Petem95

I seem to read a lot of bad stuff about LPG conversion cars - and know a couple of people who've had them and they've tended to stall a lot.

Anyone on here had one?

Do you tend to get much lower MPG and less performance running on gas?

Any problems with insurance companies with having a converted car?

Franx

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=464721

My Rangie occasionally died just after you started it, but it was usually ok if you gave it a few good revs to get things moving after turning the key.
Didn't stall though.....that said it was an automatic

Slightly lower mpg, although I believe the new injected systems are a lot better in that respect - more similar power compared to petrol with the new systems as well.
No idea whether petrol was more economical tbh. It's not an enticing prospect to use petrol when the thing gets 13mpg, so I very rarely did

Only thing with insurance, is that you'll need the fitting/certification certificate. Don't buy it without, as you'll never get it recertified, and you can't get insurance without.

What car is it?

Monkey200

I've got it on my 200SX, will be similar to a Scoob, 4 pot, turbo, 280bhp. There are a few others with it in the SXOC as well. I also know of a Fiat Coupe 20VT.

You can hardly tell, mine is setup to be on gas below 4000rpm and Optimax after that, so if your just crusing around I'm getting over 20MPG from a 34.9p/L fuel I broke even in under 16,000 and as I do ~36K/year in my car its well worth it.

LPG loves boost, its not prone to detonation, has a higher RON than optimax, so you can have a timing map for super and use that for Gas, fuelling is done by the LPG ECU but the timing goes off the stock setup.

I'd advise the OMVL Dream system, as used in the 2004 BTCC LPG Civic. make sure you use 8mm piping and the larger vapouriser and it should fuel to full revs as long as you have under 300bhp, although it may be pushed a little harder. If your using full revs I'd get a WI kit as there is no inlet port cooling so in hard use you may scorch the valves (not sure how good they are in a Scoob).

Insurance is fine as long as its installed and certified by a LPGA member garage.

MY97_Toy

My Brother used diesels for years in his van until last year. He bought a Dual Fuel Astra Van (Same as car system)? Anyway that van was sold at auction yesterday as he had nothing but trouble with the system.

When things go wrong they cost, heavily. Sensors, Injectors and Controllers. the later is VERY expensive to replace. The head gasket needed replacement due to the LPG system failing.

This is just an example of a bad experience (this ws a facory build LPG Vehicle) others may not be an issue. But my bro has just bough another diesel and is happy that the economy is fine and that repairs to the LPG vehicle have negated the savings of LPG.

EvoBarry

I had a Prelude on lpg years ago, and reliability and running are down to the setup mostly, a poorly setup conversion will give hassles, a well setup won't. Find a reputable fitter and make sure its right, from the start.

My mate (who did my conversion - qualified fitter etc) gave up with it in the end cos he got sick of having to fix other peoples conversions. There are some real shoddy ones out there so beware.

All in tho, its good stuff, better for the environment, far better for the engines, and still works out about half the cost per mile (not taking into account payback periods of the conversion cost)

Petem95

Interesting. Certainly can make a big saving if its a well fitted conversion then from the sound of things.

The car I was looking at was an Audi A4 2.0 litre which had been converted almost from new. As it happens the job I was going to take which wouldve required me to get a car to do lots of miles in has no fallen through, so looks like I wont be getting one just yet.

Its a pity more cars dont have factory fit LPG installs - seems there are quite a few Volvos with duel-fuel, but I wouldnt have a Volvo.