LPG?

[THE_Liam]

Anyone had any experience of it? Can't help but think half-price fuel is the answer to our prayers...

Much as I love my DT I'm not gonna drive it forever, I love big, grunty petrol engines too much, but as I found with the Skoda running them costs £ra*e.99. Now I've been looking into LPG conversions and apparently for a fully-fitted LPG conversion I could get change for a grand, and at todays fuel prices I'd get that back in no time

I know the obvious downsides, like more weight, reduced power, harder to fill up, filler port sticking out of the rear wing, big-ass tank in the boot, but does anyone know what their like to live with? Is insurance an issue? And are they problematic?

Just love the idea of getting the equivalent of 45-65mpg from a '6...

[Curt]

jammamayhew has converted his '6, think he's put up all the info on the '6 forum somewhere. I know he says his cost have gone from like 21p to 12p and it cost like £2k all in

Was actually £1200...

Here y'are:

http://www.306gti6.com/forum/showthread.php?id=148591

[THE_Liam]

jammamayhew has converted his '6, think he's put up all the info on the '6 forum somewhere. I know he says his cost have gone from like 21p to 12p and it cost like £2k all in

Has he had much trouble with it? It all just seems too good to be true...

[Curt]

Edited my post with a linky, he seems very happy with it

[ozonehostile]

its puts insurance up a bit since you are essentually driving around with a small bomb in the boot in the insurance people s eyes, but other than that i think lpg is awesome. had a couple of lpg cars, a 405 mi16 and a rover 75. didnt notice any performance issues running on lpg the main problem was finding petrol stations with an lpg pump. saves you a fair bit it the longrun though, specially as both cars i had were converted before i bought them, never put petrol in once during 6 months of ownership

[Niall]

Dont quote me on this for newer systems but i know that a few years back, they were terrible because they would ruin engines because lpg is so dry. I know you get additives that your supposed to add but these never really used to work.
As i said though, that was a few years ago so newer systems could be better.

[lolsteve]

Dad has his chrysler grand voyager converted to lpg, cost £1300 plus the extra cause it failed alot at first (fitters fault) payed for itself in no time though when got it working considering the car does ~13mpg if the trip computer thing is right. He doesn't put any additives in it and the engine still going at 120k

[306Dan]

in theory, slightly less bhp plus if you get an undercar tank you can hide the filler quite well so that its not an eyesore, ive fitted and worked on quite a few lpg converted lexus's, i'd always tell people to get a lpg specialist to do it rather than bob in his shed as ive seen some right gash set ups. dont know of many round you tho

[THE_Liam]

Hmm, sounds good to me. I'm off to read jammas thread

[samass]

I wouldn't say it's any more of a bomb in your boot than a petrol tank...

[ozonehostile]

I wouldn't say it's any more of a bomb in your boot than a petrol tank...

lpg is more explosive than petrol so thats the main reason for insurance increases, also a petrol tank is designed to be enclosed within the floorpan of the car in a place that it sunlikely to be ruptured in a collision while an lpg conversion is aftermarket with a tank put either behind the rear bumper or in the boot, an area likely to be heavily damaged from a rearend collision.

[THE_Liam]

Just read jammas thread, seems like it's gone well for him, cost less than £1200 all-in, and he hasn't noticed any power loss. I'm seriously thinking about this, I mean I've been fancying an E36 328i for a while and with LPG I could run one for less than a DT....

[Ruan]

Just remember LPG has ~20% less actual energy per given amount vs Petrol...

[ozonehostile]

keep it dual fuel, lpg for cheap running costs but still with a tank of high octain petrol for when you want some "spirited" driving

[THE_Liam]

Just remember LPG has ~20% less actual energy per given amount vs Petrol...

Yeah I've heard that, but most people report no noticeable power loss, the only concern is the dip in MPG but when the fuel is half price...

[Toms306]

Yeah, Jamma mayhews 6 costs less than my HDi to run!! Takes a while to make that grand back though unless you do loads of miles. His lpg kit is really tidy though, I wouldn't have known if he hadn't said about it, and if you're planning to keep a petrol for a while seems like a good idea.

[Kezzieboy]

Look around for cars that are already converted, as obviously that's where the biggest savings can be had.

Dad had a 328i estate on LPG for a while, was noticeably slower on LPG, and the fuel economy was worse, but they're small compromises for what you get in return. He eventually got rid because the price of LPG didn't settle down again after a fuel price spike, so the difference in cost to petrol wasn't enough, and a diesel became a far cheaper option.

Also, as I guess all of them are dual fuel, if you want to go on a proper blast, you can just flip the switch back to petrol. Dad used to literally flip the switch for overtaking.

[Jonny81191]

TBH though mate, the price of LPG near yours isn't exactly cheap! Up here it's a good 10p cheaper.

And yeah I guess there's no reason why you shouldn't switch over for a hoon

[THE_Liam]

passed Shell this morning, 70p a litre compared to petrol at £1.29 and diesel at £1.35...

[ozonehostile]

Diesel is only 1.35? Lucky to find it for less than 1:42 round here

[THE_Liam]

That's because down south is £ra*e.99 for everything

[Midnightclub]

Yes.. it may have 20% less power as compared to petrol.. BUT if i'm thinking correctly, it has a higher octane rating and the engine can be mapped to increase advance, also it burns more efficiently than petrol so although there's less calorific value it's efficient burn means you probably won't notice any difference

only 134.7 for super unleaded down here.. 128.7 for normal unleaded, i'm down south

[Niall]

Yeah but Danny, living in Weston, yours is all probably nicked!

[Midnightclub]

Yeah but Danny, living in Weston, yours is all probably nicked!

No...... that'd be £1 a litre

[Niall]

Yeah but Danny, living in Weston, yours is all probably nicked!

No...... that'd be £1 a litre

But you have to supply your own bottles for them to pour it into yeah? Haha

[Midnightclub]

Well obviously.. they aren't that well off you know! haha.. saying that though, saw red diesel being advertised at 99ppl... surely thats waaaaaayy too expensive for red?!

[Niall]

Sure Darren will be the one to ask here but I'm sure I heard even red has been hit by the price rises!

[kentiiboii]

Well if its 70ppl for LPG then isn't it better and cheaper to use veg oil? I now can get 20litres for £17.50 from my local takeaway who gets it from their Wholesalers. Which Is 87ppl. But with the mpg of a diesel won't it still work out cheaper? And all you need is £150 tops for Bosch setup.

[bigcheez2k3]

Well if its 70ppl for LPG then isn't it better and cheaper to use veg oil? I now can get 20litres for £17.50 from my local takeaway who gets it from their Wholesalers. Which Is 87ppl. But with the mpg of a diesel won't it still work out cheaper? And all you need is £150 tops for Bosch setup.

I think he was considering it so he can have a big petrol without getting raped on fuel.

[Curt]

Well if its 70ppl for LPG then isn't it better and cheaper to use veg oil? I now can get 20litres for £17.50 from my local takeaway who gets it from their Wholesalers. Which Is 87ppl. But with the mpg of a diesel won't it still work out cheaper? And all you need is £150 tops for Bosch setup.

Whoosh.

(That was the noise of the thread going over your head, in case you miss that too)