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Old 05 January 2012, 10:19 AM
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steve71
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Default LPG on a Subaru impreza wrx

What are people's thoughts on a lpg impreza,I have looked on the net and it looks like performance wise they still run the same as petrol
Old 05 January 2012, 03:13 PM
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Reshard1977
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I bought a bugeye WRX in December and converted it to LPG, with what i was told is the best system on the market, the BRC kit. There was a problem with it being hesitant and slightly down on power. I've been back to the LPG fitter who to be fair is still trying to figure out why this is happening. It seems a missfire i had on petrol which is hardly noticiable, is amplified in LPG. But, something tells me the issue is bigger than this.

My advice would be find someone that has done the converstion on the exact same car/model as yours, make sure the fitter is someone you feel like you can get along with. Because once you have paid, you will need to go back. It seems lots of other need to go back and forth a number of times before the cars run right.

Basically, it can work, but its normally a long road to that point.

If you can find a fitter that is competitivly priced and done one or better yet, a few conversations to the same car as yours, I'd say go with it. It is SO much cheaper to run :-)
Old 05 January 2012, 03:34 PM
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mines been on a year now runs superb no problems
Old 05 January 2012, 04:28 PM
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10bats
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have had no problems fitting lpg to subarus as long as engine is good to start with.
Old 26 February 2012, 07:12 PM
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Thumbs up

I've decided rather than selling the Scoob to convert it to LPG; I cant cope with 19mpg anymore.....it's not that I cant afford it, I just dont think I'm getting my moneys worth.

So who do you recommend for the conversion?
Old 26 June 2012, 12:21 PM
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acf8181
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Sorry to revive an old thread, but am considering converting my '01 WRX

Anyone done the conversion themselves? Whats involved? And where's good to buy the kit from?
Old 26 June 2012, 01:54 PM
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I'm still interested too......anyone out there with any up-to-date info on suppliers/installers?

I've got a rebuilt engine going in this week so I'd like to get the conversion done early on in its life.....
Old 03 July 2012, 03:10 PM
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steeveebee
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I had mine done 2 years ago but went for the cheap option as I didn't know much about them then. If you do get one go for the BRC system as they are better to tune. Installers tend to just do a basic set up but I've had my car (01 WRX) ecutek'd and lpg tuned and found that the car runs quicker on LPG as its around 115ron as opposed to the tesco99 I use on the petrol side. It does take a little while to set it up properly but when you think pound for pound I get around 40-45 mpg and the car has around 10% more power on gas (as agreed by both tuners), it's a no brainer.
One thing I didn't do though was get a flashlube kit as my installer mentioned something about not needing one ( pressure related or something....dont ask me to go into detail as my tuning knowledge is limited) but as my car is now at API getting forged, David has now informed me of valve seat wear so I am looking at a new BRC valve saver system that apparantly adjusts the feed according to the style of driving (thats all I know atm until my 'gas' man finds out more details). In short, I wish I'd had mine done over 6 years ago when I first bought it
Old 03 July 2012, 05:50 PM
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legb4rsk
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So it sounds a reasonable thing to do.
Any idea on prices & how long/miles it would take to make economic sense?

Cheers
Old 03 July 2012, 06:44 PM
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I've still LPG kit which is removed from my wagon for sale

We are run before around 1 year and has been OK,but don't expect bigger gains against V-power or T99,you will loose against 99RON fuel

Here is good thread

http://www.lpgforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=7364

Jura
Old 03 July 2012, 08:27 PM
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steeveebee
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It costs me around £44 to put in 58 litres of lpg (75.9p) for near enough the same miles as Tesco99 saving nearly £40 per t99 fill up. The saving depends on how many miles you do or how long you keep the car. The cost of the installation also depends on who you go to but there are plenty of links if you look for them. Also one definate plus is that you can fully decat your car including up pipe and breeze through the MOT if that is an issue and this in turn (along with a remap) opens up power. I had mine installed originally so I could save a few quid on motorway driving but found that after it was tuned properly, I didn't need to compromise. Oh and for those wondering where the tank goes, I opted for a 60lt tank in my spare wheel well.....at the expense of a couple of inches lost heightwise. I know that this thread may provoke the 'I know more than you' syndrome but I don't need to explain myself technically, I'm more than happy with my set up and it's not the best out there. It just means that as an average guy on an average wage, I don't have to worry when I overtake those slow tractors etc..
Old 08 July 2012, 10:22 AM
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I made enquirys of how much to fit LPG to my UK2000 Wagon the prices i got where:

We have a number of options for your vehicle depending on tank configuration and the type of system that is fitted. As a guide our prices are as follows;



4 cylinder AC Stagg system from £996 inc vat

6 cylinder AC Stagg system from £1380 inc vat

8 cylinder AC Stagg system from £1500 inc vat



or alternatively use the market leading premium system;



4 cylinder BRC premium installation at £1199 inc vat

6 cylinder BRC premium installation at £1680 inc vat

8 cylinder BRC premium installation at £1860 inc vat


So at that price I would be looking at keeping the car for a few years just to get the cost back of fitting.
Old 08 July 2012, 12:46 PM
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Tenby
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how many miles are you doing? an average driver will probably make that back in a year or so
Old 08 July 2012, 02:22 PM
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All I will say is fit a flash lube kit to the installation.


we have had to change numerous cylinder heads due to valve seat recession and going well out of shim range due to this, takes quite a good few thousand miles to effect the way the car runs.

First symptoms

Uneven Idle speeds
Stalling when Cold, typically pulling up to road junctions
Crap performance
Old 09 July 2012, 11:48 AM
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Originally Posted by Tenby
how many miles are you doing? an average driver will probably make that back in a year or so
I tend to only cover 8-10K a year if that since i mainly commute on the bike.
Old 03 August 2012, 10:09 AM
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Hi
I'm in the process of selling my legnum vr4 which runs on lpg and removing the kit and swapping to a 54 plate wrx wagon. I've been warned that one cylinder runs hotter than the others and that this can be affect the lpg install. Do you blokes know anything about all that? The system is a zavoli one by the way
Old 03 August 2012, 03:00 PM
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ex-mitsi
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...............actually, it'll be a 4 cylinder zavoli kit as the one on my vr4 does 5,6,7(?)+8 cylinders
Old 17 January 2013, 07:56 AM
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i have ran mine for 4 year on LPG no problems, its a 4 cylinder zavoli kit, just change the filter every 10K or less they only cost pennies and have the system plugged in every 20K to have the fuel trims checked ans reset if necessary
Old 17 January 2013, 08:23 AM
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Originally Posted by steeveebee
It costs me around £44 to put in 58 litres of lpg (75.9p) for near enough the same miles as Tesco99 saving nearly £40 per t99 fill up. The saving depends on how many miles you do or how long you keep the car. The cost of the installation also depends on who you go to but there are plenty of links if you look for them. Also one definate plus is that you can fully decat your car including up pipe and breeze through the MOT if that is an issue and this in turn (along with a remap) opens up power. I had mine installed originally so I could save a few quid on motorway driving but found that after it was tuned properly, I didn't need to compromise. Oh and for those wondering where the tank goes, I opted for a 60lt tank in my spare wheel well.....at the expense of a couple of inches lost heightwise. I know that this thread may provoke the 'I know more than you' syndrome but I don't need to explain myself technically, I'm more than happy with my set up and it's not the best out there. It just means that as an average guy on an average wage, I don't have to worry when I overtake those slow tractors etc..
So by your figures at circa 25mpg and circa £1200 to fit, your at break even at around 7500 miles, which is not to be sniffed at.

Please feel free to correct my maths.
Old 17 January 2013, 01:32 PM
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Originally Posted by L3YMS
I should add having had some experience of LPG personally I would buy a second mode of transport thats better on fuel and save the scoob as a toy. Thats what I do anyway to combat fuel/ wear&tear/ mileage depreciation based expenses/ risk of damage etc. to the subaru.
Valid point, i always keep a banger anyway, but it's nice to have a scoob as a daily if it can be done for half the cost, i may do this with my type r though if i ever get it back together, and it's a good way to beat the immissions laws that will no doubt be getting stricter in the coming years.
Old 05 December 2015, 12:59 PM
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arumdevil
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Originally Posted by steeveebee
I had mine done 2 years ago but went for the cheap option as I didn't know much about them then. If you do get one go for the BRC system as they are better to tune. Installers tend to just do a basic set up but I've had my car (01 WRX) ecutek'd and lpg tuned and found that the car runs quicker on LPG as its around 115ron as opposed to the tesco99 I use on the petrol side. It does take a little while to set it up properly but when you think pound for pound I get around 40-45 mpg and the car has around 10% more power on gas (as agreed by both tuners), it's a no brainer.
One thing I didn't do though was get a flashlube kit as my installer mentioned something about not needing one ( pressure related or something....dont ask me to go into detail as my tuning knowledge is limited) but as my car is now at API getting forged, David has now informed me of valve seat wear so I am looking at a new BRC valve saver system that apparantly adjusts the feed according to the style of driving (thats all I know atm until my 'gas' man finds out more details). In short, I wish I'd had mine done over 6 years ago when I first bought it
Sorry to drag up an old thread, AGAIN... but I was interested in your comments steve about increased power on LPG. IS that purely because of the power increase afforded by the full decat, or was there more to it than that? and was the remap done running on LPG itself, or remapped on petrol?

I have a BRC system on my 2005 Legacy GT twinscroll wagon and while it runs great, I do notice a slight drop in power. The system is not decatted though.
Old 05 December 2015, 04:10 PM
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LPG doen't burn aswell as fuel. Its normal for you to be done abit on power, seen a few tests and you might end up loosing a few bhp. But does it really matter, if you want to drive fast switch back to petrol.
Old 05 December 2015, 05:04 PM
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arumdevil
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I'm aware of that and no it doesn't really matter as it's not a lot, but I was specifically asking that user I quoted as I found his comments interesting and would like to learn more about what he did/had done, if possible.
Old 05 December 2015, 06:38 PM
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Your best sending him a private message, letting him know you have commented, as he has 15 posts in 7 years. So he might have not seen the thread.
Old 05 December 2015, 09:29 PM
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yeah I did notice that after I'd posted, cheers
Old 06 December 2015, 08:59 AM
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My mates golf R32 is running lpg,
The car runs slightly reduced power on lpg. Last dyno session he did a few runs on petrol and lpg and running lpg was 9 bhp and 12ftlbs down.

Not a huge amount considering the massive fuel saving costs.

Check out his stealthy filler cap under the number plate
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Old 06 December 2015, 11:58 AM
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urban
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Originally Posted by InTurbo
My mates golf R32 is running lpg,
The car runs slightly reduced power on lpg. Last dyno session he did a few runs on petrol and lpg and running lpg was 9 bhp and 12ftlbs down.

Not a huge amount considering the massive fuel saving costs.
I'm not so sure about the massive savings?
Perhaps if you're doing a large number of miles per year.
LPG is 70 ppl nowadays , petrol 102 ppl, and its a grand to install LPG.
I'm not knocking lpg as I had my old CLK55 running on lpg.
Old 06 December 2015, 12:34 PM
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arumdevil
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well I had the kit on a previous legacy GT-B (276bhp and circa 18mpg on petrol) so it made sense to move it to the new car (twinscroll legacy GT, same power circa 24mpg on petrol). So seeing as I covered the cost of the it years ago it was a no brainer. but on petrol I was paying 22p/mile on the twinscroll, whereas on LPG taking into account cost of £20 V-power every so often, and flashlue for the valve seats, it's costing me 12p/mile, so quite a decent saving and that's just on short journeys / country lanes, on a run it's more like 9-10p/mile. I did 4000 miles in Europe this summer and there it's even cheaper, and Super UL more expensive so I saved about £400 in fuel on that trip alone.

But you're right if you do low miles it's not really worth it. You also have to keep the car for a good few years for it to make sense.

InTurbo: yes the reduction in power isn't much on LPG - enough that I can tell the difference, but for the 45% reduction in cost it's still worth it, and I can always switch to petrol at the press of a button if I need to confuse some chav in an impreza (just kidding guys ).

I saw a guy with the same swivvel-number plate LPG filler last time I filled up - it was a tidy blobeye WRX wagon. very stealth

Last edited by arumdevil; 06 December 2015 at 12:36 PM.
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