P6 on LPG

happy days

happy days

Active Member
Reading through Mr Rockdemons project thread I see he is looking to go the LPG route eventually. Ron asked has anyone had it done, well yes they have, no not me. A Manchester RP6C member Phil had it put into his Paprika 3500. He is away on a break at the moment but is monitoring his usage to let us know how it performs. Had a quick look on the road run and a neat installation it was. It fills by a valve which is just below the rear bumper (drivers side) and the gauge is in the drivers knee bin. Phil didn't want to make it obvious that gas had been fitted by looking at the car from outside. The tank which I think he said was 60 litres ( might be wrong) is located in the boot, lying on the floor. When he is back we will get some pics and a report of his findings.
 
I nearly did it for the Thai car. Interetingly, the engine side of things is incredibly striaghtforward. The bit that exercises brain cells is where and what size tank to install and how to disguise the filler. That suggests it must be easy!!

Chris
 
My understanding was that LPG could be used to great effect if the engine was dedicated. The compromises with a dual fuel system are significant, also LPG has a very high octane rating (something like 120 iirc?) so if you start from scratch and build the engine to suit with appropriate compression, cam etc then great gains are to be had. But an engine built to lpg spec will barely run on petrol.
You could then fit a cylinder in place of the original fuel tank. I knew a car where the owner was planning this but to get the size of tank he wanted he wound up cutting the parcel shelf for clearance. Unfortunately he never finished the car so I can't say if it all worked.
 
I've been meaning to convert my car to LPG for quite some time now, but everytime that I'm about to splash out on a conversion, something else crops up, which inevitably eats all of my funds I'd set aside for an LPG system. :oops:
My former Rover 75 now runs on LPG, and has done for around 5000 miles, without any issues. My mum's A-class has been on LPG for a while now, and it, too, has been absolutely fantastic. It doesn't have the huge effect on economy that so many people claim, and we've never had any problems with running out of fuel completely!
A good LPG system is very discreet. Here's a photo of the filler on my parents' A-class (the type that I'd be fitting to my P6, somewhere near the jacking block.
IMG_8895.jpg

The gauge/switch (should you ever wish to manually change) is very unobtrusive too.
P1020102.jpg
 
LPG conversions are all very well until the tax on it is increased to take away the price advantage
Can anyone see this not happening eventually ?
 
darth sidious said:
DaveHerns said:
LPG conversions are all very well until the tax on it is increased to take away the price advantage
Can anyone see this not happening eventually ?
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I'd say it's inevitable! :(
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That's what the pessimists have been saying for over a decade. In the meantime, instead of listening to people say "the tax is about to go up" I got on with using it for my cars and saved thousands of pounds! The government is committed to keeping the tax lower and a 50% saving in fuel costs is not to be sniffed at.

As for the engines themselves, I reckon that a low tech, 2 valve per cylinder, carb fed engine is just the kind of thing that works nicely on LPG.
 
I read that plans are afoot to scrap road tax and put the cost of fuel up .So many low emission cars are being registered that the road tax revenue is falling
 
There's always stories like that... A kit for the v8 is just over £600 plus a few quid to get it certified.

So you've got to do about 4600 miles to pay for the kit at 23mpg. No brainer at that level surely?
 
Richard Moss said:
That's what the pessimists have been saying for over a decade. In the meantime, instead of listening to people say "the tax is about to go up" I got on with using it for my cars and saved thousands of pounds!

That's good and I'm really glad that you have saved that much, BUT... I do still think it will happen eventually, maybe not for a few years yet, but I'd be very surprised if that turned out not to be the case.

The government is committed to keeping the tax lower and a 50% saving in fuel costs is not to be sniffed at.

Ah, but if (maybe even when) the proportion of cars running on LPG increases to a certain level, I wonder if that commitment will still be honoured by the government, or will the commitment to making revenue by hammering the average motorist have taken precedence?

Call me a cynic, but my gut feeling is that they will 'suddenly' discover some danger to health from cars running on LPG, and use that 'fact' to raise the tax on it.
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I think that the number of people suspicious about LPG, or cynical about it remains significantly high that the government won't do anything for a while, and, in the meantime, I see no reason why we can't reap the benefits of the must-reduced cost of fuel. LPG has, and will continue to become more expensive, but it'll be a while, in my opinion, before it is no longer viable. Finally, at the end of the day, LPG burns very cleanly, and it can be argued is less polluting than petrol, and much less polluting than diesel, so it's pretty green too!
 
When I had my old Audi converted to LPG it cost 29.9p a litre.

That was about 8 years ago, but now local prices seem to be anywhere from 69.9 to 85p a litre. The car used to do around 22mpg on petrol and 19 on LPG, so at 29.9p it only cost 7.15p a mile.

Now at, let's say, 75p a litre it's more like 18p a mile, against petrol at £28p a mile. Still a good saving. BUT, you should have the Gas system services annually at the cost of around £120.00, so the servicing cost will cover the first 1,200 miles, not taking into account the cost of conversion.

However I bought a Diesel instead of a similar performance and get an average of 38 mpg which at £1.40 per litre works out at 16.7p a mile. That's actually better than the LPG price so I am happy that I have a car which has not been modified, runs as it should, and is cheaper to run. Also, you can get Diesel anywhere.

Might still convert Sparky though, just for the experience 8)

Richard
 
quattro said:
Also, you can get Diesel anywhere.

Might still convert Sparky though, just for the experience 8)

Richard
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'Project Iceberg' part II? Sparky mightn't like diesel!! :LOL:

Pity the V8 diesel never made production!

Regards,
Dave
 
For the 10 year old cars that are my max budget, diesel is a no-no. When it goes wrong it's way too expensive!
 
LP here sometimes is higher than the cost/gallon of petrol, so the savings would be in increased mileage I guess, and less emission problems.
 
dmcsweeney said:
quattro said:
Also, you can get Diesel anywhere.

Might still convert Sparky though, just for the experience 8)

Richard
Click to expand...

'Project Iceberg' part II? Sparky mightn't like diesel!! :LOL:

Pity the V8 diesel never made production!

Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...

Sparky isn't too fond of petrol unless it comes from the expensive pump at Tesco 8)
 
Hi , here in Holland there are a lot of " oldtimer cars" on LPG.
We pay notthing tax when the car is 25years or older , now the gouverment will scrap the rule for pay notthing , but the FEHAC don't accept this , we shall see in 2014 .
 
I ran a P6B auto on gas when it was really cheap. It ran great, started on LPG even in the depths of winter, just smelt funny :D
You can really advance the ignition and make the most of the power but I chose to always have the option of driving on petrol safely, as that was my reserve tank in the end. I only ever ran petrol if I miss timed my gas ups.
I hear the rulings effect has kicked in for Holland, a friend of mine in the trade restores cars from there and there is mass panic. 16 out of 19 restos he has are on hold or cancelled :shock: They are really trying to kill the folk that use their classics and even worse if you run LPG :|
 
I have a electronic ignition system that can switch between tgasoline and gas.

For as I now here, have somebody pictures how the carburetors are connected to air filter
with lpg mixture ring on carburetor and kind of ring on air filter.

regards
 
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