LPG Conversion

kildarejoe

I was considering getting a big yank tank or jag or similar big v 8 or v 12 type of monster to entertain myself at the weekends.

I was wondering if it was worth while converting something like this to run on LPG.
I notice LPG is around €1.00 per L so not that much cheaper than petrol (1.14 in same garage)
I believe that you use a bit more LPG than petrol so probably work out not much difference in cost per mile.

Does anyone have any experience of running LPG in big motors?

Advice appreciated.

crosstownk

LPG is not widely available - so make sure you have guaranteed supplier. Once you keep some petrol in the tank you won't be left stuck.

The year of the car will deterimine the cost of the conversion - the older the car is the cheaper the conversion will be. A lot of newer cars require the intake manifold to be drilled to allow LPG 'injectors' to be fitted. If the car has an engine control unit then it will also need a module inserted to send reading to fool the ECU into thinking that all the petrol components are working as normal. The LPG kit is simple enough to fit to an older car - tank & mounting frame, pipe work, evaporator, mixer, switch, relays and a few other bits and pieces.

I don't know of anywhere that fits them anymore - but the last place I sold a conversion kit to was Mountain View Motors who are located just beyond Ballinascorney in Dublin 01 458 2633 or 01 458 2429.

More infor here > http://www.ilpga.ie/index.htm

kildarejoe

It would be an old enough car, carb not injection.

Any idea of what savings would be over using petrol.
Typically the sort of thing I am thinking of would only do 15 to 20 mpg on a good day, like a mustang or dodge charger.

crosstownk

You'll definitely save even though you'll consume more litres of LPG - it's a good bit cheaper (or at least is used to be). It's ages since I used LPG, but to fill the tank (at the time) cost IR£18 and it would last about 330 miles or so. IIRC, LPG was thirty-something pence per litre. I had a 60 litre gas tank (which can only be 80% filled). Filling the petrol tank back then cost more than twice that and would usually be good for 550 miles. So there was definite savings.

I had the conversion in a 1989 VW Passat 1.6 with a 2E2 carb. Obviously in your case, with a much larger engine size, the range of the tank would be less - so it might be a good idea to get the largest tank that the boot can accomodate.

As you're going to fit it to a carb engine then it should be reasonably priced. Just be sure that there is a mixer available that will suit your carb.

mike65

If boards.ie had been a round 15-20 years ago this would be a popular subject I'd say.

Mike.

kildarejoe

LPG costs 99.9 cent per L in Newbridge, my main question would be if the saving of around 14 cent per L (approx 12%) over petrol be just be eaten up by the LPG giving less mpg. ie if I was doing 20 mpg on petrol but 18 mpg on LPG then it would be almost the same price for fuel per mile traveled.

crosstownk

kildarejoe wrote:

LPG costs 99.9 cent per L in Newbridge, my main question would be if the saving of around 14 cent per L (approx 12%) over petrol be just be eaten up by the LPG giving less mpg. ie if I was doing 20 mpg on petrol but 18 mpg on LPG then it would be almost the same price for fuel per mile traveled.

:eek:

I'd no idea that LPG is so expensive nowadays. Based on my experience with LPG in the past, you will have little or no savings if it's 99.9 cent/l. The cost of the installation would probably be in excess of €1000 (I'm guessing here but it was IR£500-IR£600 10 years ago for a carb conversion kit). At 99.9 cent/l it's take you years to break even (if at all) especially as you'll only be using the car at the weekends. When I was using LPG it was around 2/3 the price of petrol.

RobAMerc

I am fairly sure theres a guy in Co Wicklow still doing them. It might be in Blessington. I looked into it a while back but didnt come to any favoubale conclusion - I think its about £2200 stg for the conversion in UK - by the time the "PADDY" factor has been added on plus euro conversion plus poor mpg, I imagine you'd have to do some serious mileage to get it back.

unkel

mike65 wrote:

If boards.ie had been a round 15-20 years ago this would be a popular subject I'd say

Not so much to do with time, more with government policy on excise duty / VRT policy. LPG is still very popular in some countries, e.g. the Netherlands. In fact even with the diesel revolution in full swing, the number of (especially aftermarket) conversions is on the up. No surprise with current dutch fuel prices:

LPG €0.50/l
Diesel €1.00/l
Petrol €1.40/l

@OP - makes no sense to convert in Ireland tbh. Cost of conversion is high (at least €2k, possibly €3k), variable gain is non existent because of the small price difference 10% cheaper, which is nullified by extra fuel consumption - roughly 10% too

kildarejoe

Looking like its not worth it unless our green hippie politician friends abolish tax on LPG or something.
OOOO well I guess its just take out another mortgage for the petrol bill.

MercMad

Its not worth it !

I looked into it extensively about 4 years ago and the prices were more favourable then. A decent kit installed will cost upwards of €1500 and the car will not be any more economical, obviously, and the tank is smaller.

Another boards user had it in his car up until last year and had the system removed. This particular application allowed the car to run on gas only, no petrol, and he found it very hard to find anywhere that supplied gas !

Trust me............forget it !

Alun

unkel wrote:

No surprise with current dutch fuel prices:
LPG €0.50/l
Diesel €1.00/l
Petrol €1.40/l

Bear in mind though that other things like road tax and the Dutch equivalent of VRT (BPM) are also dependent on fuel type. Also, road tax (and also the 3rd party component of insurance!) is dependent on the weight of the vehicle, so installing a gas tank can often bump you up into another tax class. Add to that either the extra cost of a diesel car or the cost of the LPG conversion and cheaper fuel cost only comes into its own over a certain number of km's per year. The grass on the other side isn't always as green as you might think at first sight.

unkel

Valid points, Alun, but the fuel savings with those litre prices are spectacular

My best mate converted his Alfa GTV 3.0V6 to LPG recently. Taken into account all costs, his investment was fully paid for in a year. The fuel saving of about €3.5k (at 30k kilometers) was enough to pay for the installation, and the extra motor tax

david4791

Can diesel cars be converted?

Any lpg garages in north Dublin?

Our man in Havana

Don't resurrect old threads, start a new thread if you wish.