikePL & Snowolf
 
What LPG system are you using Snowwolf? Link?
 
ya got to remember though gas is still $3+ more a gallon over there than over here so the numbers wouldn't be that good here... I do believe gas is still cheaper than lpg to buy here

$3+ a gallon? Sounds like my local gas station. Today's price was $3.42/gal... Welcome to San Francisco! Maybe LPG would do well here...
 
Snowwolf are you still able to run off of gasoline in the event you run out of LPG? I noticed you said you start with gasoline and then move to LPG once it is warmed up.
 
The last time I check on Propane prices with out some fleet pricing it was like 90 cents a pound. propane weighs 4.1-4.2 lbs per gallon. so it will cost more per gallon to power your rig. This is in Boulder Colorado and I have not checked for road taxed propane or CNG. Might want to look around first before you decide to go that route. Not much CNG around either, would need to look where to get the fuel when traveling.
Either way here in the good old USA, it seems like petrochemical energy is priced closely against each other. To me Diesel is the way to go.
I have a friend from Ireland. He exported a 80 over to Scotland. While he was in Scotland, converted to propane(it made sense there). He returned here with his 80(with the propane system intact). I think he used it once in all the years he was here in the States. Mostly to play with, our gas(petrol) was cheaper to run than propane here.
The fuel companies have us over a barrel so to speak.
 
I too was looking at this conversion when I purchased my cruiser, turnoffs were the higher fuel cost and the two main companies were less than interested in selling me a "kit" to do the conversion. Average prices were $2k, but that is without the labor. That and I think both of the companies I was looking at were in Canada... Basically it was an extra engine management system with TPI type injectors, the cost of the system plus the tank plus an "at home" CNG compressor pump...

Diesel "used" to be cheap until the freight/truckers started passing the buck down to consumers, now Diesel is more expensive than Gas and fluctuates less than Gasoline prices do...
 

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